When the 2022 NFL draft’s sixth overall pick hit the clock last Thursday night, we knew—with each of the top three offensive linemen still available—that the Carolina Panthers were going to have their way. But now, we know that they really had their way.
Exactly one week after the team selected North Carolina State University’s Ikem Ekwonu with that pick, Panthers.com published one heck of a dive into how the unthinkable draft went down. Longtime Charlotte scribe Darin Gantt, in tremendous and riveting detail, gave us a look behind the scenes of the event—from the film room to the war room.
And that look dated as far back as March 29 at Palm Beach, Fla.—where general manager Scott Fitterer already knew who he would be taking if he held the draft’s No. 1 overall pick. Gantt writes:
“Yeah,” Fitterer said behind his sunglasses, an easy grin creeping across his face. “It would be the tackle. I would go Ickey, the local guy. Not only is he a good player, he brings the mentality that we want, that toughness, that edge. Probably him.”
The word probably was a bit of a hedge, but you could tell he didn’t mean it that way. He mentions a few other players, noting that they’d be excellent choices any team would love to have. But in a perfect world, he keeps coming back to one guy.
“Yeah,” he said with another nod. “It would be Ickey.”
Getting your top-rated prospect at the sixth spot ain’t too bad, right? Plus, it only helps when that particular prospect fills a very particular need—one that has plagued the franchise for the past eight seasons.
While there is somewhat of a question as to if Ekwonu will, in fact, start at left tackle right away, there’s no question about the blindside ultimately being his. There’s also no question that Fitterer, in a shocking string of developments, got his guy in the end.
