The Carolina Panthers are 1-5, desperately need a franchise quarterback and just traded away their best player. But, according to general manager Scott Fitterer, they’re definitely not tanking.
Fitterer took the podium late Friday morning, about 12 hours after shipping running back Christian McCaffrey to the San Francisco 49ers for a healthy package of draft picks. When asked if erasing the star off the roster was a conscious decision towards stacking losses, he refuted the notion.
“No,” Fitterer said. “I think what we had to figure in was what’s best for the organization, like I was saying. Our focus is still on going out and competing every weekend. We expect to win. That was Coach’s [Steve Wilks’] mindset this weekend. The NFL is a business where you lose guys—whether it’s injuries, trades, whatever happens. The expectation of winning never changes. Those guys in the locker room fight too hard. They work too hard every day. So, we owe it to them. That’s our expectation as an organization is to go out and win every game.”
Fitterer, of course, is correct in his sentiment in regards to the players the Panthers still do have. The grown men in that locker room who show up every day to feed their families aren’t going to purposely underperform to help their franchise draft a 21-year-old kid.
But, as he also stated, they did “what’s best for the organization.” And as of now, losing as many games as possible to set yourself up to pick first in a draft overflowing with quarterback talent is best for the organization.
