The Panthers are in a strange spot going into the 2022 Draft.
They have a couple of top-tier, explosive playmakers like D.J. Moore and Christian McCaffrey, who would be the envy of many teams around the league. Meanwhile, Brian Burns, Jaycee Horn, and Jeremy Chinn lead an upstart defensive core.
But there’s something off. Something significant. It’s on the tip of my tongue.
Oh, right! The Panthers don’t have a quarterback after swinging and missing on Sam Darnold last year. Yeah, that’s probably going to be an issue. Despite their possession of the No. 6 overall pick, with an underwhelming quarterback class on paper, it’s a problem that’s not likely to be remedied soon.
Kenny Pickett, Panthers franchise quarterback? Hmm, that doesn’t read any better.
An old NFL adage consistently rings true when it comes to quarterbacks: The worst time to need one is when you don’t have one.
Now, I know. That’s a Captain Obvious statement. Technically, every team that doesn’t have quality quarterback play needs to find a good quarterback. But every year, without fail, that label usually applies to roughly a fourth of the entire league. Let’s do the math for 2022.
By my count, at least five teams — the Panthers, Saints, Seahawks, Steelers, and Giants — definitely need a quarterback. That’s not counting squads like the Colts and Falcons, with veteran fill-ins, Matt Ryan and Marcus Mariota.
The 2022 quarterback class, arguably, only has one or two potential franchise quarterbacks — Pickett and Malik Willis. While they have their bright spots, many evaluators consider both passers to be raw and certainly not on par with some of the more promising quarterback prospects drafted in recent memory. Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, and Justin Fields, among others, come to mind as recently as last year.
For reference, Christian D’Andrea has Pickett and Willis at an astonishing No. 21 and No. 22 overall on his big board. Most quarterback prospects worth their salt don’t project as reaches by upwards of 15-16 slots, but that figures to be the case for this pair.
So when push comes to shove, not only is there the usual high number of teams that need quarterbacks, there’s not all that much promise to go around. If you’re Carolina, sitting just outside the top-five in No Man’s Land, that’s not a great omen for your future.
But the Panthers probably have to take the swing on a loaded 3-2 count anyway. Because of injuries, contending windows in the NFL are often comically short. Without a worthy quarterback steward, you can only do so much team-building before seeing diminishing returns.
It might be an awful time to need a quarterback, but the Panthers will waste what youthful promise they have if they don’t accept risk now. And who knows, Pickett or Willis might work out in the long run if they’re available at No. 6. The alternative shouldn’t be a palatable scenario.
Never trying at football’s most important position is worse than twiddling your thumbs and waiting for the 100-percent perfect opportunity that’ll never come.
