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Panthers head coach Matt Rhule has gone 10-23 over his first two seasons without finding a quarterback to build the team’s future around and that’s made it unsurprising to see the Panthers linked with taking a quarterback with the sixth overall pick in this year’s draft.
The team has done a lot of work checking out prospects like Kenny Pickett, Malik Willis, Matt Corral, Desmond Ridder, and Sam Howell in recent weeks and they’re a little more than a week away from deciding if they’ll pull the trigger on any of them. Offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo was asked about drafting a quarterback on Tuesday.
McAdoo didn’t comment on any prospect specifically, but he did say that he doesn’t place immediate readiness to play at the top of the traits he’d consider for a quarterback.
“I’m a big swing for the fences kind of guy,” McAdoo said, via Anthony Rizzuti of USAToday.com. “So just ’cause you’re ready, it doesn’t mean you’re gonna be the best. But ready does factor in some scenarios. I think that experience obviously helps, more games you play helps. I think your experiences under what type of system you played in may help some guys over others. And I also think maybe experiences in all-star games may help some guys over others. But at the end of the day, you have to pick a player that you’re gonna be happy with at that position for, hopefully, the next decade. Then readiness, it plays a part, but it’s not everything.”
Unless the Panthers also add a veteran like Jimmy Garoppolo or Baker Mayfield to the roster, there will be a lot of pressure to start any rookie taken that early in the draft. That may make readiness a bigger consideration than it would be in other scenarios, but it remains to be seen exactly what the plan is in Carolina this year.
