Panthers Acquiring the #1 Overall Pick in the 2023 NFL Draft
The Carolina Panthers are acquiring the number one overall pick in the NFL Draft from the Chicago Bears, per Ian Rapoport.
Chicago’s return? A massive haul: Pick 9, Pick 61, a first-round pick in 2024, a second-round pick in 2025, and WR D.J. Moore, per Adam Schefter.
Wow. Carolina will look to get their quarterback of the future, while Chicago is getting a massive haul of picks and a star-caliber wide receiver.
The Bears have traded this number one pick, which everyone thought they would do in the first place. I’m just surprised that they didn’t get a little bit more.
My initial reaction is that the Panthers probably won this trade. They did lose capital in the 2024 and ’25 drafts, but the return could very well be worth it if the quarterback they select ends up working out.
Don’t get me wrong, the picks and Moore are a good haul. But it’s not groundbreaking. They might’ve got a better haul trading all the way back to #9 if they traded twice, with a team like Indianapolis or Houston and then Carolina.
And while they lost a very good receiver in D.J. Moore, Moore will only be under team control until after the 2025 season. Also, Moore is not cheap, taking on a $25 million cap hit in 2023, according to Sportrac.
It’ll be the first time Carolina selects #1 overall since they drafted Cam Newton in 2011.
So now, who is Carolina going to take? Of course, it will be a quarterback, but which one? It will all but certainly be one of the four projected first-round quarterbacks. That group consists of Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud, Alabama’s Bryce Young, Florida’s Anthony Richardson, and Kentucky’s Will Levis.
Young has been the odds-on-betting favorite for a few weeks now.
Whatever the Panthers think they are doing today, they have seven weeks to decide whether or not to change that decision. Things always change on draft day as we know, and this will be no different.
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