Panthers Unlikely to Trade No. 1 Pick

Carolina will make the pick.

Unless some overwhelming offer comes along last minute, the Carolina Panthers intend to hold onto the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.

Shortly after the trade was made for the top pick, GM Scott Fitterer told reporters that they wanted to "control the draft" rather than hope and pray a quarterback fell to them at No. 9. Reports came out about a week after that Carolina would be open to trading out of the No. 1 spot if they fell in love with more than one quarterback. We may never know whether or not that admiration for another signal caller came to fruition, but we do know that the Panthers will stay put at the top of the draft.

"As of right now, I don't see us trading the pick," general manager Scott Fitterer said Tuesday. "We'll always pick up the phone but I think we're in position where we like where we're at. We're convicted. But just philosophically, we'll always pick up the phone and listen. It's just got to make sense.

"We felt strongly about a group of guys up there. And we knew this is something that we wanted to do. We wanted to be aggressive and go up and do this. I think through this process we made the right decision. I feel really good about going from nine to one. I'd hate to be at nine right now trying to figure this out. I know we made the right decision to go up there. We're going through the right process of being thorough --checking every box that we can and then the next step is going to be execution on draft day."

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