For the last two weeks Marty Hurney has sworn up and down that he hasn't received any offers for the #1 overall pick, and this seems to make sense. After all, given the climate of this draft why would anyone want to give up additional pick(s) to move up to #1 and take any of the prospects who have been mentioned in the same breath as '#1 overall'?
One then has to ask why the Panthers have been making a late push to learn as much about non-QB top 10 prospects as possible. From Football Outsider's Doug Farrar via his Twitter:
"How "worried" are teams about Da'Quan Bowers' knee? Let's just say that he's racking up some frequent flyer miles to North Carolina. [...] Panthers, in fact, are doing due diligence on just about every non-quarterback projected top 15 -- QB is no lock at all."
Then again this morning Farrar put out his latest mock draft with the Panthers selecting A.J. Green with the #1 overall pick, and the following message:
"Yahoo! Sports has learned that the Panthers have been making all sorts of calls to people they trust, asking about every possible top-10 non-quarterback, from Marcell Dareus to A.J. Green and back again."
Question CSR Community: Why the late push? Why now just days before the draft? If you weren't sure about the QBs in this draft wouldn't it behoove you to have this scouting done months ago?
I'll answer these questions... after the jump
The correct answer is normally the most simple one: The plans could have changed.
Perhaps the Carolina Panthers had every intention of taking Cam Newton with the #1 overall pick, but a trade scenario has now presented itself. Really, it's the only good reason they would be frantically flying Da'Quan Bowers to Carolina, or calling their friends around league circles to get a much information as possible.
I've been saying for the last 25 days: April is for liars, and in four days we'll see if we've all been played for a fool.