Football Court: Which QB should the Panthers take No. 1 in 2023 NFL Draft?

Let’s argue in a court of football law.

We can pinpoint with exact precision when the first sports argument took place.

It was moments after the first sports game in history ended.

Arguing over sports has become a pastime of its own. It has created its own industry, has spawned countless careers, and opened the doors for people like us to carve out our own little slice of the sports media world.

One great debate underway in the football media space?

Which quarterback the Carolina Panthers should draft with the first-overall selection in the 2023 NFL Draft.

We thought a great way to tackle this question would be for our own J.P. Acosta and Mark Schofield to argue on behalf of each of the four quarterbacks, with our James Dator — SBNation’s resident Panthers fan — issuing his ruling.

Welcome to our first installment of Football Court. The case on the docket? In re Carolina Panthers.

Mark Schofield on behalf of C.J. Stroud

Let me start with the words of C.J. Stroud himself. When he met with the media in Indianapolis during the Combine, the Ohio State passer described himself as a “ball-placement specialist.”

For that reason alone, he should be the pick.

One of the biggest tasks of playing quarterback in today’s NFL? Put the football where it needs to be, when it needs to be there. With offenses emphasizing not just the passing game, but creating explosive plays in the passing game due to favorable matchups, finding a quarterback who gives the offense the most chances to create those plays through his accuracy is paramount.

That is Stroud in a nutshell.

Studying his time at Ohio State, you see a quarterback consistently put the football where it needs to be, when it needs to be there, regardless of the coverage, the leverage of the nearest defender, or any other potential obstacle. That accuracy unlocks every advantage afforded an offense through its scheme, its designs, and matchups created through motions, shifts, formations, and personnel.

However, Stroud is more than a Jugs machine. Much more. We saw that in the final game of his collegiate career, a loss to Georgia in the College Football Playoff. Facing questions over his ability to create outside the pocket, and use athleticism to breakdown defenses, Stroud did just that.

Against one of the best defenses in the game.

A ball-placement specialist who can also deliver plays like that with his athleticism, and outside the pocket?

Sounds like the perfect pick to me.

J.P Acosta on behalf of Bryce Young

If the adage goes, “great things come in small packages,” then the Panthers should be sprinting up to the board to take Alabama QB Bryce Young.

Despite being a generous 5’10 and a possibly even more generous 204 pounds, Young is a wizard with the ball, mainly because of his spatial awareness and his ability to see where people are going to be, not where they are in the current moment. Sure, all QBs are taught to throw the ball where the receiver is going to be, and not where they are at the current moment, but Young seems to see the game on a 4D field, the puzzle pieces fitting together as if he’s a Blue Lock competitor (go watch the anime, you’ll understand).

Young is also very good from the pocket despite his size. He’s willing to throw it over the middle and is accurate to that part of the field as well. The former Heisman trophy winner is a big time player, who shows up in the greatest moments (see: 2021 vs. Georgia in the SEC championship game, 2022 @ Texas, 2021 @ Auburn). Young is an efficient playmaker who can be the point guard of your offense, delivering accurate strikes to the intermediate levels of the field.

Every short QB has their weapon: for Kyler Murray and Russell Wilson, it was blazing speed and athleticism. For Drew Brees, it was his mind and ability to be the most accurate QB in the short areas of the field.

Young’s weapon? His weapon is his spatial awareness, and for that it should make him the first pick.

Mark Schofield on behalf of Will Levis

There is an old saw in the legal profession that goes like this: “Being an attorney would be a great job, were it not for the clients.” Sometimes you have to make an argument on behalf of a client you might have philosophical differences with. Sometimes you have to make an argument that you know is an uphill battle. But the job requires that you do so to the best of your ability, and zealously advocate on behalf of your client, and their position.

That brings us to Kentucky quarterback Will Levis.

As things stand right now, Levis is the consensus QB4 in the 2023 NFL Draft. The solid collegiate careers of both Stroud and Young, coupled with the rise of Anthony Richardson, has seen Levis slide back into that fourth spot. Still, he is viewed as a likely top-ten pick, and back in the fall there were reports that some teams had Levis as their QB1, ahead of the other three.

Whether those teams still do, however, remains to be seen.

There is a three-pronged case for Levis as QB1: Growth, potential, and environment. Those three prongs tie together perfectly in Carolina.

On the first prong, Levis endured a change in offensive coordinators this past season, saw some top-flight talent leave Kentucky for the NFL, and dealt with a toe injury that hampered him in and around the pocket last season, as well as a dislocated finger on his left hand.

Even with those injuries he completed 65.4% of his passes for 2,406 yards and 19 touchdowns.

There is room for growth once things stabilize around him.

Then there is the potential. Levis has a big arm, is athletic, and is coming from offensive systems the past two seasons that saw him running a lot of “pro-style concepts.” Of course, the job of an NFL coaching staff is to get their quarterback into the right system for them, but Levis has experience working under center, running dropback and play-action concepts, turning his back to the defense, and doing the things that traditionally NFL scouts and evaluators look for at the position.

That experience, coupled with his arm and athleticism, adds up to a lot of potential.

Finally, there is the environment prong. Carolina is perhaps the perfect place to unlock that potential, and create that path towards growth. With everything the Panthers have put around the quarterback position in Carolina, in terms of coaching experience, whoever the Panthers draft first overall will be in a good position to grow and develop.

Including, perhaps especially, Levis.

Besides, have you seen his arms? Levis is ripped. Shredded. A Men’s Health cover waiting to happen.

J.P. Acosta on behalf of Anthony Richardson

Friends, Carolinians, people of the jury, allow me to present to you an idea.

Sure, you can look at the basic counting stats for Florida QB Anthony Richardson and scoff.

You can look at him running a 4.43 at 244 pounds and say, “QBs are supposed to throw the ball.”

However, when you turn on the tape and watch Richardson play, there are a lot more moments that show good process, rather than vice versa.

Having to learn a completely new offense with many different tools coming in, Richardson showed more poise in the pocket and under pressure as the season went on, showing massive development in those areas. He’s very much a pocket passer who wants to throw the ball, but when your receivers don’t get open there isn’t much you can do. Richardson has tantalizing arm talent to go on top of his processing being a lot better than people give him credit for, and when you mix in the athleticism that rivals Daunte Culpepper and Cam Newton, you got something there.

For the Panthers, they’ve been toiling in the shadows of Cam Newton since 2018, never being able to find that spark again. In Richardson, yes there are things to work on, but that’s why you hired Frank Reich, Thomas Brown and Josh McCown. The Panthers have a nucleus of playcalling and coaching that can not only set up success for Richardson, but give him people to lean on when things don’t go perfectly.

It’s time the Panthers swung for the fences; that’s what trading up for the first pick is for. If you can line up the ball with the bat, Anthony Richardson will be a home run in Carolina.

James Dator, Panthers Fan, with the Verdict

I’ll be honest: I went into the exercise with a preconceived notion. As a fan of the team with the No. 1 pick it would be ridiculous to claim that I have no idea about these guys and entered this tabula rasa.

Doing my best to completely clear my mind and look only at the arguments presented here, I’m deeply torn between two guys: C.J. Stroud and Anthony Richardson.

This isn’t a knock on Bryce Young, and absolutely is a knock on Will Levis. Nothing about Mark’s argument for Levis convinces me that he’s worth a No. 1 overall pick. At best you’re rolling the dice and hoping for Josh Allen, and that’s too great a risk with the first pick — let alone one you have to trade up for.

JP’s argument for Young is a really good one. I mean, who wouldn’t want Drew Brees as their quarterback? I am really worried about his size. It’s not the height, that part really doesn’t bother me — it’s that 204 pounds which Young stood on from the combine. Yes, Drew was only five pounds heavier, but my worry with Bryce not weighing again at his Pro Day is really wondering if he was intentionally carrying a ton of water weight, knowing his size would be scrutinized. If he’s actually around 195 lbs or so, then really, functionally, what happens to a guy without elite escapability when he’s driven into the ground by a DT with 100 pounds on him? All the smarts in the world can’t stop you eating one late hit, and that’s just a little too slight for me to be comfortable with.

So now we have Stroud and Richardson. This is difficult. As a Panthers fan we’ve done this dance on extreme upside and promise before. It gave us the best quarterback in the history of the franchise. If the Carolina front office wasn’t pig-headed and actually gave Cam Newton an offensive line he’d still be playing right now, but instead they viewed the quarterback as a “Get Out of Jail Free” card for their woeful inability to build protection for him.

Richardson legitimately has that “could take over the entire NFL” element to his game that’s impossible to ignore. That said, this is a different class to 2011. Back then it was Cam or Blaine Gabbert or Jake Locker. You had “potential superstar” in one hand, and “probably mediocre” in the other. The risk made sense.

In 2023 I’m really won over to the idea that Stroud could be really, really good independent of needing to take any risk. Mark convinced me that at his worst Stroud is going to be a middling NFL starter, and at his best we could be looking at a more athletic Joe Burrow. It might not be “generational superstar” upside, but the risk is far lower.

Considering not only the need for a reliable QB right now, but also the considerable investment into the pick I’m ready to render my verdict:

The Carolina Panthers should select C.J. Stroud with the No. 1 overall pick