Touchdown Wire has Panthers taking Trey Lance at No. 8 in new 2021 mock draft
Mel Kiper’s latest mock didn’t go over well with most Panthers fans. The ESPN draft guru had Carolina picking Alabama QB Mac Jones at No. 8 overall despite Trey Lance still being available. While there’s no doubt the Panthers have at least some IRL interest in drafting Jones, we’d much rather see them take a chance on a more athletic and dynamic quarterback prospect like Lance or Justin Fields.
A new 2021 NFL mock draft by Doug Farrar at Touchdown Wire is much more to our liking. He has the Panthers picking Lance at No. 8 instead.
“In 2019, Lance also completed 17 of 44 passes of 20 or more air yards for 10 touchdowns. Oh, he also ran 169 times for 1,100 yards and 14 touchdowns. You’d think Panthers head coach Matt Rhule and offensive coordinator Joe Brady would love to take a player with Lance’s attributes and fill in the blanks, and odds are, it wouldn’t take too long.”
Lance is considered the most raw of the top-four quarterbacks in this class. Critics will point to his relative lack of experience and the competition level he faced at North Dakota State. Those are legitimate concerns. That said, Lance appears to have all the physical attributes you want in a modern quarterback and comes with tremendous potential.
Jones has his qualities as a quarterback – more than one person has brought up his movement in the pocket resembling Tom Brady. That said, Lance would be a far better use of draft capital. If the Panthers are satisfied with starting a more traditional pocket kind of QB then they should keep Teddy Bridgewater and see if he can improve in year two running Joe Brady’s offense rather than starting over with a rookie who’s also limited athletically.
