ESPN's Field Yates reveals the latest on the flirtations between Bryce Young, Carolina Panthers

Last year, the top of the NFL Draft board felt like it went up to the last minute. It seemed like either Travon Walker or Aidan Hutchinson could go No. 1 overall, and the Jacksonville Jaguars ended up going with Walker out of Georgia.

That doesn’t seem to be the case this year, according to ESPN’s Field Yates.

The Carolina Panthers have the top pick in this year’s draft and appear to be dialing in on former Alabama quarterback Bryce Young. Young canceled his remaining visits, according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, after visiting the Panthers and the Houston Texans. That led to speculation that the Panthers know what direction they’ll go atop the board, and Yates said it’s beginning to look like Young could be the first player to hear his name called.

“I think both Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers have gone about as far as you can go in terms of not actually admitting they know what’s going to happen with that first pick in the NFL Draft while also knowing what’s going to happen with the first pick in the NFL Draft,” Yates said on The Paul Finebaum Show Tuesday. “We have seen late changes. We have had drafts where up until hours before the event began, it wasn’t clear who was going to go No. 1 overall. But at this point, while there is a lot we don’t know about the 2023 NFL Draft, the one thing we feel very comfortable about is that Bryce Young is likely to be the first overall pick to the Carolina Panthers.

“And I know we’re all going talk about the weight five different times every day until he actually hits the field in September for game action. But not even being the smallest quarterback in a long, long time could deter the Carolina Panthers from taking him No. 1 overall.”

Of course, Carolina didn’t always have the No. 1 pick. The Panthers traded up from No. 9 last month, sending a haul of picks and wide receiver D.J. Moore to the Chicago Bears to take control of the draft. The timing of the trade was interesting considering the NFL scouting combine had just wrapped up and prospects hadn’t participated in their pro days yet.

However, Yates said the decision to make that trade when they did showed the Panthers might have had an idea of who they’d take. If that was the case, they’ve been able to use official visits and pro days to pin down a choice since making the big move.

“So the trade took place … over a month from where are right now and about six weeks away from the start of the NFL Draft,” Yates said. “It’s possible Carolina had a perception of where things would go when they made that trade, but that perception was open to change. And I think it is likely that Carolina had multiple quarterbacks they were considering at that juncture because when the trade went down, we had not yet gone through pro days, we hadn’t yet gone through the official visits portion of the pre-draft process and private workouts.

“I think the reality, though, is you only make that trade if you know that there is at least one quarterback you are comfortable with. My guess is Carolina probably went in with a lean, but that over the past five or so weeks since that trade, it’s allowed them to fortify their decision and have close to consensus within the building, and I only say ‘close to’ because any time you have a scouting staff that might involve 10 or 15 different voices, finding 10 or 15 opinions that are exactly the same, it’s just hard to come by no matter what draft and no matter what prospect you’re evaluating.”