C.J. Stroud to Panthers? Carolina pushing hard to land top QB prospect over Bryce Young

The Carolina Panthers have the top pick in the NFL draft and will probably choose either Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud or Anthony Richardson. The franchise is reportedly not fully sold on one over the others yet, but their recent activity may give a hint into their current thought process.

C.J. Stroud's Ohio State Pro Day is coming up and the Panthers are putting everyone imagineable in the building. Per Sports Illustrated, almost every coach is going to be there:

• Owners David and Nicole Tepper
• General Manager Scott Fitterer
• Head Coach Frank Reich
• Assistant General Manager Dan Morgan
• Vice President Samir Suleiman
• Offensive Coordinator Thomas Brown
• Quarterbacks Coach Josh McCown
• Senior Assistant Jim Caldwell
• Scouting Director Cole Spencer
• Scout Joel Patten

Naturally, other Ohio State draft prospects will be there, and the Panthers might even check some of them out. Nevertheless, this entourage is there to watch Stroud and see if he's the player they want to take first overall.

It remains to be seen if the team will send this many people to see Young at Alabama's Pro Day or Richardson at Florida's Pro Day, but they are clearly doing their research ahead of the draft.

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Carolina Panthers mock drafts: Do the experts have C.J. Stroud or Bryce Young going first?

There are a lot of mock drafts out there and they often differ on who Carolina will select. With no clear frontrunner prospect (this isn't a year with a Cam Newton, Andrew Luck or Trevor Lawrence), there is no consensus.

Will the Panthers finally find a Cam Newton replacement?

Mel Kiper's latest mock has them taking Stroud first overall. He's arguably been the best quarterback in college football over the last couple of seasons. Danny Kelly with the Ringer has the same pick.

On the other hand, NFL.com's Daniel Jeremiah has the team selecting Young first. So do Pete Prisco and Josh Edwards (in his 2.0 mock draft) of CBS Sports. USA Today's Nate Davis agrees.

In a wild turn, Edwards posted a different mock draft, saying Carolina would shock the world and take Will Levis. For what it's worth, most mock drafts don't have Anthony Richardson being the first overall pick to Carolina.