‘Super Bowls!’ Panthers owner sends fans at Bank of America Stadium into frenzy
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Panthers pick Bryce Young No. 1 overall in 2023 NFL Draft
On April 27, 2023, the Carolina Panthers selected Bryce Young with the top pick in the NFL Draft. With a young quarterback finally in place, what’s next for the team as it prepares for the future?
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Dave Tepper has never been bashful — and he made quite the assertion after his NFL franchise took Bryce Young with the first overall pick in the NFL Draft.
When asked by Carolina Panthers play-by-play announcer Anish Shroff what Thursday night’s moment means to the team, Tepper shrugged: “You really want me to say it?”
He then turned to the crowd that had gathered on the Bank of America Stadium turf for the Panthers’ rain-soaked NFL Draft party on Thursday night.
“Super Bowls!”
The crowd roared.
The Panthers, a team that hasn’t had a winning season since 2017 and has gone 22-44 since 2019, traded up to the first overall pick in the NFL Draft with Young in mind, Tepper admitted to the crowd. The owner, general manager Scott Fitterer, and new head coach Frank Reich all trekked down from the Panthers “war room” in the stadium in uptown Charlotte after they made the pick, and all of them communicated a simple mantra: Young can lead the Panthers to wins — and he can do so immediately.
“This guy is a winner,” Frank Reich said of Young. “There’s no doubt about it.”
Said Fitterer: “We really liked all three quarterbacks (presumably Anthony Richardson and C.J. Stroud and Young) throughout the process. Like coach said the other day, there were a lot of ebbs and flows. But Bryce stood strong the whole time. He was the guy. And we’re just really excited to have him here.”
Young has pretty much won everywhere he has been. As a senior in high school at football powerhouse Mater Dei, he threw for more than 4,500 yards and scored 58 touchdowns and was named California’s Gatorade Player of the Year.
He then attended Alabama and won the Heisman in his first year as a starter. He led his team to a College Football Playoff national championship game in the 2021-22 season (losing to Georgia), and also became the first player in school history to record 3,000 passing yards in multiple seasons.
“Make no mistake about it: We got the best quarterback in college football this year, right here in this stadium,” Reich said to a crescendo of roars. “Remember this: It’s not just about one player. The reason why we’re going to win — it’s going to be about the whole team. We need the quarterback to lead us, but it’s going to be about the whole team.”
This story was originally published April 27, 2023 at 9:49 PM with the headline "‘Super Bowls!’ Panthers owner sends fans at Bank of America Stadium into frenzy."
