2011 NFL Draft: Are Carolina Panthers Looking for “Splash” Pick at No. 1?

April 21, 2011   ·   Jon Gilbert   ·   Jump to comments

Carolina Panthers Draft: Is creating buzz an important part of draft?
There are many reasons to draft a player: his potential, his collegiate production, his freakish NFL Scouting Combine numbers...his buzz worthiness?
Jamison Hensley of The Baltimore Sun suggests that the Carolina Panthers will ultimately pick Cam Newton over Marcell Dareus because he will equal a "big splash" for a franchise in need of one.
The Panthers don't need one big splash; they need many, many above average splashes. Creating a buzz by drafting Newton gets the team nowhere closer to winning the Super Bowl, NFC South or even more than two games.
All eyes are already on the Panthers. It'd be near impossible to create more buzz than the team already is by being the first team to pick April 28. And Ron Rivera doesn't seem like too splashy of a guy. He's not concerned with headlines and attention.
He's more concerned with getting pieces that will make the Panthers stronger for now and in th...

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