It was last Monday, and Panthers GM Scott Fitterer had just finished a meeting with Frank Reich’s coaching staff, scheduled for one final discussion on what Carolina would do with the No. 1 pick it spent so much to get. Fitterer had been disciplined in never making a declaration to anyone on what the team would do, and that bled over into the meeting. He danced around it, making it obvious enough to everyone for the people in the room to order their kids No. 9 jerseys for the fall, without ever actually saying it.
But the time was coming, and someone would have to put it into words, eventually.
So Fitterer sauntered into Reich’s office and matter-of-factly spit it out.
