The Carolina Panthers revealed on episode three of The Panthers Blueprint, on their YouTube channel, that they were heavily considering drafting Matthew Bergeron with their second round pick in this year’s draft.
In the video you’ll see and hear Carolina Panthers General Manager, Scott Fitterer, say “[Jonathan] Mingo or Bergeron we’re probably going to pick just so you guys know.” Now, the Falcons didn’t allow the Panthers to have a choice between the Ole Miss wide receiver and Matthew because if you remember the Falcons traded up one spot ahead of Carolina at 38 to get the Syracuse Orange alum.
The Panthers ended up drafting who they said was their guy all along in Mingo, but whether that’s the truth or not it’s good to know other teams, especially division rivals, wanted a player that the Falcons ended up drafting, and it’s also a credit to Terry Fontenot for knowing not only who the Falcons wanted to draft, but what prospects other teams were looking at as well, trading up and going to get their guy, and not taking a chance and allowing Carolina the opportunity to draft Bergeron.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen another team confirm their interest in Bergeron either. Earlier this offseason we got a look inside the Cowboys war room and they almost drafted Bergeron in the first round with the 26th overall pick.
“Not that you needed validation or anything like that, but it’s always nice to get the guy that was wanted by some other teams.” Tiffany Blackmon said. Bergeron hasn’t played a snap for the Falcons yet, so it’s obviously too early to say Atlanta got a steal or made the right decision by trading up for Bergeron, but you can’t help but feel that way after knowing multiple teams were that close to drafting him.
