By the 12th game, they knew.
It was spring of 2011 in Charlotte. Newly hired head coach Ron Rivera and longtime general manager Marty Hurney were buried in a pile of film, trying to decide who they would pick No. 1 overall in their first NFL draft together.
Hurney had been instrumental in hiring Rivera just weeks earlier, so the two were finding their rhythm. There was trust to develop. But how?
It was Rivera’s first head coaching job, and Hurney was trying to put the franchise back on the right track. So that No. 1 pick, their first major joint decision, would be huge.