Instead, as the 2018 NFL Draft was wrapping up last month, Carolina's general manager dropped a hard-to-miss hint when a reporter pointed out the Panthers hadn’t addressed their obvious opening for a power back.
“Not so far,” Hurney quipped. “Again, that’s something that we keep looking at and we’ll continue to look at. Every draft is different, and they all break different ways.”
And this draft broke a way in which the backs Carolina coveted never fell to them and would’ve cost too much to move up to get. Fast forward nine days, and it almost looks like Hurney had a plan.