Carolina’s War Room Shows They Wanted Lions to Pass on Their Guy
More teams are rolling out their behind-the-scenes draft videos, and the Panthers just dropped one that gives us a fascinating look at how they viewed the Lions’ pick. Spoiler alert: they were thrilled we went a different direction.
The Panthers’ war room footage follows their journey to selecting Monroe Freeling with the 19th overall pick. Throughout the video, they’re clearly sweating whether the Lions would snag their target at 17. What’s telling? They never once mention Blake Miller as someone they were even considering.
The Panthers went full analytics mode for this draft. Their vice president of football analytics Eric Eager is constantly rattling off probability percentages for various tackles making it to their pick. He mentions Spencer Fano, Xavier Proctor, Freeling, and Caleb Lomu. Miller? Not a word.
The Lions Were the Wild Card They Couldn’t Read
As tackles started flying off the board early, you can see the Panthers trying to figure out what Detroit would do. They even discussed trading up with the Lions to guarantee they got Freeling, willing to throw in a fifth-round pick to make it happen.
When the Lions were on the clock, Carolina actually called Lions chief operator officer Mike Disner to see if Detroit would trade down. The Lions said no thanks, we’re good. As Panthers executive VP of football operations Brandon Tilis put it: “They were doing the same thing we would’ve done. We’re not taking calls on this pick unless you’re willing to do something dumb, and we weren’t willing to do anything dumb.”
Then came the moment. Detroit announces Blake Miller. The Panthers’ reaction? “Are they really?” Followed by fist bumps all around.
What This Actually Tells Us
Look, this is team-produced content with selective editing. Maybe the Panthers talked about Miller off camera. Maybe they preferred him in some meetings we didn’t see. But what we can observe is pretty clear: they wanted Freeling, they thought the Lions might take him, and they were pumped when we went another direction.
Context matters here. The Panthers aren’t likely to have starting left tackle Ikem Ekwonu available due to injury and have Taylor Moton locked in at right tackle. Freeling projects better on the left side while Miller has mostly played right tackle. Different needs, different evaluations.
Or maybe Carolina just liked Freeling better, period. That was a common pre-draft opinion among scouts and analysts. We won’t know who was right for years, but it’s interesting to see how another front office valued these guys compared to Brad Holmes and his staff.
Either way, both teams got the tackle they wanted. Sometimes the draft works out exactly as planned.
Did the Lions make the right call taking Miller over Freeling, or are we about to watch Carolina celebrate this pick for the next decade? Drop your take below.
