Opening statement:“First thing I’d like to say is I’d like to thank Donny Gregory and his staff and Ron and his staff for all the work and helpfulness they’ve been in the process. We’ve been at it, like everybody else, working hard at it. We feel really good with where we’re at. We’re excited about what we’re looking at on the board. None of the boards are alike. 32 teams, 32 different boards. But we’re very happy with where we’re at. We’ve gone through the full process. We’ve talked about the players as from just strictly a scouting point of view. We’ve had multiple conversations with the coaches. They’ve gone out and they’ve done a great job again doing the workouts, having what we call our private workouts, which a lot of times gives you confirmation on what we’ve seen. A lot of times it’ll clear up issues, clear up questions marks that we have. A big part of the private workout is, when our guys go to work the players out, it’s not a 25-minute workout, ‘thanks a bunch, see you later.’ It’s a full-day process. A lot of times the night before, meeting for dinner. Spending time, getting to know the young man. The next day they’ll have the workout, they’ll get on the board. Most often it’s on the board, go to the workout, then go back to the board, see what he remembers, see where he’s at with his football knowledge. Obviously they come back and talk, so it’s a full process. Obviously you’re trying to eliminate issues. That’s one of the things. You’ve got to answer all your questions about each individual player if you have any, and that’s what you want. You want to be thorough, you want to be detailed, you don’t want surprises. And that’s the process we’ve done for the last two years and I believe it’s worked well. We’re getting better at it every year. It was interesting, one of the guys, Donny, made a point to me yesterday after we spent more times with the coaches, how fairly similar we are to our opinions. We don’t agree on every guy. That ain’t happening. But it’s a testament to the fact that the coaches do a great job in explaining what type of player they’re looking for and we’re good listeners. And they’re also understanding of our standpoint of we talk about a player’s upside. We talk about the fit. You talk about where you can take him to, what kind of versatility he has, what flexibility he gives us. Who does he displace on our team, who does he replace on our team? Those are the kinds of conversations we’re having. And again, as I said before, one of the things we really focus on is how important is football to this young man? As I said before, everybody wants to win. There isn’t anybody in this room that doesn’t want to win. But who in this room hates to lose? Who in this room is going to fight to the end? That’s the question that we have to get to. So they’ve done a great job of that. A couple little fine-tuning things is all that’s left and it’s really done and we’re ready to go. But like I said, I just want to thank Don Gregory and his staff and Ron and his staff for all the hard work they’ve put in.”On mixed reviews about the quality of this draft:“Last year’s draft was special. It was really a good draft. Obviously I’m looking at it selfishly through my lens, as to what we got accomplished in last year’s draft. But overall it was a really strong draft. This year there were a number of kids who would have been first- or second-round values that decided to stay in. So that obviously was a little bit of a talent drain. It’s not as strong as last year’s. I think it’s a little stronger than the ’13 draft.”On how many first-round grades the Panthers have given out:“Enough. Enough for us. Our last two years, our second-round picks we had first-round value on. The numbers are closer to ’13 than they are to ’14.”On how many options he’d like when it’s his turn to pick:“In my ideal world, you’re able to talk about three to four guys, is what you want to be. When we set the horizontal, those are the things we talk about – what players are worthy of being in the same conversation? When you get into five, six, nine, it’s crazy. It clouds up the picture.”On if he ever hopes for one guy more than any other:“Yes, to answer your question. Obviously all of us have something they’d like to have. Sometimes you get it; sometimes you don’t. But listen, it’s a crapshoot, guys.”On if he knew last year’s class would be so successful when he walked out of the draft:“I didn’t walk out of the draft last year; I was Skyping the last guy. When I went to dinner that night after Sam’s graduation, especially after I found out who we signed after the draft, I was stoked. I was excited. I felt very strongly about that entire draft. And then to get Corey (Brown) and Andrew (Norwell) after the draft, undrafted free agents, I said, ‘Woah, this could be special.’ Obviously, other people, the experts had given us a C-minus or something last year after the draft. I don’t mean to be an idiot, but it was better than a C-minus.”On depth at offensive tackle in this draft:“There were a couple of guys that we felt were much better rights than lefts. When you go through the whole process of evaluating the film and really studying what it is, there are a couple guys that are lefts that we feel are better-suited to playing on the right side. But do we feel we can get a solid left tackle? There’s a chance. Last year, I think five went in the first 19 picks. It’s possible that could happen again. So is there a chance? There’s always a chance. But again, it’s a best player available for us. I got killed last year cause I didn’t take a tackle at all, and maybe it’s my old stubborn streak, but I’m not reaching for a player. I’m not doing it.”On adding Michael Oher as a left tackle option:“You don’t want any position to be a revolving door. A lot was made of now we’re looking at our third left tackle in three years, the revolving door we’ve had in the secondary the last couple years, the revolving door at O-line – with the guys retiring, they get tired of me real quick, so they retired. You don’t want that, and that was one of the reasons we insisted on a two-year deal with Michael. So to answer your question, you don’t want a revolving door anywhere. You’re always looking for long-term solutions, knowing full well that if you hit on everybody, you can’t keep them all. Seattle’s going through that right now. The cap is a great equalizer. When Division-1 colleges went to the 85-scholarship limit, that was the great equalizer. That 85-scholarship limit is our cap. What it does is you’re seeing more kids today saying, ‘I don’t want to sit on the bench at Ohio State, I want to go somewhere else and play,’ and that’s what’s happening. The cap has done that to us. So if you’ve got a great personnel group, and you’re constantly bringing in great players, the cap penalizes you. But that’s part of it. It’s one of the things that makes the NFL great. You’re always looking for long-term solutions. Is there a long-term guy at the left tackle spot that could be available for us? Yes, at 25, there could be. But who else is available? Who else is there? And you’ve got to make a decision, like anything else.”On positions of need:“In our planning after we did our evaluation, we get into early February, we had a number of checkboxes. I talked about speed, I talked about special teams, I talked about tackle. We talked about a number of things, and we felt we hit those checkboxes, and I feel really good about that. We’re always looking to add good players and add competition. My first press conference I stood in front of you guys, and I said to you that I firmly believed that the run at the end of the ’12 season was not fool’s gold. And the next year proved that I wasn’t crazy. What happened this past season, it was a unique season now, one I’ve never been through. We finished 8-9-1, we won five out of our last six, whatever it was. That was real. And with the things that we’ve done this offseason, I’m not saying we’re perfect, we’ve got a long way to go. And this draft has to help us now, we’ve got to get value out of this draft. But I feel good about where we’re at in a lot of positions. Could we use a guy here, could we use a guy there? Yeah, who can’t? But we’re not walking into this draft like we were last year at wide receiver. Is that a fair statement? Let me put it this way, I feel a lot better right now than I did last year. As I said to you guys at the post-season presser, a year ago today and standing here talking to you guys, I knew we had to remake three position groups. Not one, not two, three. We had the wide receivers, we had the tackles, we had the secondary. And we made good strides in all three groups, good enough to get to the second round of the playoffs and play one of the Super Bowl teams pretty tough in their joint. So do I feel like we have to have [just one guy]? No?”On how many tackles he thinks can play on the left side:“Four or five, in there. You’ll get arguments, but that’s one of the nice things about being king.”On this year’s receiver class compared to last year’s:“I think we’re going to find in time that last year’s group was unique. They’re all shapes and sizes. They’re all styles. I think there’s even more depth in this year’s group than last year’s group, which sounds crazy. Part of it is a function of the college game. But last year after we took Kelvin (Benjamin), you guys looked at me and said, ‘He’s a raw route-runner,’ and my answer was, ‘They all are.’ The only guy that was ready to step on an NFL field and play was (Odell) Beckham. He was the guy with a full route tree; he could run the full schmear. He had it all. After that, they all needed work. This group’s no different. Kelvin and Michael Evans were like here; they were that style. I don’t know if there’s that guy this year, but there’s good, big, receivers, don’t get me wrong. I think there’s more depth throughout than there was last year. Like I said, I think in time, we’re all going to look back – it’s not the ’83 college quarterback draft – but I think in time we’re all going to look back and realize it was a unique group of wides.”On possibility of drafting a running back this year:“We’ve got Jonathan (Stewart). He finished very strong. We’ve got Fozzy (Whittaker), and we feel really good about him. But can he handle the first- and second-down load with a legitimate split between he and Jonathan? That’s up for debate because he’s never had to do it. He hasn’t had to do it at the pro level. So is there a chance if he’s the right guy? Yeah. This whole mentality of the devaluation of the running back position, there’s perception and reality. We were talking about it this morning, and I took a spin through the last few drafts, and really, the fact of the matter is there hasn’t been a great, great big back. There hasn’t been a plethora of great running backs. So to talk about the running back position, there’s definitely a lot of value there. The running back is a very deep position this year, as well. It really is a nice group to pick through. Some nice, different-style guys, guys that fit us. Guys that don’t fit us, it’ll be fun to watch them play for another team. But there’s depth there. There’s nothing to say in my mind; there’s no round where I’m not taking one in this round. You spend nine months evaluating players. You spend 10 days in February in meetings. You’re in Indianapolis together as a group always talking about players. You come back here; you go into the bunker mentality sort of speak for two weeks. You’re around each other for all that time, and you start to smell bad and look ugly and all that other stuff. You spend all that time working; you can’t out-dumb yourself. Don’t out-dumb yourself. If a guy’s a first-round value, he’s a first-round value. Whether he’s a quarterback, a running back or a kicker. Value is value.”On if having more picks will make trading more possible:“It gives you pause. It makes you consider those things, yes. It’s something that we’ll have in our heads, and it’s definitely doable. Last year would have been the draft to have nine picks, being greedy as I am. It gives you the opportunity to move. Having those two comps in the fifth, for example, if we were to move the fifth, we only lose eight slots. I think it’s eight, something like that. But anyhow, you’re not going to blink to move a fifth because of what you have in the comps. And the other thing is the back end of your roster changes all the time. Every year you’re going to have seven to nine different players at the back end of your roster. We obviously sign UFAs, sign unrestricted guys, sign street guys that we feel are going to make the team. To think you’re going to draft nine guys and all nine are going to make your club, that’s going to be tough.”On if that means it’s likely the Panthers won’t use all nine picks:“We’ll see. I don’t know. Look at it the other way, not to be a pain in the neck, which I know I am. My wife tells me frequently after 30 years of marriage. Think about it this way, if you draft nine it’s two less guys you have to chase in free agency. So that kind of makes your life easier, too. If we don’t trade and we pick the nine, like I said, it’s just two less you’ve got to chase.”On prospects who have domestic violence or marijuana incidents in their background:“First of all, in terms of domestic violence, I think as an organization, we made our statement. So I don’t have to go there. As far as the pot’s concerned, and I don’t want to get to be a sociologist here, but I think that if it’s a kid who’s tested positive, and you have an interest in him, you have to sit him down. You’ve got to talk to him, you’ve got to meet with him, and you have to make decisions on those guys like anybody else. We will remove guys from the board that we’re not comfortable with. We don’t want to be uncomfortable with putting a cat on a guys’ hat. We don’t want to do it. They have to understand they’re representing the Carolina Panthers. That’s who they’re representing. Ownership has shown who he is, what we’re all about, and we’re not going to bring someone in here that we feel will tarnish that. That’s plain and simple. I don’t make judgments on other teams. It’s about the Carolina Panthers, and there are lines you don’t cross, plain and simple. And I think it’s been made very clear where we stand.”On how many in-house visits the Panthers used this year:“We ended up using all 30 this year. You’re only allowed 30, and sometimes on the 30 it may be a guy who you have an interest in who didn’t go to the combine. So you’ve got to bring him in for a medical. But if there are guys we had questions, character questions, that’s what they’re for. It’s take no prisoners now. When they come in here, they get grilled pretty hard. We’re not hitting them with feather dusters; it’s 2-by-4s. We have to find out what it’s about, what he’s about. One thing that’s really important to us is the culture in that locker room that we’ve developed over the past two years, and I promise you if we don’t have that culture at 3-8-1, who we’re about, what we’re about, how we approach everything from day-to-day, we don’t win the NFC South. You have to understand that. The culture’s important, so those guys we bring in, they get grilled pretty hard.”On if those visits ever reveal some players have bigger issues than originally feared:“Yes, it happens. And those guys will not be Carolina Panthers.”On the challenge of picking far back at No. 25:“I want to pick 32. Like you said, you want to draft at the bottom of the round. I’ve been blessed, I’ve sat in draft rooms where you’re picking 32, and you just have to be patient. You can’t panic, you’ve got to relax, it’s going to happen, your pick’s going to come up. You can’t panic, you have to maintain your composure, and you just hope the teams in front of you make mistakes. It’s terrible, you’re sitting there, and they’re mistakes from our view. We don’t have an interest in that guy. There’s 17 teams that run a 3-4 defense, and obviously we’re a 4-3, and that’s one of the things I think we sometimes spend too much time on, but we spend a lot of time making sure that if we deem him as a 3-4 front-seven guy, then we know there’s not fit for us. We give him the round value and you just kind of move on. They’re going to play for somebody, and you’re going to have to play against some of them, unfortunately. But that’s just the way it is. So it’s really just matter of being patient and not pressing. You’ve got no choice. Part of it is I don’t subscribe to the theory that we’re one player away. I just don’t subscribe to that theory. For us to jump up appreciably, you’re looking at next year’s two, there’s too much value in those picks. That one guy, he may be the guy, and then he goes out and blows his knee in August. So where are you now? My wife tells me I’m not very patient. With this, I’m patient.”On taking a player coming off an injury:“It’s possible, but you’re always looking at the big picture. How bad is the injury? What’s the chance for a reoccurrence? Was the repair good? Has the rehab been good? Where’s he at? What’s a reasonable expectation? I was with a team one year where we drafted a guy who had blown his ACL in December. We draft him, and the agreement is he comes in, we’re going to take care of it, we’re going to slow-play it, and when he’s ready to play he’s ready to play. We draft him, he’s a mess, he can’t move, coaches hate him, we cut him. Team that picks him up, he went to three Pro Bowls. So if you’re going to have a plan, you’ve gotta stay with it. So to answer your question, you look at the player, you leave him in his round value, you make a decision on when you’re willing to take the risk.”On how much the immediate availability of a previously injured draftee matters:“That’s part of it. And a lot of it’s long-term. You take a guy in the first and second round; you’re not drafting for him to play three years and he goes home. A lot of it is the severity of the injury and what’s his longevity? What it look like? And that’s educated guessing. That’s what we do.”On edge rushers in this draft:“It’s a good group. There’s guys there. There’s a bunch of guys that probably fit the 3-4 teams better, there’s no doubt about that. But there’s edge rushers there. We talk about it; the college game is different. They’re not playing the same game we are. The similarities are there’s a football, there’s a same-size field, but it’s a different game. Part of what we’re doing is projecting. College scouting is a lot more difficult that it used to be. Back in the day, you went to colleges, say you were looking at a corner, it didn’t make a difference which school you went to. You knew if he could play man, you knew if he could play off, you knew if he could blitz, you knew everything. Now you’re guessing. Not guessing, you’re projecting. We were looking at the corners at Indy, and they do a backpedal and turn drill. So there’s 54 corners in the two groups. I’m up there with Ron (Rivera) and Sean (McDermott). We’re watching, we’re kibitzing back and forth, so I ask, “How many of these guys really know how to backpedal?’ Sean said, ‘Of these 54 guys, 11 know how to backpedal.’ So I said, ‘Ok. How many have the athletic ability to learn how to backpedal?’ That’s what you have to find out. You have to eliminate the ones that don’t have the athletic skill set to do it, and you have to look at who can we teach? Who can we coach? That’s where the scouting comes in. They don’t do it well cause they don’t have to do it at the college level. They’re not asked to do it. So those are the kinds of things that you’ve got to think about. It’s a different game, and we just have to really, thoroughly investigate.”On if there’s an update on Cam Newton’s contract situation:“You know I don’t talk about contracts.”On if he has any draft day rituals:“No. What I’ve done the last two years, I get here around 10. I take a look, think about things. I take a shower, and everybody’s really thankful. But no, not really.”On if there is any more evaluating that has to be done:“We’re done. Now it’s scenarios. We did a couple mock drafts this morning. Really, the big thing is you’ve got to see how the first round falls and that will lead you to the second day.”