NFC Notes: Panthers, Rams, Seahawks

Panthers

While some reports in recent weeks have said that a Panthers owner could be identified by this week, a source tells Ian Rapoport that they aren’t there yet and an agreement won’t be in place by this week.

Even so, Rapoport adds that things are moving along and the May meeting is still the target for a vote.

• Panthers GM Marty Hurney said Tuesday that they haven’t ruled out trading up or down the draft: “In this draft at 24, we’ll probably get calls either way. What we do will depend on how the draft has gone.’’ (David Newton)
• Hurney said they’re still in talks with free agent QB Derek Anderson, but he indicated they could draft a quarterback: “(Former Packers GM) Ron Wolf had a saying. He believed in every draft you take a young quarterback to develop. If he doesn’t develop into a player for you, then he would have trade value. Every draft you look for those young quarterbacks because that’s the position in this league. It makes the most difference. You are always looking at quarterbacks in mid to low rounds. Now, whether it works out that way, that’s how the draft goes.”
• Hurney mentioned that they would like to add to the secondary, but they need to ensure that they’re taking care of other areas including pass rush and skill positions: “Obviously we would love to keep adding parts to the secondary, as well as other positions. It’s going to depend how the draft falls. We are not going to reach for somebody because he plays safety. If we can help the secondary, if we can help the pass rush, if we can add skill players on the offensive side – I think that’s something we would like to do while still keeping our offensive and defensive lines strong.”

Rams

• Rams HC Sean McVay was asked about trading the No. 23 overall pick for WR Brandin Cooks on Tuesday: “If you told me I’d be getting that player at 23, I’d be throwing a pool party. And I don’t even have a pool.” (Alden Gonzalez)

Seahawks

Seahawks GM John Schneider said Monday that they’ve cleaned up their draft board a bit this year and are making “less excuses for players.”

“You evaluate your drafts all the time. You’re constantly evaluating what you think you did well, what you need to improve on. I think one of the things we’ve done is it’s really cleaned up. We don’t have quite as many names on our board,” Schneider said, via Pro Football Talk. “You have to have certain criteria to be on our board and we’re making less excuses for players, I would say.”

Schneider added that they’re trying to limit the number of players on their board with red flags.

“At some point, the character stuff, there’s red flags usually on everybody but what happens is you end up kind of ignoring some of those red flags if you feel like you have a specific need or a fit for a player. I think it’s happened in the past, it will probably happen in the future but you just want to limit those,” Schneider said.

• The Seahawks signed K Sebastian Janikowski to a one-year, $2.015 million contract, which breaks down to a $1.015 million base salary, a $600,000 signing bonus, a $100,000 bonus if he’s on the 53-man roster Week 1 and $300,000 in per-game active roster bonuses. (Brady Henderson)