The Panthers have an obvious pick to make in the NFL Draft, and it’s not Isaiah Simmons

Mock drafts are tough to ignore. Some of the people who make them lean on sources. Some guess. I read them all.

What makes this draft compelling for the Carolina Panthers and their fans is that Carolina has the seventh pick. The last time the Panthers drafted that high was in 2011, when they took Cam Newton with the first pick.

They’ve drafted in the top 10 only twice since they took Newton. In 2012, they took linebacker Luke Kuechly ninth. In 2017, they took Christian McCaffrey eighth.

Who should they take this season?

I’d love to nominate a surprise candidate. But if Auburn defensive tackle Derrick Brown is available, I don’t see how the Panthers pass.

The man is as big as you’d like him to be – 6-foot-3 and 318 pounds. And he can move. He overwhelms blockers.

A quality that distinguishes Brown is that he plays as if every snap is important.

We know Carolina general manager Marty Hurney’s preferences. We don’t know new coach Matt Rhule’s.

But doesn’t everybody like a big, quick, hard-working and disruptive defensive lineman on a team that desperately needs one?

If Brown is not your pick, who is?

Don’t treat Matt Rhule’s comments on Cam Newton as anything new

Matt Rhule said at the NFL Combine that he would like to coach quarterback Cam Newton. Some are treating this like a scoop. But it’s less breaking news than broken news.

Of course, Rhule, the new Carolina Panthers coach, would like to coach Newton if Newton is healthy. He might also like to trade Newton if Newton is healthy. He didn’t promise that Newton would start anymore than he has promised any other Panther that he would start.

Yet we are so desperate for Newton answers that some in the media didn’t accurately report what Rhule said. We interpret it.

What happens when a new coach with a new philosophy meets an old quarterback? We have no idea.

If Newton works out for his employers next month or April, and his left foot fully functions after the Lisfranc injury that ended his 2019 season after two games, and his right shoulder again functions after multiple surgeries, the Panthers will have options.

They can keep Newton. Or, once the rest of the league realizes he’s healthy, they can trade him.

But hasn’t this always been so?

Is Rhule supposed to say that he wants to coach Will Grier or Kyle Allen? (I am curious about Grier.)

In Newton, Rhule has a long-time starter who once was MVP. So, yes, he probably does want to coach him. Somebody has to play quarterback for Carolina next season.

But what if Newton simply plays a role in a story much larger than he is? The Charlotte Hornets didn’t get serious about rebuilding until Kemba Walker left them. They were never good enough to win a playoff series and they usually weren’t bad enough to get a great pick. So every season was a battle for eighth place in the NBA’s Eastern Conference.

The Panthers aren’t going to do that. Owner David Tepper is a pragmatist; he wants results.

So his team will rebuild. Carolina will feature players you won’t recognize without a roster. The Panthers won’t reside like the Hornets have in lower-class limbo. They’ll immediately get worse to get better.

Those of you who annually predict that the Panthers will win 10 or 12 or 17 games might have to come down to my world next season. I had them at 8-8 the last two seasons. I know; homer. This season I won’t be such an optimist.

Even if the NFL invites more team to the playoffs, the Panthers won’t get in.

So, where does Newton fit? He’ll be 31 in May, and has only a year remaining on his contract with Carolina. Is he willing to play a final season with no promise of what comes next? Or would he prefer a new employer and a new contract and an opportunity win?

On Instagram, Newton said: “All I want is a little commitment. You can’t give me that?”

The Panthers can’t. I don’t think anybody outside the Panthers organization knows what they’ll do with Newton. Until they can verify his health, or lack of it, I doubt that anybody inside the organization knows, either.

Continuing to wait on Malik Monk

Malik Monk finally looks like a genuine NBA player. The erratic jump shot is less erratic. The athleticism is constant. Watch him go to the basket, hit a shot or an open teammate, and/or draw a foul.

Monk this season has averaged 10.3 points and 2.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists, all career highs, and he’s averaged 18.2 points in his last 17 games. The previous two seasons his talent has been a suggestion. Look closely or you’ll miss it. This season, especially this last month, it’s there.

But we won’t see Monk again until he complies with the NBA/NBPA drug policy. On Wednesday, the league suspended him indefinitely.

We don’t know what Monk’s drug of choice is. We know, however, that “indefinite” implies the offense is serious. He’ll be reinstated, says the league, when he complies with the drug policy. He’s under contract with the Hornets for one more season, and there’s no guarantee he’ll return for the final 24 games of this one.

If the drug is pot, well, Monk knew it was banned. But weed will be legal almost everywhere soon enough, the NBA’s drug policy should reflect it.

Despite being in his third season, Monk is very young; he didn’t turn 22 until last month. He was overwhelmed by the big-city neon-lit NBA world when he chose to join it after a single season at Kentucky.

Maybe he still is.

A handicapped-parking solution

I’ve written this before, but it failed to catch on. So I’ll try again.

If I’m the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, I hire an officer whose sole assignment is to bust able-bodied drivers who park in spaces reserved for the handicapped.

Who pays the officer? He or she gets a cut of the fines he collects. Who is the highest paid officer on the force? Police chief Kerr Putney no longer will be. The new officer is. She can make her money in single day at Morrocroft.

And if the officer gets bored, ticket the SUVs and trucks that park in spaces reserved for compacts, and the drivers who block fire lanes. Nobody gets to park a car in a fire lane. If a kid, or an adult, rushes out from behind the vehicle, the pedestrian will be tough for a driver to see.

I occasionally ask drivers how they justify parking in spots reserved for the handicapped. They never say, “Thanks for calling the transgression to my attention.”

They tell me that their kids are sick, or that they are parked in the stripped space that adjoins the handicapped spot, a space on which wheelchairs are unloaded. Some ignore me.

The truth: If you’re so lazy that you feel entitled to usurp a space reserved for the handicapped, why not stay home? We won’t miss you. I promise.

This story was originally published February 27, 2020 at 3:30 PM.