When the Panthers had the top pick in the 2011 NFL Draft, most knew they'd take a quarterback. Draft expert Mike Mayock even predicted Blaine Gabbert would be "the first quarterback off the board" to Carolina.

The Panthers of course went with Cam Newton, who has had a far better career than that of Gabbert — Newton won NFL MVP last season, and Gabbert has started just 11 games over the last three seasons. But history might have ended up differently for the Charlotte-based franchise. Mayock wasn't blowing smoke when he suggested Gabbert go No. 1 overall.

Speaking at a golf tournament over the weekend, coach Ron Rivera explained to the Mercury News how much he liked Gabbert, and still likes him.

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"Remember, we had the No. 1 pick, and we were talking quarterback,” Rivera said. “And it came down to Cam Newton and Blaine Gabbert. Those were the two guys we targeted and looked at, and looked at really, really hard."

He continued his praise toward Gabbert, calling him "dynamic, likeable, high energy," and noted the things he did well during his team workout and interview before the draft.

"When we worked him out, if he didn’t do something right, he'd say, 'Let me do this. I’m going to show you I can do this.' And he'd go back and do it again,” Rivera said. “That was one of the things that impressed me about him.

"We spent a lot of time on him, we really did."

So what made them go with Newton? Rivera didn't say during this conversation, but a 2011 interview revealed the decision was a result of intuition.

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"(Newton) is most certainly a dynamic personality, but Blaine is, too," Rivera said. "I don't know. Sometimes, you can just sit there and say it's a gut feeling or something, but we just felt that Cam was the guy that was going to best suit for what we wanted to do."

Things worked out well for Carolina, but it's a true "what if" story. Would Gabbert have had a better career if he wasn't constantly changing coordinators and coaches in Jacksonville? We'll never know, but he has a chance to revive his career in San Francisco this season, as he's in a battle with Colin Kaepernick for the starting job.