42: Panthers Falcons / Are Changes On The Way? / Time To Start Bryce Young Yet?

[00:00:28] There we go. Welcome in, welcome in to Keep Purring, A Carolina Panthers Podcast, Episode 42. We are talking Panthers Falcons tonight, one day later. We normally go Sunday nights, but we decided to move it to Monday since it was kind of a later game. We might actually do that the next couple weeks since I think the next two games are at four o'clock, but a lot to talk about. I mean, you know, it's not exactly...

[00:00:58] an unexpected outcome, you know, with the way that game ended. But we'll talk about it. I want to just thank you everybody for tuning in. We've got 14 people so far. What's up, everybody? Don't forget to jump in the chat. Let us know. Say what's up. Let us know how you're feeling, what your thoughts were on the game. We're going to get into talking about it in detail. We're going to talk about Bryce Young and whether or not we think it should be time for him to talk about it.

[00:01:28] And to start yet, we're going to talk about some standout players, some disappointments. And then we're going to talk about the Commanders game coming up this Sunday. But Eric, what's up, man? Did you have a good weekend?

[00:01:41] I did. It was nice and relaxing. Didn't have too much on the docket, which is kind of the way I like it. But my son was doing a play for like three days and did a phenomenal job. So I saw that Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday.

[00:02:02] Oh, wow.

[00:02:03] It was a lot. But they did a fantastic job. It was great to go do that, support him, show him how much we love him, how proud we are of him, and what a great job he does.

[00:02:13] That's amazing. Congrats to Riley. That's amazing.

[00:02:17] Yeah.

[00:02:17] It was good. My wife and I last week was my wife's and my 13-year wedding anniversary.

[00:02:25] Nice.

[00:02:26] So we both took the day off of work on Friday and went around town and childless. My daughter was over at my mom's, so we got a chance to just hang out, just the two of us. Go around town, do some nerdy adult things. It was fun. And then just had a good weekend. Yeah. All around swell weekend.

[00:02:53] What's up, C. Prince? What's going on, man? C. Prince, what's up, guys? Feeling a little hopeless for my team these days. You got kickers picking at us. I'm not sure.

[00:03:08] I know what he's referencing.

[00:03:09] What is he? Yeah. What's he referencing?

[00:03:11] Yeah. Evidently, Ku, when he was watching, walking off the field after the game, said he was stinking or sucking or whatever it was.

[00:03:19] Yeah.

[00:03:20] Oh, yeah.

[00:03:20] Come on now.

[00:03:21] Wow. What's up, QP88? Thanks for popping in. Yeah, I remember that now. I saw that about the Falcons kicker. I mean, we're just taking L's left, right, and center. I saw another thing on Twitter where one of the Falcons players was walking out, you know, or I guess back into the tunnel.

[00:03:47] Mm-hmm.

[00:04:18] And embarrassing us. It's brutal.

[00:04:21] Absolutely brutal.

[00:04:22] Absolutely brutal.

[00:04:23] I don't know.

[00:04:24] But let us, guys, let us know what you thought about the game in the chat.

[00:04:28] We're going to start getting into it here.

[00:04:30] I want to start with...

[00:04:33] I've got two routes.

[00:04:34] Two routes I could go here.

[00:04:36] I could go a positive route or a negative route.

[00:04:39] Your choice.

[00:04:40] Which route do you want me to take first?

[00:04:43] You know what? Take the positive route.

[00:04:44] Let's start us out on some positivity, and then I'll bring us down.

[00:04:51] All right.

[00:04:53] All right.

[00:04:53] I'll start us out on a positive note here.

[00:04:55] What you got?

[00:04:57] Let me...

[00:04:58] Let's see here.

[00:05:00] Let me share my screen here.

[00:05:03] Zoom in a little bit.

[00:05:06] Just something that I tweeted.

[00:05:09] When was this?

[00:05:10] I think it was yesterday.

[00:05:12] It might have been during...

[00:05:13] Yeah.

[00:05:14] I guess during the game or right after the game, I said,

[00:05:17] like, hey, everything doesn't have to be so bleak with the team.

[00:05:22] There are some things to look forward to.

[00:05:26] Xavier Leggett, Jalen Coker, Jatavian Sanders.

[00:05:30] I put in parentheses, still believe in him.

[00:05:33] I know that seems kind of dumb to say about a guy who's still a rookie.

[00:05:39] But, you know, a lot of people are frustrated because he's had a bunch of drops

[00:05:43] and, you know, mental errors and all that stuff.

[00:05:46] I'm one of them.

[00:05:47] I'm also one of them.

[00:05:48] But he had a few good catches in this last game,

[00:05:52] and I still think that he's going to be a really good player.

[00:05:55] Jonathan Brooks is going to be on the way at some point.

[00:05:57] And I just said, you know, maybe the Panthers are on to something.

[00:06:02] Finally.

[00:06:02] Like, maybe finally we're hitting on some draft picks.

[00:06:06] We've got some offensive players that have potentially have a bright future.

[00:06:12] I mean, there's a long way to go to see if that's the case.

[00:06:15] But, I mean, Leggett, you know, I think he's – I wouldn't say he's underperformed.

[00:06:21] I would say that he's been underutilized for what I'd like to see up to this point.

[00:06:27] I mean, he does have two touchdowns.

[00:06:31] How many touchdowns does Jonathan Mingo have through, you know, 22 games as a pro?

[00:06:37] Do you know?

[00:06:38] Yeah, yeah.

[00:06:40] I would say – I don't know.

[00:06:43] Probably one.

[00:06:45] Zero.

[00:06:45] Yeah, and he scored.

[00:06:46] Wow.

[00:06:46] That's brutal.

[00:06:47] Brutal.

[00:06:50] Here's my thing on this while we're talking about it.

[00:06:52] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:06:53] Okay.

[00:06:54] I hate to be pedantic, but only three of these are actual draft picks.

[00:06:58] Coker was an undrafted free agent.

[00:07:00] Yeah, I know.

[00:07:01] But it's still like a draft pickup.

[00:07:03] Right.

[00:07:04] But Brooks hasn't even played yet.

[00:07:06] No, I know.

[00:07:07] I know.

[00:07:07] Listen, I'm just trying to grasp the straws here, man.

[00:07:11] I'm grasping the straws.

[00:07:12] I told you I was going to bring us down to earth just a little bit.

[00:07:15] Just a little bit.

[00:07:16] You weren't lying.

[00:07:16] I mean, here – yeah.

[00:07:18] Like, here's the thing.

[00:07:20] And I was actually talking about this with a fantasy football buddy of mine.

[00:07:25] Shout out to Brian.

[00:07:25] But, you know, we were talking about rookie wide receivers.

[00:07:33] Yeah.

[00:07:34] And I have always done on the fantasy side of things, I've never trusted a rookie wide receiver in the first six weeks of a season.

[00:07:41] Yeah.

[00:07:42] I don't know what it is, but there's something about the cornerbacks and being able to kind of throw rookie wide receivers off.

[00:07:48] There's just something about it.

[00:07:50] But they don't really kind of quite seem to get their NFL legs about them until about halfway through the season.

[00:07:55] And so I think that's probably kind of what we're seeing a little bit with Leggett.

[00:07:59] We're seeing flashes of some of the things that he can do.

[00:08:02] But he's still not quite all the way there yet.

[00:08:05] You know, Coker, he didn't have nearly as much of an opportunity.

[00:08:07] He was here in camp, and then he wasn't around for, you know, for a little bit, I think.

[00:08:14] Or he wasn't – because we cut him, right?

[00:08:16] And then we didn't immediately sign him back.

[00:08:18] Am I correct?

[00:08:18] Yeah.

[00:08:19] So he didn't have quite as much time with the team.

[00:08:21] You've got Sanders, who he's done okay, but there are definitely balls that he should have caught and, you know –

[00:08:28] Oh, for sure.

[00:08:28] Extended drives and all that kind of stuff.

[00:08:30] And then I think I heard – saw somewhere in the rumor mill that they're considering activating Brooks.

[00:08:38] So opening up 21-day window for him to practice before he comes back in.

[00:08:42] So it'll be great to see those guys soon.

[00:08:45] But, yeah, I mean, you know, I know we're grasping at straws here.

[00:08:49] But, you know, it's just not a tremendous amount of positivity until I see Brooks.

[00:08:56] You know, and honestly, even then, I'm excited about it.

[00:08:59] But Chuba's played pretty damn well, right?

[00:09:02] It's not like Brooks is going to come in and spell somebody who is, you know, really dragging the team down.

[00:09:08] I don't know.

[00:09:09] Yeah.

[00:09:10] I know.

[00:09:11] I know.

[00:09:12] Yeah.

[00:09:12] I just think – I think that we have some good pieces on offense.

[00:09:18] Like, we get, like Coker, like Sanders potentially.

[00:09:23] Brooks potentially.

[00:09:24] We got to see how he looks when he gets on the field.

[00:09:26] So, and then, you know, outside of the pass catchers, you got to talk about the offensive line.

[00:09:34] I mean, Robert Hunt and Damian Lewis, that continues to look like Dan Morgan and Brant Tillis knew what they were doing with that.

[00:09:45] You know?

[00:09:45] Absolutely.

[00:09:46] Absolutely.

[00:09:48] So, it's – I mean, I'll just reference this.

[00:09:52] I looked at PFF and I know I keep sharing my screen, but I'm going to do it one more time because I wanted to show you this.

[00:10:03] So, PFF from – let's see.

[00:10:09] Make sure I share the right one.

[00:10:10] Yeah.

[00:10:12] All right.

[00:10:12] I'll probably just zoom in for you here.

[00:10:14] So, this is from Sunday's game.

[00:10:18] Mm-hmm.

[00:10:22] Damian Lewis, look at the top.

[00:10:24] Look at the – honestly, look at the top six.

[00:10:27] These are the top six graded offensive players from the Panthers on Sunday.

[00:10:33] Six of the – or five of those six are offensive linemen.

[00:10:39] Yeah, really – what a stark difference from last year, huh?

[00:10:44] Yeah.

[00:10:46] I mean, we're doing something right.

[00:10:48] Like, we have to give – give credit where credit's due.

[00:10:53] A lot of people – a lot of people, you know, shit on Dan Morgan and Brent Tillis and all those guys.

[00:11:00] But, listen, they did something right.

[00:11:02] They went – they knew that the offensive line was a huge issue.

[00:11:05] They went out.

[00:11:05] Yeah.

[00:11:06] They spent money on it.

[00:11:07] They brought in Damian Lewis and Robert Hunt, and I know that we overpaid for them, but we had to, like we've talked about.

[00:11:12] Brady Christensen is a guy who, you know, he's versatile, but we talked about it last week, how we were nervous about him coming in in replacement of Austin Corbett.

[00:11:27] Yeah.

[00:11:28] And he played well.

[00:11:29] He did a great job.

[00:11:30] Yash Neiman.

[00:11:33] Yash Neiman, that's another – again, back to Dan Morgan and Brent Tillis.

[00:11:36] That's another guy that they brought in this offseason.

[00:11:40] And then Iki Iquanu, I mean, he had a couple boneheaded penalties in this game that cost us.

[00:11:48] I tweeted at one point during the game, I was like, Iki really does at certain points still look like a rookie.

[00:11:54] But at the same time, he's playing better through five games, six games, however many games we're at, six games.

[00:12:03] He's playing better this year than he did last year.

[00:12:05] That is without a doubt.

[00:12:07] Yeah.

[00:12:08] He's definitely gotten better.

[00:12:10] You know, the beginning of the season was a little – if I remember correctly, was a little bit iffy.

[00:12:14] It just seemed like – I don't know.

[00:12:18] Maybe – you know what, we'll just change it to a little bit icky.

[00:12:24] What do we think?

[00:12:24] Do we think we can make that catch?

[00:12:26] Yeah.

[00:12:26] Can it take off?

[00:12:27] That's a dad joke through and through, but I love it.

[00:12:29] You know, I get it honest.

[00:12:31] But no, I mean, I think that, you know, we have to give credit.

[00:12:36] We – the entire season last year, we clamored for offensive line help.

[00:12:43] Yes.

[00:12:44] We clamored for it.

[00:12:45] It's – you know, there were other areas of improvement needed as well.

[00:12:50] But the thing that everybody could agree on was we need help with the offensive line.

[00:12:57] And we got it.

[00:12:59] Yep.

[00:12:59] Now, we need other players to step up too.

[00:13:02] Yep.

[00:13:02] But, you know, if we are trying to build through the offensive line, then we're doing a good job.

[00:13:09] We just have to all kind of remember that, like, progress isn't overnight, right?

[00:13:14] Like, it's not – I've been saying this since before the season started.

[00:13:18] Well, and, you know, in the offseason, like, it's going to be a process.

[00:13:22] We're going to have to be patient.

[00:13:24] We're going to have to be patient because it's not going to happen over there.

[00:13:26] Yeah.

[00:13:28] Yeah.

[00:13:28] It's just so – it's so hard for Panthers fans to hear.

[00:13:33] It's so hard to say it out loud and to hear that when it's, you know, pretty much all we've had –

[00:13:38] all we've been able to do for the last several years.

[00:13:41] QP88, I like – QP88 here said, I like that we were overall competitive on offense,

[00:13:46] but I know that's only going to go so far with this fan base.

[00:13:51] Yeah.

[00:13:51] I mean, that's – we're – our fan base is just so starved for –

[00:13:55] Yeah.

[00:13:55] For wins, and it's hard to – this is the reality of the situation,

[00:14:02] but it's hard to hear and it's hard to accept as a Panthers fan is that right now it's not –

[00:14:09] it's not really about the wins and losses right now because we're not –

[00:14:14] we're not a good enough team for it to be just about the wins and losses.

[00:14:19] Mm-hmm.

[00:14:20] There's so many other factors, so many other things that are happening right now.

[00:14:26] Um, behind the scenes, in front of our eyes, that we have to pay attention to.

[00:14:31] I mean, Dave Canales is a brand new head coach, uh, coaching what is inarguably one of the worst rosters in the NFL.

[00:14:42] Um, and, you know, Dan Morgan, say what you will.

[00:14:46] I know people like to say, and I don't know, does this –

[00:14:48] I don't know if this gets on your nerves as much as it does me,

[00:14:51] but there's still a lot of people that, uh, tie Dan Morgan to, um, Scott Fitterer,

[00:15:00] you know, saying he was Scott Fitterer's right-hand man and, you know, uh, every decision that Fitterer made

[00:15:07] was essentially also a decision that Morgan made.

[00:15:10] And I just don't – I just don't view it that way because, yes, he was the assistant GM,

[00:15:14] and I know that they were good friends, and I know that they collaborated and all that stuff.

[00:15:19] But at the end of the day, who was making the final decision?

[00:15:23] It was Scott Fitterer.

[00:15:25] And so you can't sit here and say, we're not going to know – we're never going to know definitively

[00:15:30] whether or not Dan Morgan, you know, would have signed off on every single decision

[00:15:36] that Scott Fitterer made.

[00:15:38] We can only speculate.

[00:15:39] But I'm just – I'm just not interested in talking about Dan Morgan's past at this point.

[00:15:45] I'm interested in judging the moves and decisions he has made since he's been in that GM chair.

[00:15:51] And so far, so far, based on what he was sort of handed after last season, I think he's done a pretty good job.

[00:15:59] Now the defense is another story, but there's also been a shit ton of injuries.

[00:16:05] But I don't know.

[00:16:06] What's your take on that as far as where do you stand on Dan Morgan and kind of, you know,

[00:16:11] judging the job that he's done up to this point?

[00:16:14] I think that it's impossible to remove him from Scott Fitterer.

[00:16:22] I think that to a certain extent, they're going to be intertwined.

[00:16:26] I think as time goes by, then, you know, the ways that they're intertwined is going to be fewer.

[00:16:35] But while there are still people that were drafted under Fitterer while Morgan was his right-hand man,

[00:16:42] Morgan's still going to have, you know, have the stain of that, regardless of whether he was the one that pulled the trigger or not.

[00:16:48] The long and short of it is, though, we're making progress.

[00:16:51] And I think that as a fan base, as frustrated as so many people are, I think you can see that while our record is not great,

[00:17:00] we are making progress.

[00:17:01] Like, we are improving in areas that we knew we needed to improve.

[00:17:06] Yeah.

[00:17:07] And we have to understand it's a, you know, three year slash three, you know, three phase rebuild.

[00:17:15] And we're six games into the first season of that.

[00:17:18] Right.

[00:17:19] So it's going to continue to take time.

[00:17:21] But Morgan is going to be associated with some of those players that were brought in under his leadership,

[00:17:27] even if he was the second in command.

[00:17:31] Yeah.

[00:17:32] No, I get that.

[00:17:33] I get that.

[00:17:33] That's kind of the deal.

[00:17:37] So, you know, me personally, I just, you know, I'm just choosing to kind of like fresh start.

[00:17:42] Well, I'm going to judge.

[00:17:44] I'm going to judge the job that he does as the GM.

[00:17:47] And so far, the offense is significantly improved from last year.

[00:17:55] And I think a large part of that is due to the offensive line, like we talked about.

[00:18:00] And I think Dave Canales is a big part of that too.

[00:18:05] You know, I'm choosing to give Dave Canales some credit.

[00:18:08] Like, listen, those first two weeks were awful with Bryce Young, but we made the change at quarterback.

[00:18:16] And all of a sudden things are looking a lot better than they did.

[00:18:20] And, you know, we'll get into.

[00:18:23] But everything is looking better, right?

[00:18:25] Like the offensive line is looking better with, you know, Dalton kind of more of like a steady hand.

[00:18:32] Like, yeah, like the whole operation just looks better since Dalton was on, you know, under center or whatnot.

[00:18:41] So I don't know.

[00:18:42] I think, yes, there are a lot of things that are against us.

[00:18:47] But as a fan base, we can say that like progress is being made in a lot of places.

[00:18:52] It's just not you snap your fingers and the progress is over.

[00:18:57] Progress is the process, right?

[00:18:59] We're in the middle of the process right now or at the beginning of the process, quite frankly.

[00:19:03] It's I don't know.

[00:19:05] I just think we need to keep that in mind.

[00:19:08] Yeah.

[00:19:09] So let's kind of get into the game more specifically.

[00:19:13] Let's let's specifically stick to the offense.

[00:19:15] We've talked a little bit about it, but yeah, what?

[00:19:19] I don't know.

[00:19:20] Were there any standout players position groups?

[00:19:24] We've already talked about the offensive line.

[00:19:26] Yeah.

[00:19:27] Were you on the offensive side of the ball Sunday?

[00:19:30] Yeah.

[00:19:30] I mean, I continue to think that Hubbard looks really good.

[00:19:33] Looks fantastic.

[00:19:34] He I think that we saw.

[00:19:39] I don't have numbers to back this up, but I felt that while we were watching the game that we stuck with the run longer.

[00:19:47] It still looks like, you know, two thirds of the of the play calls were, you know, passes.

[00:19:53] But like, I felt like we didn't abandon the run immediately.

[00:19:59] And as we've talked about, that's important for our offense.

[00:20:03] So I thought Hubbard looked really good.

[00:20:05] It was great to see at the end of the first half.

[00:20:10] I was expecting Dalton to spike the ball and us kick a field goal and just get some points on the board.

[00:20:18] Right.

[00:20:18] We had no timeouts, you know, 20 seconds left in the in the half, something like that.

[00:20:22] Yep.

[00:20:23] But and it was awesome to see Liget go up and do exactly what we drafted him for.

[00:20:27] Hell yeah, man.

[00:20:28] Literally exactly what we drafted him for.

[00:20:30] It was also awesome that we weren't throwing jump balls to Deontay because as we just felt like that's not his thing.

[00:20:37] So, like, we're starting to see some more like some like concepts that make a little bit more sense.

[00:20:42] So Liget going up and getting that was awesome.

[00:20:45] Yep.

[00:20:46] I'll leave some of the I'll leave other wide receivers to you.

[00:20:50] But I thought that Chuba was great.

[00:20:51] And I thought that Liget were great.

[00:20:55] Yeah.

[00:20:56] It was good to see, you know, we've we've talked a little bit about Jatavian Sanders.

[00:21:00] I mean, it was good to see him get some some catches in there.

[00:21:03] And, you know, you got to keep going back to him.

[00:21:07] He's a rookie.

[00:21:08] He's dropped a few passes.

[00:21:09] I think it's a lack of concentration thing.

[00:21:11] I think he's he's there's been a couple instances where he's it's clear that he's like bracing for contact because he's like kind of looking up away from the ball before he secured the catch.

[00:21:23] It was so it was cool to see him him get those opportunities and take advantage of them.

[00:21:29] Yeah.

[00:21:30] Yeah.

[00:21:30] Let's talk about Jalen Coker because, man, I love this kid.

[00:21:36] I love this kid.

[00:21:37] I think he's going to be good.

[00:21:39] I really do.

[00:21:40] I've been saying it.

[00:21:42] We've been talking about it since the summer, this training camp.

[00:21:45] When we when we signed him after the draft, I I didn't even know who he was.

[00:21:50] You know, I I don't watch Holy Cross football.

[00:21:55] I don't know who does.

[00:21:57] But so, yeah, I didn't know who Jalen Coker was.

[00:21:59] The more research I did on him, the more highlights I watched of his college tape, the more impressed I was.

[00:22:07] And so going into training camp, I was, you know, I was excited to see what he could do.

[00:22:13] And, you know, I went to a couple of training camp practices and got to see Jalen Coker up close and personal.

[00:22:20] And and I came away impressed.

[00:22:23] And we I talked about it on like three different podcasts during including ours during training camp.

[00:22:31] And I just want to, you know, I'm taking a victory lap here.

[00:22:38] That's what it is.

[00:22:39] And I'm going to do it because there are I don't get many of them.

[00:22:42] I'm wrong a lot.

[00:22:43] It's our show.

[00:22:44] We can do what we want.

[00:22:45] We can do what we want.

[00:22:46] And you know what?

[00:22:47] I'm wrong.

[00:22:47] I'm wrong a lot.

[00:22:48] So when I'm right, I'm going to take credit for it.

[00:22:52] Damn it.

[00:22:53] Yeah.

[00:22:54] Just want to play this little clip.

[00:22:55] Hopefully the audio works.

[00:22:56] But this is when we had CJ from Two Fans and Stans on our podcast during training camp.

[00:23:04] And this was just a little clip talking about Jalen Coker.

[00:23:08] Let me know if you can't hear it for some reason.

[00:23:10] You switch over to Coker.

[00:23:13] And I look at that situation and I'm like, OK, yes, he went undrafted.

[00:23:16] But he had and you and CJ props to you because you were very close trying to remember his contract numbers earlier.

[00:23:25] You're very, very close.

[00:23:26] So he signed a $25,000 signing bonus with $225,000 in guarantees.

[00:23:35] And that was interesting to me because I think it was where did I see that article?

[00:23:41] It was I tagged them on Twitter.

[00:23:44] But that's like more than some late round draft picks get paid.

[00:23:49] And so they went out, Dan Morgan and co.

[00:23:53] Obviously, they wanted Coker.

[00:23:55] They're like, oh, let's go give this guy like a decent contract here, even though he's an undrafted free agent.

[00:24:01] Let's give him a decent contract here and get him in our building.

[00:24:04] And to your point, CJ, like he he has been impressive in camp as well.

[00:24:10] Like I've been to two.

[00:24:14] I've only been to two practices so far, but both days that I was there, I saw him do a couple of things where I was like, oh, man, like he's he's big.

[00:24:25] He's strong.

[00:24:26] He can win press press coverage.

[00:24:29] Strong hands.

[00:24:29] He's a good route runner like and I just found this out at the combine.

[00:24:35] He had the highest recorded vertical leap among all wide receivers this year at the combine.

[00:24:43] So not only not only is he a good route runner and can he catch the ball well and is he strong, you know, big and strong.

[00:24:49] He also can jump out of the building yet like a 42 and a half vertical.

[00:24:54] I'm just laughing at your face as I was talking over there.

[00:24:58] It's like, hmm, OK, very nice.

[00:25:03] So, yeah, just.

[00:25:05] I think you might be on mute.

[00:25:07] Jalen Coker, I've we've been fans of him.

[00:25:12] I've been a fan of him.

[00:25:13] I really I thought that he was going to make the 53 and he did initially and then he got cut and then he got added back to the practice squad.

[00:25:21] And now he's got his opportunity because of the really because of the Adam Thielen injury.

[00:25:27] We he got brought back up and QP88 here in the chat.

[00:25:32] I'm glad we saw Coker more than Mingo this game.

[00:25:35] So Coker, I don't have the snap counts in front of me, but Coker played significantly more than Mingo in this game.

[00:25:42] And you heard Dave Canales after after the game in the postgame presser.

[00:25:49] Well, it was either yesterday or today's presser.

[00:25:52] But Dave Canales said that both Coker and Mingo are essentially, you know, important pieces to what what we're trying to do right now.

[00:26:01] Yeah.

[00:26:03] I just think Coker is slowly becoming a more important piece than Mingo.

[00:26:09] I just think he's better.

[00:26:10] Yeah, I just think I jumped off the screen.

[00:26:12] He's definitely jumped off the screen like he's he's getting open.

[00:26:15] He is being found in a way that Mingo wasn't.

[00:26:20] And, you know, it's so frustrating.

[00:26:22] I feel like we've talked about this with Mingo, but like you see flashes of stuff, right?

[00:26:26] Like you see flashes of, you know, great things happening.

[00:26:30] And then he drops two balls in a row.

[00:26:33] You know what I mean?

[00:26:33] And like loses all of that steam.

[00:26:35] It's been so frustrating.

[00:26:37] But every time, you know, Coker's been out there like he's if the ball comes to him, he's he's catching it.

[00:26:46] Yeah.

[00:26:46] At least at least from what I remember seeing.

[00:26:49] So I don't know.

[00:26:51] I'm I'm I'm super impressed with him.

[00:26:53] I think he's he has showed up in places than times where I didn't think we were going to hear his name called, which for a rookie, let alone an undrafted rookie is fantastic.

[00:27:05] So, you know, I've I've enjoyed seeing him the last couple of weeks.

[00:27:10] Hopefully we continue to see him, you know, mixed into it a little bit more.

[00:27:14] And that's what you said just then.

[00:27:16] He's an undrafted free agent.

[00:27:17] That is the type of thing that we're not used to.

[00:27:22] We're not used to the Panthers hitting on those.

[00:27:24] Yeah.

[00:27:25] And so and we don't know.

[00:27:28] We don't know.

[00:27:28] We don't know for sure if Coker is going to end up being a success.

[00:27:32] But I mean, I have a hard time believing that he won't continue to contribute because he looks like a really good player on the field.

[00:27:43] When you watch the when you watch the game, when you see him out there, like you said, he gets open.

[00:27:48] He has good hands.

[00:27:49] He's a good route runner, you know, and if he needs to, he can go up and get the ball like we talked about.

[00:27:55] He had the highest recorded vertical leap at the combine.

[00:27:57] And I know that's different when you get in a game and how they use you and all that stuff.

[00:28:02] But he's he's athletic.

[00:28:04] The reason he went undrafted, the two reasons he went undrafted is because A, where did he play?

[00:28:09] Holy Cross B, his 40 time wasn't very good.

[00:28:13] So he wasn't a burner.

[00:28:15] He wasn't super fast.

[00:28:16] Like we get Xavier Leggett ran a four, three, nine.

[00:28:20] I think Jalen Coker ran like a four or five, seven or something like that.

[00:28:25] So Leggett's obviously, you know, more explosive athlete.

[00:28:30] But yeah, man, I just think and maybe Mingo bounce back.

[00:28:34] I just right now don't have a ton of faith that that's going to happen.

[00:28:39] Sticking with the offense.

[00:28:42] What did you what did you think about Andy Dalton's performance?

[00:28:46] Kind of an up and down day?

[00:28:48] I thought it was fun.

[00:28:49] Like, again, I think we need to have.

[00:28:55] We just need to have realistic expectations.

[00:28:58] Yeah, right.

[00:28:59] Like what was what was his stat line?

[00:29:03] 26 for 38 to 21 to passing touchdowns and two interceptions.

[00:29:08] Like it is a ho-hum day in the NFL.

[00:29:10] It's just an average day.

[00:29:12] Yeah, it's unfortunate that the interception happened at the end of the game.

[00:29:18] Right.

[00:29:19] Like, you know, when we were eight points down, we were on the 35 yard line or whatever it was.

[00:29:24] We had opportunities like situationally.

[00:29:27] It was it was.

[00:29:30] Annoying.

[00:29:30] Yeah.

[00:29:31] And obviously Dalton knew it wasn't a good pass.

[00:29:33] But then the second the second interception, I think, was right at the very end of the game, like in junk and basically junk time type something.

[00:29:40] Right.

[00:29:40] Like it was they intercepted the ball and then like sat down on the two yard line or three yard line.

[00:29:45] Oh, yeah.

[00:29:46] That was right.

[00:29:48] Yeah, that was it was it really would have been a pick six if it wouldn't have been right.

[00:29:53] Any other time.

[00:29:54] But my point is like that wouldn't have that play wouldn't have normally he probably wouldn't have normally thrown that.

[00:29:58] That was one of the interceptions.

[00:30:00] The other interception was right at the end of the game as we were trying to go down and, you know, get a two point conversion and score and all that.

[00:30:07] So, like, up to that point, there were no interceptions.

[00:30:09] It was just a 220 yards and two touchdowns, which not a bad day at the office.

[00:30:16] So, like, I don't know.

[00:30:17] I don't identify with people upset about an Andy Dalton bad game.

[00:30:23] It could be just me.

[00:30:24] But I don't I don't know.

[00:30:27] I'm not seeing or hearing alarm bells in my head.

[00:30:31] What about you?

[00:30:31] No, not at all.

[00:30:35] Like you said, it was it was, you know, an up and down day.

[00:30:39] I thought at times he looked fantastic.

[00:30:42] I thought he operated the offense well in certain on certain drives that that drive at the end of the first half to where we ended up throwing the touchdown pass to Xavier Leggett.

[00:30:56] That was unexpected.

[00:30:57] I was not anticipating that happening at all.

[00:31:00] I was thinking maybe we could squeeze out like a, you know, 48 yard field goal from Eddie Pinero.

[00:31:07] But that wasn't the case.

[00:31:09] The now credit where it's due, but also criticism where it's due.

[00:31:16] The interception that he threw when we were only down by eight points and we were in the red zone.

[00:31:23] Terrible decision.

[00:31:24] Terrible.

[00:31:25] Terrible throw.

[00:31:25] Terrible throw.

[00:31:26] Terrible throw.

[00:31:27] And not only was it a terrible decision, but who we had on the field that he was throwing to should never set foot on an NFL field again.

[00:31:41] Who was it?

[00:31:41] What was it?

[00:31:43] Who was it?

[00:31:43] Ian Thomas.

[00:31:44] Oh, God, Jesus Christ.

[00:31:50] That's who he was throwing to.

[00:31:52] He's like herpes.

[00:31:53] Like, it just like flares up every once in a while.

[00:31:56] Like, you think he's gone and you think he can't hurt you anymore.

[00:31:59] And then all of a sudden he just flares up out of nowhere and like, oh, you just ruined a perfectly good game.

[00:32:05] Thanks.

[00:32:05] I don't, I don't understand it.

[00:32:07] I don't understand how that guy stole on the, I'm going to die on that hill.

[00:32:10] And I know I'm not the only one.

[00:32:12] I know there's plenty of other people that are going to die on this hill with me, but it's absolutely ridiculous that Ian Thomas is still on this football team.

[00:32:19] Nobody can convince me otherwise at this point.

[00:32:21] I still think, I think he has dirt.

[00:32:23] I think he has dirt on David Tepper.

[00:32:25] He's got to.

[00:32:26] He has to.

[00:32:28] Something.

[00:32:28] I don't understand.

[00:32:29] I know, like, I know that he's a good blocker, but like, dude is legit.

[00:32:34] He's a liability.

[00:32:36] He is a liability.

[00:32:37] And I'm not saying, you know, it wasn't Ian Thomas's fault that Andy Dalton decided to throw that pass because Andy Dalton, if you watch that replay, he had Chuba Hubbard.

[00:32:47] He could have dumped it off to Chuba Hubbard.

[00:32:49] Jonathan Mingo was also open.

[00:32:53] Sorry.

[00:32:54] I'm just laughing at it.

[00:32:56] I didn't have herpes comments.

[00:33:00] You didn't have that on your bingo card?

[00:33:01] You know, popping up in our chat on my bingo card.

[00:33:04] Yeah, you weren't ready for that one, huh?

[00:33:06] Tonight.

[00:33:06] That was a classic line.

[00:33:08] I'm definitely going to clip that and share it on all socials this week.

[00:33:13] Your Ian Thomas herpes comparison.

[00:33:16] That's classic.

[00:33:18] If we ever do, if we ever do it like a greatest hits episode, that's going at the top.

[00:33:23] I promise you that.

[00:33:24] All right.

[00:33:26] But no, it's the fact, though, that why is Ian Thomas even on the field in that scenario?

[00:33:33] In that scenario, we're driving down the field.

[00:33:36] We're in the red zone.

[00:33:38] Chuba Hubbard.

[00:33:39] Remember that drive?

[00:33:40] Chuba Hubbard was getting like eight or nine yards every single time he touched the ball.

[00:33:45] Yes.

[00:33:45] And so you kind of ask yourself from a play calling standpoint, you ask yourself, self, why didn't Dave Canales run the ball there from a play calling perspective?

[00:33:57] I get you want to mix the run in the pass.

[00:34:00] You want to keep the defense on their toes.

[00:34:02] But like, screw that.

[00:34:05] Like we were getting eight or nine yards of carry on that drive with Chuba Hubbard.

[00:34:09] They could not stop him.

[00:34:12] And I just don't, I don't know.

[00:34:14] I don't get it.

[00:34:15] And then, but in that situation, when you're in the red zone, you're only down by eight points.

[00:34:20] Got a potential chance to tie the game.

[00:34:23] Why is Ian Thomas even running a route in that scenario?

[00:34:27] Like maybe a couple of guys were gassed and they just threw him in there.

[00:34:31] I don't know.

[00:34:33] Those decisions are made far above our pay grade, to be very clear.

[00:34:38] And again, there has to be dirt.

[00:34:40] There has to be, somebody has to have something so that Ian Thomas is still on there.

[00:34:44] And I don't know how he was.

[00:34:46] I don't know how he was the one that was trusted to, you know, for his hands.

[00:34:50] It was not a pass that should have been thrown.

[00:34:53] Dalton knows that he would be the first one that said that.

[00:34:56] He knows he tried to force it into triple coverage.

[00:35:00] It was stupid.

[00:35:01] But the long and short of it is Ian Thomas's pleats should not be on green grass.

[00:35:08] No.

[00:35:08] Like that's it.

[00:35:10] No.

[00:35:11] His cleats should still be sitting on the floor in the locker room and he should be wearing tennis shoes on the sideline, supporting his players from afar.

[00:35:20] Stay away from the field.

[00:35:22] Just truth.

[00:35:24] Yeah.

[00:35:24] What's up, C3 Anthony?

[00:35:25] Yeah, we'll get to your question here in a little bit when we talk about the defense.

[00:35:32] Anything else on the offensive side of the ball for you?

[00:35:38] No, I would ask, though, that everybody who is watching this on X, jump on over to YouTube and give us a little like, a little subscribe, something like that.

[00:35:51] Ben, I don't know if you can put a link or something like that into the chat.

[00:35:54] I can't talk to you.

[00:35:57] My posts don't go to your people on X.

[00:35:59] But anyway, just help us out.

[00:36:01] We're trying to make some progress over there in terms of subscribers.

[00:36:06] And yeah, you can head on over to YouTube and search for Keep Pern.

[00:36:10] Give us a thumbs up.

[00:36:11] Give us a subscribe.

[00:36:12] That would be awesome.

[00:36:14] Let's see if I can make this happen here.

[00:36:18] I think I did it.

[00:36:21] There we go.

[00:36:22] There you go.

[00:36:22] I don't know if that'll work.

[00:36:23] But anyway.

[00:36:25] All right.

[00:36:26] So let me change our title here to defense because we're going to hop on over.

[00:36:35] Yeah.

[00:36:35] And if anybody listening wants to weigh in on some of the offensive or defensive things, certainly let us know in the chat.

[00:36:42] We'd love to hear about it.

[00:36:43] Yeah.

[00:36:44] Definitely.

[00:36:46] All right.

[00:36:46] So defense.

[00:36:49] We are, according to PFF, we have the 32nd ranked defense in the NFL right now.

[00:36:58] How many teams are there again in the NFL?

[00:37:02] Well, I thought there were only 30, but evidently 32.

[00:37:05] There's 32, I think.

[00:37:07] Yeah.

[00:37:07] Not 33.

[00:37:08] No.

[00:37:08] Not 34.

[00:37:09] 32.

[00:37:10] And we're ranked 32nd.

[00:37:12] 32nd.

[00:37:13] Yeah.

[00:37:13] Okay.

[00:37:14] That tracks.

[00:37:15] Yep.

[00:37:16] Dead last.

[00:37:17] We're 32nd in points allowed as well.

[00:37:21] We're just not good.

[00:37:22] And we know there's a lot of injuries, obviously, that have happened.

[00:37:28] Derrick Brown being out.

[00:37:29] I mean, not only is he the best player on defense, he's the best player on the team.

[00:37:33] Yes.

[00:37:33] And so we knew losing him was going to suck ass.

[00:37:37] And it has.

[00:37:38] Shaq Thompson going down.

[00:37:41] He's not in his prime, far from it anymore.

[00:37:45] But he's still a leader on the team.

[00:37:48] And not having him out there is a huge, you know, huge hole in our defense.

[00:37:57] Josie Jewell's been out as well the last few games.

[00:38:01] Jadavian Clowney, he's out.

[00:38:04] Who am I missing?

[00:38:06] Any other injuries?

[00:38:07] Yeah, I was going to give credit.

[00:38:08] I saw on Reddit, on the Panther subreddit, somebody had posted about like best and worst

[00:38:16] PFF grades.

[00:38:17] And some dude named DKirk526 says, the real issue is with the defense, we weren't supposed

[00:38:27] to be this bad, but we were missing seven starters.

[00:38:31] And Derrick Brown, Jadavian Clowney, Shaq Thompson, Josie Jewell, Dane Jackson, Jordan Fuller,

[00:38:37] and DJ Wanham from the initial expected starting defense from the season.

[00:38:41] So, you know, that's a lot of people that, you know, were anticipated being starters.

[00:38:47] And you, if you're, if you're playing with a bunch of backups, right, it's like every single game is a preseason game

[00:38:58] where you have the other team's number ones on offense against the number two with Woods and Horn.

[00:39:06] And that's, you're not going to be able to, you're not going to be able to survive that.

[00:39:10] Like the season was going to be tough enough if we were at full strength on defense,

[00:39:15] given the changes that we had to make.

[00:39:20] But we're playing with second string players and you can't do that in the NFL.

[00:39:26] Yeah. I mean, I, I kind of have said that as well.

[00:39:29] Like even if we were fully healthy, I still don't think we would be a very good defense.

[00:39:34] I don't think we wouldn't be as bad as this.

[00:39:37] No, of course not.

[00:39:38] We wouldn't have to outscore the team like on, from the offensive side of the ball,

[00:39:43] like out offense a team to win.

[00:39:46] And that's not where our strength was going to be this year.

[00:39:49] And so that's given where it's going to now have to be kind of by default.

[00:39:54] Yeah, that sucks.

[00:39:55] That really sucks.

[00:39:56] What do you think about Ho Gabba Gabba in the comments from Twitter says,

[00:40:02] fire Evero, please.

[00:40:03] No injury excuses.

[00:40:05] The defense wasn't good last year either.

[00:40:10] I, I, I pushed back on that.

[00:40:12] I think I pushed back on that because, um, you know, do I think that Evero has done a fantastic job this year?

[00:40:20] No, I don't.

[00:40:23] However, um, we just talked about it.

[00:40:26] Look at how many injuries we have.

[00:40:28] Look at what, look at what he was given to work with.

[00:40:33] I mean, we knew going into this season that they kind of, you know,

[00:40:41] stole some life from the defense in order to build up the offense.

[00:40:46] That's what, that's what, that's what we did going into this year.

[00:40:49] And so I like, I think a lot of people understood that going into this season,

[00:40:54] it wasn't going to be as good as last year.

[00:40:58] Um, so I, I'm not at the point.

[00:41:00] I'm certainly not at the point where I'm like fire Evero now that would make zero sense whatsoever.

[00:41:08] Um, after the season, I mean, if they decided that they want to just go in a completely different direction on defense

[00:41:15] and like go away from the three, four scheme and go to, go to a four, three, um, and just go a different route,

[00:41:22] then I don't know, maybe, maybe Canales decides he wants to go in a different direction, but I just like,

[00:41:31] like, I don't know.

[00:41:32] I kind of pushed back on that a little bit.

[00:41:34] I don't, I don't think that it's zero Evero deserves to be fired right now.

[00:41:38] What do you think?

[00:41:40] No, I mean, I would say ho gabba gabba.

[00:41:42] Ho, please.

[00:41:43] Like, no, like we're not going to get rid of, we're not getting rid of Evero.

[00:41:47] Like before the, you are on one tonight, dude.

[00:41:50] Well, yeah, whatever.

[00:41:53] Like in all, but in all seriousness, like our defense wasn't that bad last year.

[00:41:57] We were a top 10 defense in a lot of categories.

[00:41:59] Like we were not a terrible defense last year.

[00:42:02] We were expected to be a little bit worse this year.

[00:42:04] And then we had all of these injuries.

[00:42:06] Like we were wondering whether, uh, Evero was going to be back this year or whether he

[00:42:11] was going to get a head coaching job for the season last year.

[00:42:14] So yeah, multiple head coach interviews.

[00:42:16] Yeah.

[00:42:17] I think we have a bit of, you know, I think in this comment, there's a bit of recency

[00:42:20] bias where we're all very frustrated about the defense.

[00:42:24] We're not used to the defense being the one side of the ball that truly, truly sucks worse.

[00:42:29] Um, so it's just, you know, I don't know.

[00:42:34] QP Evero not surviving the season.

[00:42:36] I mean, maybe, but I also think that like, I just don't think there's any, what's the

[00:42:40] point?

[00:42:41] What's the point?

[00:42:42] We're not going to get better without, we're not going to get better without him is my point.

[00:42:45] And I like, we've talked about that as like being my litmus test for players and coaches.

[00:42:49] Like, okay, let's say we got rid of them.

[00:42:51] Fine.

[00:42:52] Then what?

[00:42:55] Then what?

[00:42:56] Like who's, we don't have anybody waiting in the wings to be able to like step in.

[00:43:01] Um, you know, I wanted to throw this one up here.

[00:43:03] This comment by Prince.

[00:43:04] I think the only part of the defense we lost that really hurt us is not being able to

[00:43:07] resign Lou Boo.

[00:43:09] Uh, Burns is not doing much sack wise for the giants.

[00:43:13] Lou Boo sucked.

[00:43:15] Lou Boo was my favorite player going into last season.

[00:43:17] I was, he was the player I've been, I've been a champion of his since we started the

[00:43:20] podcast.

[00:43:21] Uh, so I was glad to see him get paid and move on to bigger and better things.

[00:43:25] And we will see him again very soon.

[00:43:28] Um, and so yeah, that sucks, but yeah, we lost Lou Boo.

[00:43:31] We lost Burns.

[00:43:32] We don't have seven of the starters that we thought we were going to have.

[00:43:36] Um, that's just tough.

[00:43:38] It's just tough.

[00:43:40] I want to throw this, this comment up from C3.

[00:43:43] Anthony just came in late.

[00:43:45] Hope you guys are doing good.

[00:43:46] I see the title of the podcast episode is, uh, our changes coming.

[00:43:52] My thoughts are, I don't know what else they could change.

[00:43:55] The defense being so bad is making it so hard to win games.

[00:44:00] I mean, yeah, we're just, we're not going to win.

[00:44:03] We're just not going to win any games with the way that we've been playing with the defense.

[00:44:08] Somebody else in the comment in the chat, um, said we are on pace for the NFL record.

[00:44:16] For points allowed in a season.

[00:44:18] You're not going to win any games with the defense, with the defense that that's, that's playing that way.

[00:44:24] Um, but back to C3 Anthony's comment.

[00:44:28] I mean, I did title the episode, um, you know, something like our changes on the way, our change is coming.

[00:44:35] Um, just because normally when a season starts this poorly as far as record wise.

[00:44:44] And when you have a historically impulsive owner, um, I would not be shocked if something happened.

[00:44:54] Do I think something should happen as far as someone getting fired?

[00:44:58] No, I don't think that something should happen.

[00:45:02] I think that they should just stand pat, you know, keep going down the path that they're on trying to, you know, evaluate guys, um, you know, trying to get guys healthy, get guys back from injury.

[00:45:15] Uh, but you know, like Anthony said, the defense being so bad, we're not going to win.

[00:45:25] We're not going to win very many games, but I don't think that that should translate to some sort of major, you know, shakeup, major change happening on the staff.

[00:45:37] Do you, no, I mean, no, I don't think there needs to be a big shakeup.

[00:45:43] I think that again, like it's really easy to point fingers at this was the problem this week.

[00:45:50] This is the thing that needs to change and lose sight of the greater picture in that.

[00:45:55] Yeah.

[00:45:56] There's a lot of things that need to change.

[00:45:58] Like we all know that there's a lot of things that need to change, but what's important in the rebuild is making the changes that are going to be the most impactful.

[00:46:07] And getting rid of Evero is not going to have a positive impact.

[00:46:12] There's not a single person.

[00:46:13] There's not a person that we're going to bring in.

[00:46:15] That's going to change things like that.

[00:46:18] And we're not going to switch from a three, four to a four, three in the middle of the season.

[00:46:22] We're not like, we're not, we're just not going to do those things.

[00:46:25] So, um, you know, I don't know.

[00:46:30] I think that there's a lot of blame to go around in a lot of different places.

[00:46:35] Uh, but I think that Evero is trying to do what he can to maximize what we have.

[00:46:40] And I think that removing him from that position would not have a positive impact.

[00:46:45] We wouldn't all of a sudden start losing games by less.

[00:46:49] Right.

[00:46:50] Right.

[00:46:52] If defense can win championships, then a lack of defense can sure as hell lose the majority of your games.

[00:46:57] Yeah.

[00:47:00] Okay.

[00:47:01] What else?

[00:47:03] Anything else?

[00:47:04] We have a couple, we got a couple, well, we got a couple of Tepper things.

[00:47:06] We got a couple of Tepper things in the chat.

[00:47:09] Um, you know, uh, Evero will be gone in two weeks.

[00:47:14] It's Tepper's firing time.

[00:47:15] Uh, another one kind of Tepper, uh, Tepper is the problem.

[00:47:20] Uh, you know, Tepper's definitely going to want someone's head if we don't win another game this season.

[00:47:26] Uh, where do you, how do you feel about Tepper?

[00:47:29] I feel like Tepper's giving Morgan and Canalis a longer leash than he, uh, has previously.

[00:47:35] Um, at least Canalis seems to be empowered to make certain decisions like benching Bryce.

[00:47:43] What, what do you, how much do you feel like Tepper is meddling, um, these days?

[00:47:48] Or do you think that he's finally stepping away for a little bit?

[00:47:55] I think that, I think that on one hand we would be naive to think that he didn't still have some involvement

[00:48:08] because he's the owner of the team and we know he thinks very highly of himself.

[00:48:16] And, uh, we know that he's meddled in the past.

[00:48:22] Um, but I think that he, at the core of it, I think that he wants to win.

[00:48:27] He cares about winning.

[00:48:29] He just doesn't know how to go about it the right way.

[00:48:34] Um, all that said though, I personally think that he's backed off a little bit.

[00:48:40] I personally think that he has, um, I think that he has a lot of trust in Dan Morgan.

[00:48:49] Um, I, I saw, I saw reports back when we hired Dan Morgan that, uh, Tepper had a level of trust in him

[00:49:00] that he might not have necessarily had in Scott Fitterer.

[00:49:04] Now, I don't know where that came from.

[00:49:07] Just, I'm just commenting on something that I read.

[00:49:09] Um, you never know with this, with that kind of stuff.

[00:49:13] Um, but based on, from the outside looking in, just based on what I've seen, um, based on some of the decisions that have been made,

[00:49:24] I personally think that Dan Morgan and, and Dave Canales and Brent Tillis, that sort of brain trust.

[00:49:30] I think that they're running the show and making the decisions.

[00:49:34] And with bright, you know, with Bryce Young specifically with, with the benching of Bryce Young, we talked about it.

[00:49:40] We've talked about it on like three straight podcast episodes at this point.

[00:49:46] I choose to believe that Dave Canales ultimately made that decision and came to that conclusion.

[00:49:52] And got, he got the input of David Tepper and he got the input of Dan Morgan.

[00:49:57] But I think that it was Canales' decision.

[00:50:01] So, I don't know.

[00:50:02] I, I just think that, you know, I'm choosing to believe, we won't know, we won't know for sure.

[00:50:07] It's all speculation, but just the feeling that I have in my gut, I'm choosing to believe that he's letting those guys kind of run the show and he's taking a step back.

[00:50:18] And I definitely don't think that, um, Canales is on some sort of short leash.

[00:50:26] I saw this comment from Emma Wu.

[00:50:29] Hopefully I'm saying that right.

[00:50:30] I read on Twitter, they said, is Canales' job safe?

[00:50:33] One hundred percent, I think it's safe.

[00:50:37] And now, if, if in three weeks Canales gets fired, then I'll take the L on that.

[00:50:43] But I just, I just think, I don't think that there's any chance that Canales is getting fired.

[00:50:47] If Canales gets fired in three weeks, I'm going to become a Lions fan.

[00:50:55] There you go.

[00:50:56] That's it.

[00:50:56] You're like, if Canales is fired, um, before, uh, before, uh, the Germany game, then I'm going to, you know what?

[00:51:06] I'm going to be there.

[00:51:07] I might just become a Giants fan.

[00:51:08] It'd be, it'd be, it'd be, it'd be less painful.

[00:51:11] That's a hell of a transition.

[00:51:14] That's, that's pretty sad though, because it seems like it's pretty painful to be a Giants fan.

[00:51:18] But bro.

[00:51:19] But we're talking about the Panthers here.

[00:51:21] Yeah.

[00:51:21] That's true.

[00:51:23] Hey, we got Leggett.

[00:51:24] We got Leggett.

[00:51:27] We got Coker.

[00:51:30] We're betting everything on Coker and Leggett.

[00:51:33] I'm pushing all my chips in on the Coker train, man.

[00:51:37] I'm, I'm on board.

[00:51:39] Um, so anyway, it sounded like you agreed that, um, you agreed about, uh, Tepper.

[00:51:48] Yeah.

[00:51:49] I mean, I think he's backed off.

[00:51:50] I, I would love for him just to take a three-year vacation and just be gone.

[00:51:54] You know, like go to, go to some, some Island that you can't even get Starlink, uh, internet

[00:51:59] in, like he can't communicate.

[00:52:00] That would be great.

[00:52:02] Um, but I, I think he's backed off.

[00:52:03] I think, you know, he has seen that like, as QP says here, you can't fire another first

[00:52:09] year head coach again.

[00:52:10] No.

[00:52:11] Uh, you just, there's certain things that, you know, you're going to, he's going to have

[00:52:14] to take an L on this and he's just have to sit with that L for a while.

[00:52:17] If, if it, um, you know, Canales doesn't work out.

[00:52:20] I do think you mentioned, uh, some trust being there with Morgan.

[00:52:24] And the only thing I can figure in, in, in that, in terms of why is I can see a scenario

[00:52:31] in which Morgan, uh, Tepper, um, you know, they were, they were both in meetings with Fitterer

[00:52:40] and Morgan was saying, no, we shouldn't do this.

[00:52:43] You know what I mean?

[00:52:44] And like, and, and Fitterer ended up winning out and they ended up doing it.

[00:52:47] So, you know, Tepper could have had a front row seat in terms of Morgan's what Morgan

[00:52:53] thought was the right thing to do versus what ended up actually happening.

[00:52:56] I can see a scenario under, under which, you know, Tepper had more of the inside, um,

[00:53:04] you know, kind of the inside track in terms of what Morgan's real thought processes were

[00:53:08] and how some of those things may have borne out.

[00:53:10] I don't know.

[00:53:10] I'm, I'm completely making that up, but I do see a scenario under which that could have

[00:53:14] happened.

[00:53:16] Yeah.

[00:53:18] Anything's possible.

[00:53:19] All speculation, but I think we, seems like we're on the same page.

[00:53:24] Um, all right.

[00:53:26] I want to talk about this before we, before we move on to the, um, commanders and then we'll

[00:53:32] get out of here.

[00:53:32] But so I want to, I want to, I want you to go first on this because over the last,

[00:53:39] 24 hours, I've done a lot of, uh, I've pretty much, I've planted my flag in the bank of America

[00:53:48] stadium turf at this point that I think we should continue to start Andy Dalton.

[00:53:54] And this is coming from someone who is a huge Bryce Young fan and supporter.

[00:54:01] And I want to see him succeed.

[00:54:03] I want the guy to be successful.

[00:54:05] And I, ideally for my own fandom and for the sake of the organization, ideally he works

[00:54:12] out and pans out as our franchise quarterback.

[00:54:16] Cause he was, he was the number one pick.

[00:54:17] We gave up a lot to get him.

[00:54:19] And so it's in our best interest for him to work out as our franchise quarterback.

[00:54:25] I just don't think that it's time to go back to Bryce Young right now, but I wanted to get

[00:54:30] your thoughts.

[00:54:31] Cause I've been, I've been posting about it on Twitter and I've been arguing with people

[00:54:36] left and right about it.

[00:54:37] So I just wanted to see where your head was at.

[00:54:41] I do not understand this mindset.

[00:54:46] Like I'm, I'm going to get up on my soft set box for a second, but there is no way in

[00:54:53] hell.

[00:54:53] Bryce Young should be starting right now.

[00:54:56] There, there, there, there.

[00:54:58] I don't understand this.

[00:55:00] The mindset of somebody who says that Bryce Young should be starting right now.

[00:55:04] Why?

[00:55:05] I was one of the people that said, Hey, keep Bryce Young in all year.

[00:55:08] I absolutely was that.

[00:55:12] But.

[00:55:14] Canales saw that we actually can move the ball.

[00:55:17] We can do things with a competent quarterback in there.

[00:55:19] We have seen before with Jordan love with Aaron Rogers, uh, with my homes to, you know,

[00:55:27] be able to come in and to be able to sit back for a year or two, three years, whatever,

[00:55:32] and learn behind somebody who's been doing this for a long time.

[00:55:37] And Andy Dalton knows how to be a quarterback in the NFL.

[00:55:40] It's 14th season.

[00:55:42] Let Bryce just sit there and absorb it without the pressure of having to perform.

[00:55:48] Again, it's what we just talked about.

[00:55:51] Just taking Bryce Young and putting him on that field.

[00:55:55] Does it make anything about the Panthers better?

[00:55:58] Absolutely not.

[00:55:59] There is nothing that the Panthers will be better at with Bryce Young on the field than

[00:56:05] they are with, uh, with Dalton on the field.

[00:56:08] Let me play devil's advocate here.

[00:56:10] I mean, I'm not saying I disagree with you.

[00:56:11] Help me understand.

[00:56:12] Cause I don't, I don't get it.

[00:56:14] Let me, I'm not, I don't just, I'm not saying I disagree with you.

[00:56:16] I'm just want to play devil's advocate and, and kind of tell you some of the things that

[00:56:20] I've been seeing on Twitter.

[00:56:21] Okay.

[00:56:22] Yeah.

[00:56:22] So a lot of people I've seen say, um, starting Andy Dalton does nothing for the future of this

[00:56:33] organization.

[00:56:33] It does nothing for the future of this team because he's not a long-term solution.

[00:56:41] And I'll add onto that.

[00:56:42] I've also seen people say, I almost can't even say this without like laughing.

[00:56:50] Cause it's just, I just think it's absurd.

[00:56:52] I've seen a lot of people say, um, Dave Canales said that Andy Dalton was going to be the starter

[00:57:00] because he gives us the best chance to win, but we're not winning any games.

[00:57:04] We're not winning with Andy Dalton.

[00:57:06] So why should we not just put Bryce Young back in?

[00:57:08] So that, and then Andy Dalton starting does nothing, absolutely nothing for the future of

[00:57:17] this franchise.

[00:57:18] If I were to say that to you, what would be your response?

[00:57:22] I would say people are a lot braver behind the screen and it's, you can say whatever you

[00:57:30] want to for, to get a reaction out of people or, or whatever, but there is no reason whatsoever

[00:57:42] that we should put Bryce in it.

[00:57:45] Again, it does nothing.

[00:57:48] It doesn't do anything to make us better.

[00:57:50] And when we take him out, then we can't even get the ball to people like Coker or Leggett

[00:57:55] or Sanders to even give them the opportunity of, of, of realistic, real reps in the NFL.

[00:58:02] If you put Bryce out there, we saw it last week, not this, not against the Falcons, but the previous

[00:58:07] week when he went in and kind of junk time, like he had some good passes and some good

[00:58:12] things happened, but he still didn't look settled in the pocket to me.

[00:58:15] And if we're going to put somebody out there that we've invested a hundred million dollars

[00:58:20] in the offensive line, the offensive line is working and giving, you know, Dalton time

[00:58:25] to throw the ball.

[00:58:25] We got a running back that can actually run.

[00:58:28] We saw Leggett go up and get a pass.

[00:58:30] We saw Deontay go out and do great things so far this year and, and, and do what we're

[00:58:35] paying him to do and be kind of the number one wide receiver on a mediocre, salvageable,

[00:58:41] serviceable, um, offense.

[00:58:43] Bryce makes none of that better.

[00:58:46] In fact, Bryce means that we have even less time of possession on the ball, which means our

[00:58:51] defense is, is an even worse position than they are now without having seven of our starting

[00:58:56] lineup, you know, or, or, or projected kind of starting lineup in there where we have second

[00:59:01] people, you know, filling in.

[00:59:03] So no, I, I, I just, I just don't get any S I don't get any aspect of it.

[00:59:09] It makes no component of the team better.

[00:59:11] It puts no player in a better position than they are with Andy Dalton on the field.

[00:59:16] I, I just, I, I objectively do not understand the stance and you haven't convinced me yet.

[00:59:24] Otherwise, if somebody else in the, in the chat wants to try, please tell me why, give

[00:59:30] me, give me a scenario under which, you know, Bryce does a better job than Andy Dalton does

[00:59:36] at either giving us the chance of getting a win or, uh, developing the talent and evaluating

[00:59:41] that talent, uh, in real game situations.

[00:59:47] Bravo.

[00:59:48] That's all I got to say about that.

[00:59:50] Hey, bravo.

[00:59:52] Um, you done?

[00:59:54] You want me to go?

[00:59:55] Yeah, I'm done.

[00:59:56] I'm done.

[00:59:56] Go ahead, please.

[00:59:58] All right.

[00:59:59] Yeah.

[00:59:59] Like I said, I've been, um, I've been going back and forth with people on Twitter for the

[01:00:06] better part of the last 24 hours on this topic.

[01:00:09] And, um, uh, I, I just, I'll, I'll kind of go through it in sequential order.

[01:00:15] So on the topic of Dave Canales, which I've seen people say Dave Canales said that Andy

[01:00:23] Dalton gives us the best chance to win, but we're not winning with Andy Dalton.

[01:00:28] So why not just go back to Bryce?

[01:00:32] I just think this is a very close minded way to, to approach that the whole topic.

[01:00:40] Uh, Andy Dalton does give us the best chance to win 100%.

[01:00:48] But we're not going to win because our defense is the worst defense in the NFL.

[01:00:55] If not one of, you could say, I think they're probably the worst.

[01:00:59] They're one of the worst.

[01:01:00] You can't argue that.

[01:01:02] We're not going to win games right now is not about wins and losses.

[01:01:07] I want to win just as much as any Panthers fan on this planet.

[01:01:11] I want to win above all else, but we're not going to win games right now.

[01:01:16] So why is Andy Dalton still starting?

[01:01:20] Well, you, you said it, Eric, like we have other players on this team.

[01:01:27] We're trying to evaluate and not just the rookies.

[01:01:32] We have, we have Xavier Leggett, of course, who has shown some flashes.

[01:01:38] We have Jalen Coker who's come in and shown some flashes.

[01:01:42] Deontay Johnson.

[01:01:43] No, he's not a rookie.

[01:01:44] We're not trying to develop Deontay Johnson.

[01:01:49] What we're trying to do though is evaluate his potential future with the team because he's

[01:01:56] not under contract after this season.

[01:01:59] Yep.

[01:02:00] Did you see how Deontay Johnson looked weeks one and two when Bryce was the quarterback?

[01:02:04] He looked bad.

[01:02:05] Not good.

[01:02:06] He did not look like he was worth trading for.

[01:02:09] No.

[01:02:10] He did not look like he was going to be a contributor.

[01:02:13] A high level contributor.

[01:02:15] But since Andy Dalton has been playing, Deontay Johnson all of a sudden looks like a bona fide

[01:02:19] number one receiver.

[01:02:23] The offensive line, the way the offensive line is playing, the way that our, the way that

[01:02:28] Chuba Hubbard is running because, because everything, everything plays off of each other.

[01:02:33] The success in the pass game impacts the run game.

[01:02:36] The success in the run game impacts the pass game.

[01:02:38] And so, Canales is a brand new first time head coach trying to implement his scheme, trying

[01:02:49] to build a culture of competition, a culture of, listen, we've said it, you and I have

[01:02:59] said this before.

[01:02:59] Or if you and me and all of us, you know, Twitter armchair quarterbacks that don't know

[01:03:07] shit about football compared to, you know, an NFL head coach and compared to all those

[01:03:14] guys in that locker room and in that building.

[01:03:16] If we from home on the couch can clearly see that Bryce Young is struggling and that he's

[01:03:23] holding the offense back and that we're not able to evaluate anyone on this offense when

[01:03:29] Bryce Young is playing.

[01:03:31] What do you think if you put yourself in the shoes of, of one of the other 52 players in

[01:03:35] that locker room, what do you think that they think?

[01:03:38] Do you think that they agree with Canales that Andy Dalton gives them the best chance to

[01:03:44] win right now and the best chance at success?

[01:03:45] Or do you think that they, do you think they'd be cool with going back to Bryce Young?

[01:03:50] Do you think if Deontay Johnson, you know, if Dave Canales brought Deontay Johnson into

[01:03:57] his office next Monday morning after the commander's game and said, Hey, I know you've been having

[01:04:04] a ton of success and you've been doing a fantastic job with Andy Dalton.

[01:04:09] I think we're going to go back to Bryce.

[01:04:12] Do you think Deontay Johnson would be cool with that?

[01:04:16] I do not think he would be cool with that.

[01:04:19] Cause I don't.

[01:04:19] Yeah.

[01:04:20] I, so, and then when, when you talk about people who say starting Andy Dalton has, uh, does nothing

[01:04:29] for the future of this team, I completely disagree with that.

[01:04:34] No one is saying Andy Dalton is the long-term solution for the team.

[01:04:40] He's 37 years old.

[01:04:41] He, no one is saying that no one thinks that Andy Dalton is a long-term solution at quarterback,

[01:04:48] but him playing at quarterback, him playing quarterback right now gives us a chance, gives

[01:04:54] all those other guys a chance to succeed, a chance to contribute and a chance to develop.

[01:04:59] And it's about the locker room as well.

[01:05:03] And about the culture with Dave Canales, he's trying to put the best product on the field.

[01:05:07] I can guarantee you Dave Canales is more worried about his job and building his culture than

[01:05:14] he is about Bryce Young's feelings and being fair to Bryce Young.

[01:05:19] Again, he does not care about that.

[01:05:23] And Alice, I've, I've, I've, I've tried to explain this and Alice does not care about that.

[01:05:28] You cannot confuse his straightforwardness, um, and his positivity with him being nice.

[01:05:38] Right.

[01:05:39] That's that, that, that doesn't exist.

[01:05:41] That's not what he is.

[01:05:44] Um, do you just, just to kind of put the final nail in this coffin?

[01:05:51] I think, do you remember how many points we scored total with, uh, Bryce Young under center

[01:05:56] first two games?

[01:05:58] Hmm.

[01:05:59] 10, 13, 13.

[01:06:02] We will, we scored 10, we scored 10 points in the first game and then we lost 26 to three

[01:06:07] against the Rams.

[01:06:08] Yep.

[01:06:09] But we have since then, we have scored 36, 24, 10 and 20 per game.

[01:06:18] So like you don't have to be a stats nerd to understand that the offense works better with,

[01:06:28] with, uh, with Andy in there and nothing gets better with Bryce.

[01:06:34] Not nothing gets better like that with Bryce.

[01:06:37] I don't, I get, I, when I thought, when I saw this, I thought it was bullshit.

[01:06:43] Like I thought somebody was just like, make like, was trying to make a, like a comment

[01:06:48] that was just totally out there to get other people to talk about whether Bryce should be

[01:06:53] in there instead of Dalton.

[01:06:54] But like, hopefully nobody takes it seriously.

[01:06:57] Like I, I, I just can't imagine it was a, it was a real, real thing.

[01:07:02] I mean, Oh, it's real, man.

[01:07:03] It's real.

[01:07:03] But I, I, I, I don't get it.

[01:07:06] I'm at a loss.

[01:07:07] It's real.

[01:07:08] There's a, there's a lot of people and listen, everybody's obviously, obviously everyone's

[01:07:12] entitled to their opinion.

[01:07:14] And, um, you know, some opinions are right and some are wrong.

[01:07:21] Well, listen, opinions are like assholes.

[01:07:22] Some of them stink worse than others.

[01:07:24] And there you go.

[01:07:25] So like, and everybody has the right to have one.

[01:07:27] So you can have your opinion.

[01:07:28] That's fine.

[01:07:29] But it just doesn't mean it's good.

[01:07:31] I just don't, I just don't get it.

[01:07:33] I don't get it.

[01:07:34] Now, now we'll just say last thing, the last thing I'll say is, um, I would potentially

[01:07:43] be okay with if we've gotten to the point and we will get to this point.

[01:07:50] So not if, when, when we get to the point that we're technically mathematically eliminated

[01:07:55] from the playoffs, which will be relatively soon, I would imagine, um, after the bye

[01:08:03] week, I'm not saying the first game after the bye week.

[01:08:06] I'm not saying the second game after the bye week, sometime after the bye week, if we've

[01:08:11] gotten to the point where we're mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, we've, uh, the

[01:08:17] coaching staff, Dan Morgan and co feel like they've gotten a proper evaluation on it.

[01:08:22] We'll get Coker and Deontay Johnson.

[01:08:26] Maybe they've already, they they've seen what they need to see in, from all of those guys.

[01:08:31] They've, they've seen what they need to see from, from Canalis's offensive scheme and operation.

[01:08:36] Yeah.

[01:08:37] I would be okay with them bringing Bryce Young back in towards the end of the season to

[01:08:44] get a few more starts because I do think there is an argument to be made about being able

[01:08:52] to get another look at him because we're about to go into a draft where we're likely going

[01:08:59] to have a top five pick and we might have the number one pick.

[01:09:02] And I'm, I'm not sitting here arguing that we should take a quarterback.

[01:09:05] I'm just saying those conversations are going to be had by the team.

[01:09:12] Yeah.

[01:09:12] And they, and they should be right.

[01:09:14] Like we should look at all, we should look at all of the different permutations of who

[01:09:18] we put out on the field and, and, and all the different, you know, the various benefits

[01:09:23] that you get from that may not be included in the win loss column.

[01:09:26] And I 100% agree with it, but not right now.

[01:09:30] Not, I mean, right now, you know, we're still trying to, we're still trying to put this thing

[01:09:35] together and, you know, you still have to get buy-in from the players in the system and

[01:09:42] on the scheme and you, it's pretty impossible to do that if you can't move the ball more

[01:09:48] than 10 yards down the field on any given play.

[01:09:50] And so right now we can, and what we need is the rest of the team to buy in to what Morgan

[01:09:56] and Canales are putting together.

[01:10:01] And then once we're mathematically eliminated, but we know that conceptually things work,

[01:10:05] we just need the additional pieces to, to make it really hum.

[01:10:08] Yeah.

[01:10:09] I think you have people's buy-in on that and then you're fine.

[01:10:11] You can throw Bryce out there to the wolves for the last six weeks of the season and say,

[01:10:15] I don't know, show us what you got.

[01:10:17] What have you learned?

[01:10:18] I just think we're trying, like, I know we're not going to win.

[01:10:22] We're not going to win a lot of games or maybe any more games.

[01:10:26] We'll, we'll see.

[01:10:28] But I think from a messaging standpoint, from an optics standpoint, if you're Dave Canales

[01:10:33] trying to build a culture as a first year head coach, you want to send that message

[01:10:38] to the team that you're trying your best to win.

[01:10:41] Yeah.

[01:10:42] And like we said earlier, there's 52 other grown ass men in that locker room who are

[01:10:48] trying to, you know, putting food on the table for their families and they're trying to earn

[01:10:54] a living and, you know, potentially earn a second, another contract moving past this

[01:10:59] year, or they're trying to earn another opportunity with another team because a lot of these guys

[01:11:04] won't be on the team next year.

[01:11:06] You cannot see performance bonuses and stuff like there's all kinds of reasons for them

[01:11:10] to play well.

[01:11:11] Right.

[01:11:11] But you can't.

[01:11:12] Exactly.

[01:11:13] And if you're Canales and the coaching staff, after those first two weeks, the way Bryce

[01:11:18] Young looked, you cannot look those grown ass men in the eyes and say, we're going back

[01:11:25] to Bryce Young.

[01:11:26] We think he gives us the better chance to win right now.

[01:11:29] Correct.

[01:11:30] You can't do it because he doesn't and he won't.

[01:11:35] And so in closing, as a huge Bryce Young fan, I am 100% against him coming back in and starting

[01:11:47] right now.

[01:11:48] If it happens, if, you know, he's already said Andy Dalton starting next week against the

[01:11:54] Sanders, if Dave Canales pulls a 180 and goes back to Bryce Young after that, listen, I'm

[01:12:02] not going to agree with it, but I'm a big Bryce Young guy.

[01:12:06] So, you know, I'm going to be rocking my Bryce Young jersey and I'm going to be rooting him

[01:12:09] on and hoping he plays well.

[01:12:12] But I just, I don't think that that's going to happen.

[01:12:14] And I don't think that it should happen.

[01:12:17] Agreed.

[01:12:17] I don't think there's anything about Canales' history, which is, albeit very short, but I

[01:12:23] don't think there's anything about Canales' history that leads me to believe that he's

[01:12:26] going to make a rash decision like that without it being incredibly well-founded.

[01:12:30] And right now there's no solid ground under that decision.

[01:12:34] What would you say to that?

[01:12:35] And I agree with you, but what would you say if somebody came back in response to what

[01:12:41] you just said and said, well, he made a rash decision after two weeks?

[01:12:45] Bryce.

[01:12:45] He didn't make a rash decision after two weeks.

[01:12:47] He had the entire offseason to evaluate Bryce.

[01:12:51] That was not a rash decision.

[01:12:53] That was something that's been in the back of his brain about, damn, this kid is not quite

[01:12:57] ready.

[01:12:58] This kid's not quite ready.

[01:12:59] Or, damn, it seems it's just so strange when he's in practice, he hits all of the throws.

[01:13:05] He does all of the things.

[01:13:06] But when he's in the game, he just can't seem to do that.

[01:13:09] I don't understand what's going on.

[01:13:10] He had some probably conversations with the team psychiatrist and psychologist and said,

[01:13:16] hey, what do we think is going on mentally here?

[01:13:18] What do we think we need to do?

[01:13:19] What is going to be best for his long-term development?

[01:13:21] And how do I balance that with what I believe to be the best thing in the short term?

[01:13:28] It was not an uninformed decision.

[01:13:30] Exactly.

[01:13:31] He had a tremendous amount of data.

[01:13:33] He had a tremendous amount of experience, both firsthand with that third hand from what

[01:13:39] he's seen and observed in previous seasons or the previous season, all of that.

[01:13:46] This was not something that Canales did on a whim.

[01:13:49] He absolutely did not do that.

[01:13:50] This was not something that he woke up on a Monday morning and was like, you know what?

[01:13:54] Screw it.

[01:13:54] Two bad weeks.

[01:13:55] Out.

[01:13:56] That's not where this was.

[01:13:58] It was a very well thought out, rational decision, which he intentionally sought the advice and

[01:14:07] counsel of other people within the organization who know Bryce.

[01:14:11] And at the end of the day, he decided that the best thing for Bryce was to have some time

[01:14:16] off.

[01:14:17] The best thing for the Panthers was for Bryce to have some time off.

[01:14:21] And ultimately, at the end of the day, that's why you bring in a veteran like Andy Dalton,

[01:14:27] because it gives you the flexibility to do these things.

[01:14:30] That's why he was here.

[01:14:31] It's why we kept him on for another year.

[01:14:33] And now we're going to utilize him in the utility that like the capacity that he was

[01:14:40] here for.

[01:14:41] He was here to be a backup.

[01:14:42] And guess what?

[01:14:43] We needed the backup.

[01:14:44] So he's going to be in there and there's going to be a time where he has neither the

[01:14:48] backup nor the starting quarterback.

[01:14:50] And we don't know what the situation looks like at that point.

[01:14:52] But I can guarantee you that Canales is doing everything he possibly can to try to figure

[01:14:59] out whether Bryce is that long-term solution.

[01:15:02] And right now, that means that we need to be patient as opposed to pushing him out there

[01:15:08] before he's ready.

[01:15:12] That's my golf clap.

[01:15:15] Well done, sir.

[01:15:17] Thank you.

[01:15:18] Well done.

[01:15:19] Just how I practiced it in the mirror.

[01:15:22] Love it.

[01:15:23] Hey, let's do a little transition here.

[01:15:28] Forgot we had that.

[01:15:29] Oh, man.

[01:15:31] Yeah.

[01:15:31] I like that.

[01:15:32] I'm going to use that.

[01:15:33] I keep forgetting we had that.

[01:15:34] I'm going to use it from now on.

[01:15:35] If I can remember.

[01:15:36] But commanders, what's going to happen?

[01:15:39] We have a chance to win.

[01:15:42] Any given Sunday, a blind squirrel can find an acorn, man.

[01:15:45] Hell yeah.

[01:15:46] Like, we can win any week.

[01:15:49] We absolutely can.

[01:15:51] Will we this week?

[01:15:52] Probably not.

[01:15:53] But we could.

[01:15:55] I will say, it's...

[01:16:01] Jayden Daniels is going to...

[01:16:03] I think he's going to put a hurt on us.

[01:16:04] I think it's going to be a rough day on the defensive side of the ball.

[01:16:12] I'm not looking forward to it.

[01:16:14] But we could win.

[01:16:17] We could win.

[01:16:19] We could win.

[01:16:20] Your voice is going up pretty high.

[01:16:23] We could win.

[01:16:23] I'm trying to talk myself into it.

[01:16:26] Yeah.

[01:16:26] We could win.

[01:16:27] We could win.

[01:16:29] Now tell me why I'm wrong.

[01:16:31] No.

[01:16:31] I don't think I can.

[01:16:33] I don't think I can do that.

[01:16:35] Just some stats here.

[01:16:38] Looking at...

[01:16:41] Total team defense.

[01:16:43] So we talked about the Panthers.

[01:16:44] They do have an awful defense.

[01:16:48] Well, so do the commanders.

[01:16:51] This is passing.

[01:16:53] A passing defense.

[01:16:55] The commanders have actually given up 10 more passing yards than the Panthers.

[01:17:02] Panthers.

[01:17:03] So they're up there.

[01:17:04] You can see here.

[01:17:06] Yeah.

[01:17:06] So the commanders have given up the same number of passing touchdowns as the Panthers.

[01:17:13] 12.

[01:17:13] So pass defense.

[01:17:17] Real bad.

[01:17:18] Let's look at rushing defense.

[01:17:23] So yeah.

[01:17:25] Here we go.

[01:17:26] Rushing defense.

[01:17:28] Panthers are 10 yards...

[01:17:31] 11 yards away from being the worst in the lead.

[01:17:34] The Colts actually are technically the worst run defense in the NFL.

[01:17:38] The Panthers are right behind them.

[01:17:40] The commanders are not too far behind us.

[01:17:43] They're 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 9, 9.

[01:17:46] Have we given up 12 rushing touchdowns?

[01:17:49] Is that what I'm seeing?

[01:17:50] We have...

[01:17:51] We lead the league.

[01:17:52] We have given up 12...

[01:17:54] Oh, shit.

[01:17:54] 12 rushing touchdowns just in front of the Cowboys.

[01:18:00] The commanders have only given up five.

[01:18:02] But my point in showing this is that the commander's defense is bad.

[01:18:07] So our offense should be able to at least do what we did against the Falcons.

[01:18:17] We put up 20 points.

[01:18:18] Because where did the Falcons rank?

[01:18:20] I want to actually see that.

[01:18:22] I think...

[01:18:23] I felt...

[01:18:23] I thought the Falcons had at least a decent defense, but...

[01:18:27] Yeah, I think they do.

[01:18:28] Let me see here.

[01:18:30] So...

[01:18:31] On the better there.

[01:18:31] Falcons, where are we at?

[01:18:33] Did I skip one?

[01:18:35] Yeah, right there.

[01:18:35] Here they are.

[01:18:35] So they've given up 1,196 passing yards.

[01:18:40] They're kind of middle of the pack.

[01:18:42] Passing defense.

[01:18:44] Rushing defense for the Falcons.

[01:18:47] Let's see.

[01:18:49] Okay.

[01:18:51] They are actually a worse rushing defense overall than the commanders.

[01:18:57] But my point is, our offense should be able to do a couple things.

[01:19:01] We should be able to put up some points.

[01:19:03] And we're going to have to.

[01:19:04] Because, like you said earlier, I think...

[01:19:10] I just think Jaden Daniels is probably going to run all over us.

[01:19:16] I mean, is he...

[01:19:19] Is he on pace to have just as impressive, if not more impressive, of a rookie season than

[01:19:28] CJ Stroud had last year?

[01:19:31] I don't know.

[01:19:32] I don't know numerically.

[01:19:33] But, like, he's going to be the offensive rookie of the year.

[01:19:36] Oh, yeah.

[01:19:38] He might be the NFL MVP of the year.

[01:19:41] Like, he's balling out.

[01:19:42] I think...

[01:19:43] No, I'm being serious.

[01:19:44] Like, he's balling out.

[01:19:47] And, you know, I know this past weekend we just had the Red River shootout.

[01:19:51] I think, you know, maybe this is going to be like the Red Rifle shootout.

[01:19:56] Where it's just going to be him and Jaden Daniels.

[01:19:59] And whoever has the ball last.

[01:20:01] Like, I'm being serious.

[01:20:02] Like, neither of the defenses seem like they can do a whole, you know, hell of a lot.

[01:20:07] And so...

[01:20:08] Yeah.

[01:20:10] Maybe that's what ends up happening.

[01:20:11] Is it's just offensive.

[01:20:15] Offensive, offensive, offensive stuff.

[01:20:17] I don't know.

[01:20:17] It's going to be fun to watch.

[01:20:18] But...

[01:20:18] It's going to be fun to watch.

[01:20:19] I think the Commanders...

[01:20:23] They just lost 30-23 to the Ravens.

[01:20:26] But they played the Ravens tough.

[01:20:28] They did.

[01:20:29] I think...

[01:20:31] I didn't see this until just now.

[01:20:35] QP88 in the chat.

[01:20:36] The Commanders are going to hang a 50-burger on this defense.

[01:20:39] I hope not.

[01:20:40] That would be embarrassing.

[01:20:43] But...

[01:20:43] I'm not putting it above us.

[01:20:45] Yeah.

[01:20:45] I just...

[01:20:46] I think that it's going to be...

[01:20:47] I think their offense is going to be too much.

[01:20:50] Too much for our defense.

[01:20:52] Um...

[01:20:53] I just don't see us winning this game.

[01:20:55] But, like you said, any given Sunday.

[01:20:57] You never know.

[01:20:58] I do want to see...

[01:21:00] Um...

[01:21:01] Outside of talking about wins and losses.

[01:21:04] Um...

[01:21:04] I'm not expecting much from the defense.

[01:21:06] I mean...

[01:21:08] I will say this about the defense.

[01:21:11] Uh...

[01:21:11] We know we have all the injuries.

[01:21:14] That stuff's out of our control.

[01:21:16] But the stuff that is within our control on defense...

[01:21:19] I'd like to see...

[01:21:20] I'd like to see us do a bit better job with the fundamentals and the communication.

[01:21:25] Because our tackling has been so bad.

[01:21:29] It's been so terrible.

[01:21:31] And the communication...

[01:21:33] I mean, even some of our established veteran guys like Xavier Woods.

[01:21:37] Xavier Woods had...

[01:21:39] Uh...

[01:21:40] Just a complete and missed assignment.

[01:21:41] Blown coverage against the Falcons.

[01:21:44] And that happened several...

[01:21:46] It's happened several times in the last two, three games with our defense.

[01:21:50] And it's...

[01:21:51] Pick your poison.

[01:21:52] Like, it's Xavier Woods.

[01:21:53] Or it's Mike Jackson.

[01:21:56] Or...

[01:21:56] Trevin Wallace.

[01:21:57] Or...

[01:21:58] You know...

[01:21:59] Nick...

[01:21:59] Nick Scott.

[01:22:00] Or whoever.

[01:22:01] Back in the secondary.

[01:22:02] Like...

[01:22:02] Even J.C. Horn.

[01:22:03] Like, J.C. Horn has...

[01:22:05] Um...

[01:22:06] I think he's played fairly well for the most part.

[01:22:09] But he's also given up some touchdowns.

[01:22:11] And some...

[01:22:12] Yep.

[01:22:12] Some big plays.

[01:22:14] And he's had some costly penalties, too.

[01:22:16] Um...

[01:22:17] He's an aggressive player.

[01:22:18] I get that.

[01:22:19] But...

[01:22:19] I don't know.

[01:22:20] I just...

[01:22:21] I know that our defense is depleted.

[01:22:23] And a lot of that's out of our control.

[01:22:24] But...

[01:22:25] I just like them to focus and...

[01:22:28] You know...

[01:22:29] Do better.

[01:22:30] With the things that are...

[01:22:31] Are within their control.

[01:22:33] I think those are two important things.

[01:22:35] I think that I'm really glad that you brought that up.

[01:22:36] Because they were both things that were kind of on my mind as well.

[01:22:39] Yeah.

[01:22:40] Like...

[01:22:41] The miscommunications.

[01:22:43] We're still seeing them.

[01:22:45] And we're still seeing people just go down and try to hit with the shoulder.

[01:22:48] Instead of wrapping them up.

[01:22:49] Now, I will say I did notice this past week.

[01:22:52] There were two or three times where we had defenders just grabbing onto legs for dear life.

[01:22:59] And like giving them a bear hug and then just not letting go.

[01:23:03] We just need to see more of that.

[01:23:05] But it did...

[01:23:05] I did notice it a couple times.

[01:23:06] It did stick out.

[01:23:08] Hopefully, we continue to work on some of those fundamentals.

[01:23:10] But...

[01:23:11] Yeah.

[01:23:11] I think those are two really, really valuable points by you.

[01:23:15] That we got to wrap up.

[01:23:17] We got to tackle.

[01:23:18] And then we got to do a better job of communicating.

[01:23:21] Because we're still seeing guys running free through the middle of the defense.

[01:23:24] Trying to figure out how in the hell that happened.

[01:23:26] Yep.

[01:23:27] Agreed.

[01:23:28] Offensively, I want to see continued progression.

[01:23:32] I mean...

[01:23:33] I want to see...

[01:23:36] Obviously, Xavier Leggett.

[01:23:38] I want to see him get a few more touches.

[01:23:39] I think that they should be manufacturing a few more touches for him.

[01:23:43] And...

[01:23:44] I tweeted something that was kind of interesting.

[01:23:47] It just popped back in my head.

[01:23:50] See if I can find it.

[01:23:52] It was something about comparing...

[01:23:54] Yeah, here it is.

[01:23:56] Comparing Xavier Leggett to Jonathan Mingo.

[01:23:59] Let me just share my screen real quick.

[01:24:02] So...

[01:24:03] All right.

[01:24:05] Zoom in a little bit.

[01:24:07] So...

[01:24:07] I just thought this was kind of interesting.

[01:24:09] Through six games,

[01:24:11] Xavier Leggett has 16 catches, 174 yards, and two touchdowns.

[01:24:16] Comparatively to Jonathan Mingo,

[01:24:18] through 21 games,

[01:24:20] he has 55 catches, 539 yards, and zero touchdowns.

[01:24:25] Xavier Leggett right now is on a 21-game pace

[01:24:28] for 56 catches, 609 yards, and seven touchdowns.

[01:24:34] So...

[01:24:35] Fairly comparable numbers

[01:24:37] if you expand it out on a 21-game pace

[01:24:40] to what Jonathan Mingo has done,

[01:24:41] except for the touchdowns.

[01:24:43] Mingo still does not have a touchdown

[01:24:45] in the NFL.

[01:24:47] But...

[01:24:47] I think that...

[01:24:48] Xavier Leggett...

[01:24:49] We, like...

[01:24:51] Literally...

[01:24:51] are just scratching the surface.

[01:24:53] Like, maybe not even scratching

[01:24:54] the surface.

[01:24:56] Like, we...

[01:24:57] I think we might even be trying to use a Q-tip

[01:24:59] to scratch the surface.

[01:25:00] And we're not really scratching it yet.

[01:25:03] Because I just think he's...

[01:25:04] I'm telling you...

[01:25:05] He's loaded with talent,

[01:25:06] and I think he's explosive,

[01:25:07] and he's...

[01:25:08] I think he's going to be really good.

[01:25:09] And I think that he's only...

[01:25:11] We're only just seeing

[01:25:13] the beginning stages of his development,

[01:25:15] really.

[01:25:16] Yeah, I'm telling you.

[01:25:17] I don't know what it is,

[01:25:18] but first six to ten games

[01:25:19] of rookie wide receivers

[01:25:21] just kind of across the board,

[01:25:22] they look a little bit lost.

[01:25:24] They're not able to get open.

[01:25:25] They're just a little bit overmatched

[01:25:26] by the cornerbacks.

[01:25:28] It's very much a one-on-one,

[01:25:30] you know, relationship.

[01:25:32] So, you know,

[01:25:34] a cornerback's seen a lot of things,

[01:25:36] and these rookie wide receivers

[01:25:37] can have a difficult time coming in.

[01:25:39] It's different than it is

[01:25:40] if it's a running back, right?

[01:25:41] Like a running back,

[01:25:42] yeah, you have a middle linebacker

[01:25:43] that's, you know,

[01:25:44] or one of the linebackers

[01:25:46] that's assigned, you know, to him.

[01:25:47] But there's just a lot more going on.

[01:25:50] And so I think that it just takes

[01:25:51] a little bit longer

[01:25:52] for the wide receivers

[01:25:53] to kind of find their footing,

[01:25:54] so to speak.

[01:25:54] Yeah.

[01:25:55] And I think that we're starting

[01:25:56] to see that with Leggett,

[01:25:58] where, you know,

[01:25:59] we're getting him out into the corner

[01:26:01] and throwing him a jump ball

[01:26:02] and letting him do that.

[01:26:03] He's had a couple of good catches.

[01:26:05] I think he's going to continue

[01:26:06] to find his legs

[01:26:08] and find his feet.

[01:26:10] It's just going to take

[01:26:11] a little bit of time.

[01:26:12] But yeah, we're just scratching

[01:26:13] the surface.

[01:26:13] He basically took, like,

[01:26:14] the most awkward,

[01:26:16] like, teenage years

[01:26:17] of Leggett's NFL,

[01:26:19] you know, like,

[01:26:21] kind of season

[01:26:23] and extrapolating that

[01:26:24] over across Mingo,

[01:26:26] who has, you know,

[01:26:27] a season and a half

[01:26:28] under his belt.

[01:26:28] So,

[01:26:31] I would expect those.

[01:26:33] I think you're right.

[01:26:33] I would expect the divide

[01:26:35] between those two sets

[01:26:37] of statistics

[01:26:38] to continue to widen

[01:26:39] as we move

[01:26:40] throughout the season.

[01:26:42] It's pretty wild

[01:26:43] to think that,

[01:26:45] and maybe this doesn't happen.

[01:26:46] Again,

[01:26:47] maybe Mingo

[01:26:48] comes on at some point,

[01:26:50] but we could legitimately

[01:26:52] be having a conversation

[01:26:53] when we end this season

[01:26:55] of Xavier Leggett

[01:26:57] through his first season

[01:26:58] having,

[01:26:59] he already has two touchdowns.

[01:27:01] I think you could realistically

[01:27:03] say he might end up

[01:27:04] with five or six

[01:27:06] by the end of the season.

[01:27:07] We've got a long way to go,

[01:27:08] but we could be having

[01:27:09] a conversation

[01:27:10] of Jonathan Mingo

[01:27:12] through two full seasons

[01:27:15] in the NFL

[01:27:16] having zero touchdowns,

[01:27:18] which would be

[01:27:20] kind of a disaster,

[01:27:21] but that's a whole,

[01:27:22] that's a hypothetical,

[01:27:23] so it may not happen.

[01:27:24] Yeah,

[01:27:24] that'd be a kind of

[01:27:25] a wild thing.

[01:27:27] It would.

[01:27:28] And then Coker,

[01:27:29] I'd love to see him

[01:27:29] continue to get involved,

[01:27:30] continue to get snaps.

[01:27:32] And then I'll just end

[01:27:33] with Chuba.

[01:27:34] I just want to see him

[01:27:35] continue to feed him

[01:27:37] the ball.

[01:27:38] He had 18 carries

[01:27:39] against the Falcons,

[01:27:41] which is better

[01:27:41] than the previous week,

[01:27:43] but the way he's running

[01:27:44] the ball,

[01:27:45] I mean,

[01:27:46] he needs,

[01:27:47] I said it last week,

[01:27:48] he needs to be carrying

[01:27:49] the ball at least 20 times.

[01:27:51] Like,

[01:27:52] he needs to be getting

[01:27:53] at least 20 carries,

[01:27:54] if not more.

[01:27:55] Why not?

[01:27:56] Continue to feed him

[01:27:57] if they can't stop it.

[01:27:59] Continue to give him

[01:28:00] the ball.

[01:28:00] Keep,

[01:28:01] keep Jaden Daniels

[01:28:02] off the damn field

[01:28:03] because he's going

[01:28:05] to light us up.

[01:28:07] Yeah,

[01:28:07] it's going to be rough.

[01:28:08] It's going to be rough.

[01:28:09] Absolutely.

[01:28:10] Yeah.

[01:28:11] Anything else

[01:28:12] on the commanders?

[01:28:14] That's it, man.

[01:28:15] I think we got to,

[01:28:17] we could have

[01:28:18] a fun game ahead of us

[01:28:19] or if we can score points,

[01:28:20] if we can't score points,

[01:28:21] we have a

[01:28:23] slightly infuriating

[01:28:25] game ahead of us.

[01:28:26] Yeah.

[01:28:27] I just wanted to say

[01:28:28] real quick

[01:28:29] and then we'll hop off here

[01:28:30] just to thank you.

[01:28:31] I want to say thank you

[01:28:32] to everybody

[01:28:34] right now

[01:28:35] that's watching

[01:28:36] or everybody

[01:28:36] that's listening

[01:28:37] to this tomorrow

[01:28:38] or the next day

[01:28:39] or whenever it is.

[01:28:41] We just really

[01:28:42] appreciate everyone.

[01:28:44] This has been

[01:28:45] a really cool

[01:28:47] journey,

[01:28:47] journey so far

[01:28:48] since we started

[01:28:49] doing the podcast

[01:28:49] and we've talked

[01:28:51] about it a lot

[01:28:52] but I don't care.

[01:28:53] I'm going to continue

[01:28:53] to talk about it

[01:28:54] because it's

[01:28:56] crazy.

[01:28:57] It really is crazy

[01:28:58] that we've said it

[01:28:59] before how

[01:29:01] there are actually

[01:29:02] people that

[01:29:04] choose to spend

[01:29:05] some of their time

[01:29:05] listening to us,

[01:29:06] watching us,

[01:29:07] supporting

[01:29:08] and that just

[01:29:09] goes a long way

[01:29:11] and it's unexpected

[01:29:12] when we started this.

[01:29:14] We didn't think

[01:29:15] that it would

[01:29:16] be this way

[01:29:17] and so

[01:29:18] I just have

[01:29:20] a lot of gratitude.

[01:29:21] I know you do too

[01:29:22] about everybody.

[01:29:25] So we're enjoying it.

[01:29:27] We're having fun.

[01:29:27] We're going to keep it going

[01:29:28] despite the losing

[01:29:30] just because

[01:29:31] it's almost therapy

[01:29:33] at this point.

[01:29:35] Yep.

[01:29:36] You got it.

[01:29:37] All right.

[01:29:38] Well,

[01:29:38] I think that's it.

[01:29:39] That's going to be it

[01:29:40] for us tonight.

[01:29:41] We will be back

[01:29:43] maybe Monday

[01:29:44] again

[01:29:46] next week.

[01:29:46] We'll see.

[01:29:47] It's another late game.

[01:29:49] I think the game's

[01:29:49] at 425

[01:29:50] or 405

[01:29:51] or something

[01:29:52] next week

[01:29:52] so we'll talk

[01:29:53] but it'll be

[01:29:54] either Sunday

[01:29:55] or Monday night

[01:29:56] next week.

[01:29:58] Thank you guys again

[01:29:59] for tuning in,

[01:30:00] for watching,

[01:30:00] for listening.

[01:30:01] We appreciate you.

[01:30:02] If you haven't,

[01:30:03] please go over to

[01:30:04] YouTube and subscribe.

[01:30:06] We're trying to get

[01:30:07] to 800 subscribers

[01:30:08] right now

[01:30:09] and throw a like

[01:30:10] on there.

[01:30:10] That really helps us out

[01:30:11] so that more people

[01:30:12] can see it

[01:30:13] but until next time,

[01:30:15] hope you enjoy

[01:30:15] the rest of your week

[01:30:17] and hopefully

[01:30:18] we can get a win

[01:30:19] against the Commanders

[01:30:20] next Sunday.

[01:30:21] Have a great week.

[01:30:22] Keep pounding.