The Kyle Bailey Show: Al Wallace

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And let's get to Al Wallace, former Panthers defensive end,

(00:02):
who is here to talk about the Carolina Panthers, which
does not sound like a pleasant conversation a mere forty
eight hours removed from a massive letdown, one of the
biggest letdowns. And many of you have said this on
the text line the last twenty four hours that you
think it's the biggest letdown that you've ever seen at
Bank of America Stadium, which might be a little bit
of recency bias, but I also think it belongs on

(00:23):
the on the list in terms of just big spots.
Everybody else in the division's losing. You've got a chance
to create distance between yourself and the Falcons and pulled
it within a half game of the Bucks. And you
just lay an egg at home against a one and
eight now two and eight Saints team. And Al Wallace
has been through it all in the NFL, and he's
back with us to talk about it here in the
five o'clock hour. Al, what's going on?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Brother?

Speaker 1 (00:44):
I appreciate the time.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Oh what's up, man, how's it going? I had the birthday?

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Appreciate it, man, appreciate it. It's you know, it's good
you know, we're talking sports for a living, so it's
never bad. But Panthers fans aren't exactly having a great
time this week. I didn't get to sit with you
in the press box on Sunday, so I missed you.
I don't know what the I'm sure I know kind
of what the vibe was like up there on Sunday.
It just kind of felt dead watching it on TV,
and it still felt going into the fourth quarter like

(01:09):
they had a chance, but this time it just kept
giving the ball back out. Like how disappointing was that
performance and how big a letdown was it?

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yeah, I think it was a big letdown, Kyle, and
I actually did not sit in the press box. My
son had his final games in the playoffs in his
flag football league, so I opted out. I put this
one on auto pozit. I assume that thing, like many
of the Panthers fans, with the way this team has
been playing over the last four or five weeks, that

(01:38):
you go in and you take care of the one
game on the schedule that you're supposed to win, and
you don't have a lapse, You don't appear to have
a you know, no leadership in that locker room, no
leadership at the top. When you go out and put
a performance up like that, it was inexcusable and very disappointing.
As I sat out there with some of the other
fans and the dads at Black Football while this thing

(02:00):
was going on, just could not believe it. Just absolutely stunned.
In the division alone, no matter what the records are,
that you wouldn't be ready for this opportunity to kind
of continue the momentum that this team is built over
the last month.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
So we do this thing that where we assign blame
and we say who's the most at fault, and you
know what went the most wrong on Sunday. I've always
been I've tried to be fair to the quarterback al
and I'll continue to be. But I thought he was
really bad on Sunday. I didn't think Ikey was very good.
I didn't think enough wide receivers got open. But I
do start with the quarterback in the way that he

(02:35):
played on Sunday. How about you.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah, you're gonna get to Bryce, but I think before
you get to Bryce, Dave Canalys as the head football
coaches this team, And in no way I think because
I played for John Fox because I played for Andy Reid,
that you make it a coaching point, a point of
emphasis in a game like this to be even harder
to push guys even further to you want them to

(02:59):
leave the field this week leading up to this game,
like what do we do wrong? What are we doing wrong?
That this week of practice and preparation is even more difficult.
You can't leave any doubt in the player's minds in
that locker room that you cannot allow a team that's
only won one football game on the season to come
in your building and just disrupt what you're trying to build.

(03:21):
And that's the big word. Dave Canalis and Dan Morgan,
they're trying to build a culture and they missed this
when they absolutely with Now if we keep going as
it rolls downhill. Bryce Young, the quarterback, I mean, it
was awful. Don't tell me you're surprised. Don't tell me
that he's gained enough cachet in this town over the

(03:41):
course of his two and a half three and a
half years with the Carolina Panthers, where we've forgotten that
he could play this poorly at the quarterback position. It's
just a reminder. It's a reminder, and it's going to
bring up the conversation and I'm talking about it now.
Is he the guy? And we're right back in the
same place we were, you know, a few games ago,

(04:01):
a few a season ago, where there's so many doubts
about Bryce and his capability and pushing the ball down
the field. It's an awful place to be in as
a former player and obviously a fan in this franchise.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
Do you think, honest question, do you think the guys
in the locker room are looking at him sideways after
Sunday or No.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
I think he's such a good guy and we all
fall victim that that we root for him. So I
think the guys in the locker room are rooting for
Bryce Young. But the only thing that matters. I say
this all the time is can you help us win?
And if you can't, you gotta move out of the way. Look,
I played with Rodney, Pete and Philly, and I knew
the kids, and I knew you know, the wife and

(04:38):
all of that. When it was time for us to win,
can you help us win? No, move out of the way.
Let take the long, take the job, Hey, Troopa, Huppert
just went through it. Love Tuba earned his stripes, he
earned his contract. Can you help us win? No, move
out of the way right now and let the next
guy up help us win. And I don't know that
they have that guy on the roster. That's not what
I'm saying, but certainly you pull for a guy, you

(04:59):
root for. That guy is not personal. This window and
the opportunity to win football games in the NFL is
so slim. You just need the next man up that's
gonna be able to help you win. And I think
the guys, whether they'll tell you or not, man, they
watched that film. They watched the way Bryce played, and
you can't feel good about it. You can't feel good
about this guy. Say a year from now, picking where

(05:21):
you need to be. And I think this team needs
to be a playoff contender year three for Dave Canalis
and I want.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
To talk about other things, but I think this is
the biggest thing that came out of Sunday. So I
want to stay here for a second because again, you know,
as bad as the first three quarters were, we've become
accustomed almost to Okay, Bryce is gonna figure this out
in the fourth quarter on the final drive. He's going
to make a couple of big throws. They're gonna come
back and figure this thing out, but they didn't. And
the big story since then is why is the passing

(05:46):
game stagnant? Why are they not driving the ball down
the field? According to what you just said a second ago,
And people are saying, well, is Bryce afraid to throw it?
Is Dave afraid to let him throw it? Our wide
receivers not getting open again? I know it's usually a
combination of these things in football, but like in that
dynamic of is Bryce not doing it? Does Dave not
trust him? What's your take on that?

Speaker 2 (06:06):
Yeah, my big picture is you have a forced marriage.
You have Dave Canalis and you have Bryce Shawn as
much as you can champion Bryce, and he's our guy, right,
it's a bit of a forced marriage, and in any
relationship there has to be trust. I don't believe that
there's trust there between Bryce and Dave and the play
calling and the execution of said plays. But then is

(06:28):
I dig deeper who were throwing the ball down the field?
To like, did we draft a guy that can make
plays down the field? We did not. We drafted a
guy that is a possession receiver and he is one
of the top rookies this year at doing that in
t Max look at Excel two years in the row,
we drafted a first round wide receiver. So as much

(06:49):
as it sounds like I'm making an excuse for Bryce
in that right, who are we throwing the ball down
the field to, Not a tight end, not any of
the tight ends. And so when I look at Bright
and whether his trust is there in that wide receiver group,
and then we look at Dave, should I dial up
these plays noring we don't have that guy, knowing my
quarterback doesn't feel confident in it, and then all the

(07:10):
offensive line issues you kind of pointed to earlier, it's
a recipe for disaster. And you will go out in
the game where a team decides, I'm gonna stop the run,
and I'm gonna dare your quarterback who doesn't throw for
three hundred yards, who doesn't put up three touchdown games,
to beat us with his arms with this wide receiver group,
this pass catching group. When I throw the tight ends

(07:31):
in and hey, you got a good game plan, I'll
live with it. If Bryce and this wide receiver group
can beat us, you'll win. And I think when you
look at Kellen Moore, that staff, and that team they
executed Wallless, leap Al.

Speaker 1 (07:43):
Wallace, former Panthers defensive end, Queen Citynewspanthers dot Com pre
and postgame every single week, hanging out with us here
on a Tuesday. How do you think, Well, I'll go
there in a second. I got a lot of people
today and yesterday saying it's time to move on. You know,
I think people turned on him on Sunday. A lot
of folks lost the faith whatever, saying we got to
do this, we got to draft this guy, we got

(08:04):
to sign this guy. You're not doing anything for the
next seven games, first and foremost unless he gets hurt.
But then I can't imagine that they're going to go
looking for another quarterback in the drafts. I mean, I
think Dan's doing a pretty good job building this roster
elsewhere right now, so I would think they're probably going
to lean more toward you know, you know, continuing to

(08:24):
build the roster and maybe bringing in veteran competition for
Bryce next year. Is that where you think they go
or could they go elsewhere?

Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yeah? I think they could go elsewhere. There's no doubt
in my mind that, you know, general manager and hate
coach that are tied together. That clock is ticking and
as much as you hate to have that pressure, of course,
Dan was my teammate. I think Dave Canalis has a
good plan and whether that's he's been able to put
that together the way he wants to or not. Just

(08:51):
look at this league. These teams just don't wait for quarterbacks,
especially young quarterbacks that were still trying to figure it out.
And love those last seven eight games we saw last
year from Bryce Young. The first couple of games this
season did not look great, and then this team start winning.
Now ask yourself, did they win because of Bryce? Yeah?

(09:12):
We saw him close out games and he does that
and I think he's calm, he executes, he gets the
ball where it needs to be or is it a
result of the running game in a stout defense over
the last month. It is not out of the realm,
and I hate to say that. I think this is
an unbelievable kid, made of character and exactly who you want.

(09:32):
But can he help us win? If the skill set there?
Can he lead this team? Can he be the reason?
And it just doesn't feel that way. So I wouldn't
be surprised if they go back in the draft and say, hey,
maybe we don't have to answer right now, and we're
not going to just toss Bryce away, but we gotta
start thinking about it. We gotta start thinking about the
next move. And it can't be a thirty eight thirty
nine year old Andy Donk interesting.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
So I also I asked this question earlier on the show.
If you're David Tepper, you know big picture, because I mean,
that's your job. You're the owner. You've kind of stayed
out of the spotlight so far. This's not kind of
he has and you know Sunday was ugly, and so
was Buffalo, and so was New England. But you are
five and five, Like we just looked up on the
studio TVs again a moment ago, and ESPN has them

(10:16):
right there in the hunt next to the San Francisco
forty nine ers. So, if you're David Tepper, how do
you feel about your operation right now?

Speaker 2 (10:24):
I think you feel better because of the history of
this team under David Tepper. You look at it, you know,
ten games during the season, you're at five hundred. You
haven't been in that spot in a long time. And look,
it's hard to move away from the negatives when it's
such an awful filling watching and getting the result of
this football game. But at the end of the day

(10:45):
you feel better about it. But long term play, like,
are we going in the right direction? I think you
taking some moral victories here that this team after seven
or eight years of ownership, this owner can't afford to have.
You got to win. You got to build a consider
the winner. And you look all around the NFL. Teams
are turning it around. Teams are making great decisions and

(11:05):
they're just one or two players. Look at the Coats,
I mean, look at Shane Stichen. They're just one or
two players away. And I think the Panthers are in
a similar spot. There are pieces on that defense, they're hell,
there are pieces on the offense. Now what's the difference?
They got there? Running back healthy and I think you
have a couple of options in the backfield, and then
they got a quarterback that operates in the system. Not

(11:25):
the best quarterback. We can't. You know, go out and
give Danny Dimes all the credit. But it works, and
you gotta find out what works. You got to figure
it out fast, and you know this thing can turn
around fast. When you look at this schedule, you think
revenge is and on the mind of the Atlanta fouls
look down the road at some of these teams. They're
gonna be pissed off and now they see a wounded

(11:46):
you know, Panthers team that is has some self doubt.
And I'm just telling you, I've been in that locker room.
You can smell the blood in the water. They're gonna
get everything Atlanta has. I don't know what that is
from week to weeks, but this one is not as
much of a walk in the park as I thought
it would be after watching them just destroy this team
earlier this season.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
Well, and I don't I guess I don't need to
ask you that because that was my next question. What
your thoughts on that were? But I said the same
thing earlier in the show, like this is this is
an ultimate test of focus in preparation for the Panthers
this week because Atlanta is going to be chomping at
the bit to get them inside that stadium on Sunday.
So you know, how well prepared will the Panthers be,
how focused will they be? Which I guess leads me

(12:24):
to the final question here because Ikyakwanu and JT. Sanders
and Nick Gorton told us in their own words that
they didn't feel like last week's practice was great, that
the guys were prepared enough, they had good enough practices.
I'll just throw out there that Keegan Michael Keey made
a surprise appearance during a meeting one day, which isn't
a sin, It's not a crime if they win the game.

(12:44):
I don't guess we're talking about it, but I'll throw
it out there. What did you think of three separate
players effectively saying we didn't have a good enough week
of practice, we didn't prepare well enough. And I'll tack on,
do you think anybody, any veterans in that locker room
have an issue with a rookie like Nick Gorton saying
that to the press.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
Yeah, if you couldn't tell by my tone so far
this conversation, I'm a little bit pissed off that that
even happened. I've been in that locker room. You understand
what it takes and the audacity of this team, and
I know coming into matchups like this, we talked about it,
I've talked about what other people trap game. Right, You're
not good enough to go into a situation or trap game.
So for anybody to take their foot off the gas,

(13:23):
for anyone to think that you can halfway go out
and perform in practice and that it wouldn't show up
on the game feeld on Sunday, it's embarrassing and it
pisses me off because this team is building something. I
can see how this team could be good. It could
make a playoff run this season. But to do what
they did on Sunday was so frustrating. And I've probably

(13:47):
watched it three times because I'm just trying, like everybody
else to understand how you could look, you know, one
way for the past month and then do what we
saw on Sunday and then you started seeing the things
on social media. And for a twenty one year old
to say that again, I'll say it. I said it
at the beginning. Where's the leadership? Where are the guys

(14:07):
that would even if he said it right now, it
should be some smoke coming from that building because somebody
should have snatched him up. And you're talking out of place,
you're talking out a term. Maybe he doesn't know any better,
but he would damn figure it out real quick. But
it just tells you what's going on, and it's a
young team. For me, that means it's an immature team
and the lack of the leadership, the lack thereof is

(14:28):
just not there. That should never happen. Guy should never
go into a week A gets a division opponent thinking
it was just gonna be just written because you won.
What foreigner row? That just burns me up, man.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
That's why I asked you that question, because I felt
like veterans would not like that, and I would imagine
at least somebody said something to him already. All Right,
al I appreciate you, brother. You always bring it and
I can't wait to see in a press box soon, buddy,
Thank you, all right, appreciate it, man, Thank you.