The Kyle Bailey Show: Cameron Wolfe

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We got a great guest on the line, Cameron Wolf,
NFL Network reporter. He's on his camp tour. My man
is in and out of TSA lines in the month
of August, visiting training camps all over the country. And
he made a stop in the Queen City this week
and took in joint practice with the Browns with us yesterday.
And Cameron Wolf is with us on the hotline. Cameron,
what's going on, brother?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
How you been? I'm good man. How you doing today?

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Good good? I liked what I saw yesterday from Carolina.
We were talking about this yesterday and I was listening
to a little bit of Cleveland Sports radio to see
what they thought. And you know, it does seem like everybody,
including most of the Cleveland media, believe that. You know,
Carolina looked like the better football team yesterday. It's just
a joint practice. It doesn't mean anything toward regular season success.

(00:44):
But it doesn't mean nothing like what did you think yesterday?
What did you see and what was your opinion?

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, let's keep it real. Everybody wants to be the
winner of the joint practice. I want to have the
tougher team. You want to have the team that looks better,
and I'd agree. I think that for that day, Carolina
definitely looked like better team. And I think maybe more
importantly for Carolina is where they look like the better team.
I know last year the defensive side of the ball
got a lot of a lot of issues, and the

(01:10):
run defense in particular. I was really impressed to see
how the run defense held up against Cleveland, a team
that wants to run the ball, wants to be physical.
They were definitely winning that battle up front. The defense,
you know, flash throughout the day, and Bryce had a
nice day too, so you know, I definitely think that's
the win. Now, Cleveland may not be a very good
good team this year, but if you're better than the

(01:31):
team in front of you, that's always a win.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Absolutely right now, Now go back to Bryce really quickly,
because this is a really big year for him over there.
You know, they're downplaying it a little bit. I think
we all understand why they don't want to go too
crazy with heaping expectations on anybody but their quarterback in particular.
But you and I both know it's a really big
year for Bryce. Like, what are you expecting? How important
was yesterday toward that and what kind of season. Do

(01:54):
you think he needs to have to solidify his place
as the franchise quarterback in Carolina.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah, it's monumental. I mean, like, honestly, year three is
when you start talking about are rescinding the guy or
re looking to replace him? And we know how it
went last year where it looks like for a while
he was getting replaced and then he revives it. You
go two ways. Either build upon the last three four
games last year and solidify yourself as a no doubt quarterback,
or you're bringing those doubts again back into question and

(02:21):
then you start to say, hey, do we have to
look somewhere else? So, I mean, this is the biggest
year of his career. This's going to define, in my opinion,
if this guy's going to be a ten twelve plus
year starter in Carolina or if this is just another
stop in the Carolina franchise quarterback search trains. So from
what I've seen so far, I'm definitely leaning towards the former.

(02:42):
He looks like a different player. I've been in camp
every off season since he's been drafted here, and he
by far looks the most comfortable, confident in command that
I've seen him and he certainly looks like a guy
that has been through some things, and because of that,
he's a little bit more ready for the adversity that
strikes through a season. So even the day, you know,

(03:05):
I was there the Tuesday and Wednesday raining all through practice,
easy for you to go and just kind of easy
lolly gag through a practice, he was getting guys together
in the huddle, you know, being vocal in a way
that I don't think many people think of us, think
of him as a vocal guy, and those little things
help your guys around you feel confident. You know, everything

(03:26):
strives from the quarterback. Do you believe your guy is
good enough to lead you to where you want to go?
And talking to some people there, I think that the
guys are finally starting to believe that Bryce can take
us to where we're trying to go.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
What did you think of the organization's decision to get
him another weapon in the form of Ted Roll McMillan
in the first round as opposed to taking a premier
defensive player like pretty much everybody thought they were going
to do.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah, I loved it because nothing is more important than
giving your quarterback a chance to to see and I
think that's how you build franchises. Right. Yes, you always
want to have a great defense, but when you have
a young quarterback, especially one that is on a rookie deal,
you have to maximize that window. And it seemed like
last off season the priority was to get better in
the trenches. You sign Robert Hunt, you signed Damian Lewis,

(04:11):
you give them both big contracts, and both of those
seem like they've worked out tremendously, and now you go
get him as number one, and now it's up to Bryce.
Now you can eliminate some of the excuses, some of
the reasons and say, hey, Bryce, we've done everything we
can and let's find out if you're the guy, and
if he can show that in later years, you can
start to build up that defense. But I think more

(04:32):
important than anything this season is is deciding if Bryce
is the guy and getting him in a position to
to see.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
We've got Cameron Wolf NFL Network with us on his
camp tour right now making a stop in Charlotte. Let
me back off the roster for a second, because you know,
you're right, You're around a lot. You have sources in
the building, and we talked to some of the same people,
I'm sure, and you know, those seats have changed in
the last couple of years. In the offseason, right, Dan
Morgan's there now, Brent Tillis is next to him. They

(04:59):
brought him over from cam City after he negotiated Patrick
Mahomes record setting deal. They've got some really impressive people
in the building. And David Tepper, you know, is now
seven years into ownership. They haven't made the playoffs, and
it does seem like he's kind of backed out of
the spotlight a bit and is allowing the football guys
to do the football work. What are your thoughts on
the front office, how they're operating now and what that

(05:20):
could mean toward future success.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yeah. I like what Dan Morgan is building, you know.
I think there's a lot of questions obviously in the
fan base of Dan take it over for Scott, given
how close they were, But you can tell Dan has
a clear, separate identity of how he wants to build
the team, and he certainly has done a lot of
work in trying to make this a physical team, kind
of like how he was as a player. You see it,
and how they built the offensive line last off season

(05:43):
and this year it seems like the additions on the
defensive side. You know, Bobby Brown flashed a couple of
days when I was out there in practice. He seems
like he's having a good camp. Turk Warden, same thing.
Guys that can supplement Dereck Brown. And then obviously Nick
Scarraton when he's healthy and full go maybe give you
another pass rusher off the edge. So you know, these
guys got to be players, But there's clear intentionality and

(06:05):
how we want to build this team. And to your point,
you're right, Dave Tepper. He was at the center of
everything over the last couple of years, and he's certainly
taken a less visible spectrum, you know. And I remember
the last time I saw him was Week eighteen, walking
out of that Panthers Falcons game. I saw him in

(06:25):
the tunnel and he told me, I think we've got
our quarterback, and that was he felt strongly about that,
And that was really the last time I've seen him,
and most people have seen him kind of around significantly,
and so I think that's kind of a sign of, Hey,
I'm going to let my football guys do the work,
and it saw them to do it right, and so
I think that's a good development for the team, and

(06:47):
we're going to see how it goes from there.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
Since I've been here at the head coach spot, I've
been through Ron Rivera, I've been through Matt Ruhle, briefly
Frank Reich and now Dave Canalis and so you know,
that's a stretch that might, you know, harden some people,
but we've seen a lot, you know what I mean.
And I'm looking at Dave. When he got here, he
didn't really have any other offers. He was largely unknown.
He took a big risk going to Tampa on that staff.

(07:11):
It could have only lasted a year, and he's parlayed
it now into his first head coaching job. You know,
I've been talking about the fact that he's also been
calling offensive plays and never once last year was that
a real concern or conversation. A lot of guys can't
do that. It's too big a struggle. But you know,
he made it and nobody really talked much about it.
The players seem to really believe in this guy. You've
been around a lot of coaches, You've talked to a

(07:32):
lot of coaches. What stands out to you about Dave
that maybe you know, there's DNA there or there are
characteristics to you that make you think, okay, he's the
real deal.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
Yeah. I think mainly my thing for these offensive young
coaches is can you coach the whole team. I think
a lot of times these guys are brought on because
of the work they do with the quarterback. And you know, Dave,
to be fair, that was a large reason why he
got hired, what he did with Baker down there, and
how he helped him elevate and now you have a

(08:01):
full fifty two. And I think what was really cool,
and we talked to Dan Dave about this on NFL
Network this past week, was that, you know, you get
a situation like Bryce where you really get a moment
of adversity to see how you handle a tough time,
a tough decision that your quarterback, as he said to us,

(08:21):
didn't agree with. And I'm sure there were some people
in the locker room that did, some people that didn't.
How do you keep people together, how do you not
create a divide, how do you not lose the locker room?
How do you not lose that young quarterback? And I
think that was a very difficult challenge he had in
the second third week of the season and the way
they are trying to move past that and continue to
develop the team, I think is a tribute of their

(08:44):
trust and leadership. If you didn't trust the guy, you
crap out, you know, and say, hey, wait, we ben
start our young quarterback and he ended up playing well,
like what are you doing here? And I think that
the way they responded, of the way Bryce spinted, I
think is a testament to maybe how he builds those
individual relationships even through tough times. And you know, I

(09:06):
think even this offseason, you see him more comfortable in
his own landscape and not a hyper sensitive on having
his hands on everything. Like you mentioned the play calling element.
He's had his offensive coined or at ze call plays
all off season. He's going to call plays on the
preseason game on Friday, and that's something that young coaches
are often hesitant to give up because of sometimes ego,

(09:29):
but sometimes it's like, man, this is why I got
the job, this is why they need me. And I
think you see Dave understanding that my value is more
than just my scheme and my play calling.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
All right, last thing, We'll get you out of here
tomorrow night. Preseason game number one, We don't expect to
see much of the starters, Dave told us yesterday, ideally
eight to twelve plays, But Shador Sanders will start on
the other side, and I think we're all, at least
to some degree, really interested, fascinated by what he's going
to look like, not just now but into the future.
You know, there's a lot of I think a lot

(09:58):
of conjecture coming out of Cleveland about they're setting him
up to fail, and I don't know that I agree
with that necessarily, but I'm intrigued like everybody else, what
do you expect to see it from him tomorrow night,
but also how Cleveland handles him over the next several weeks.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, I think he's gonna play most of the game,
it's not all of the game, which is gonna be
cool for people who watch. And again i'll give a
plug here. It's gonna be on the NFL network. I'd
imagine it's one of the more highly watched preseason games
of this year, if not in a while, because of
like you said, Shador Standers and the Lightning Ride. You
got a lot of people that love him, get a
lot of people that question them either way. People were
talking and when you got a guy that people talk

(10:32):
about and he can play most of the game, people
are gonna tune in. And like you said, on the
Carolina side, you're getting to play your starters. You're getting
to play Bryce Young for you know, maybe a dozen plays.
So it's gonna be a lot to watch. I think that.
My view from the situation is Standers has been the
fourth quarterback for most of the offseason. Now everybody has
their opinion on city be the fourth? Why is he

(10:55):
the fourth? Regardless the coaches have had him at the
fourth quarterbacks not playing because he's forty years old, and
he isn't needing preseason reps. Your other two quarterbacks are injured,
and so what an opportunity for a guy who's four
from a depth chart, a fifth round pick to really
show what he's got. And regardless of the circumstance, regardless
if you say, oh, he has this many reps with

(11:17):
the ones, this and that, all people ask for is
a chance, you know, especially the guys that are Day
three picks. And I got a feeling that Door is
gonna relish this opportunity. I get a feeling just watching
how he's worked and listening to people in that building.
He's not gonna say, oh, it's me, what was me?
And you know I haven't played with any ones and

(11:37):
Jerre Judy's not playing and what about this. I think
he's just going to say, hey, let's go do it.
And I think we're going to get a very good
version of Shador Standers. And I can't wait to see it.
I know everybody else can't wait to see it. And
I know Panthers fans it's just a preseason game. I
hope they can enjoy it, at least for a little bit,
seeing the kid do his thing.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
I'm right there with you, Cameron. Great seeing you yesterday, buddy,
and we'll see you tomorrow night. Thank you for the time.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
Absolutely, thank you guys,