September 9, 2025 • 46 mins
In the show's opening hour, Kyle and Smoke look back on Sunday's loss without as much vitriol and if the problems that showed up in week 1 can be fixed before the Cardinals game on Sunday.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You were listening to the Kyle Bailey Show powered by
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Boss like KB Go to Victory Chevy Charlotte dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well I s left on it.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
You slept on it twenty four hours removed from the
obligatory Big Reaction Monday, following a week one disaster for
Carolina down in Jacksonville.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
How are you feeling today?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
We take overflow calls throughout the show, Folks who wanted
to get in yesterday on a Panther Monday but couldn't. Right,
So we got great guests lined up a lot of
stuff to talk about Monday night. Football last night was interesting, revealing.
Let's say we'll get to that. A lot of college
football spill over today as well. Ryan McGee, Senior writer,
ESPN coming up at four to twenty five. We'll talk
(01:00):
about that, and we'll talk about Denny Hamlin's win out
in Saint Louis over the weekend. We'll get to all
that with him. Nick Carboni coming up in forty two minutes.
We surveyed the Charlotte Sports landscape and former Carolina Panther
defensive end Al Wallace back for the first time in
a while at five twenty five. We'll talk Panthers with him.
He's also part of the Charlotte forty nine Ers broadcast crew.
We'll get his thoughts on the first year of Tim
(01:22):
Albin through two games. But again seven oh four five,
seven ninety six to ten. Hit us up on the
FanDuel text line same number if you want to give
us a call and chat the old fashioned way on
x formerly Twitter at Kyle Bailey Club. It's at Kyle
Bailey Club live from the Chandler VAULTA Studios the Carolinas
Personal Injury Lawyers.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
One call.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
That's all go to Cvinjurylaw dot com. And again, slept
on it Tuesday every all day yesterday. People were incensed.
I get it. I feel like most of you were
completely justified in many of the things that you said.
Not all, of course, because it's overreaction Monday for a reason.
Sometimes we do, in fact to overreact to certain things.
But if you want to get in today taking your
(02:03):
phone calls, jump in on the phone lines and again,
a lot.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
To talk about.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
But last night I was watching Monday Night football really
in anticipation, kind of anxious about it to see what
Caleb Williams and the Bears would look like. They end
up losing to Minnesota and JJ McCarthy, who was not
very good in that game all the way up until
he was, And I became more of a JJ McCarthy
believer last night than I ever was. And again, I'm
(02:29):
more than willing to admit when I'm wrong, and I'm
not sure that I can say I'm wrong about JJ
McCarthy because I simply questioned moving off a quarterback that
led you to what fourteen regular season wins last year,
But they had faith in their guy. And you know, again,
first two and a half three quarters from McCarthy were
not very good last night, but his leadership took over late.
And one of the things you've heard about that kid
(02:49):
his entire career is that he just wins. He just wins,
and that was something that scouts were saying about him,
you know, when he was coming out of the draft,
coming out of Michigan. It's been pointed out that his
record since his sophomore year in high school as a
starter is sixty three and three, and last night as
a rookie, well not a rookie, you know, making his
first start in the NFL on the road in Soldier
(03:09):
Field on a night that the eighty five Bears were
honored and Chicago was starting the new era with Ben Johnson,
the offensive genius and defector from the Detroit Lions, former
UNC walk on quarterback from the early aughts, going to
change Chicago's fortune, and then last night he becomes the
latest Chicago Bears head coach to blow an historic lead
(03:31):
in his debut at Soldier Field, the largest blown lead
for a debut head coach in the NFL since Matt
Naggie did it for the Chicago Bears a couple of
years ago. And I'm not talking about just Bears history.
We're talking about all of the NFL, so Bears new
head coaches have now done that twice. There was a
pick six last night thrown by McCarthy that stretched out
(03:54):
that lead to seventeen to three for Chicago and with
the Bears and Caleb Williams in particular, you know that
was the big story, right, you know, he he got
Ben Johnson, They've upgraded kind of the same stuff that
Bryce Young went through in his first year. Right coach
gets fired a lot of dysfunction. Thomas Brown takes over.
(04:15):
There's the Tyler Dunn piece out at Go Long TD
this week about the dysfunction there and the I think
specifically the time that Kayleb Williams big time Thomas Brown
in the huddle last year and Thomas Brown was screaming
at him and just again painting a picture of dysfunction
and another young quarterback getting off to a questionable start,
and now they've been scrambling to try to get a
(04:36):
better staff around him. They have certainly upgraded at wide
receiver in Chicago to a greater, let's say, effect, than
what Carolina has done so far. And last night Kayleb
Williams again demonstrating the kind of flash, the pardon me,
the kind of you know, glimpses. Let's say, that's a
used word that's been used a lot today with Caleb
(04:56):
Williams and really the last couple of years, the glimpses
of greatness, the flash of brilliance, and we saw a
couple of those again last night. But then you get
the head scratching plays too, And unlike Bryce Young on Sunday,
he didn't turn the football over, but made some very
questionable decisions, some very risky plays that could have and
in some cases probably should have ended in disaster, but
(05:16):
unable to make the plays down the stretch to you know,
get his team over the hump to a win. And
I'm not here to declare anything about who won the
trade or you know, really trying to take solace in
the way that Caleb Williams played last night, because all
I care about is that Carolina figures it out. But
it was another highlight smoke of just how you know,
ugly week one football can be offensively across the league,
(05:37):
how hard points are to come by for a lot
of teams in the NFL. And you know, say for
that late drive last night for Chicago, where they were,
you know, chasing points down by two scores, they end
up scoring a quick touchdown to make it twenty seven
twenty four. I was not particularly impressed with Chicago's offense
last night, and apparently neither are Bears fans, because they've
been lighting up the phone lines today pointing out the
(05:59):
fact that the offensive Jeanie just could only muster seventeen
points offensively last night. So a lot of dissatisfied fan
bases once again around the NFL coming out a Week
one as is the case, annually.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Yeah, that is definitely the case, and I think it's
a reminder yet again, look at a lot of the
passing stats throughout the league. There are a lot of
guys that were in the one hundred yard ball range
when it came to throwing the football this past weekend.
And I couldn't watch every single game, but offenses were
very sluggish, and that's kind of what we've become used to.
The only I was gonna say, the only quarterbacks that
(06:30):
really had gaudy passing numbers were the two quarterbacks on
Sunday Night in Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen. So I
think it was yet again not trying to make this
an all referendum on Caleb Williams, because who knows, by
the end of the year, he could look like what
people were hoping he would look like. But it's still
a case nonetheless, it's like, Okay, he's still got to
figure some of this stuff out. And the problem is
(06:51):
that when Caleb Williams was coming out, he was viewed
as one of the top prospects. He was kind of
getting hype, similar to Trevor Lawrence in twenty twenty one,
and so far we just haven't really seen it, and
now you have a lot of people questioning his attitude
and that has been questioned before, but that Tyler dunpiece
didn't really help any matters whatsoever. Heading into year two,
(07:12):
Ben Johnson I fought for his first game. It could
have looked a lot worse, could have looked better. But
I think, you know, we were looking at that game
last night and thinking, Wow, the guy who's a veteran
head coach out coached the first time head coach. That
would have been nice to see on Sunday in Jacksonville
with Kevin O'Connell out coaching Ben Johnson. And I just
(07:33):
think the situation, even though I'm still not one hundred
percent sold on JJ McCarthy, I think the situation is
almost fool proof, almost And that was without Christian darrisol
last night, his starting left tackle.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Oh yeah, so one of.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
To Frode, which is also part of the reason their
offense struggled for a good portion of the night too.
So again, nothing's perfect in week one. But you know,
speaking of missing the left tackle, I you know, I
was thinking about this yesterday and I know we touched
on it, but there was so much to talk about
coming out a week one, and I went back and
again watched the game before yesterday's show, most of it. Anyway,
(08:05):
I went back and finished the second half last night
and again this morning, just kind of skipping through watching
play by play, and yosh Niman was basically as bad
as I feared he could be going into that game
on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
He really was.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
I mean, he allowed six quarterback pressures by himself in
that game Sunday, six quarterback pressures by himself, and the
throw that a lot of people are I thought right
and to a degree still are you know, rightly criticizing
Bryce Young on the Adam renfro ball in the first
half that he underthrew What I say.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
You said, Adam Renfrow weird? Wow? Hunter?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Yeah, we'll get back to Adam the Hunter renfro ball
that was a bit underthrown. Did you see that he
had pressure in his lap? Like I mean yosh Niman allowed,
there was pressure in Bryce's lap trying to make that
throw too. I'm kind of surprised people didn't mention it
that much on the throw because it was all a mess.
Everybody's trying to drink from a fire hose to decipher
what was the biggest mess, what were the biggest problems.
You go back and rewatch it a second time and
you see stuff like that that Nyman's allowing pressure in
(09:02):
Bryce's lap when he's trying to make that throw. You're
talking about the will rout r Yeah, the will routes
to Renfro that you know was a bit underthrown. That
people say, if I let him it would have been six,
And it might have been, but at the very least
it should have been a completion or could have been
a completion. But there was in fact pressure in his lap.
And I'm watching rewatching the game on Sunday and thinking
to myself, this yosh Niman performance might have just gotten
(09:22):
Nikki Ikuanua Rais on his next contract two million, eight
like an extra million and a half a year based
on how bad they were on Sunday. And you made
this point early in the show yesterday, and you got
a few people who were a little bit snarky with you,
but you were right, like for all the and I
told you, I did an interview with Jacksonville last week
and they were just casually talking about Ikey as a
(09:43):
player that's much maligned in Carolina and not sure if
he's gonna make it. And I'm like, guys, he only
really had like two or three rough games last year.
He had a bad year too, but year three was
much much better. And that's why they're talking extension with
him right now. And you know, on Sunday they clearly
missed him between yash Naiman playing as badly as we
feared he could with a protection grade of twenty seven
(10:05):
on the day, pass pro grade of twenty seven and
six individual pressures allowed.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
You cannot play much worse than that. You just can't.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
And then in the run game, I'd like to believe
that in that fourth and one situation where they went
empty and Bryce ended up throwing it out of the
back of the end zone, which is still on him
that part of it, maybe you have more confidence to
run the football a third time. If you're running the
football behind Ikyakwanu out there on the left side, you
never know, right because.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
He's elite, elite, yeah at that category. So yeah, I
definitely think that's the case. And here's the thing, when
you're running behind the right side, it felt like that
offensive line did a really good job. I mean, the
interior outside of Austin Corbett was business as usual. Robert Hunt,
Damian Lewis did your job, thank you very much. Think
you did great, Unfortunately didn't get rewarded. Taylor Mowton did
a good job, but you want to lean on your
(10:52):
left tackle when he's that elite into run games, So
I think they did miss him. And a crazy thing
is Kyle that running attacksily Cuba. Hubbard was still looking
pretty damn good about the game. He sud rand tough. Yeah,
he ran tough. Didn't had the most like star studded
stat line ever, but it was still like, okay, running
game looks good. I think the concerns during the preseason
(11:13):
were a little bit overblown. So you did miss Ichy
in that situation. And I can't believe I'm saying this.
Kyle Ikey Kwanu might be the first person ever to
benefit from having an appendectomy.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Yeah, yeah, maybe a little bit. Even Panthers PSL Sucker,
who has been a critic of Bryce Young, said I
saw that too on the All twenty two. Hold on,
PSL Sucker, have you subscribed to the All twenty two?
Are you reviewing the All twenty two Panthers tape? Every week?
If you are, that fills my heart with glee. Clearly
you've seen it. But he said Bryce couldn't step into
that throw whatsoever. That was on seventy seven. Again, this
(11:47):
is why you know, the press conference directly after the
game with the head coach versus the press conference on Monday,
after he's watched and completely reviewed the film, likely multiple times,
is a much better use of everybody's time. That's not
to say that you shouldn't do postgame press conferences after games,
because there is utility in that for sure, But like
(12:08):
those Monday press conferences after games, the coach comes in
far more informed on everything that happened when he goes
back and watches the tape. Now, there, I did see.
There was one account today and maybe you sent this
to me. Most of the things that I get comes
from smoke anyway, But there was the one account Fantasy
Bandits who went back and reviewed the Bryce Young tape
(12:28):
and felt like there were one hundred and fifty yards
left out on the field in terms of drops and mistakes. Now,
this one, I thought leaned a little bit too far
into the Bryce Young apology territory, because I feel like
they tried to excuse Bryce for a couple of things
that he absolutely cannot do or has to do better,
obviously the turnovers. But he did make some strong points.
(12:50):
As I was trying to point out yesterday that regardless
of you know, what plays were good, what throws were nice,
if Bryce continues to turn the football over, he's got
to go.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
That's true of any quarterback.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
But outside of that, you know, people comparing it to
the opener against the Saints last year, I think misses
the mark because Bryce was awful. I mean, start to finish.
There were no high points. There was nothing good to
take away from the Saints game in the forty seven
to ten blowout last year, in Week one on Sunday,
there were at least a half a dozen plays that
(13:22):
could have potentially changed the outcome of that game if
they're made, or if mistakes don't get made, or if
penalties don't get committed, or if the wide receiver drags
his toe, or if he actually is willing to block
on a play that he really needs to block on
on a short yardage situation like that. The quarterback was
in fact let down on many occasions Sunday, and we
could not say that last year in the Saints opener.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
Yeah, and if he wasn't let down like that, I
think it would just be an average game for him
because he still had to turnovers. But I also think
too that he got in his head because of grain
de light in the last play he had in that
rain or lightning to lake.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Excuse me? Was that interception?
Speaker 4 (13:57):
So I think unfortunately, unlike certain instances that you see,
the problems weren't masked by the guy other guys doing
their jobs as much. I think if the problems were masked,
we'd be looking at it saying, yeah, you know, not
the best performance from Bryce, but hey, it's not as
bad as last year. But it was still not the
best performance from him, and there were a lot of
warts that were uncovered. Hopefully that they they will execute
(14:19):
a lot better heading into Sunday into Arizona, which I
think they will since I picked them to win Monday.
And a lot of people have already asked me to
be drug text drug tested, but you know, whatever it is.
But yeah, I really think history is on your side.
By the way there, I want to remind people of that.
Z Yeah, because it's the Cardinals. History is on your
side because it's the Cardinals. Well, we are their daddy's correct.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
So anybody thinking that he's insane to make that pick,
I don't think it's insane. I understand people thinking it's
not gonna happen based on the way they opened up
the season and to that point. Uh seven h four
number who signed coach's daughter. So I'm gonna go ahead
and name this account coach's daughter.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Uh that's a good text.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Yeah, she says, a stop calling yesterday overreaction Monday when
this is just a repeat of the first two games
in each of Bryce's first two years. We're not overreacting.
We see what we see and the data doesn't lie,
nor does the film. And I told her, I said,
I'm talking broadly about the rest of the across the NFL.
Every year we call it overreaction Monday because everybody reacts
(15:23):
in the largest way possible, usually good or bad, a
lot of bad to what their team does in Week one,
when the truth is there are plenty of teams that
lost in Week one, like Kansas City that will make
the playoffs. Right, That's why they call it overreaction Monday
in Week one of the NFL. We do the same
thing in college football I'm not telling you that you're
not right about many of the reactions to Carolina's team
(15:44):
on Sunday. They generated no pass rush, the run defense
was horrific in the first half, better in the second half.
Wide receivers didn't make plays. We shouldn't have traded Adam
Thielenkrowd feels very vindicated coming out of Sunday's game. So
there are plenty of things that you're right to point
out be angry or perturbed about. But I will continue to,
(16:04):
you know, dig my heels in a little bit and
point out that if you take a breath and go
rewatch the game, the quarterback was not the biggest problem
on the field, although again the turnovers absolutely unacceptable.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
It's not a defense of him, it's just watching the tape.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
We'll talk about that without Wallace coming up in the
five o'clock hour. Will continue to get your thoughts on
what happened on Sunday. And again, it's slept on it
Tuesday right, twenty four hours removed from overreaction Monday in
the NFL, and I want to know what you think.
Seven oh four or five, seven ninety six to ten,
hit us up on the fan duel text line will
come back tons more to get to Sports Radio ninety
(16:39):
two to seven wfn Z.
Speaker 5 (16:45):
Are you worried about the way.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Brice played a little?
Speaker 5 (16:48):
I'm more worried about the way that some of the
other wideouts on that roster, like Xavior Legette, is getting
three out of seven targets and is not getting this
split down in certain situations. I'm more worried about that,
if I'm being honest.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Connor or Monday Morning Quarterback he and Albert Breer with
their thoughts on you heard it right there, Bryce Young,
Are you concerned a little bit, but more concerned about
a guy like Xavier league at And of course again
this ties back to a lot of things. But the
folks who were screaming about Adam thlen being dealt now
you know I wanted to keep him. I understood there
were certain trades on the table that it would be
(17:30):
difficult to turn down. As I've argued before already, I
know everybody's got different positions on this, or some people do,
but you know, it sounds internally like once Adam Thielen
found out that Minnesota wanted him back, that he was
hell bent on getting there to the extent that Carolina
was worried there could be a little bit of an
issue if he wasn't given the trade that he wanted.
And I know, I know a lot of you wanted
(17:50):
Dan Morgan to have a hard line sorry buddy, you're
stuck here, we need you type of position on that.
But I do understand the flip side of it too.
Point being, they went in two week one with not
only Adam feeling gone, but Jalen Cocher out four to
six weeks starting the season on the pup list, And
so now you are very dependent on your second year
(18:11):
wide receiver in Xavier League at your rookie and Cetara McMillan, Hunter,
Renfros playing his first full season coming off a year
being away from the game, David Moore, Bryce and Tremaine
and oh, by the way, they didn't give a helmet
to Jimmy Horn Junior on Sunday, which has irked some
people too. But the excel thing we covered that yesterday.
I am out on Xavier League at officially, and if
(18:31):
he would like to disprove myself and everyone else who
feels the same way, that's great. I'll applaud him and
sing his praises if he goes out this week in
Arizona and comes away with one hundred receiving yards and
a pair of touchdowns, that would be spectacular. But after
the brain fart, the brain dead, don't get your feed inbounds.
Move to follow that up on a running play in
a tighter formation where you are expected to block, You're
(18:54):
not out in the field six inches from the sideline.
It's a tighter formation, and you just let the defensive
back come crash down and tackle your running back on
a play that you have to move the chains, get
off my football field, as Mark Flair said on the broadcast.
So I agree with Connor or on that Bryce absolutely
has to be better. We all agree on that too.
But I was just watching Dan or Lovsky's film review
(19:16):
that Smoke sent to me a couple of minutes back,
and he highlighted some of the plays that we were
talking about, namely the Hunter Renfro wheel route that was underthrown,
and Dan's pointing out as part of that play that
it was another high snap from Austin Corbett that likely
threw off the timing of the play a little bit.
Bryce's footwork was not particularly clean because of it, and
(19:36):
then when he goes to release the throw yosh Nimen
has been beaten again off the edge, and there's pressure
right in Bryce's lap, so we can't step into the throw.
Point of all this being they had a rough operation
across the board in many places on Sunday, and they
will not win many football games if that continues. And
so now we're about to find out what the head
coach is made of, what Dave Canalis and Brad idsit
(19:59):
can do to clean all of this up, and whether
or not is zero Averro has it in him to
fix what's wrong defensively after giving up two hundred plus
rushing yards in seven straight games. Credit to Mike Kay
of the Charlotte Observer, who's going to join us later
this week, he dug up the stat that, in thirty
five games as the defensive coordinator of the Panthers, is
zero Avero's run defense, or his defense in particular, has
(20:23):
allowed one hundred and twenty yards or more rushing in
twenty six of his thirty five games as defensive coordinator.
That means only nine times they have held an opposing
rushing offense to under one hundred and twenty yards. That's abysmal.
It's awful, terrible, right, So it was a team failure.
They got out coached. Dave Canalis said yesterday in the
(20:47):
press conference that they watched the tape. He got the
sins from his players that they all knew that you know,
they they failed. I mean point playing period. They failed
on Sunday in coming out prepared, and it starts with
the head coach. But these players hopefully are taking ownership
of it and are ready to go out and play
a game in Arizona that feels like the biggest Week
(21:07):
two game that we've talked about around here in quite
some time, doesn't it. I mean, I can't recall going
into Week two feeling quite the sense of urgency around
here that we felt for a football team. But yeah,
you go back and watch the film of Carolina on
Sunday and it's just so many unforced errors from the
quarterback to the wide receivers, to the fill in left tackle,
(21:28):
and then you get to defense and I just don't know,
I don't know. I was deeply disappointed in Trevin Wallace. Yes, true,
on Sunday. I mean, you're shaking your head over there, smoke.
I didn't have high hopes for Christian rose Boom. That
wasn't supposed to be his job in the first place.
But I was really really disappointed in Trevin Wallace in
the way that he played out there on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
It was bad.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
Yeah, And you know, I'm starting to get concerned, Kyle,
because I think there's a lot of promise with this
upcoming this draft class here that Dan Morgan just had
back in the twenty twenty five, But that twenty twenty
four draft class is looking rough right now. Xavier League
at you know, really ended last year on a sour
note and then didn't really do anything to start the
(22:10):
year on the high notes, especially after getting ejected in
the first preseason game. Jonathan Brooks ain't playing this year
because of injuries, and that's you're really starting to get
concerned about that. And I know it's game one a
year or two, but Trevin Wallace didn't really stand out.
And what was the main concern and main complaint by
fans when you drafted Trevin Wallace. Peyton Bleepin Wilson.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Was right there.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
Yeah, and now you've got no debt. Let's be honest,
you got really no defit linebacker right now? If we
were asking about the biggest need today on this team,
it would arguably be just starting the linebacker. And I'm
not talking like superstar type guys. You just want to
get average guys. And right now I don't think you
have any of those guys no on the roster.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
I mean, if we're.
Speaker 4 (22:51):
Looking at it right now, Josie Jewel might have been
the best linebacker you had if.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
He didn't get cut.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
And that's saying something, yeah, because Josie Jewel is not
a great linebacker. A fine linebacker, but he's not a
great line about laceholder. Real quick NASCAR Brawl says KB,
how are you out on excel? But sticking with Bryce,
we've had two years of below average quarterback play. Wow,
we have had one year of excel with half of
it last year him being hurt. It's funny how quickly
(23:16):
we cut bait on one player while giving the other
player numerous opportunities. Well, Nascar Bral, that's actually an easy
question for me to answer. Give a damn showing improvement.
I mean this applies to listen. I think sports are
a great vehicle for life and learning lessons, Like I
don't care if my kids go on to become Division
one or pro athletes. But they're playing sports because sports
(23:38):
teaches you a lot of life lessons. Kirk Cousins recently
talked about you know, he's the guy's made hundreds of
millions of dollars as a quarterback. Doesn't care a bit
if his kids play sports, if they're starting on varsity,
any of that.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
He wants them to be tough.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
If your excel, you made a stupid decision, I mean,
you made a stupid play, like routine stuff, get your
feet down, that's bad enough. But if you can't then
be bothered to block on a credit down in short yardage.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
That's effort. That's give a damn.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Bryce Young went out there when he came off the
bench last year and his first start was in Denver
against maybe the saltiest defense in the NFL, one of
the two or three saltiest defenses in the NFL. And
when he started to turn things around and did show
clear improvement and had a top six passer grade in
the final ten weeks of the season, he was doing
it without feeling on the field with Xcel injured. To
your point, it was like David Moore and Jalen Cocher
(24:27):
and guys like that. Bryce Young has shown improvement and
least at least at his position. Bryce Young has shown
that he cares. Bryce Young has shown leadership. He's the
last guy off the field, listened to his teammates. He's
earned the respect of the locker room. Whether or not
he becomes or remains the franchise quarterback is still very
much TVD. But he's shown you something. Excel as likable
as he is, hasn't shown us anything. And after an
(24:49):
offseason full of I've got to get better, I know
I dropped these balls.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
This stuff can't happen.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
He goes out and makes an awful, awful play on
a ball that would have set them up first and
ten in the red zone and then turns around and
can't be bothered to block. That's what I'm talking about.
Give a damn, Give a damn. That's it. So when
I say I'm out, they're not cutting him just because
the local radio pundit says to cut him. And I
hope he turns it around. But I feel exactly like
(25:15):
Mark Schlaerth felt on the broadcast.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Two days ago.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
You just made a bonehead play that every professional receiver
in the league is expected to make and then you
can't be bothered to put a hat on somebody. Why
are you on the football field? Then what you saw
you to your teammates. If you can't do the basics
like that, Yeah, it's just stuff like that. It's fundamentals.
And unfortunately Xavier did not do to fundamentals.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
He was on the hash and still couldn't get two
feet in bounds on that play where he should have
caught the ball and got it to the nineteen yard line.
And if he catches the ball, there's a good chance
you possibly score touchdown because you all got nineteen yards,
you got one minute left in the half. Still think
they had a timeout or two in their back pocket.
And also if they scored a touchdown, it's a seven
point game going into halftime instead of what turned out
(25:56):
to be a seventeen point game. Because they didn't played
soft cover, they were able to get a big gain
in the middle of the field and get a field goal.
So that completely changed the dichotomy of the game. And
we're not saying that he's officially done for that. We're
just going to have to write out this contract because
it can change. But he's got to change his mindset.
He's got to change everything about him. A prime example
of this is on that same offense, Chewba Hubbard. I
(26:18):
remember us in twenty twenty two after the Week two
loss to the New York Giants, when he muffed that
opening kickoff. We were just all done with Chewba Hubbard
like this, This is a waste of the pick. Get
rid of him, get someone else, get so and so
on and so forth. Now Chewba Hubbard just got a
massive contract extension and we all kind of view him
as the most reliable guy that is a weapon on
(26:38):
the offense outside of catching the football, which is still
kind of iffy.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
So it can change.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
It's just Xavier's got to put into work and he's
got to keep his nose to the grindstone and just
stop making these mistakes. Yes they're fixable, but he's got
to fix them.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Well to see Dog and Denver just said, we keep
talking about two plays from Maxcel. How many bad plays
did Bryce make? Brother, He's the quarterback. He touches the
ball on every single snap. Xhal got seven targets on Sunday.
They are not the same. Again, I can't say this enough.
If Bryce continues to turn the football over. Get him
out of there, go find another quarterback. Nobody's here to
coddle Bryce Young. He didn't play well enough on Sunday.
(27:14):
He didn't, but he didn't play as badly as a
lot of y'all like to point it out or make
it out to be, because a lot of you want
him out to begin with, and that's okay, it's your prerogative.
But many people who study the tape over the past
forty eight hours came away with the same, you know,
type of takeaway. It wasn't. Bryce wasn't the biggest issue.
They had a lot of them, and he contributed to
many turnovers the worst. But I mean, they left a
(27:35):
lot of plays on the field that could have led
to touchdowns. And maybe today instead of burying them, were
touting them for their resilience. If the catch gets made
by j T. Sanders up the sideline, you know, if
Tenoro McMillan goes up and makes that grab in the
end zone on a perfect ball. By the way, if
Austin Corbett doesn't pick up the downfield penalty, just so
on and so forth. So yes, Bryce made mistakes. Nobody's
(27:55):
denying that, but it's effort. It's give a damn. It's culture.
All you hear about is culture, culture.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Culture.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
We want our kind of guys, football dudes, guys who
live it, breathe it, obsessed with it. Here to do
the right things. And you can't block after you've already
made a critical mistake. Get off the football field. And
if Jalen Coker had been available on Sunday, I do
wonder if we'd have seen excel at all the rest
of the afternoon. I have to worry. I wonder about that.
Seven O four five, seven ninety six ten. Hit us
up on the FanDuel text line. Donald is up first
(28:21):
on the phone lines here on a Tuesday. What's going on? Man?
Speaker 2 (28:23):
How are you? Man? I love it, kV I love it.
Speaker 5 (28:27):
My first time calling it anything your show, brother.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
I love how you guys putting it down.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Y'all ain't tick you know, smoke y'all tell them like
you should be told.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Man, I love it. I love it. The other guys
on the other show, they'd be.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Cutting on some slack man with you guys giving it.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
To them guys.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Man, But I mean, I got a couple of questions,
so have Dave can now at the head coach.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Did he ever play football at all of himself?
Speaker 6 (28:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (28:51):
He played in college. Yeah he was college. He was
a college wide receiver.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Okay, So would you think anything would have been different
we still had Steve Wilks at the head coach.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Well yeah, I mean listen, I think you could argue
yes for sure.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
Great.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Well, I'm good.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
I'm sitting that list to the risks guy, show the
risk of eaton man, do a good job.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
That guy's doing a good job.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Donald, you man, I appreciate you, buddy, appreciate the phone call.
I was actually thinking about that earlier today, you know,
with the whole Dave saying, I've been pushing for the defensive,
the young guys to play more on defense. You're the
head coach. You don't have to push, you don't have
to lobby, just decree it. Hey, hey guys, we're playing
the young guys more. I want to see more snaps
for the young guys on Sunday. And you know I
heard Mack and Bone like, is he appeal to paint
(29:35):
off the walls? Screamer and yeller. We need somebody on
the sideline who's lighting these boys asses. Up Ron Rivera
was really good. At that, it's well, hold on, hold on, though,
but there's a there's truth to that. But Ron had
a level of credibility that a lot of coaches don't have. Okay,
you don't have to have been an NFL star to
be a great head coach, but for God's sake, Ron
(29:56):
played on the eighty five bears. If Ron called you soft,
if Ron told you to do something, if Ron got
in your ass for something, Ron was coming from a
place of credibility that a lot of coaches don't have.
That ain't Dave Canalis as m Dave Canalis was probably
a fine small college wide receiver, and he's a smart
guy and all that, but they are not the same.
And Dave Canallis cannot peel the paint off the walls
and get in the face of six six, three hundred
(30:18):
pound defensive linemen the way that Ron Rivera probably could
back and then we did.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
We saw him do it well that and I was
laughing because same.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Thing for Steve Wilks, to a degree, that's a hard
nose dude. You don't mess with him.
Speaker 4 (30:27):
In twenty eleven and twenty twelve, everyone was just saying,
he's just standing there on the sidelines, Ron Rivera do
something yelk, the officials do something like that, and now
we're having the same conversations nearly fifteen years later when
it comes to Dave callous. But as you pointed out,
they're two completely different coaches. Both ways can work.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
You know.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
Dave has just gotta I think, find his voice in
some ways. I remember yesterday someone called in saying, maybe
Dave Canalis needs to have a conversation similar or akin
to what Ron Rivera credits as one of his best
conversations that helped him grow when he talked to John
Badden back in twenty thirteen. It has to be something
like that, because this is still year two for him.
He's still learning. But yeah, he did himself no favors
(31:06):
by saying I get a talk with coach of Vera's Like, dude,
just saying because Aavera is on fin ice and you
could be on finn Ice too if you don't completely
If they.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
Give up two hundred plus yards rushing again on Sunday,
they ought to let Todd wash the call the defense
the rest of the year as far as I'm concerned.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
All right, let's go to smoke on the headlines. Who
is smoke? Where is smoked? Where there's smoke, there's fire.
Let's go. What you got, all right?
Speaker 4 (31:31):
Some big news coming out of Denver, Colorado, not North
Carolina or earlier today. The Broncos have announced a plan
to build a new stadium with a retractable roof in
the heart of Denver to replace Mile High Stadium.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Give it. What's the biggest part of that story?
Speaker 4 (31:45):
Well, Kyle, the Walter Pender Group will fund it entirely
with the hope of being ready for the twenty thirty
one season.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
You mean, a wealthy family, wealthy ownership group is going
to pay for their own stadium.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
How about that? So it is pot Well we knew
that all ready.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
With a count because they're getting paid. They got four
hundred billion network. You know when you have one billion,
five billion?
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Gotcha? Gotcha? Just check in on that.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
So it's possible again to not ask taxpayers to build
your football stadium.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Anyway. What else you got? All right?
Speaker 4 (32:15):
So, speaking of a lot of money, Illinois, we got
to keep an eye on them moving forward, Kyle. Because
the University of Illinois alumnus Larry G's made a one
hundred million dollar gift to the Illinois Division of Intercollegiate Athletics,
the largest gift into history of the department, one hundred
million dollars.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Now going to the fighting a line on.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
Brett Bielam is going to be in the playoff very soon,
very very soon.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
That may sound crazy to some people.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Well that's going to bring us back to the Nick
Saban quote from a couple of days ago too.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
We got to talk about that.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
But when we return Nick Carboni, NBC Charlotte his Tuesday
conversation Next Sports Radio ninety two seven WFNZH, the FanDuel
(33:16):
text line humming just like it was yesterday. It's spillover Tuesday,
slept on it Tuesday. It's football season. We've got one
result at chew On. It was a really bad one.
And yesterday the phone lines, the text line were justin fuego,
and today we try to fit in all the callers
that we couldn't get to yesterday. So coming back to
the phone line, shortly fill up, everybody, Hang tight. We
(33:37):
have Ryan McGee ESPN back at four twenty five for
his weekly conversation college football and some Nascar coming your way.
And then Al Wallace, former Carolina Panther defensive end back
at five twenty five. He's also color analyst for the
Charlotte forty nine Ers Radio network. We'll get his thoughts
on pretty ugly start to the Tim albin Era, but
nothing to panic about, of course, because he's facing a
(33:59):
very real ground up rebuild. So we'll get to all that,
but we get back to a regular weekly conversation on
this show that we always look forward to. Nick Carbony,
NBC Charlotte Sports Director sports anchor, is back with us
on the hot line. Nick Carbone, what's going on?
Speaker 4 (34:13):
Brother?
Speaker 2 (34:14):
How are you this week?
Speaker 6 (34:15):
What's going ok?
Speaker 2 (34:16):
At least the weather is nice and Charlotte right incredible. Oh,
it feels so good. There's no doubt about that. Let's
get right to it.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
Nick, your thoughts on a twenty six to ten ugly
loss in Jacksonville Sunday.
Speaker 6 (34:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
I think the.
Speaker 6 (34:30):
Biggest questions going into the season were could the Panthers
build off the momentum that they had coming out of
last season at the end of the season, and more specifically,
could bryce Young start this season how he finished last season?
And from hot sticky and see me Duval County Man.
The resounding answer to both of those questions were a no.
(34:54):
I do see some silver linings if you want to
call him that, and positives which I can get to.
But I think the most disappointing thing was, and Dave
Canalis has said this basically in two consecutive days now,
was that the team just didn't appear to be ready
to play in that opening game. The coaching staff for
whatever reason. And there's a couple of excuses you probably
(35:15):
could use, but none of them are really good enough.
They didn't look as cohesive and as comfortable together after
having a year and changed together than a Jacksonville team
that had a brand new staff, rookie head coach and
rookie coordinators. And I just I don't think there's any
excuse for that when it comes to the coaching staff
(35:35):
or even the a lot of the veterans on this
football team to put that product out there Week one.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
You know, I had vowed going into the year, I
was not picking them to win at all on our
pregame show again until they showed they could actually win
some football games. So I already felt that way. But
when the ikey Aquanu news came down two and a
half weeks ago or whenever that was, I guess two
weeks ago. At this point, I got a really, really
sick feeling in my stomach because it just I didn't
think it, you know, would bode well. I thought they
(36:02):
would go to Niemen, who I don't trust, and he
validated that on Sunday with a twenty seven passer protection
grade and six pressures allowed. How much do you think
Ikey's absence ultimately ended up impacting that game?
Speaker 6 (36:16):
Honestly? And I know those advanced stats spared out and
some of them aren't even even advanced, they're just octape, right.
I mean, he did get beat a few times there.
I don't think that was like the overwhelming reason that
things didn't work on offense. I think you also factor
in the disruption in the receiver room, mistakes by the
(36:37):
receivers offensively, turnovers by Bryce Young, two of at least
two of which were completely avoidable, and then you you know,
not to give the coaching staff an excuse, because they
should be kind of a year better than a rookie
coaching staff, but I mean, they really had no idea
what to expect from Jacksonville's defense. I mean, they had
(36:59):
familiarity with lean call it, but they had a completely
rookie defensive coordinator on the other side, who I thought
did a pretty nice job. And you know, it's probably
pretty pretty difficult to know what the heck they're going
to do week one. That's why I don't think they
were too worried about what they were going to do
with Travis Hunter. I think they were more worried about
what they were going to do in general on defense.
(37:19):
So by the time maybe they started to figure it
out its way way way too late. They didn't score
it till for five minutes to go, and by that
Jacksonville kind of just you know, letting you take a
little more. So, you know, I think it was all
those combined. I don't think it's exactly on yosh Niman
for sure, but getting Icky back is certainly going to help.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
What you know, I caught a little flat from a
couple of people, not many, but I was pretty harsh
about Excel on Sunday. I'm out at this point Nick
until unless he wants to prove otherwise. Because between the
lack of the toe drag, which is bad enough because
that's routine stuff and he had half an acre to
go his foot down, but then following that up with
refusing to block on a short yardage situation. Like, to me,
(37:59):
it's screams you don't get it that you've spent all
this time being a social media star folks loving on
your accent and being from mull In, South Carolina and
being an outdoor boy and everything else. Like all that
stuff is fine, but when you play into it, you
open yourself up to a lot of criticism if you
don't perform. And when you open up the season with
that kind of bone headed stuff, it calls into question
(38:20):
whether whether or not you truly get it. From my perspective,
how do you feel about that?
Speaker 6 (38:25):
Yeah, he had about as bad of a day as
anybody on that football team did. And a lot of
people on that football team had a bad day, right,
I mean you have to have to. I mean, high
school kids on Friday night KP get in bounds on
that play nine times out of head and if they don't,
they get chewed out by their high school football coach.
It was completely inexcusable. Yeah, maybe the effort on the
(38:47):
short yardage, the miscommunication with Bryce on that fourth down
play where you know, we all were convinced Bryce just
kind of gave up and flung it away. Maybe he did,
but he clearly thought XL was going to be in
a different area. And you know Bryce's reaction said to me, like,
Xcel should have been in that area on that play,
(39:09):
given whatever they were looking at on defense. So you
know a lot of people are probably out on him
like you are, but the Panthers cannot afford to be
out on Exavier league get at least not right now.
I think he will have better moments, but he's got
a lot to make up for. He's got an uphill climb,
given the kind of hole he's dug himself in early
(39:30):
in his career here with the drops last year in
those big moments, and then coming into this year had
to be all about you know, he needs to improve. Okay,
then Adam Feeling is traded. We're gonna need you to
get on that right away, Xcel. Oh, and then Jalen
Poker is injured. Now we really need it, and we
need it now, and the team didn't get what they
(39:51):
needed from him in Game one.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
Nick Carboni, NBC Charlotte Sports Director, Sports anchor hanging out
with us for a Tuesday conversation and TC just says,
you're out on excel. So are you out on Dave Canalis?
I mean, not yet, but a few more of those thinkers.
It's gonna be hard not to be if they continue
to look like that. But I guess my question for
you is Dave's Sunday press conference. Like a lot of coaches,
(40:15):
you know, it's it's good to have them, but they
don't watch the tape and can be more informed on
things until Monday. I thought yesterday there were some comments
that really stuck out. What did you think of his
Monday press conference after he watched the tape?
Speaker 6 (40:27):
I thought the comment that stuck out the most was
that he's pushing for younger players to play on defense,
which begs the question, aren't you the one who decides
that that is nuanced? I'm the son of a football coach,
full disclosure, and I know football coaches don't want to
put young dudes out there like that is just part
of their DNA, and so maybe that is some of
(40:48):
what is happening with Guero Rivero. He trusts Nick Scott
to you know, I at least know the system and
be in the right place, although when he's in the
right place, he doesn't generally make the play which we
saw bear out on the field on Sunday. You put
in laythan Ransom, which I think they will eventually and
a lot of people want to do. Now you're putting
(41:08):
in somebody who may not be in the right place,
but may still make a play somewhere else because he's
just that, you know, good of an athlete and good
of a playmaker. I do think you need to get
more snaps for Lathan Ransom. You absolutely need to get
more from Nick Gorton and Princely Human Miellen being way
behind all game doesn't help you put young pass rushers
(41:30):
on the field anymore. I totally understand that. So I
think that was one of the things that stood out
for sure. The other thing that stood out was, you know,
do you need to work with Bryce on his sliding?
It was just like a quick app you know, maybe
I think Bryce Young absolutely needs to work on his sliding.
That was kind of similar, if I'm not mistaken, that
(41:50):
kind of stumble fumble to what he did against Dallas
and Michael Parson's last year where he's got tripped up
and exposed the football. And these guys are professional athletes
on defense too, They're gonna pop that they are looking for,
that he has to work on. That it is year three,
so I guess those two things would be the first
two things that stood out to me, you know, Sunday
(42:13):
saying the team seems surprised about how poorly they played,
you know, I'm not sure. I think a lot of
people were disappointed. I'm not sure how surprised they were,
given that the preseason game results didn't look that great
and then they were kind of cut short. And that
leads you to the preseason debate. I don't think everybody
needs to play in the preseason around the league. I
(42:34):
think this group does and did need to play more.
Speaker 3 (42:36):
I agree, all right, Any any thoughts on Arizona Sunday?
They all feel big because there are only seventeen of them,
But I can't recall feeling more anxiety and more pressure
on a week two game for Carolina since I've been here.
What do you think about the Arizona and the feeling
around it going into this game?
Speaker 6 (42:54):
Buddy James Connor's tying a big old cloth napkin around
his neck right now and licking his chops. He's read
at a bus one for seventy one, just like hed
ended on Sunday for Jacksonville. Listen, it's another road game.
They are heavily the underdog, I think actually doublely so
than they were having in a Jacksonville. Man, I don't
(43:16):
want to sound crazy, because I've just spent the last
ten minutes, you know, talking about everything that went wrong
on Sunday and how the team wasn't ready. Like I
think they will be more ready to play in this
game because they just took one on the chin and
got embarrassed not just locally but nationally and lost twenty
six to ten, and it could have been worse to
(43:38):
a team that didn't make the playoffs last year, and
it is like a dark horse to make the playoffs
this year with a completely rookie head coaching stab. So
I do think they will be more ready. There always
does seem to be something about Arizona that the Panthers,
no matter who the coach or personnel is, has success
with Arizona, still hasn't seen to kind of They have
(44:01):
been spinning their wheels in a sense too for the
last handful of years. I really like Tediro McMillan, and
I wanted to bring that up because I think he
looks the part of a top ten wide receiver, and
I think he's gonna really you know, you talk about
kind of fixing your mistakes. If he even made a
few mistakes last week, I think he's the guy that
we saw all training camp. He made a mistake, next
(44:23):
time out, he fixed it, And I think he's gonna
be really looking to do that in Arizona, where he
played college. So I'm not predicting a win, but I'm
predicting a more ready and competitive team because they have
egg on his faith.
Speaker 3 (44:34):
Well, now, I know you were going to do this
entire interview without letting us know that today's your birthday.
But I've been reliably informed on the text line that
today is in fact your birthday.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
So happy birthday, buddy. How old are you?
Speaker 6 (44:45):
Well in the wise words of a I don't want
to say, great college football coach, come after me, Kyle Bailey,
I am a man. I am forty.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
Whoa dude?
Speaker 3 (44:57):
Really, congratulations, I'm going to be forty in like two months.
Speaker 6 (45:00):
This is the peak right here, buddy. I'll tell you.
I'll let you know how it is.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
Damn, I'll let you know how it is.
Speaker 3 (45:07):
Happy birthday, brother. You don't look a day Over twenty nine.
We appreciate your man to talk to you.
Speaker 6 (45:11):
You appreciate that. Alright, make up is the heck of
a drug.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
Hey be good man. There you go.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
Nick CARBONI forty years young today. How about that. I'm
joining the forty club in November. It's pretty wild. Somebody
asked me the other day, you're gonna throw a birthday
party for yourself? And I haven't had a birthday party.
I think the last birthday party I had was like
early twenties kegger.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
With the boys. I didn't even do that. Oh yeah, No.
Speaker 3 (45:35):
I threw a couple of like rager birthday parties, you know,
two three kegs, like a couple hundred people. We did
that like in my twenties. But I don't think I've
thrown a birthday party for myself since I was like
twenty three, twenty four. I haven't done it since I
was like twelve. It's a different kind of birthday party.
But I think I think the answer is yes. I've
gone back and forth, but I think I might throw
(45:55):
a rager for my fortieth birthday this year.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
All right, nobody cares. We'll come back.
Speaker 3 (45:59):
Our number two best audio in sports will squeeze in
some phone calls. Fun show Ahead Sports Radio ninety two
to seven WFNZ
You were listening to the Kyle Bailey Show powered by
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Boss like KB Go to Victory Chevy Charlotte dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well I s left on it.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
You slept on it twenty four hours removed from the
obligatory Big Reaction Monday, following a week one disaster for
Carolina down in Jacksonville.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
How are you feeling today?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
We take overflow calls throughout the show, Folks who wanted
to get in yesterday on a Panther Monday but couldn't. Right,
So we got great guests lined up a lot of
stuff to talk about Monday night. Football last night was interesting, revealing.
Let's say we'll get to that. A lot of college
football spill over today as well. Ryan McGee, Senior writer,
ESPN coming up at four to twenty five. We'll talk
(01:00):
about that, and we'll talk about Denny Hamlin's win out
in Saint Louis over the weekend. We'll get to all
that with him. Nick Carboni coming up in forty two minutes.
We surveyed the Charlotte Sports landscape and former Carolina Panther
defensive end Al Wallace back for the first time in
a while at five twenty five. We'll talk Panthers with him.
He's also part of the Charlotte forty nine Ers broadcast crew.
We'll get his thoughts on the first year of Tim
(01:22):
Albin through two games. But again seven oh four five,
seven ninety six to ten. Hit us up on the
FanDuel text line same number if you want to give
us a call and chat the old fashioned way on
x formerly Twitter at Kyle Bailey Club. It's at Kyle
Bailey Club live from the Chandler VAULTA Studios the Carolinas
Personal Injury Lawyers.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
One call.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
That's all go to Cvinjurylaw dot com. And again, slept
on it Tuesday every all day yesterday. People were incensed.
I get it. I feel like most of you were
completely justified in many of the things that you said.
Not all, of course, because it's overreaction Monday for a reason.
Sometimes we do, in fact to overreact to certain things.
But if you want to get in today taking your
(02:03):
phone calls, jump in on the phone lines and again,
a lot.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
To talk about.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
But last night I was watching Monday Night football really
in anticipation, kind of anxious about it to see what
Caleb Williams and the Bears would look like. They end
up losing to Minnesota and JJ McCarthy, who was not
very good in that game all the way up until
he was, And I became more of a JJ McCarthy
believer last night than I ever was. And again, I'm
(02:29):
more than willing to admit when I'm wrong, and I'm
not sure that I can say I'm wrong about JJ
McCarthy because I simply questioned moving off a quarterback that
led you to what fourteen regular season wins last year,
But they had faith in their guy. And you know, again,
first two and a half three quarters from McCarthy were
not very good last night, but his leadership took over late.
And one of the things you've heard about that kid
(02:49):
his entire career is that he just wins. He just wins,
and that was something that scouts were saying about him,
you know, when he was coming out of the draft,
coming out of Michigan. It's been pointed out that his
record since his sophomore year in high school as a
starter is sixty three and three, and last night as
a rookie, well not a rookie, you know, making his
first start in the NFL on the road in Soldier
(03:09):
Field on a night that the eighty five Bears were
honored and Chicago was starting the new era with Ben Johnson,
the offensive genius and defector from the Detroit Lions, former
UNC walk on quarterback from the early aughts, going to
change Chicago's fortune, and then last night he becomes the
latest Chicago Bears head coach to blow an historic lead
(03:31):
in his debut at Soldier Field, the largest blown lead
for a debut head coach in the NFL since Matt
Naggie did it for the Chicago Bears a couple of
years ago. And I'm not talking about just Bears history.
We're talking about all of the NFL, so Bears new
head coaches have now done that twice. There was a
pick six last night thrown by McCarthy that stretched out
(03:54):
that lead to seventeen to three for Chicago and with
the Bears and Caleb Williams in particular, you know that
was the big story, right, you know, he he got
Ben Johnson, They've upgraded kind of the same stuff that
Bryce Young went through in his first year. Right coach
gets fired a lot of dysfunction. Thomas Brown takes over.
(04:15):
There's the Tyler Dunn piece out at Go Long TD
this week about the dysfunction there and the I think
specifically the time that Kayleb Williams big time Thomas Brown
in the huddle last year and Thomas Brown was screaming
at him and just again painting a picture of dysfunction
and another young quarterback getting off to a questionable start,
and now they've been scrambling to try to get a
(04:36):
better staff around him. They have certainly upgraded at wide
receiver in Chicago to a greater, let's say, effect, than
what Carolina has done so far. And last night Kayleb
Williams again demonstrating the kind of flash, the pardon me,
the kind of you know, glimpses. Let's say, that's a
used word that's been used a lot today with Caleb
(04:56):
Williams and really the last couple of years, the glimpses
of greatness, the flash of brilliance, and we saw a
couple of those again last night. But then you get
the head scratching plays too, And unlike Bryce Young on Sunday,
he didn't turn the football over, but made some very
questionable decisions, some very risky plays that could have and
in some cases probably should have ended in disaster, but
(05:16):
unable to make the plays down the stretch to you know,
get his team over the hump to a win. And
I'm not here to declare anything about who won the
trade or you know, really trying to take solace in
the way that Caleb Williams played last night, because all
I care about is that Carolina figures it out. But
it was another highlight smoke of just how you know,
ugly week one football can be offensively across the league,
(05:37):
how hard points are to come by for a lot
of teams in the NFL. And you know, say for
that late drive last night for Chicago, where they were,
you know, chasing points down by two scores, they end
up scoring a quick touchdown to make it twenty seven
twenty four. I was not particularly impressed with Chicago's offense
last night, and apparently neither are Bears fans, because they've
been lighting up the phone lines today pointing out the
(05:59):
fact that the offensive Jeanie just could only muster seventeen
points offensively last night. So a lot of dissatisfied fan
bases once again around the NFL coming out a Week
one as is the case, annually.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
Yeah, that is definitely the case, and I think it's
a reminder yet again, look at a lot of the
passing stats throughout the league. There are a lot of
guys that were in the one hundred yard ball range
when it came to throwing the football this past weekend.
And I couldn't watch every single game, but offenses were
very sluggish, and that's kind of what we've become used to.
The only I was gonna say, the only quarterbacks that
(06:30):
really had gaudy passing numbers were the two quarterbacks on
Sunday Night in Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen. So I
think it was yet again not trying to make this
an all referendum on Caleb Williams, because who knows, by
the end of the year, he could look like what
people were hoping he would look like. But it's still
a case nonetheless, it's like, Okay, he's still got to
figure some of this stuff out. And the problem is
(06:51):
that when Caleb Williams was coming out, he was viewed
as one of the top prospects. He was kind of
getting hype, similar to Trevor Lawrence in twenty twenty one,
and so far we just haven't really seen it, and
now you have a lot of people questioning his attitude
and that has been questioned before, but that Tyler dunpiece
didn't really help any matters whatsoever. Heading into year two,
(07:12):
Ben Johnson I fought for his first game. It could
have looked a lot worse, could have looked better. But
I think, you know, we were looking at that game
last night and thinking, Wow, the guy who's a veteran
head coach out coached the first time head coach. That
would have been nice to see on Sunday in Jacksonville
with Kevin O'Connell out coaching Ben Johnson. And I just
(07:33):
think the situation, even though I'm still not one hundred
percent sold on JJ McCarthy, I think the situation is
almost fool proof, almost And that was without Christian darrisol
last night, his starting left tackle.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Oh yeah, so one of.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
To Frode, which is also part of the reason their
offense struggled for a good portion of the night too.
So again, nothing's perfect in week one. But you know,
speaking of missing the left tackle, I you know, I
was thinking about this yesterday and I know we touched
on it, but there was so much to talk about
coming out a week one, and I went back and
again watched the game before yesterday's show, most of it. Anyway,
(08:05):
I went back and finished the second half last night
and again this morning, just kind of skipping through watching
play by play, and yosh Niman was basically as bad
as I feared he could be going into that game
on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
He really was.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
I mean, he allowed six quarterback pressures by himself in
that game Sunday, six quarterback pressures by himself, and the
throw that a lot of people are I thought right
and to a degree still are you know, rightly criticizing
Bryce Young on the Adam renfro ball in the first
half that he underthrew What I say.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
You said, Adam Renfrow weird? Wow? Hunter?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Yeah, we'll get back to Adam the Hunter renfro ball
that was a bit underthrown. Did you see that he
had pressure in his lap? Like I mean yosh Niman allowed,
there was pressure in Bryce's lap trying to make that
throw too. I'm kind of surprised people didn't mention it
that much on the throw because it was all a mess.
Everybody's trying to drink from a fire hose to decipher
what was the biggest mess, what were the biggest problems.
You go back and rewatch it a second time and
you see stuff like that that Nyman's allowing pressure in
(09:02):
Bryce's lap when he's trying to make that throw. You're
talking about the will rout r Yeah, the will routes
to Renfro that you know was a bit underthrown. That
people say, if I let him it would have been six,
And it might have been, but at the very least
it should have been a completion or could have been
a completion. But there was in fact pressure in his lap.
And I'm watching rewatching the game on Sunday and thinking
to myself, this yosh Niman performance might have just gotten
(09:22):
Nikki Ikuanua Rais on his next contract two million, eight
like an extra million and a half a year based
on how bad they were on Sunday. And you made
this point early in the show yesterday, and you got
a few people who were a little bit snarky with you,
but you were right, like for all the and I
told you, I did an interview with Jacksonville last week
and they were just casually talking about Ikey as a
(09:43):
player that's much maligned in Carolina and not sure if
he's gonna make it. And I'm like, guys, he only
really had like two or three rough games last year.
He had a bad year too, but year three was
much much better. And that's why they're talking extension with
him right now. And you know, on Sunday they clearly
missed him between yash Naiman playing as badly as we
feared he could with a protection grade of twenty seven
(10:05):
on the day, pass pro grade of twenty seven and
six individual pressures allowed.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
You cannot play much worse than that. You just can't.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
And then in the run game, I'd like to believe
that in that fourth and one situation where they went
empty and Bryce ended up throwing it out of the
back of the end zone, which is still on him
that part of it, maybe you have more confidence to
run the football a third time. If you're running the
football behind Ikyakwanu out there on the left side, you
never know, right because.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
He's elite, elite, yeah at that category. So yeah, I
definitely think that's the case. And here's the thing, when
you're running behind the right side, it felt like that
offensive line did a really good job. I mean, the
interior outside of Austin Corbett was business as usual. Robert Hunt,
Damian Lewis did your job, thank you very much. Think
you did great, Unfortunately didn't get rewarded. Taylor Mowton did
a good job, but you want to lean on your
(10:52):
left tackle when he's that elite into run games, So
I think they did miss him. And a crazy thing
is Kyle that running attacksily Cuba. Hubbard was still looking
pretty damn good about the game. He sud rand tough. Yeah,
he ran tough. Didn't had the most like star studded
stat line ever, but it was still like, okay, running
game looks good. I think the concerns during the preseason
(11:13):
were a little bit overblown. So you did miss Ichy
in that situation. And I can't believe I'm saying this.
Kyle Ikey Kwanu might be the first person ever to
benefit from having an appendectomy.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Yeah, yeah, maybe a little bit. Even Panthers PSL Sucker,
who has been a critic of Bryce Young, said I
saw that too on the All twenty two. Hold on,
PSL Sucker, have you subscribed to the All twenty two?
Are you reviewing the All twenty two Panthers tape? Every week?
If you are, that fills my heart with glee. Clearly
you've seen it. But he said Bryce couldn't step into
that throw whatsoever. That was on seventy seven. Again, this
(11:47):
is why you know, the press conference directly after the
game with the head coach versus the press conference on Monday,
after he's watched and completely reviewed the film, likely multiple times,
is a much better use of everybody's time. That's not
to say that you shouldn't do postgame press conferences after games,
because there is utility in that for sure, But like
(12:08):
those Monday press conferences after games, the coach comes in
far more informed on everything that happened when he goes
back and watches the tape. Now, there, I did see.
There was one account today and maybe you sent this
to me. Most of the things that I get comes
from smoke anyway, But there was the one account Fantasy
Bandits who went back and reviewed the Bryce Young tape
(12:28):
and felt like there were one hundred and fifty yards
left out on the field in terms of drops and mistakes. Now,
this one, I thought leaned a little bit too far
into the Bryce Young apology territory, because I feel like
they tried to excuse Bryce for a couple of things
that he absolutely cannot do or has to do better,
obviously the turnovers. But he did make some strong points.
(12:50):
As I was trying to point out yesterday that regardless
of you know, what plays were good, what throws were nice,
if Bryce continues to turn the football over, he's got
to go.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
That's true of any quarterback.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
But outside of that, you know, people comparing it to
the opener against the Saints last year, I think misses
the mark because Bryce was awful. I mean, start to finish.
There were no high points. There was nothing good to
take away from the Saints game in the forty seven
to ten blowout last year, in Week one on Sunday,
there were at least a half a dozen plays that
(13:22):
could have potentially changed the outcome of that game if
they're made, or if mistakes don't get made, or if
penalties don't get committed, or if the wide receiver drags
his toe, or if he actually is willing to block
on a play that he really needs to block on
on a short yardage situation like that. The quarterback was
in fact let down on many occasions Sunday, and we
could not say that last year in the Saints opener.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
Yeah, and if he wasn't let down like that, I
think it would just be an average game for him
because he still had to turnovers. But I also think
too that he got in his head because of grain
de light in the last play he had in that
rain or lightning to lake.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Excuse me? Was that interception?
Speaker 4 (13:57):
So I think unfortunately, unlike certain instances that you see,
the problems weren't masked by the guy other guys doing
their jobs as much. I think if the problems were masked,
we'd be looking at it saying, yeah, you know, not
the best performance from Bryce, but hey, it's not as
bad as last year. But it was still not the
best performance from him, and there were a lot of
warts that were uncovered. Hopefully that they they will execute
(14:19):
a lot better heading into Sunday into Arizona, which I
think they will since I picked them to win Monday.
And a lot of people have already asked me to
be drug text drug tested, but you know, whatever it is.
But yeah, I really think history is on your side.
By the way there, I want to remind people of that.
Z Yeah, because it's the Cardinals. History is on your
side because it's the Cardinals. Well, we are their daddy's correct.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
So anybody thinking that he's insane to make that pick,
I don't think it's insane. I understand people thinking it's
not gonna happen based on the way they opened up
the season and to that point. Uh seven h four
number who signed coach's daughter. So I'm gonna go ahead
and name this account coach's daughter.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Uh that's a good text.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Yeah, she says, a stop calling yesterday overreaction Monday when
this is just a repeat of the first two games
in each of Bryce's first two years. We're not overreacting.
We see what we see and the data doesn't lie,
nor does the film. And I told her, I said,
I'm talking broadly about the rest of the across the NFL.
Every year we call it overreaction Monday because everybody reacts
(15:23):
in the largest way possible, usually good or bad, a
lot of bad to what their team does in Week one,
when the truth is there are plenty of teams that
lost in Week one, like Kansas City that will make
the playoffs. Right, That's why they call it overreaction Monday
in Week one of the NFL. We do the same
thing in college football I'm not telling you that you're
not right about many of the reactions to Carolina's team
(15:44):
on Sunday. They generated no pass rush, the run defense
was horrific in the first half, better in the second half.
Wide receivers didn't make plays. We shouldn't have traded Adam
Thielenkrowd feels very vindicated coming out of Sunday's game. So
there are plenty of things that you're right to point
out be angry or perturbed about. But I will continue to,
(16:04):
you know, dig my heels in a little bit and
point out that if you take a breath and go
rewatch the game, the quarterback was not the biggest problem
on the field, although again the turnovers absolutely unacceptable.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
It's not a defense of him, it's just watching the tape.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
We'll talk about that without Wallace coming up in the
five o'clock hour. Will continue to get your thoughts on
what happened on Sunday. And again, it's slept on it
Tuesday right, twenty four hours removed from overreaction Monday in
the NFL, and I want to know what you think.
Seven oh four or five, seven ninety six to ten,
hit us up on the fan duel text line will
come back tons more to get to Sports Radio ninety
(16:39):
two to seven wfn Z.
Speaker 5 (16:45):
Are you worried about the way.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Brice played a little?
Speaker 5 (16:48):
I'm more worried about the way that some of the
other wideouts on that roster, like Xavior Legette, is getting
three out of seven targets and is not getting this
split down in certain situations. I'm more worried about that,
if I'm being honest.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Connor or Monday Morning Quarterback he and Albert Breer with
their thoughts on you heard it right there, Bryce Young,
Are you concerned a little bit, but more concerned about
a guy like Xavier league at And of course again
this ties back to a lot of things. But the
folks who were screaming about Adam thlen being dealt now
you know I wanted to keep him. I understood there
were certain trades on the table that it would be
(17:30):
difficult to turn down. As I've argued before already, I
know everybody's got different positions on this, or some people do,
but you know, it sounds internally like once Adam Thielen
found out that Minnesota wanted him back, that he was
hell bent on getting there to the extent that Carolina
was worried there could be a little bit of an
issue if he wasn't given the trade that he wanted.
And I know, I know a lot of you wanted
(17:50):
Dan Morgan to have a hard line sorry buddy, you're
stuck here, we need you type of position on that.
But I do understand the flip side of it too.
Point being, they went in two week one with not
only Adam feeling gone, but Jalen Cocher out four to
six weeks starting the season on the pup list, And
so now you are very dependent on your second year
(18:11):
wide receiver in Xavier League at your rookie and Cetara McMillan, Hunter,
Renfros playing his first full season coming off a year
being away from the game, David Moore, Bryce and Tremaine
and oh, by the way, they didn't give a helmet
to Jimmy Horn Junior on Sunday, which has irked some
people too. But the excel thing we covered that yesterday.
I am out on Xavier League at officially, and if
(18:31):
he would like to disprove myself and everyone else who
feels the same way, that's great. I'll applaud him and
sing his praises if he goes out this week in
Arizona and comes away with one hundred receiving yards and
a pair of touchdowns, that would be spectacular. But after
the brain fart, the brain dead, don't get your feed inbounds.
Move to follow that up on a running play in
a tighter formation where you are expected to block, You're
(18:54):
not out in the field six inches from the sideline.
It's a tighter formation, and you just let the defensive
back come crash down and tackle your running back on
a play that you have to move the chains, get
off my football field, as Mark Flair said on the broadcast.
So I agree with Connor or on that Bryce absolutely
has to be better. We all agree on that too.
But I was just watching Dan or Lovsky's film review
(19:16):
that Smoke sent to me a couple of minutes back,
and he highlighted some of the plays that we were
talking about, namely the Hunter Renfro wheel route that was underthrown,
and Dan's pointing out as part of that play that
it was another high snap from Austin Corbett that likely
threw off the timing of the play a little bit.
Bryce's footwork was not particularly clean because of it, and
(19:36):
then when he goes to release the throw yosh Nimen
has been beaten again off the edge, and there's pressure
right in Bryce's lap, so we can't step into the throw.
Point of all this being they had a rough operation
across the board in many places on Sunday, and they
will not win many football games if that continues. And
so now we're about to find out what the head
coach is made of, what Dave Canalis and Brad idsit
(19:59):
can do to clean all of this up, and whether
or not is zero Averro has it in him to
fix what's wrong defensively after giving up two hundred plus
rushing yards in seven straight games. Credit to Mike Kay
of the Charlotte Observer, who's going to join us later
this week, he dug up the stat that, in thirty
five games as the defensive coordinator of the Panthers, is
zero Avero's run defense, or his defense in particular, has
(20:23):
allowed one hundred and twenty yards or more rushing in
twenty six of his thirty five games as defensive coordinator.
That means only nine times they have held an opposing
rushing offense to under one hundred and twenty yards. That's abysmal.
It's awful, terrible, right, So it was a team failure.
They got out coached. Dave Canalis said yesterday in the
(20:47):
press conference that they watched the tape. He got the
sins from his players that they all knew that you know,
they they failed. I mean point playing period. They failed
on Sunday in coming out prepared, and it starts with
the head coach. But these players hopefully are taking ownership
of it and are ready to go out and play
a game in Arizona that feels like the biggest Week
(21:07):
two game that we've talked about around here in quite
some time, doesn't it. I mean, I can't recall going
into Week two feeling quite the sense of urgency around
here that we felt for a football team. But yeah,
you go back and watch the film of Carolina on
Sunday and it's just so many unforced errors from the
quarterback to the wide receivers, to the fill in left tackle,
(21:28):
and then you get to defense and I just don't know,
I don't know. I was deeply disappointed in Trevin Wallace. Yes, true,
on Sunday. I mean, you're shaking your head over there, smoke.
I didn't have high hopes for Christian rose Boom. That
wasn't supposed to be his job in the first place.
But I was really really disappointed in Trevin Wallace in
the way that he played out there on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
It was bad.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
Yeah, And you know, I'm starting to get concerned, Kyle,
because I think there's a lot of promise with this
upcoming this draft class here that Dan Morgan just had
back in the twenty twenty five, But that twenty twenty
four draft class is looking rough right now. Xavier League
at you know, really ended last year on a sour
note and then didn't really do anything to start the
(22:10):
year on the high notes, especially after getting ejected in
the first preseason game. Jonathan Brooks ain't playing this year
because of injuries, and that's you're really starting to get
concerned about that. And I know it's game one a
year or two, but Trevin Wallace didn't really stand out.
And what was the main concern and main complaint by
fans when you drafted Trevin Wallace. Peyton Bleepin Wilson.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Was right there.
Speaker 4 (22:31):
Yeah, and now you've got no debt. Let's be honest,
you got really no defit linebacker right now? If we
were asking about the biggest need today on this team,
it would arguably be just starting the linebacker. And I'm
not talking like superstar type guys. You just want to
get average guys. And right now I don't think you
have any of those guys no on the roster.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
I mean, if we're.
Speaker 4 (22:51):
Looking at it right now, Josie Jewel might have been
the best linebacker you had if.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
He didn't get cut.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
And that's saying something, yeah, because Josie Jewel is not
a great linebacker. A fine linebacker, but he's not a
great line about laceholder. Real quick NASCAR Brawl says KB,
how are you out on excel? But sticking with Bryce,
we've had two years of below average quarterback play. Wow,
we have had one year of excel with half of
it last year him being hurt. It's funny how quickly
(23:16):
we cut bait on one player while giving the other
player numerous opportunities. Well, Nascar Bral, that's actually an easy
question for me to answer. Give a damn showing improvement.
I mean this applies to listen. I think sports are
a great vehicle for life and learning lessons, Like I
don't care if my kids go on to become Division
one or pro athletes. But they're playing sports because sports
(23:38):
teaches you a lot of life lessons. Kirk Cousins recently
talked about you know, he's the guy's made hundreds of
millions of dollars as a quarterback. Doesn't care a bit
if his kids play sports, if they're starting on varsity,
any of that.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
He wants them to be tough.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
If your excel, you made a stupid decision, I mean,
you made a stupid play, like routine stuff, get your
feet down, that's bad enough. But if you can't then
be bothered to block on a credit down in short yardage.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
That's effort. That's give a damn.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Bryce Young went out there when he came off the
bench last year and his first start was in Denver
against maybe the saltiest defense in the NFL, one of
the two or three saltiest defenses in the NFL. And
when he started to turn things around and did show
clear improvement and had a top six passer grade in
the final ten weeks of the season, he was doing
it without feeling on the field with Xcel injured. To
your point, it was like David Moore and Jalen Cocher
(24:27):
and guys like that. Bryce Young has shown improvement and
least at least at his position. Bryce Young has shown
that he cares. Bryce Young has shown leadership. He's the
last guy off the field, listened to his teammates. He's
earned the respect of the locker room. Whether or not
he becomes or remains the franchise quarterback is still very
much TVD. But he's shown you something. Excel as likable
as he is, hasn't shown us anything. And after an
(24:49):
offseason full of I've got to get better, I know
I dropped these balls.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
This stuff can't happen.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
He goes out and makes an awful, awful play on
a ball that would have set them up first and
ten in the red zone and then turns around and
can't be bothered to block. That's what I'm talking about.
Give a damn, Give a damn. That's it. So when
I say I'm out, they're not cutting him just because
the local radio pundit says to cut him. And I
hope he turns it around. But I feel exactly like
(25:15):
Mark Schlaerth felt on the broadcast.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Two days ago.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
You just made a bonehead play that every professional receiver
in the league is expected to make and then you
can't be bothered to put a hat on somebody. Why
are you on the football field? Then what you saw
you to your teammates. If you can't do the basics
like that, Yeah, it's just stuff like that. It's fundamentals.
And unfortunately Xavier did not do to fundamentals.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
He was on the hash and still couldn't get two
feet in bounds on that play where he should have
caught the ball and got it to the nineteen yard line.
And if he catches the ball, there's a good chance
you possibly score touchdown because you all got nineteen yards,
you got one minute left in the half. Still think
they had a timeout or two in their back pocket.
And also if they scored a touchdown, it's a seven
point game going into halftime instead of what turned out
(25:56):
to be a seventeen point game. Because they didn't played
soft cover, they were able to get a big gain
in the middle of the field and get a field goal.
So that completely changed the dichotomy of the game. And
we're not saying that he's officially done for that. We're
just going to have to write out this contract because
it can change. But he's got to change his mindset.
He's got to change everything about him. A prime example
of this is on that same offense, Chewba Hubbard. I
(26:18):
remember us in twenty twenty two after the Week two
loss to the New York Giants, when he muffed that
opening kickoff. We were just all done with Chewba Hubbard
like this, This is a waste of the pick. Get
rid of him, get someone else, get so and so
on and so forth. Now Chewba Hubbard just got a
massive contract extension and we all kind of view him
as the most reliable guy that is a weapon on
(26:38):
the offense outside of catching the football, which is still
kind of iffy.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
So it can change.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
It's just Xavier's got to put into work and he's
got to keep his nose to the grindstone and just
stop making these mistakes. Yes they're fixable, but he's got
to fix them.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Well to see Dog and Denver just said, we keep
talking about two plays from Maxcel. How many bad plays
did Bryce make? Brother, He's the quarterback. He touches the
ball on every single snap. Xhal got seven targets on Sunday.
They are not the same. Again, I can't say this enough.
If Bryce continues to turn the football over. Get him
out of there, go find another quarterback. Nobody's here to
coddle Bryce Young. He didn't play well enough on Sunday.
(27:14):
He didn't, but he didn't play as badly as a
lot of y'all like to point it out or make
it out to be, because a lot of you want
him out to begin with, and that's okay, it's your prerogative.
But many people who study the tape over the past
forty eight hours came away with the same, you know,
type of takeaway. It wasn't. Bryce wasn't the biggest issue.
They had a lot of them, and he contributed to
many turnovers the worst. But I mean, they left a
(27:35):
lot of plays on the field that could have led
to touchdowns. And maybe today instead of burying them, were
touting them for their resilience. If the catch gets made
by j T. Sanders up the sideline, you know, if
Tenoro McMillan goes up and makes that grab in the
end zone on a perfect ball. By the way, if
Austin Corbett doesn't pick up the downfield penalty, just so
on and so forth. So yes, Bryce made mistakes. Nobody's
(27:55):
denying that, but it's effort. It's give a damn. It's culture.
All you hear about is culture, culture.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Culture.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
We want our kind of guys, football dudes, guys who
live it, breathe it, obsessed with it. Here to do
the right things. And you can't block after you've already
made a critical mistake. Get off the football field. And
if Jalen Coker had been available on Sunday, I do
wonder if we'd have seen excel at all the rest
of the afternoon. I have to worry. I wonder about that.
Seven O four five, seven ninety six ten. Hit us
up on the FanDuel text line. Donald is up first
(28:21):
on the phone lines here on a Tuesday. What's going on? Man?
Speaker 2 (28:23):
How are you? Man? I love it, kV I love it.
Speaker 5 (28:27):
My first time calling it anything your show, brother.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
I love how you guys putting it down.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Y'all ain't tick you know, smoke y'all tell them like
you should be told.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Man, I love it. I love it. The other guys
on the other show, they'd be.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Cutting on some slack man with you guys giving it.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
To them guys.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Man, But I mean, I got a couple of questions,
so have Dave can now at the head coach.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Did he ever play football at all of himself?
Speaker 6 (28:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (28:51):
He played in college. Yeah he was college. He was
a college wide receiver.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Okay, So would you think anything would have been different
we still had Steve Wilks at the head coach.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Well yeah, I mean listen, I think you could argue
yes for sure.
Speaker 5 (29:10):
Great.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Well, I'm good.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
I'm sitting that list to the risks guy, show the
risk of eaton man, do a good job.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
That guy's doing a good job.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Donald, you man, I appreciate you, buddy, appreciate the phone call.
I was actually thinking about that earlier today, you know,
with the whole Dave saying, I've been pushing for the defensive,
the young guys to play more on defense. You're the
head coach. You don't have to push, you don't have
to lobby, just decree it. Hey, hey guys, we're playing
the young guys more. I want to see more snaps
for the young guys on Sunday. And you know I
heard Mack and Bone like, is he appeal to paint
(29:35):
off the walls? Screamer and yeller. We need somebody on
the sideline who's lighting these boys asses. Up Ron Rivera
was really good. At that, it's well, hold on, hold on, though,
but there's a there's truth to that. But Ron had
a level of credibility that a lot of coaches don't have. Okay,
you don't have to have been an NFL star to
be a great head coach, but for God's sake, Ron
(29:56):
played on the eighty five bears. If Ron called you soft,
if Ron told you to do something, if Ron got
in your ass for something, Ron was coming from a
place of credibility that a lot of coaches don't have.
That ain't Dave Canalis as m Dave Canalis was probably
a fine small college wide receiver, and he's a smart
guy and all that, but they are not the same.
And Dave Canallis cannot peel the paint off the walls
and get in the face of six six, three hundred
(30:18):
pound defensive linemen the way that Ron Rivera probably could
back and then we did.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
We saw him do it well that and I was
laughing because same.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Thing for Steve Wilks, to a degree, that's a hard
nose dude. You don't mess with him.
Speaker 4 (30:27):
In twenty eleven and twenty twelve, everyone was just saying,
he's just standing there on the sidelines, Ron Rivera do
something yelk, the officials do something like that, and now
we're having the same conversations nearly fifteen years later when
it comes to Dave callous. But as you pointed out,
they're two completely different coaches. Both ways can work.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
You know.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
Dave has just gotta I think, find his voice in
some ways. I remember yesterday someone called in saying, maybe
Dave Canalis needs to have a conversation similar or akin
to what Ron Rivera credits as one of his best
conversations that helped him grow when he talked to John
Badden back in twenty thirteen. It has to be something
like that, because this is still year two for him.
He's still learning. But yeah, he did himself no favors
(31:06):
by saying I get a talk with coach of Vera's Like, dude,
just saying because Aavera is on fin ice and you
could be on finn Ice too if you don't completely
If they.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
Give up two hundred plus yards rushing again on Sunday,
they ought to let Todd wash the call the defense
the rest of the year as far as I'm concerned.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
All right, let's go to smoke on the headlines. Who
is smoke? Where is smoked? Where there's smoke, there's fire.
Let's go. What you got, all right?
Speaker 4 (31:31):
Some big news coming out of Denver, Colorado, not North
Carolina or earlier today. The Broncos have announced a plan
to build a new stadium with a retractable roof in
the heart of Denver to replace Mile High Stadium.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Give it. What's the biggest part of that story?
Speaker 4 (31:45):
Well, Kyle, the Walter Pender Group will fund it entirely
with the hope of being ready for the twenty thirty
one season.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
You mean, a wealthy family, wealthy ownership group is going
to pay for their own stadium.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
How about that? So it is pot Well we knew
that all ready.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
With a count because they're getting paid. They got four
hundred billion network. You know when you have one billion,
five billion?
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Gotcha? Gotcha? Just check in on that.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
So it's possible again to not ask taxpayers to build
your football stadium.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Anyway. What else you got? All right?
Speaker 4 (32:15):
So, speaking of a lot of money, Illinois, we got
to keep an eye on them moving forward, Kyle. Because
the University of Illinois alumnus Larry G's made a one
hundred million dollar gift to the Illinois Division of Intercollegiate Athletics,
the largest gift into history of the department, one hundred
million dollars.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Now going to the fighting a line on.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
Brett Bielam is going to be in the playoff very soon,
very very soon.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
That may sound crazy to some people.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Well that's going to bring us back to the Nick
Saban quote from a couple of days ago too.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
We got to talk about that.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
But when we return Nick Carboni, NBC Charlotte his Tuesday
conversation Next Sports Radio ninety two seven WFNZH, the FanDuel
(33:16):
text line humming just like it was yesterday. It's spillover Tuesday,
slept on it Tuesday. It's football season. We've got one
result at chew On. It was a really bad one.
And yesterday the phone lines, the text line were justin fuego,
and today we try to fit in all the callers
that we couldn't get to yesterday. So coming back to
the phone line, shortly fill up, everybody, Hang tight. We
(33:37):
have Ryan McGee ESPN back at four twenty five for
his weekly conversation college football and some Nascar coming your way.
And then Al Wallace, former Carolina Panther defensive end back
at five twenty five. He's also color analyst for the
Charlotte forty nine Ers Radio network. We'll get his thoughts
on pretty ugly start to the Tim albin Era, but
nothing to panic about, of course, because he's facing a
(33:59):
very real ground up rebuild. So we'll get to all that,
but we get back to a regular weekly conversation on
this show that we always look forward to. Nick Carbony,
NBC Charlotte Sports Director sports anchor, is back with us
on the hot line. Nick Carbone, what's going on?
Speaker 4 (34:13):
Brother?
Speaker 2 (34:14):
How are you this week?
Speaker 6 (34:15):
What's going ok?
Speaker 2 (34:16):
At least the weather is nice and Charlotte right incredible. Oh,
it feels so good. There's no doubt about that. Let's
get right to it.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
Nick, your thoughts on a twenty six to ten ugly
loss in Jacksonville Sunday.
Speaker 6 (34:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
I think the.
Speaker 6 (34:30):
Biggest questions going into the season were could the Panthers
build off the momentum that they had coming out of
last season at the end of the season, and more specifically,
could bryce Young start this season how he finished last season?
And from hot sticky and see me Duval County Man.
The resounding answer to both of those questions were a no.
(34:54):
I do see some silver linings if you want to
call him that, and positives which I can get to.
But I think the most disappointing thing was, and Dave
Canalis has said this basically in two consecutive days now,
was that the team just didn't appear to be ready
to play in that opening game. The coaching staff for
whatever reason. And there's a couple of excuses you probably
(35:15):
could use, but none of them are really good enough.
They didn't look as cohesive and as comfortable together after
having a year and changed together than a Jacksonville team
that had a brand new staff, rookie head coach and
rookie coordinators. And I just I don't think there's any
excuse for that when it comes to the coaching staff
(35:35):
or even the a lot of the veterans on this
football team to put that product out there Week one.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
You know, I had vowed going into the year, I
was not picking them to win at all on our
pregame show again until they showed they could actually win
some football games. So I already felt that way. But
when the ikey Aquanu news came down two and a
half weeks ago or whenever that was, I guess two
weeks ago. At this point, I got a really, really
sick feeling in my stomach because it just I didn't
think it, you know, would bode well. I thought they
(36:02):
would go to Niemen, who I don't trust, and he
validated that on Sunday with a twenty seven passer protection
grade and six pressures allowed. How much do you think
Ikey's absence ultimately ended up impacting that game?
Speaker 6 (36:16):
Honestly? And I know those advanced stats spared out and
some of them aren't even even advanced, they're just octape, right.
I mean, he did get beat a few times there.
I don't think that was like the overwhelming reason that
things didn't work on offense. I think you also factor
in the disruption in the receiver room, mistakes by the
(36:37):
receivers offensively, turnovers by Bryce Young, two of at least
two of which were completely avoidable, and then you you know,
not to give the coaching staff an excuse, because they
should be kind of a year better than a rookie
coaching staff, but I mean, they really had no idea
what to expect from Jacksonville's defense. I mean, they had
(36:59):
familiarity with lean call it, but they had a completely
rookie defensive coordinator on the other side, who I thought
did a pretty nice job. And you know, it's probably
pretty pretty difficult to know what the heck they're going
to do week one. That's why I don't think they
were too worried about what they were going to do
with Travis Hunter. I think they were more worried about
what they were going to do in general on defense.
(37:19):
So by the time maybe they started to figure it
out its way way way too late. They didn't score
it till for five minutes to go, and by that
Jacksonville kind of just you know, letting you take a
little more. So, you know, I think it was all
those combined. I don't think it's exactly on yosh Niman
for sure, but getting Icky back is certainly going to help.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
What you know, I caught a little flat from a
couple of people, not many, but I was pretty harsh
about Excel on Sunday. I'm out at this point Nick
until unless he wants to prove otherwise. Because between the
lack of the toe drag, which is bad enough because
that's routine stuff and he had half an acre to
go his foot down, but then following that up with
refusing to block on a short yardage situation. Like, to me,
(37:59):
it's screams you don't get it that you've spent all
this time being a social media star folks loving on
your accent and being from mull In, South Carolina and
being an outdoor boy and everything else. Like all that
stuff is fine, but when you play into it, you
open yourself up to a lot of criticism if you
don't perform. And when you open up the season with
that kind of bone headed stuff, it calls into question
(38:20):
whether whether or not you truly get it. From my perspective,
how do you feel about that?
Speaker 6 (38:25):
Yeah, he had about as bad of a day as
anybody on that football team did. And a lot of
people on that football team had a bad day, right,
I mean you have to have to. I mean, high
school kids on Friday night KP get in bounds on
that play nine times out of head and if they don't,
they get chewed out by their high school football coach.
It was completely inexcusable. Yeah, maybe the effort on the
(38:47):
short yardage, the miscommunication with Bryce on that fourth down
play where you know, we all were convinced Bryce just
kind of gave up and flung it away. Maybe he did,
but he clearly thought XL was going to be in
a different area. And you know Bryce's reaction said to me, like,
Xcel should have been in that area on that play,
(39:09):
given whatever they were looking at on defense. So you
know a lot of people are probably out on him
like you are, but the Panthers cannot afford to be
out on Exavier league get at least not right now.
I think he will have better moments, but he's got
a lot to make up for. He's got an uphill climb,
given the kind of hole he's dug himself in early
(39:30):
in his career here with the drops last year in
those big moments, and then coming into this year had
to be all about you know, he needs to improve. Okay,
then Adam Feeling is traded. We're gonna need you to
get on that right away, Xcel. Oh, and then Jalen
Poker is injured. Now we really need it, and we
need it now, and the team didn't get what they
(39:51):
needed from him in Game one.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
Nick Carboni, NBC Charlotte Sports Director, Sports anchor hanging out
with us for a Tuesday conversation and TC just says,
you're out on excel. So are you out on Dave Canalis?
I mean, not yet, but a few more of those thinkers.
It's gonna be hard not to be if they continue
to look like that. But I guess my question for
you is Dave's Sunday press conference. Like a lot of coaches,
(40:15):
you know, it's it's good to have them, but they
don't watch the tape and can be more informed on
things until Monday. I thought yesterday there were some comments
that really stuck out. What did you think of his
Monday press conference after he watched the tape?
Speaker 6 (40:27):
I thought the comment that stuck out the most was
that he's pushing for younger players to play on defense,
which begs the question, aren't you the one who decides
that that is nuanced? I'm the son of a football coach,
full disclosure, and I know football coaches don't want to
put young dudes out there like that is just part
of their DNA, and so maybe that is some of
(40:48):
what is happening with Guero Rivero. He trusts Nick Scott
to you know, I at least know the system and
be in the right place, although when he's in the
right place, he doesn't generally make the play which we
saw bear out on the field on Sunday. You put
in laythan Ransom, which I think they will eventually and
a lot of people want to do. Now you're putting
(41:08):
in somebody who may not be in the right place,
but may still make a play somewhere else because he's
just that, you know, good of an athlete and good
of a playmaker. I do think you need to get
more snaps for Lathan Ransom. You absolutely need to get
more from Nick Gorton and Princely Human Miellen being way
behind all game doesn't help you put young pass rushers
(41:30):
on the field anymore. I totally understand that. So I
think that was one of the things that stood out
for sure. The other thing that stood out was, you know,
do you need to work with Bryce on his sliding?
It was just like a quick app you know, maybe
I think Bryce Young absolutely needs to work on his sliding.
That was kind of similar, if I'm not mistaken, that
(41:50):
kind of stumble fumble to what he did against Dallas
and Michael Parson's last year where he's got tripped up
and exposed the football. And these guys are professional athletes
on defense too, They're gonna pop that they are looking for,
that he has to work on. That it is year three,
so I guess those two things would be the first
two things that stood out to me, you know, Sunday
(42:13):
saying the team seems surprised about how poorly they played,
you know, I'm not sure. I think a lot of
people were disappointed. I'm not sure how surprised they were,
given that the preseason game results didn't look that great
and then they were kind of cut short. And that
leads you to the preseason debate. I don't think everybody
needs to play in the preseason around the league. I
(42:34):
think this group does and did need to play more.
Speaker 3 (42:36):
I agree, all right, Any any thoughts on Arizona Sunday?
They all feel big because there are only seventeen of them,
But I can't recall feeling more anxiety and more pressure
on a week two game for Carolina since I've been here.
What do you think about the Arizona and the feeling
around it going into this game?
Speaker 6 (42:54):
Buddy James Connor's tying a big old cloth napkin around
his neck right now and licking his chops. He's read
at a bus one for seventy one, just like hed
ended on Sunday for Jacksonville. Listen, it's another road game.
They are heavily the underdog, I think actually doublely so
than they were having in a Jacksonville. Man, I don't
(43:16):
want to sound crazy, because I've just spent the last
ten minutes, you know, talking about everything that went wrong
on Sunday and how the team wasn't ready. Like I
think they will be more ready to play in this
game because they just took one on the chin and
got embarrassed not just locally but nationally and lost twenty
six to ten, and it could have been worse to
(43:38):
a team that didn't make the playoffs last year, and
it is like a dark horse to make the playoffs
this year with a completely rookie head coaching stab. So
I do think they will be more ready. There always
does seem to be something about Arizona that the Panthers,
no matter who the coach or personnel is, has success
with Arizona, still hasn't seen to kind of They have
(44:01):
been spinning their wheels in a sense too for the
last handful of years. I really like Tediro McMillan, and
I wanted to bring that up because I think he
looks the part of a top ten wide receiver, and
I think he's gonna really you know, you talk about
kind of fixing your mistakes. If he even made a
few mistakes last week, I think he's the guy that
we saw all training camp. He made a mistake, next
(44:23):
time out, he fixed it, And I think he's gonna
be really looking to do that in Arizona, where he
played college. So I'm not predicting a win, but I'm
predicting a more ready and competitive team because they have
egg on his faith.
Speaker 3 (44:34):
Well, now, I know you were going to do this
entire interview without letting us know that today's your birthday.
But I've been reliably informed on the text line that
today is in fact your birthday.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
So happy birthday, buddy. How old are you?
Speaker 6 (44:45):
Well in the wise words of a I don't want
to say, great college football coach, come after me, Kyle Bailey,
I am a man. I am forty.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
Whoa dude?
Speaker 3 (44:57):
Really, congratulations, I'm going to be forty in like two months.
Speaker 6 (45:00):
This is the peak right here, buddy. I'll tell you.
I'll let you know how it is.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
Damn, I'll let you know how it is.
Speaker 3 (45:07):
Happy birthday, brother. You don't look a day Over twenty nine.
We appreciate your man to talk to you.
Speaker 6 (45:11):
You appreciate that. Alright, make up is the heck of
a drug.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
Hey be good man. There you go.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
Nick CARBONI forty years young today. How about that. I'm
joining the forty club in November. It's pretty wild. Somebody
asked me the other day, you're gonna throw a birthday
party for yourself? And I haven't had a birthday party.
I think the last birthday party I had was like
early twenties kegger.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
With the boys. I didn't even do that. Oh yeah, No.
Speaker 3 (45:35):
I threw a couple of like rager birthday parties, you know,
two three kegs, like a couple hundred people. We did
that like in my twenties. But I don't think I've
thrown a birthday party for myself since I was like
twenty three, twenty four. I haven't done it since I
was like twelve. It's a different kind of birthday party.
But I think I think the answer is yes. I've
gone back and forth, but I think I might throw
(45:55):
a rager for my fortieth birthday this year.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
All right, nobody cares. We'll come back.
Speaker 3 (45:59):
Our number two best audio in sports will squeeze in
some phone calls. Fun show Ahead Sports Radio ninety two
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