The Kyle Bailey Show: Nick Carboni

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
But first I got a visit with my buddy Nick Carbony,
NBC Charlotte Sports director, sports anchor. He's there at Panthers practice.
He's got eyes on things and he's here to report back.
Nick Carbonie, what's going on? How were you?

Speaker 2 (00:11):
What's up, buddy? I'm good? How are you? Daniel Jones
has a family, Kyle, and they live here, so be
careful now.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Well, I mean, they're not going to arrest me. It
wasn't very nice, but it made me laugh, so I
had have to read it. You were there I practice today.
Apparently out of Saturday's you know, disappointment against the Texans,
Dave Canalis said that he gave him the old you
know practice and worked hard for the gipper speech this morning,
and apparently that manifested itself in multiple practice fights today.

(00:38):
What'd you see?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yeah? Look, I mean these guys have been going at
it for the better part of a month now. There
has been shippiness and chirping since Mini camp, as has
been well documented. Another hot, humid day padded practice, you know,
obviously not the greatest feeling coming out of that weekend
in Houston, so not really prize that offense defense and

(01:01):
some of these guys that have been John got into
it a little bit and and there was some spill
over to after, but you know, sounds like team leadership
kind of got a hold of things and and even
had guys running gassers and and left things on a
positive note, or as much as there can be of
one when there's a little bit of fightiness of practice.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
So I said yesterday and I stand by it today.
I'm not freaking out. I'm not pressing the panic button.
But I was annoyed on Saturday, Nick, and I get
to sense the coaching staff was a little bit annoyed to.
And we had Steve Smith on yesterday, and you know,
Steve was absolutely right to point out that Houston's defense
was really good last year and will be among the best,
if not even the best, in the league this year.
So it's not as if they were facing a bunch

(01:43):
of bums out there on Saturday. But how disappointing was
that effort in your eyes?

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Well, yeah, and you will play good defenses in the NFL,
not all of them, but they're they're they're not all
gonna You're not always going to go up against. No
disrespect to the Cleveland Browns, but you're not always going
to go up against that squad and had that and
and their their two's and have that opportunity. Yeah, I
thought after the game was, you know, about as disappointed

(02:08):
as you can hear Dave Canalis and his voice and
his tone and his comments just sloppy. And there are
a lot of things that were leading up to that
game that were sloppy, and joint practices and practices here
with the pre snap stuff and the operations. So some
of that's tough. Honestly, wasn't all that surprising, And then
you get into the depth of the defense or lack thereof,

(02:29):
and other teams are able to have more success than
you'd like. So Yeah, the surprising thing to me was
not putting Bryce Young and the starters back out there
once more, knowing that you absolutely are not playing them
or most of them Thursday night here at home against Pittsburgh.
Would have like to see a little bit more of
a sample size and oh and two, but you know,

(02:51):
I've been I've been there all camp. I've seen the comfortability,
the confidence that Bryce Young has had. I've seen the
continuity continuity that the offensive line has had. I think
all of the receivers that we talk about. You know
that our locks to make this roster are going to
be helpful cont contributors this season. So offensively, I'm not

(03:14):
putting too much stock into what happens Saturday, but you
want to play better football at all levels and all
phases and at all depths of this team. So it
was not a good outing.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
No, Nick Carboni hanging out with us talking about the
Panthers practice earlier today. Nick I, you know one of
my I don't know the things that have annoyed me, right,
I'll keep using that word. We got an offensive head
coach in town. Why can't they seem to find any
more success offensively with the backups? Like when their backups
are facing other backups, Like, isn't that a sign of

(03:48):
a good offensive system that you can plug and play?
And I realized defense is different, right, but like, and
it's a little bit more difficult offensively. But one of
my pet peeves or something that's annoyed me about this
preseason so far, and maybe just the lack of depth
on this team, is that you've got this offensive head coach,
but you know, the backups offensively never seem to find
much success Is that a valid criticism to you?

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah, I guess, I mean I haven't. I've seen them
have their moments with Andy Dalton and even connecting with
Jimmy Horn. The operation though, and when you plug a
backup offensive lineman into the middle of the line and
there's a sack and a three and out right away,
that is that is concerning if that's the way that
you're going. Yeah, I think that is a valid point

(04:32):
and a valid argument. I'm much more concerned about the
depth defensively that maybe I haven't paid much attention to
what's happening when the Panther starters leave the game because
I think where this team and this program as they
like to think of themselves is right now. If a
lot of those offensive starters are out, the personnel behind

(04:52):
them doesn't lead to winning football. It's just not the
way it is at the moment. I will say the
running back room, maybe he has a leg up in
that department, But yeah, this is a this is an
offense that is going to need this current group of
personnel to be at its best every single Sunday to
possibly even overcome some of the defensive issues yet again

(05:15):
this year. But valid point, Uh, not something I've been
keyed in on, to be honest, this camp and this
this preseason, because I've been wondering when this defense is
gonna kind of come together. But I thought Dave can Allison,
the offense is staff did a good job last year.
You know, Listen, Bryce got overwhelmed in the first two weeks.
But other than that, when he came back or when
Dolphin was in there, I thought guys were open that

(05:37):
weren't open the year before. I saw things that that
you know, looked more like the modern NFL than I
had in a couple of years here. So I still
give them some credit for modernizing things and bringing a
system that can work and can work with Bryce Young specifically, since.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
The weekend Nick, the Panthers have come up multiple times
as a potential trade suitor for Trey Hendrickson and Cincinnati
DraftKings yesterday, going so far as to have the Panthers
with the second highest odds to to land Hendrickson behind
only the Bengals where he is right now, that a
lot of folks say, no, they don't think the Panthers
are in a position to do this, what say you?

Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yeah? So it sounds like what it's going to be
a future first round pick and a defensive player, is
what I'm seeing. Cincinnati is gonna want back. And it's
not so much about that or the sixteen million dollars
that Hendrickson is due to make this year. It's, of
course about what it's about in Cincinnati, the other Queen city,
and that's the long term contract that he wants at
thirty years old, and you know he's demanding from the

(06:38):
team that made a move for him a couple of
years ago and gave him a home. So I don't
in my mind the Panthers aren't in a place to
be doing that right now. But I see it working
out absolutely because I think he's still a heck of
a football player and he gives this team exactly what
it hasn't had for years. But this is a team

(06:59):
that also just drafted to ascending pass rushers in Skorton
and Uman Miellen and needs to give them a lot
of run on the field. So I don't see it
happening right now. Nothing against the player, but it's more
about the contract and kind of where the Panthers are
right now. I think they still want to develop guys
and develop as a team. Trey Hendrickson is obviously a

(07:23):
finished product who'd probably be more suited to a contender,
but interesting that they're in the mix for sure.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
Hi, before I let you go, boys, Charlotte FFC went
from just dreadful and in spiraling the drain to blazing
hot again. What do you think about them?

Speaker 2 (07:38):
You know, they're getting back to the fundamentals, the kind
of the basics that have made them who they are
the last couple of years under Dean Smith with the
defensive play Klina in net and now you've bolster the
goalkeeping with Colander from Inter Miami. Zaha is just absolutely
coming on right now. Toklamati has really shown more, I

(08:00):
would say, pewer goal scoring prowess than even Patrick Gageman,
who was a player I really really liked. And they're
showing that they can stay afloat here while Pep Biel
is on the end and he looks to make a comeback.
So this team was had a goal in mind of
top four to start the season and started that way

(08:20):
and took themselves well out of it for a while.
But now they can shoot for that again and if
they fall short, maybe they're at the five spot. So
I think good things are going to continue to come.
I like the moves that they've made. Haven't mortgage the future.
I like the move that they are continuing to make
with the Milanda move this week, where it helps you

(08:40):
for the rest of the year and then can help
you in the future. So it's good to have them
back and form because boy, you know, they look like
they were really freighting and I was wondering what may
come next for the manager, the franchise and all of that.
But they've gotten on the right track. They are one
of the best teams in the East. They may not
have the top you know, a couple of records to

(09:02):
show for it and the top two three points to
show for it, but I think they're going to be
a force to be reckoned with down the stretch.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
Thank you, buddy, Always appreciate your time, your insight. We'll
see you here in a couple of days. You got
a KB