December 22, 2025 • 11 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Steve Smith, senior Panthers legend, aged eighty nine, NFL Network analyst,
back with us on a Monday, Steve, what's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Brother? Happy? Earlier Mary? Early Christmas? How are you?
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Man? I'm doing good? So let me get this right.
The Panthers win, They're leading the Nancy South and the
radio station. Haven't technical difficulties? Don't nobody have time for
that matter?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Bro, you didn't hear what happened yesterday?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Did you?
Speaker 1 (00:25):
We got to the dog house to do the pregame show,
catastrophic equipment failure. We have to bust it down here
four minutes from showtime to get back to the home studio.
We're thinking like this is a sign of terrible things
to come on a Sunday. Turns out it was just
the penance we had to pay to get a win yesterday.
That's all it was.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
So you're including your technical difficulty of why the Panthers won.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Absolutely, dude. Are you not a sports fan?
Speaker 1 (00:50):
These inane superstitions are what there are LIFETI love of
sports fans, I.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Know, I just I just wanted to hear you go
ahead and walk through it like I knew you was.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Yeah, I would walk up to Derek Brown and be like,
just so you know, you're welcome for what we did
for you.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
You know what I mean? Like, that's how much I know.
I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't do that.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
No, you wouldn't, But there are people who have.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
So what listen, bottom line, you played a lot of
big games. You know what it takes to win them.
What impressed you the most yesterday? What was the most
impressive thing?
Speaker 3 (01:22):
The most impressive thing? It was a nail bier, right,
we know that what was most impressive is the ability
to neutralize this offense the Tempa Bay Buccaneers, because you know,
outside of the outlier of playing you know, Baker Mayfield
and the Tempa Bay Buccaneers, they've been kind of on
(01:44):
the skid that they've been inconsistent, and when you're playing
in your division, inconsistency still does not factor in familiarity,
and I thought that was something that to see both
teams struggle, however, make adjustments, right, that is going to
(02:06):
be the biggest difference for the Carolina Panthers the next
two games, and obviously hitting into the playoffs is based
on what adjustments do you make in the second half
when you already have enough data information to kind of
let you know what you should or shouldn't be doing
(02:27):
based off the first half.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
You know, I thought it was interesting yesterday they tried
to run away from Derek Brown a lot, and that's
what I do, no.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Try, well, it was a conscious effort. Theyone was still
wreckon show.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
He was, And that's what I do too. If I
was an offensive coordinator, I run away from him. I mean,
he's a monster. But you know, when they did run
at him, it didn't work well. But like, just overall
watching the tape, maybe rewatching the game, what did that
defense really do well? That stood out to you because
they they were kind of aligned coming out of the
Saints game.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Yeah, well, what I think they did is they played
solid football for four quarters. Right? Was it perfect? No? Right?
Perfect doesn't. Practice doesn't make perfect. That's what practice is
for improvement. And you can see based off last week
this team has improved. And that's all you want from
(03:17):
your team is to have those guys improve weekend and
week out, because you know each week is a new test,
a new opponent, a new headache, maybe their defensive tackle
this week, but then next week is the middle linebacker.
So every week you have a key defensive player that
(03:38):
you try to have to neutralize, and I thought they
did a you know, I thought the Panthers did a
really good job of neutralizing offense and defensively. I would
liked to, I think, like to see them run the
football a little bit more to get that going. But
it's a win, and so you got to just take
(03:59):
it for what it is.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
I was in the postgame press conference yesterday, and I
forget who it was. Somebody asked Bryce kind of jokingly,
are you a running quarterback now? And he got a
kick out of that. He laughed pretty hard. But man,
he's made some plays with his feet as of late. Man, yesterday,
I think just twenty yards rushing, but a couple of
big runs. Had a couple of the week prior to
you know, because he's a smaller guy, I think everybody's
holding their breath collectively when he gets out there. But
(04:23):
you know, he does seem to have pretty good instincts.
He keeps getting back up. What do you think of
the way that he's made plays with his legs these
last couple of weeks.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
I love the way he's made the plays and he's
done a really good job. Now you you and I
both know you can. You can scramble and still miss
guys wide open, but you can if and as long
as you make it right by getting the ball where
(04:51):
it needs to go, then it's great. But you know
there's a few errors made. If you would have stayed
on the right side to Jimmy Horne, he would have
had the first down instead of making it a little
bit more difficult. But you know that's just part of it.
You know, you aren't in the pocket with him, so
you don't know what he saw or didn't see. So
that's it.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Yeah, I mean, they've really they've confined Jimmy to I
think a handful of gadget plays. The kids made a
couple of great catches, don't get me wrong. But do
you think that they're just kind of protecting him in
the way they're limiting his participation right now?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Can he do more over the next couple of weeks?
Speaker 3 (05:27):
You know that is always a tough thing, and you'll
never get the real answer right. And here's why I
say you'll never get the right answer. People draft players
all the time, and they release them a lot earlier
than expected. Do they ever come out and say, hey,
we made a mistake rarely okay, So it's not even
(05:53):
can he or are they trying to protect him? There's
a lot that goes into playing a position of anything
in the National Football League, and it can be a
little bit tougher if you were not maybe given the
responsibilities before. And I'm not saying that is the case,
(06:14):
but I kind of am because I know pash she
Hermer's offense and he hasn't really been good. And if
you watch Colorado, they're moving on as well. So I
don't necessarily throw that on Jimmy. I just mainly throw
it on Hey. In college, we played when I was
at Utah, we played number system, so they told us, hey,
these are the numbers with the protection. Then I got
(06:36):
drafted by the Carolina Panthers and George sea for in
the West Coast and it was all words, no numbers.
So it just takes some adjustments to figure things out.
And I think that's what he's doing. They're trying to
figure out what he does well. But you also got
to remember they're trying to win, and they're trying to
grow offensively and give guys every opportunity. But at the
(07:01):
same time, you can't experiment at the cost of trying
to win a football game either.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Steve I looked last night and Tedoro McMillan is the
odds on favorite to be the offensive rookie of the
Year in the NFL. We got two weeks left to go.
We'll see what happens, but he's the odds on betting
favorite to be the offensive rookie of the Year in
the NFL. What do you think about that? And where's
he grown the most?
Speaker 3 (07:23):
I mean, what he's grown the most is making the
big catches, you know. I think the biggest thing that's
been a little bit surprising I would love is, you know,
we talked about his size. You talk about this and
that I haven't really seen him most anybody yet. That's
the one area that I would love to just see
him just because of his size and because of him
going up in high point of football. He's done a
(07:46):
really good job. He's worked on releases, he's he's he
was not as polished on creating him self free access
and I think also too right, he hit a wall.
Everybody hits a wall, every rookie hits a wall. For
him to bounce back and to really focus in and
not allow the lack of targets to affect his effort, Steve.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
For the last five weeks, Bryce has played good to
very good football. Not always gaudy numbers, but you know,
limiting turnovers, ten touchdowns, two picks in the last five
games up to twelve game winning drives all that. There's
been a lot of questions about this kid, and I'm
sure we'll keep asking at least some, but it seems
like he's continuing to get better and grow up, which
is all you can ask. What are you noticing from
(08:33):
him right now? What stood out to you yesterday but
yesterday about the way that he played.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Stood out to me yesterday is just making the right decisions,
not trying to not He didn't drop his eyes as
much as he has in the pass like the rush
getting to him. He still make good decisions, got the
ball out quick, took what the defense was giving him. Yes,
the optics weren't great, meaning you know when the rush
comes and you got people wide open, but you just
(08:59):
thought it the feet of the offensive guy because of pressure. Man,
you gotta live to play another down, and that's what
he's been doing. Instead of making some of those making
some of those strolls or indecisive throws that lead to
turnovers that he was doing earlier in the season.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
All right, last thing, Seattle coming in next week. I'm
out the rest of the week. I won't get to
talk about it, but I'll be back for the game
on Sunday. You've seen a lot of them. I've seen
plenty of them too. They're coming off a thrilling win
on Thursday Night Football. It's a very good team and
they're led by Sam Donald. What are your general expectations
for this game?
Speaker 3 (09:35):
My general expectations. It's gonna be a physical game. You know,
you talk about the Carolina Panthers and they're trying to
lock up the NFC South. We're talking about playoffs. Getting
out there, give yourself a chance. Nothing's better than give
yourself a chance against the team who is playing playoff
by football. Right, there's no question that the Seattle Seahawks
(09:57):
are not going to the playoffs. There have been questions,
and there's two big questions, and Seattle happens to be
in the way of it. Can and will the Carolina
Panthers make it to the playoffs, and they have their
big tests right now. I know they've played some really
good football against some playoff teams, against Green Bay and
(10:18):
all that stuff. Yes, but every week he got to
prove it. So I'm excited to see what they can
do with them. Sam Donald's playing well, you know, it's
not the Sam Donald that we have known and seen.
Some of the picks he has had actually hasn't been
on him. But for the most part, there's going to
be a really tough, physical game and Mike Jack has
(10:42):
been playing excellent football. That corner, well, that was his
former team. He should know him very well, so he
should be a very good attribute to have in the
defensive meeting rooms to let them know, here's what the
cadence are, here's a little some of the simple things. Yes,
teams are just but me it still stays the same.
So well, it'll be interesting to see how his knowledge
(11:04):
of his former team can help him prepare and get
ready for a challenging wide receiver corp.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
I like that point. Merry Christmas, brother, thank you for everything.
As always, We'll talk to you next Monday.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Appreciate it.
Steve Smith, senior Panthers legend, aged eighty nine, NFL Network analyst,
back with us on a Monday, Steve, what's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Brother? Happy? Earlier Mary? Early Christmas? How are you?
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Man? I'm doing good? So let me get this right.
The Panthers win, They're leading the Nancy South and the
radio station. Haven't technical difficulties? Don't nobody have time for
that matter?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Bro, you didn't hear what happened yesterday?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Did you?
Speaker 1 (00:25):
We got to the dog house to do the pregame show,
catastrophic equipment failure. We have to bust it down here
four minutes from showtime to get back to the home studio.
We're thinking like this is a sign of terrible things
to come on a Sunday. Turns out it was just
the penance we had to pay to get a win yesterday.
That's all it was.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
So you're including your technical difficulty of why the Panthers won.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Absolutely, dude. Are you not a sports fan?
Speaker 1 (00:50):
These inane superstitions are what there are LIFETI love of
sports fans, I.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Know, I just I just wanted to hear you go
ahead and walk through it like I knew you was.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Yeah, I would walk up to Derek Brown and be like,
just so you know, you're welcome for what we did
for you.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
You know what I mean? Like, that's how much I know.
I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't do that.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
No, you wouldn't, But there are people who have.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
So what listen, bottom line, you played a lot of
big games. You know what it takes to win them.
What impressed you the most yesterday? What was the most
impressive thing?
Speaker 3 (01:22):
The most impressive thing? It was a nail bier, right,
we know that what was most impressive is the ability
to neutralize this offense the Tempa Bay Buccaneers, because you know,
outside of the outlier of playing you know, Baker Mayfield
and the Tempa Bay Buccaneers, they've been kind of on
(01:44):
the skid that they've been inconsistent, and when you're playing
in your division, inconsistency still does not factor in familiarity,
and I thought that was something that to see both
teams struggle, however, make adjustments, right, that is going to
(02:06):
be the biggest difference for the Carolina Panthers the next
two games, and obviously hitting into the playoffs is based
on what adjustments do you make in the second half
when you already have enough data information to kind of
let you know what you should or shouldn't be doing
(02:27):
based off the first half.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
You know, I thought it was interesting yesterday they tried
to run away from Derek Brown a lot, and that's
what I do, no.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Try, well, it was a conscious effort. Theyone was still
wreckon show.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
He was, And that's what I do too. If I
was an offensive coordinator, I run away from him. I mean,
he's a monster. But you know, when they did run
at him, it didn't work well. But like, just overall
watching the tape, maybe rewatching the game, what did that
defense really do well? That stood out to you because
they they were kind of aligned coming out of the
Saints game.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Yeah, well, what I think they did is they played
solid football for four quarters. Right? Was it perfect? No? Right?
Perfect doesn't. Practice doesn't make perfect. That's what practice is
for improvement. And you can see based off last week
this team has improved. And that's all you want from
(03:17):
your team is to have those guys improve weekend and
week out, because you know each week is a new test,
a new opponent, a new headache, maybe their defensive tackle
this week, but then next week is the middle linebacker.
So every week you have a key defensive player that
(03:38):
you try to have to neutralize, and I thought they
did a you know, I thought the Panthers did a
really good job of neutralizing offense and defensively. I would
liked to, I think, like to see them run the
football a little bit more to get that going. But
it's a win, and so you got to just take
(03:59):
it for what it is.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
I was in the postgame press conference yesterday, and I
forget who it was. Somebody asked Bryce kind of jokingly,
are you a running quarterback now? And he got a
kick out of that. He laughed pretty hard. But man,
he's made some plays with his feet as of late. Man, yesterday,
I think just twenty yards rushing, but a couple of
big runs. Had a couple of the week prior to
you know, because he's a smaller guy, I think everybody's
holding their breath collectively when he gets out there. But
(04:23):
you know, he does seem to have pretty good instincts.
He keeps getting back up. What do you think of
the way that he's made plays with his legs these
last couple of weeks.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
I love the way he's made the plays and he's
done a really good job. Now you you and I
both know you can. You can scramble and still miss
guys wide open, but you can if and as long
as you make it right by getting the ball where
(04:51):
it needs to go, then it's great. But you know
there's a few errors made. If you would have stayed
on the right side to Jimmy Horne, he would have
had the first down instead of making it a little
bit more difficult. But you know that's just part of it.
You know, you aren't in the pocket with him, so
you don't know what he saw or didn't see. So
that's it.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Yeah, I mean, they've really they've confined Jimmy to I
think a handful of gadget plays. The kids made a
couple of great catches, don't get me wrong. But do
you think that they're just kind of protecting him in
the way they're limiting his participation right now?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Can he do more over the next couple of weeks?
Speaker 3 (05:27):
You know that is always a tough thing, and you'll
never get the real answer right. And here's why I
say you'll never get the right answer. People draft players
all the time, and they release them a lot earlier
than expected. Do they ever come out and say, hey,
we made a mistake rarely okay, So it's not even
(05:53):
can he or are they trying to protect him? There's
a lot that goes into playing a position of anything
in the National Football League, and it can be a
little bit tougher if you were not maybe given the
responsibilities before. And I'm not saying that is the case,
(06:14):
but I kind of am because I know pash she
Hermer's offense and he hasn't really been good. And if
you watch Colorado, they're moving on as well. So I
don't necessarily throw that on Jimmy. I just mainly throw
it on Hey. In college, we played when I was
at Utah, we played number system, so they told us, hey,
these are the numbers with the protection. Then I got
(06:36):
drafted by the Carolina Panthers and George sea for in
the West Coast and it was all words, no numbers.
So it just takes some adjustments to figure things out.
And I think that's what he's doing. They're trying to
figure out what he does well. But you also got
to remember they're trying to win, and they're trying to
grow offensively and give guys every opportunity. But at the
(07:01):
same time, you can't experiment at the cost of trying
to win a football game either.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Steve I looked last night and Tedoro McMillan is the
odds on favorite to be the offensive rookie of the
Year in the NFL. We got two weeks left to go.
We'll see what happens, but he's the odds on betting
favorite to be the offensive rookie of the Year in
the NFL. What do you think about that? And where's
he grown the most?
Speaker 3 (07:23):
I mean, what he's grown the most is making the
big catches, you know. I think the biggest thing that's
been a little bit surprising I would love is, you know,
we talked about his size. You talk about this and
that I haven't really seen him most anybody yet. That's
the one area that I would love to just see
him just because of his size and because of him
going up in high point of football. He's done a
(07:46):
really good job. He's worked on releases, he's he's he
was not as polished on creating him self free access
and I think also too right, he hit a wall.
Everybody hits a wall, every rookie hits a wall. For
him to bounce back and to really focus in and
not allow the lack of targets to affect his effort, Steve.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
For the last five weeks, Bryce has played good to
very good football. Not always gaudy numbers, but you know,
limiting turnovers, ten touchdowns, two picks in the last five
games up to twelve game winning drives all that. There's
been a lot of questions about this kid, and I'm
sure we'll keep asking at least some, but it seems
like he's continuing to get better and grow up, which
is all you can ask. What are you noticing from
(08:33):
him right now? What stood out to you yesterday but
yesterday about the way that he played.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Stood out to me yesterday is just making the right decisions,
not trying to not He didn't drop his eyes as
much as he has in the pass like the rush
getting to him. He still make good decisions, got the
ball out quick, took what the defense was giving him. Yes,
the optics weren't great, meaning you know when the rush
comes and you got people wide open, but you just
(08:59):
thought it the feet of the offensive guy because of pressure. Man,
you gotta live to play another down, and that's what
he's been doing. Instead of making some of those making
some of those strolls or indecisive throws that lead to
turnovers that he was doing earlier in the season.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
All right, last thing, Seattle coming in next week. I'm
out the rest of the week. I won't get to
talk about it, but I'll be back for the game
on Sunday. You've seen a lot of them. I've seen
plenty of them too. They're coming off a thrilling win
on Thursday Night Football. It's a very good team and
they're led by Sam Donald. What are your general expectations
for this game?
Speaker 3 (09:35):
My general expectations. It's gonna be a physical game. You know,
you talk about the Carolina Panthers and they're trying to
lock up the NFC South. We're talking about playoffs. Getting
out there, give yourself a chance. Nothing's better than give
yourself a chance against the team who is playing playoff
by football. Right, there's no question that the Seattle Seahawks
(09:57):
are not going to the playoffs. There have been questions,
and there's two big questions, and Seattle happens to be
in the way of it. Can and will the Carolina
Panthers make it to the playoffs, and they have their
big tests right now. I know they've played some really
good football against some playoff teams, against Green Bay and
(10:18):
all that stuff. Yes, but every week he got to
prove it. So I'm excited to see what they can
do with them. Sam Donald's playing well, you know, it's
not the Sam Donald that we have known and seen.
Some of the picks he has had actually hasn't been
on him. But for the most part, there's going to
be a really tough, physical game and Mike Jack has
(10:42):
been playing excellent football. That corner, well, that was his
former team. He should know him very well, so he
should be a very good attribute to have in the
defensive meeting rooms to let them know, here's what the
cadence are, here's a little some of the simple things. Yes,
teams are just but me it still stays the same.
So well, it'll be interesting to see how his knowledge
(11:04):
of his former team can help him prepare and get
ready for a challenging wide receiver corp.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
I like that point. Merry Christmas, brother, thank you for everything.
As always, We'll talk to you next Monday.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Appreciate it.
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