September 9, 2025 • 46 mins
In the first hour of the show, the guys further discuss Tetaroia McMillian's strong showing in the season opener, talk more about some of the guys they are worried about long term and tell you why the 2024 draft class is looking like a failure for Dan Morgan.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Only on Sports Radio ninety two point seven alf M
a ufn zay.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Fine, this is the Weston Walker Show. Even a crowd
knows what's coming there.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
How are we doing, folks, a couple of days after
the massacre that took place in Jacksonville watching the Jags
beat the Panthers as badly as they did? Or are
we a little bit better on this Tuesday? We're here
to make your Tuesday better Wes and Walker Sports Radio
ninety two seven WFNZ. We're with you until three pm
and we're broadcasting from the Chandler Volta Studio. CV Injury
(00:44):
Law dot Com. CV Injury Law dot Com.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
One call.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
That's all the Carolina's personal injury lawyers. You can text
us on the fandual text line. FanDuel text line is
seven oh four five seven oh ninety six ten. Again
that number is seven oh four five seven zero ninety
six ten. How are you feeling about the Panthers on
a Tuesday? Is it the exact same as what you
felt yesterday?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Pretty much, because I just feel like, you know, a
lot of the flaws that are day, I feel like
those are going to be really hard things to clean
up with the personnel that you have.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
B Bob's burner says, no, Walker, please, let's move on
from football. Let's go straight to hornets.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Is it that bad? I want to do that too.
I don't want to do that yet. No, I don't.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
I don't want to move on to the Hornets. I've
seen that joke a million times with people saying that,
and then the response is is that a threat?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Right?
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Do you what do you have against me going straight
to the Hornets? We can't go straight to the Hornets?
Zach and Miami asking something similar, bringing up the Hornets
first of five wins, Panthers or the Hornets. You know,
I would say that's a bad question, except we've seen
some stuff like that before with Carolina, where the Hornets
would win a couple of games before Carolina did despite
(01:54):
starting their season a month and a half earlier. Yeah,
we've seen some of that stuff. We're scrolling. We're scrolling
some more. Big Oh guy, is he trying to stir
the pot a little bit here?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Today?
Speaker 1 (02:03):
He said, Walker. I might have missed it yesterday, but
did we ever get Wes's barbecue takes from Texas after
working the sidelines? No, we did it. Great question, great
leadoff question. How was the barbecue doll there?
Speaker 3 (02:14):
It wasn't for the team dinner. We want to have Italian,
don't ask me. Yeah, I was just like, all right, Italian.
Bet who made this decision? Somebody that signs paychecks and
we can't critate. No, I'm not going to say that,
but I'm just saying that. Yeah, I mean the team
leader did that and decided that we would have Italian.
So I was like, okay. So I was reduced to
(02:38):
at the DFW airport. I had seen when I arrived
there that they had a barbecue spot there and they
had a nice looking brisket sandwich that they had on
a display. So I made a mental note to myself
and I said, when I come back here tomorrow, I
will probably stop here and get something.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
So it's called Dicky's.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
It was a place that had been around since nineteen
forty one, apparently was part of their marketing. And so
I went and got me a little three three meet
combo with a couple of sides. And I was so
hungry too, because I hadn't eaten since breakfast before the
game had started, so I was pretty hungry. It was decent,
but it wasn't you know what I was looking forward to.
(03:19):
You know what you would think of when you go
to Texas.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Look, when you go to Amarillo, you got to get
the Gabba Ghoul because it is top notch down there. Yeah,
anytime you're in Texas state lines, get you some scampy,
some alfredo because that's what they're known for. I'm sorry,
whoever this team leader is needs to be questioned. I
can do that because I don't get a paycheck for it.
Is no no question.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
When I saw it, I was like, okay, so no
Terry Black. And then the spot too. The food was
very salty. It wasn't that great either. Man. I was
on it a few times. I did not finish my meal.
I turned it in. I ate about two thirds of it,
and then I was just like, are you into space?
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Probably not after just one game, but are you okay
now going on your own? If somebody makes a decision
like that, yeah okay. And I did say that. I
was like, you know, if it's not you know, my liking,
I'm like, I'm going to be said. If you guys
are in Miami this weekend, which that's your next game
Miami us F if you're in Miami this weekend and
somebody says, let's go get Miami's finest pizza, then you
(04:18):
need to go get some seafood somewhere.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
That wouldn't be the worst thing, because there are a
lot of New Yorkers that do live in Southern.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
But it's not the same Flounder, it's not.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
It's still not It's not the same. And I would
say that you would still want to get something. I mean,
what's Miami's signal? Yeah, you want to go with Cuban
a lot.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Of international flavor that and I've been to Miami enough
times now I have a pretty good layer of land
out which I know Checkers will certainly uh might be
visited at some point.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
I am nominating you team leader. Yeah, whoever your team
leader is. You go up to them and say, Walker said,
I'm the one in charge. Now, yeah man, I'm the captain. Yeah, yeah, man.
So I have to, like I said, figure this thing out.
But yeah, Miami, I have a pretty good feel for
things now, all right, So I'm hoping that you actually
get some good Cuban food. By the way, a Cuban
sandwich so good, I mean, just delicious. I don't know
(05:13):
if you're a big Cuban sandwich guy, but I absolutely
love it. No, I like Cuban food. Sure, I know
a little bit of a twist. I know, a proper
Cuban is supposed to have mustard on it, and I'm
not the biggest fan of mustard, so I just try
to go light with it. But Cubans, I'm supposed to
have mustard on it, so I try to keep with
the spirit of things. But also just plantains. Oh my god,
(05:33):
I love fried plantains, the rice and beans. Yuka yuka
is very, very, very good. And I don't know what
I'm eating when I'm eating yuka, but I know I
like it. So if anybody tries to take you to
Siborro and say we need to try Miami's finess, then
you need to say you're not team leader anymore. Let's
pull up to the scene. We're a little late doing it,
but we still have plenty to get to here. And
then getting off of the bus segment, we got the
(05:55):
bus driver, mister flound dog, he's behind the wheel. Open
up the doors, Flounder. Let's pull up to the scene
and get off the bus. We looked good getting off
the bush I'm sorry. I've seen some excellent suggestions on
the FanDuel text line of what you should eat when
you go down to Miami.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Smooth says conch fritters.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yeah, conk fritters. Yeah, I've I've heard those. I've had
those before as well. Herman Photography. Now this is not
one that I was saying is a great suggestion, but
he said Miami signature is cocaine, So please know that
will not happen, no question. No, we are some coke
heads here when we're fans of Jalen Coker, but that's
the only way that we could describe ourselves. Man, how
much cocaine I am back at this point, pretty bad.
(06:40):
Countdown has begun for return.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Pretty bad, pretty bad, especially with the timing being so terrible.
Trading Adam Thelen, who did drop a key pass last night,
did come back with a two point conversion close to
the sideline, but Adam Thelen no longer here. The next day,
the next day after you trade Adam Thelnd, Jalen Coker
goes down with a pretty significant injury, landing on IR.
He won't be back at least for the first four games,
(07:05):
maybe he misses six games. It's a big deal if
we start to turn towards the positive takeaways, and we
did this a little bit. I think t mac is
the biggest positive that you can take away from that
game against Jacksonville. If you look at Joe Person referencing
some of the stats and the milestones that t mac reached,
he actually had the third highest receiving total by a
(07:26):
rookie in franchise history, trailing only Musen Mohammad who had
ninety six in his debut, and Kelvin Benjamin who had
ninety two receiving yards in his debut. Now, Kelvin Benjamin,
the career did not work all that well out for him.
Moosen Mohammad has his name in the Ring of Honor
as well as he should. I was talking about this
with Flounder on Friday, how I just wanted t Mak
(07:47):
to come out just guns of blazon. Gangbusters didn't do that.
Didn't have one hundred yards and destroy the competition. But
in my opinion, I thought he looked really good. If
you look at the NFL nerds going all across the
film with all the rookies and what they did, they're
fawning over at Mecha Abuka as they should looked awesome
down in Tampa. They're doing that with t Mac. They're
(08:08):
doing that with a couple of other guys, Dylan Samson,
Harold Fannin. They had some good rookie performances up there
in Cleveland. Tyler Warren was awesome man in the first drive,
just peppering him with targets.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
But Tea Mac.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
It's nice for me as a Panthers fan to see
te Max's name among the top best rookie performances in
week one, and after looking at a lot of the
other things that went real poorly for Carolina, I am
comforted by that fact that it does look like you
have at least a hit in the top ten. It
doesn't mean that it's absolutely gonna happen, but you're off
to a great start with what you got week one.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Yeah, I mean it's pretty much the positive that you
had to take away from the game is t Max's performance.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Other than that, I mean, where else are you going
to go at this point?
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Because Tuba Hubbard, you know, he is the steady force
on the offense, but game script and everything that was
going on had his numbers not looking like you would
want them.
Speaker 5 (08:59):
To.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
So, yeah, if you had to point to something that
you would absolutely take with you and say, hey, at
least we have this, it would be Tedorowa's performed.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Should we run the offense through tim Ac? Now, No,
I'm not sure about that. I don't know that he's
quite ready for that. He is a rookie.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
And again, like I said, now it's going to be
interesting because now that the book is kind of out
on the Panthers offense, then we'll see if he comes
through and dominates this week, like if he has a
one hundred yard performance or something along those lines, then
I think maybe you start to think about it, because
that's when you know when you're that guy. You remember
Antonio Brown for all his faults, remember he gave Juju
(09:35):
Smith Schuster the warning after he left. He said, it's
completely different when you become the guy. It takes a
special dude that you know the coverage is coming to me.
It takes a special dude to know I'm getting the
best corner every single week and you still find a
way to make plays. That's when you emerge as that
number one receiver. So teams going forward are going to
dictate coverage to him and he's going to get the
(09:57):
best corners every single week. So if he's able to
throw through that, then yes, I say so.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Which is nice that Jalen Coker will come back and
hopefully relieve some of that pressure that is on his shoulders.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
And if J T.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Sanders gave it a hurt people from it, maybe and
if j T. Sanders can start to cook a little
bit more, just just catch the ball, JT. That's all
we're asking. Mccaukeey writes in on the FanDuel text line.
T Mac looked like the first skilled player that could
become a real superstar for us. Since CMC, I agree
with that, and that's what I want to get to
because if you're gonna bring in somebody in the top ten,
(10:31):
I would like for a top ten guy to become
a pro bowler or flirt with some All Pro appearances
down the line.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
And CMC gave us that.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
I don't think he gave us that right away because
there was still some mixed j Stu carries and then
c Mac his first year and then the next year.
As soon as se Mac got a full season's worth
of work, you knew he was one of the better
running backs in the league. The only other guys I
can point to Wes greg Olsen wasn't a draft pick,
but he was a star at his position. DJ Moore,
as much as I love him, I think he was
(11:02):
a wide receiver one by definition. I guess there are
thirty two wide receiver ones, but really there's probably twenty
twenty five, right. I guess those are probably the numbers
I would throw out there. I think DJ was probably
towards the bottom end of that list, but all he
did was bring in eleven hundred twelve hundred yards with
bad QB play. TMAC seems to have a higher ceiling,
(11:23):
and I think that's what if you're trying to find
the light at the end of the tunnel and see
the rainbow through the storm. Tm AC is that in
terms of possibly giving us a star return on investment,
which we have not gotten in quite some time.
Speaker 5 (11:37):
J C.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Horn on the other side, cornerback, I think has that
potential but offensive player skill player wise, this is the
first guy that I feel like we have signs of
that early on.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Yeah, and so you have to be excited about it
because the thing is he's checking off the boxes of
what you thought you would see that's the biggest thing.
You have confirmation on things that you thought you would
see from him. I guess the only thing left is
for him to catch a deep fifty to fifty ball
for a big game for people to really really start
to get on board with him. But he was a
guy that was able to flash enough during this first
(12:08):
game that you felt like, yeah, this is why we
drafted Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
In top five and receiver grade among all receivers in
the NFL. Had a couple of contested catches, but also
people were discussing how much separation he got just through nuance.
And I think that's the difference between Xcel and t MacMahon.
I was talking about this with Joe Ovius. Actually, like
you look at both of these wide receivers, two first
round picks, one top ten pick, which is very different
(12:31):
than thirty second but still first round selections. Nonetheless, there's
just nuance and some headiness to t max game, mixing
up speeds. There was one route that he had on
a comeback where he's attacking the football, which he was
great at at Arizona, and it just feels like the game.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Isn't too fast for him.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Yeah, it might be too physical for him at times
at the line of scrimmage. It didn't show up in
week one with a very very physical corner in Tyson Campbell.
So there's some nice tests that he passed there. But Excel,
how much is he thinking?
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Man?
Speaker 1 (13:01):
It is slow for him, as you've talked about, he
doesn't play for three nine speed, which I completely agree
with that take that you've had for quite a while.
It just doesn't look easy for him. It does look
pretty easy for t Mac And I'm not saying that
he's never going to have any struggles, just in terms
of the nuance of the game, the fluidity. He's not
as explosive as Excel, certainly with straight line speed. But
(13:22):
who do I feel more comfortable getting open at a
consistent rate. It's that guy that they just took with
the top ten selection.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Yeah, and the game slows down because, like I said,
when you have players, you can take a four to
six guy. But if he knows what he's doing out
there and he knows where he needs to be, he's
going to play faster than even.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
A guy that runs four two.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
I mean, who could remember John Ross and he broke
the combine record, but he would get out there and
look like a tortoise because he didn't know what he
was doing. He wasn't comfortable out there. That will make
a player play slow no matter what when you don't
know what to do. Yeah, and I was pleased with
a lot of that. I'm with you on running your
offense through t Mac. The running game it has to
cook for this team to be successful. The offensive line
(14:02):
was good at run blocking last year. Cuba Hubbard was
a twelve hundred yard guy missing time with almost a
five yards per carry.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
You got to run with Cuba. I'd like to see
Rico Daddle mixed in a little bit more. Also, it's
going to open up things a little more for a
coverage that might be covering Tmac way more than all
the other wide receivers. So the run game would be
nice for Bryce and Tmac to get open a little more.
So you gotta run. I'm totally with you on running
your offense through t Mac. Not quite yet. Let's go
(14:29):
ahead and hand off the football to Cuba a little more.
But maybe we should tweak that question into should the
passing game run through Temac right here, right now?
Speaker 2 (14:39):
And if that's the question, I think the answer is absolutely.
Oh Yeah, that's.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Definitely easy, and you don't want to diminish anything that
he's done. But that's by default. I mean, that's like
who actually going to run through renfro.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Exhale or just at well the idea of Bryce Young
being a point guard and letting him pass to the
open guy.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Okay, yeah, by those guys ain't getting open. I need
you to force feeded to team back. Honestly, I need
t MAC. I'll be honest. I need TMAC with double
digit targets a game right now. If Cocher comes back
and he plays well, then I'll be okay with eight,
like nine every once in a while, but I need
TMAC having a healthy diet of targets.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
It's WESN.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Walker Sports Radio ninety two to seven WFNZ. There are
a few topics we did not get to yesterday that
we wanted to bring back to the table today. Long term,
short term worries. What are the things we're worried about
for the rest of the season, and what do we
think are just one game or just two game worries.
We'll get to some of those topics on the other side.
It's WESN Walker Sports Radio ninety two to seven WFZ.
(15:44):
Wesn Walker back on a Tuesday Sports Radio ninety two
to seven WFNZ. Appreciate everybody joining us here in the midday.
Hopefully you do every single midday. We only have one
guest today, Hunter Bailey gonna be hopping on at two thirty,
not the normally scheduled two o'clock. He's going to be
hopping on at two thirty to discuss some of Tim
Albin's comments at his presser Tim Albyn the Coaches Show
(16:06):
last night, happening right here on WFNZ, so Hunter can
go over some of those comments. Connor Harrold is going
to be starting a quarterback again this weekend against Monmouth.
I wonder how long that's going to happen. He played
better against North Carolina. Grayson Loftis was a better thrower
of the football until he threw a couple of interceptions.
So I have to imagine a head coach making those
(16:27):
types of decisions. What wins out in those scenarios is
whether you turn over the football a lot or not.
And if Grayson Loftis is going to look good throwing
the football except for two turnovers, the two turnovers is
all you.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Really need to see. I hate it.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
I would like to be wild a little more in
the passing game, but I understand it from Tim Albin's
point of view. We'll talk more Charlotte football a little
bit later on. Let's go back to the FanDuel text
line seven oh four five, seven oh ninety six ten
people are happy about t mac Bagel. Guys said, you
can see t mac as a polished receiver. Xcel had
one breakout year and only because jus Wells got hurt
(17:01):
Spencer Rattler had no one else to throw to, so
you got obsessed with the size and speed. But Xcel
doesn't know how to be a true wide receiver. Yeah,
I don't want to speaking of diminishing years. I don't
want to do that for XL who was awesome that
last year at South Carolina. But there isn't a whole
lot of polish to his route running. And it's something
we knew was going to be an issue, but I
(17:22):
guess we just haven't seen it develop all that much
over the last year and some change.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, we have not.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
And that's the thing a lot of people point out
when they see him that, like, you know, there doesn't
look to be a lot of improvement in his game.
He still looks like a raw prospect, and so I
think that's something that a lot of people have been
frustrated a boy. And it does bring to light the
point that we talked about before the draft that a
lot of scouts talk about how receivers they're a little
bit leery of when they don't really get this shine
(17:48):
on until there last year at a school, especially been
there as long as he was.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Yeah, and Tamac is somebody that's the exact opposite, just
a beast pretty much right away at Arizona Jack and Die.
It says not only the number nuance, but t Mac
just carries himself like a superstar.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
He's real chill dude.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
I will say it is refreshing to hear some of
the comments from t Mac when asked about some of
the missed opportunities in this game. He took it all
on himself to have saying he should have caught that
one handed attempt in the end zone, saying that was
all on me. I wanted to create a special play.
I didn't do it for my quarterback, and I take
that responsibility. He did that in the preseason when he
(18:26):
didn't get his head turned around quickly enough, he said.
Even still, he didn't drop any footballs. Really, there was
no recorded drops. He even said on a couple of
those quick head turnarounds, that was I think the first
reception of the game for t Mac was Bryce a
little bit under pressure, has to throw it with the anticipation,
does a great job. T Mac catches it, but it's
bang bang with the head getting turned around. Here he
(18:48):
is still talking about how in that game, Yeah, I
gotta get my head turnaround, like I'm playing with a
quarterback that puts it right on the money quickly. He's
just taking all the responsibility. Not that exces well is
it When you ask him about it? He does, But
Team Act does seem to go that extra mile in
terms of this is all on me. Any mistakes that happen.
I know what it is. It's on me as a
(19:09):
rookie receiver. That's refreshing to hear from a guy like that. Yeah,
it definitely is. And that's the way professionals do it.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
You know, if there is something where it wasn't your fault,
you keep that type of stuff in the house because
you want to limit distractions. It anytime you have a
player that has that kind of mentality.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
You're doing the right thing, all right, So keep speaking
of keeping things in house. I don't want to make
a mountain out of a mole hill here. But there's
a comment going around. We addressed it yesterday as soon
as it came in. That has my eyebrow raised just
a little bit. Let's go to long term concerns, short
term concerns. Ajaro Avero, let's start with him. They allowed
two hundred yards rushing again to a team that was
(19:46):
not good running the football last year. They made Travis
Etn look so good. And maybe this is because of
the Etn. He looked way better in this first game
that he had all last year. So maybe it was
just the injuries holding him back.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
But when you the.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Panthers, they allow you to go off constantly. Yes, you
go back to last year. Guys had career years and
career and season highs against Carolina and et looked so good.
They just decided to trade Tank Bixby. He just got
traded yesterday at Philadelphia as a backup running back for
the Eagles. It's the Etn slash Beshall tootonshit. Yeah, so well,
(20:22):
they also ran Laquinn Allen. They did that was surprising
interesting that they liked him a lot when camp started
as well, So it does look to be etn Anyways,
Aavo allowing a bunch of rushing yards, the offense looked
pretty good for Jacksonville and Avarro's defense has done this
quite a bit. So Averro also decided to go with
(20:42):
the veterans in fifty to fifty propositions of who you
play at certain positions. He's not playing the young guys.
Dave Canalis was asked about the young guys not getting
many snaps on the defensive side of the football. Here's
what Dave canal has had to say.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
Yeah, well, I'm pushing that.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
You know.
Speaker 5 (20:56):
I'd love for all of our young guys to play.
I really believe that it's so valuable for those guys
to be out there.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Are they going to be perfect?
Speaker 5 (21:04):
No? Will every rep that they take be a valuable
and beneficial for their future? Yes, you know, and so
I would love for those guys to get opportunities out
there so that we can see what we have. And
then also just knowing like it's a long season and
a lot of people are going to play, you know,
at different times, and so it'll help us, you know,
going forward.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Listening to the audio changes my take a little bit,
not so much. But I think you have two schools
of thought, and I do think you have a Jaro
Rivero on one hand wanting to win and put out
a good performance as badly as possible because his job
is on the line. He's much more on the hot
seat than Dave Canalis is because David Tepper does not
(21:46):
want to fire another head coach halfway through the regular season.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yeah, you can.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Fire a Jero Rivo if you want to, going into
his third year with back to back terrible defensive seasons.
So Dave Canalis, understanding that ownership will be more patient
with him, does want to see what happens long term.
He just mentioned it with those rookies. He wants those
guys to get as many snaps as possible. He just
said it. You heard it in the SoundBite. Is it
(22:12):
going to be perfect, No, but those snaps are valuable.
That's Dave Canalys's bottom line. I want to build towards
the future. I want these young guys to go out
there and play. Jero Vero's got a job to say,
who does he feel like are the best defenders bar none.
If he feels like you're the best defender, guess what
you're getting A bunch of snaps Ooman Yellen, your third
(22:36):
round pick. I can't trust you as much right now,
so you're going to come in when we need to
give one of these other star or starter edge rushers
a breather, and that's the only time we're going to
play you. Scorton kind of the same thing. I trust
you more, but i'll play you in certain packages and
when I need to give an ed drusher another breather.
(22:57):
Different schools of thought here, and I do wonder if
if those two schools of thought serve as a catalyst
for a Vero being on up out of here sooner
rather than later. And I understand it from both sides.
Defensive coordinator don't want to get fired. Head coaches don't
want to get fired. But those timelines change for different people.
Next year, Canalis might want to just put out the
best players as much as possible because his job is
(23:19):
on the line. But right now, I think these are
the two mos for each of these authority figures, one
on defense, one on offense.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
Yeah, I think so too, and so for at zero Avero,
it is going to be intriguing because his hand may
be forced. I mean, he may have to sit there
and just put guys in no matter what. But as
I said, I think that this week in practice, they're
going to make sure an emphasis has put on the
young players really understanding what's going on out there. So
I think that those guys will be getting coached up
(23:48):
more than maybe normal because they're going to get more opportunities.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
The head coach wants to see it.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
And as I said, it's better to be bad and
young than to be bad and old, because maybe those
young players will turn in too good players.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Based off the experience.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
That's why he talked about how important the snaps are
because other than that, if you've got a bunch of
vets that understand another defense inside and out, but still
you're getting keeled every single week, then what's the point
of you playing.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Dave Canalis is the head coach, He's the person in
charge of this entire operation. The further you can go up,
there are other spots ahead of Dave Canalis, but a
Guero Vero defensive coordinator is not one of them. So
when he says, I'm pushing the defensive coordinator to play
some of the younger guys. A lot of people right
in and think what.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Do you mean pushing?
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Put your foot down, say guess what, play the young
guys or you're gone, and then you can throw your
weight around a little bit.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Now.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
I want to take a step back from that, just
a little bit, because Avero is a respected coordinator in
this league. When Dave Canalyis was welcomed as the head
coach and his introductory presser, we didn't know a Verro
was coming back quite yet. He's the one that kind
of broke it. I remember Joe Person asking do you
expect to Varo to come back? And he didn't answer
the question. He talked about it as if it was
common knowledge he was already back, and discussed that Tampa
(25:08):
Bay offense going against the Panthers defense and really having
a rough time. I think he valued a Vero a lot.
I think that was his decision. Maybe there was some
backing from ownership and Dan Morgan to keep him, but
it doesn't seem like Dave Canal's really put up a fight,
so I think he respects him. I don't think you
want to go in and throw your weight around and
start calling all of the shots, saying I want you
(25:30):
to play the young guys, but at the end of
the day, it's your call. I don't know when you
start to put down the trump card, do you do
it now? Wes like, as soon as you get to
week two, do you want to tread lightly? And if
it happens again where you suck and the Cardinals score
thirty points and you give up one hundred and seventy
five rushing yards or more, do you just wait until
(25:53):
after that fact? When do you start to throw your
weight around as the head coach and say this is
what I want, So this is what you have to do.
And if I told you before, you're completely in charge
of the defense.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
I think probably if I were to guess, and this
is just me guesstimating here, I feel like that Avero
would probably be gone before something like that happened, because
I know he's probably going to be sitting there like,
look man, like they're not ready and this is my
reputation on the line, not yours. If this defense goods
out there and they look which I don't know that
this possible to look worse, but it could. I mean
(26:24):
Jacksonville did kick a few field goals, So that's what
I'm saying. They can score more touchdowns. And so if
they're just out there really just discombobulated, guys don't know
where they're going, especially doing stuff they young guys do.
And Avara's gonna be like, this is on me, not
on you, because nobody's gonna remember these conversations. Nationally, nobody's
going to bring up these conversations. All they're going to
(26:45):
say is a Gerald Everro's defense. That's what's going to
be uh the headliner when they talk about this unit.
And so for him, I think before Dave Canownce would
do something like that, I think that a Varro would
probably be gone.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
So we agree some long term concern for the run defense.
That's a pretty easy, huge take Avero. It's safe to
say we have long term concern about him, right, Yes, Okay,
let's move on still defense. But what about covering the
middle of the field and giving up yardage to tight ends?
You talk about something that's been a thorn in our
side as Panthers fans for quite some time. It does
(27:22):
feel like tight ends go off on the Panthers first
drive right away, just peppering Brenton Strange Hunter Long had
the touchdown because Trevin Wallace didn't know where he was.
Looked like Nick Scott was the culprit and giving up
that touchdown for about ten seconds and then upon further review, No,
it was Trevin Wallace not being in the spot he
needs to be. We know about Christian rose Booms problems
(27:44):
in coverage, but he was the better linebacker by far,
the best one that we had. Not saying a whole lot,
but he was the best linebacker that we had in
this game against Jacksonville. I think covering the middle of
the field and the linebacker spot west that's also like
a huge long term concern for me the rest of
the way.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Yeah, and it looks like you don't want to say
you wasted your time and money with the offseason efforts,
but it's just the way that this conversation is going.
And when you look at this defense, it's like, who
will be the holdovers? Who are the guys that you
feel like that you can build around. And I guess
that's one of the reasons why coach Canalis wants the
young players to get out there, because he wants to
figure out Okay, who are going to be the guys
(28:21):
that I can build around going forward, because again, it's
gonna be another long offseason where they're trying to figure
out and again, this game one is wild that we're
even talking about this, but if things continue to go
the way that they're going, it's going to be another
long offseason because they're going to have to overhaul several
spots on this defense yet again, and so you have
to start figuring out who are the guys who are
(28:43):
going to play here going forward? Who are the guys
that are better but circumstances aren't making them necessarily look
that way.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Will Pack James says on the FanDuel text line, Trey
McBride is about to light us up and then puts
a bunch of has I imagine that's a I'm going
crazy laugh. Yeah, if you are a fantasy football player,
it is straight boom all the way to the moon.
Trey McBride two touchdowns over one hundred yards, nine receptions
on twelve targets. I'm not kidding. I would expect Trey
(29:15):
McBride to eat all day, especially j C. Horn on
Marvin Harrison Junior. Marvin had a decent Week one doesn't
seem like he's living up to the hype that surrounded
him making his jump to the NFL. Trey McBride is
your biggest matchup issue against this linebacking corps. I would
take the over on whatever I see on Fandal, I
really would. Yeah, that's a long term concern. Continuing on
(29:41):
with long term concerns. I wish I told you this
was just a one off for some of these guys.
Yesterday I said Bryce was a one off. I thought
he played bad. Doesn't mean I think he's going to
play bad against Arizona Austin Corbett man in terms of surprising,
in terms of like how bad it was. That was
a terrible performance from him. You're snapping it really high,
(30:04):
you're giving up pressure on the inside. At least you
were decent enough run blocking. But an all time bad
opening game for a center who was pretty good last year.
The problem with him, Wes, is that he suffered injuries
each of the last couple of seasons, and Cad Mays
comes in and played better but lost to the veteran
in Corbett. I think the reason people are so ready
(30:27):
to move on from Corbett right now is that one
it's not like he was a pro bowler. Okay, so
we were not moving on from a guy that has
a history of just turning in Pro Bowl appearances. And
Caid May's played pretty well, so we have an answer.
It's not who else do you go to situation like
you Havebitt linebacker. I can't bench Rose Boom because we
can't go anywhere else. You can go somewhere else if
(30:48):
you want to bench Corbett. That's why to me, it
probably is a little bit of a long term concern
with the injury history that he has and his inability
to snap a football. One last thing, it's not like
center is his primary position. Historically he did have to
change kick inside to that spot. Kate Mays might just
get his name called sooner rather than later. Yeah, And
(31:08):
I mean this is a position to me that's been
a concern.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
I feel like that they've been carried by the guards
because you look at Corbett the last two seasons. Yes
it was limited snaps, but he goes forty seven point
nine and sixty two point two Advanced Metric grade from PFF.
So I never looked at the centers as a position
of strength. And I when we went through the draft,
when we were talking about what they should do. We
definitely had center on the board as an early round selection.
(31:34):
So that's going to be another position that they're going
to have to address going forward because I'm not a
huge fan of Mays or Corbett and I feel like
that obviously, you can do a pretty admirable job of
hiding a center in the NFL, especially if you have
decent to good guards around them, because you can call
different protection slide protections, fan protections, different things like that
(31:56):
or whatever it is. The free guy on the inside
one of the guards, they can always help out as well,
so you can always mask kind of a center if
he's not that great. And so for Corbett Man, again,
it's just another player that's going to have to be
evaluated and then you're gonna have to figure out what
you want to do with them.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
If you assume that you can upgrade at every single position,
you only have so many swings of the bat to
do it.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
So center, if you just want to play Cad Mays
probably is lower on the priority list. With all the
defensive pieces you need to add, with some wide receivers
that you need to add, Cad May's at least with him,
Like got a seventy five pass blocking grade last year. Yea,
like one of the better grades at center. Run blocking
was fine enough, which is why it was surprising, I
(32:39):
guess to see Corbett got the job as soon as
he did in the offseason. He was named that guy
quickly because what they said, they said they like the leadership, right, Yeah,
I'd forget what exactly they said. So centered, Like, offensive
line is important, But how much money are you going
to invest? We're already investing more money on our offensive
line than any other team in the league.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
That's great.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
You have to calculate some losses if you just want
to keep spending up front, which I value. Like, I'm
totally cool spending more money on the offensive line than
any other team. But are we just going to have
five guys making twenty million dollars or fifteen million dollars
or more a year? Ida know, cad If Corbett struggles again,
(33:21):
just bring in Caid man. I don't the snaps. We
didn't see many snap issues from Caid last year. We
saw it a bunch in this last game against Jacksonville.
Are you talking about short leash? I think Corbett has
one of those. Yeah, and he could. And that's the
thing too. Man, it's like yet a year in the NFL. Man,
you got to update that resume. So I'm wondering.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
Obviously they talked about the leadership, but then you know,
did he digress this year in practices?
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Did he digress?
Speaker 3 (33:44):
Because you know, if he was playing at well, you
wonder if the Panthers coaches would have gone with him
regardless of what they wanted to say about leadership and
things of the like. But I guess you know, more
than likely he will get a chance to figure it
out and get in them play.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
It was just real last thing.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
The injuries, they take a toll and I don't know
how much they've taken a toll on Austin Corbett.
Speaker 4 (34:03):
Well, this brings us back to the guy that they
could have drafted in the twenty twenty four draft, Zach Frazier,
who's looking awfully good for the Pittsburgh Steelers and could
have been your selection instead of Jonathan Brooks. So to
get back to poor drafting choices by Dan Morgan, there
you go, that's one of them potentially right there.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Yeah, to give him some grace, You could probably do
that with a bunch of guys. But you're right, center
was a priority with somebody that we were looking at
quite a bit, Fraser specifically, and they decided to move on.
I with all the help you still need defensively, I
just wonder if center is a top two position you
want to address top three.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Yeah, it's pretty important, though, I mean, they got to
figure out something to remedy that, because, like I said,
that's the quarterback of your offensive line. And you don't
really find many of the big time offensive lines that
don't have a really good center.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
And you'd rather have one better than kid from what
he showed you last year. Yeah, okay, Oh you gave
me stakface.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
You don't like Caid. You're not sixty four?
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Uh well yeah, sixty six pass blocking it's pretty good.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
I don't know like he was. He's not amazing.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
I would say eye test was better than pro football
focused numbers would tell you.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Yeah. Yeah, Like I mean, but keep it a buck.
How much do you really watch center? Well?
Speaker 1 (35:15):
I guess for the Panthers a lot. For anybody else,
not much. Yeah, Like, I I don't know, you're.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
I mean, people talk about offensive linement, but I just
don't know how much they watch offensive line plays.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
You're talking about us too.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
I'm just saying a lot of people they talk about
whole line playing.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
I'm like, all, are you really watching center though?
Speaker 1 (35:33):
How much are you watching it? I watch it a lot.
I hey man, we cover the Panthers. Yeah, you know
what I'm saying. Now, ask me that about I didn't say,
you know, well, you were giving me a little.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
I didn't say you.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
I just said I would not want k Mays as
my center going into like for the future, Like, I
think you got to get somebody else.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
That's fair, that's fair.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
Just if you do that, then are we going to
be mad at the Panthers a year from now when
we say, oh, you could have drafted this edge rusher,
Like this is what.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
You have to here, and you you are one hundred
percent correct. You can't get everything you want in an offseason.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
Obviously Rome wasn't built in a day. We get that.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
But I'm just saying it's got to be you got
to figure out, you know, what you want to do
and prioritize different things. And I think it also is
a circumstantial thing, Like are you sitting there in the
draft this year and there's a center that you feel
like could really be a formidable start in this league
as opposed to edge rusher that you feel like may
not be as good as that position. Or in free agency,
is they have much better free agent that you could
(36:33):
go out and get as opposed to another position. So
I think that's what it comes down to to a circumstance,
like what's what's there? But if you've got an opportunity
to get a center that's a difference maker, then you
got to go get it.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Yeah, I know that it wasn't Corbett yesterday. That we know,
and we'll see exactly how much longer he's starting at
that spot on the offensive line. So we'll move on.
We'll talk more Panthers coming up next. Sports Raded ninety
two to seven, WFNZ. Weston walker Back Sports Radio ninety
(37:09):
two to seven WFNZ. We got some people texting in
FanDuel text line seven oh four five, seven oh ninety
six ten, And this is what happens when you lose
a bunch of football games. People start looking back at
the draft and saying who the Panther should have selected
rather than the guy they did.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
End up playing twenty half.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
This is what happens man bagel guy, says Edge Cooper,
remember him linebacker for Green Bay that really picked up
some steam. Flounder brought up Zach Fraser. Here we are
looking at these wide receivers like lad mcconkeye Keon Coleman playing. Well,
this is what happens, man, This is why I made
the point I did with t mac Like you had
other wide receivers throughout Week one of the NFL perform
(37:49):
and at least we're not saying, see, you could have
drafted Abuca, you could have drafted Golden.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Yeah, that'd be bad. I'd be real bad.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
Thank god, thank god, because it doesn't mean that we've
dodged it. It's going to have to happen every single week.
But this is what people do, and I get it.
I get it to a certain extent. I think we
get a little overboard with that because every other team
could have drafted him as well, Like, Okay, if you
were so high on Zach Frasier, then why didn't all
(38:16):
these other teams in the first forty nine picks take them?
Or wherever he was selected, you know, everybody had a shot.
You could have traded up to go get him. Same
thing with even a I don't know, like Harold Fan
and Junior. I've Harold Fannon was awesome for Cleveland. Kevin
Stefanski found a queen on the chess board and decided,
what if I just have him touch the football all
the time in different areas of the field and watch
(38:37):
them cook. And he kind of did that against the
Bengals defense. It's the Bengals defense, but they used him
quite a bit, and I could say, hey, Panthers, we
need some play making. A tight end or at least
two tight end sets would be kind of cool. Also,
put him out there with JT. Let Harold take some
snaps and wildcat like he did against Cleveland. That would
be fun. Why did you select him? Or I could
(39:00):
have that same argument for all the other teams in
the NFL outside of Cleveland as to why they didn't
take them.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
So sometimes GM's taken it.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
I mean, if the Fans had a draft after Week
one of the season, then you know we'd be having
GM Hall of Fame candidates with the way we will
go back and say, Yay, you should have picked him,
should have picked him.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
We would, But the picks you make they do have
to hit to some degree. And I think this is
the hard thing we're parsing out right now, Does Dan
Morgan have enough hits to justify what he's done so
far in the selection process, And right now twenty twenty
four doesn't look too good. Yeah, twenty twenty five, it's
(39:41):
been one game. Who the hell knows what happens with
this past NFL draft, Like a team ac If that's
a hit, that's already a monster step. If you have
a nice selection in the top ten and you hit
on that man, that does a lot of covering your
behind for everything else you do. But it's still important
everything else you do.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Draft class.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
It's funny because it felt like we were making some
real progress at the beginning of last season in twenty
twenty four, and then it's been anything but since. Jalen
Kocher give him credit for that. Chow Smith Wade getting
some starts at L Nichols play all the time, now,
give him some credit for that. But not hitting on
your first, your second, and your third and maybe your fourth.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
If J. T. Sanders doesn't show up, twenty twenty four
doesn't look to be so yeah, that's bad.
Speaker 3 (40:24):
And like I said, it starts to clock for you,
especially when your first rounder doesn't hit from your first draft,
that's going to start the clock.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
And so that's why as you see.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
The great organizations, they're able to draft really well and
those you know, those middle rounds, and they're able to
take advantage of things there because you have to be
able to have something to cover you up. And right now,
Dan Lugan doesn't have much to go on right now,
and I think a lot of the hopes of this draft,
obviously for this year, you're looking at Laythan Ransom and
you're looking at those edges.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
I mean Tetoroa.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
He looks like he could be a solid selection so far,
but a lot's gonna hinge on those edges. I think
late and rounds, some fourth rounder for sure, because of
what he showed in the preseason, and I do think
once he gets his opportunities, he could make the most
of them. But if you look at a draft way
you're saying teddor Moroa McMillan is your hit and the
two edges don't hit, that's gonna be real bad.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Yeah, it's a tough, tough outing.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
If Nick Gordon doesn't become anything and Princely Manmuelan doesn't
turn out to be a starter level player. That's gonna
be real tough. Here's somebody, Rob from Salisbury writes, Marty
Herney made a career from his first round draft picks. Hell,
he would pick somebody in the second round that was
missing a foot, But his first round picks they looked
(41:39):
really good. Nobody ever even thought about it when he
would make a first round selection. Here's my question. Would
you take the Marty Hernie track record two point zero
and Dan Morgan if you could, or would you rather
hold out hope for possibly hitting on other picks outside
of the first round select Marty hint he took you
to the Super Bowls, So you would take it again,
(42:01):
like just just hitting on first and having a terrible
track record afterwards, because that's what it was. I mean
as as opposed to the track that we are on
with Dan Morgan. Yes, you would take that because at
least you had some established stars that were among the
best at their position with some of the picks that
Marty Hernie had.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
Let let's listen to the NFL MVP.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
How do you feel how do you feel about taking
just Marty Herney two point oh In terms of drafting,
not free agents, we don't have to pay all the
running backs. We don't have to do all of that.
Marty did a lot of really good things with this team.
Would you take that? Two point h and Dan Morgan
seven oh four five, seven oh ninety six ten, Kat
and Charlotte are saying, please, guys, let's give the Panthers
(42:41):
a break. Talk about other takes. I listen to WFNZ
every day, all day, and every show on the station
is talking about the same thing.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
And we're talking about the Panthers. Man, we're in need.
Speaker 3 (42:52):
You're gonna get your fixed. Like that's the most captain
obvious take.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
This could happen. It'sday talk about the Panthers. In Charlotte,
it's too.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
Scott and Belmont also writing it in though too, like, hey,
can we chill with every little decision?
Speaker 2 (43:06):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (43:06):
So it seems like we're getting some of that on
a Tuesday rather than Monday where it was scorched earth.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
Yes, we're starting to shift in the other.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
These people that are saying is they aren't paying attention
to the other hunreds of ticks that we are getting
that are about the topics we're talking about.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
I thought about this too. Carter from Charlotte says, I
hope salesman isn't listening. Yeah, because salesman not a big
Marty Herney fan. And like, I look, I get you, salesman. Okay,
you got to hit on your second and beyond picks.
But if you're just drafting pro bowler after pro bowler
in the first round.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
That's important. It help.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
I'll be honest with you, I would probably hold out
hope that Dan would hit on these other draft picks
rather than just take the Marty Herney blueprint. Yeah, but
I understand it's a risk that I'm doing that. It is,
I do get that. Let's say you flatter, Is that
something that you would do. Would you just sign up
for hitting on all of your top thirty two selections
and then missing on every other one?
Speaker 4 (44:01):
I I would say yes, because you would have those
guys that would eventually become Pro Bowl lever level type
players that could at least lead your group. I mean,
eventually you would have to hit on run stoppers, right,
I mean that's if you're if you're going with those
guys in the first round, eventually you're drafting someone that
can stop the run. Eventually you're figuring you're you're figuring
(44:23):
out potentially your tight end position. We've seen those guys
be drafted in the first round, so I would I
would say, yeah, I'd probably sign up for that at
this point because that'd be a step in the right
direction from what we're dealing with now, which is basically
missing on everybody. I mean, that's that's what twenty four
looks like, is like you've missed on pretty much everybody
that you drafted in that class. Uh.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
Last text before we move on, M Dog says Walker,
you were sauced when I saw you on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (44:48):
All right, nice, here we go again.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
Well, you know what I snitched on myself by reading
the text message one shout out to them, Shout out
to m Dog. It was great seeing you at the tail.
But this is what happens if you it's I just
saw Eli Manning. Give this piece of advice out to
young quarterbacks. Don't take any picture with a beer in
your hand because of what Eli went through in college.
It makes so much sense because with my resting drunk
(45:15):
slash high face, if I have a beer in my
hand as well, then automatically drunk like that's just how
it is. And so when I see em dog. I'm
excited by the way M Dog DAPs me up about
thirteen different times. Was not the he was the one
saying I love you, man. It was something like that.
(45:36):
It was reciprocated.
Speaker 2 (45:38):
Somebody to be in there with him. That's right. It
looked it was reciprocated. Okay.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
I loved that experience, and I love seeing you. But
you know how my face anytime, anytime, man, anytime I
take a picture, I look drunk or high.
Speaker 3 (45:51):
It can't help it. What was your face flushed? Was
it fleshed and red? I didn't think so. I didn't
think so. Am dog man out here trying to call
me out when you're the one?
Speaker 1 (46:01):
Man?
Speaker 2 (46:01):
Great to see you, great tee, it was great to
see you too. I don't mind your business. What's going on? Man?
All right?
Speaker 1 (46:06):
It's the campus KNA come up next. Sports Radio ninety
two to seven WFNZ. Listen to the West and Walker Show
Wheaties from noon to three only on Sports Radio ninety
two point seven FM UFNZ, the official home of the
Charlotte sports Fan
Only on Sports Radio ninety two point seven alf M
a ufn zay.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Fine, this is the Weston Walker Show. Even a crowd
knows what's coming there.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
How are we doing, folks, a couple of days after
the massacre that took place in Jacksonville watching the Jags
beat the Panthers as badly as they did? Or are
we a little bit better on this Tuesday? We're here
to make your Tuesday better Wes and Walker Sports Radio
ninety two seven WFNZ. We're with you until three pm
and we're broadcasting from the Chandler Volta Studio. CV Injury
(00:44):
Law dot Com. CV Injury Law dot Com.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
One call.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
That's all the Carolina's personal injury lawyers. You can text
us on the fandual text line. FanDuel text line is
seven oh four five seven oh ninety six ten. Again
that number is seven oh four five seven zero ninety
six ten. How are you feeling about the Panthers on
a Tuesday? Is it the exact same as what you
felt yesterday?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Pretty much, because I just feel like, you know, a
lot of the flaws that are day, I feel like
those are going to be really hard things to clean
up with the personnel that you have.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
B Bob's burner says, no, Walker, please, let's move on
from football. Let's go straight to hornets.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Is it that bad? I want to do that too.
I don't want to do that yet. No, I don't.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
I don't want to move on to the Hornets. I've
seen that joke a million times with people saying that,
and then the response is is that a threat?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Right?
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Do you what do you have against me going straight
to the Hornets? We can't go straight to the Hornets?
Zach and Miami asking something similar, bringing up the Hornets
first of five wins, Panthers or the Hornets. You know,
I would say that's a bad question, except we've seen
some stuff like that before with Carolina, where the Hornets
would win a couple of games before Carolina did despite
(01:54):
starting their season a month and a half earlier. Yeah,
we've seen some of that stuff. We're scrolling. We're scrolling
some more. Big Oh guy, is he trying to stir
the pot a little bit here?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Today?
Speaker 1 (02:03):
He said, Walker. I might have missed it yesterday, but
did we ever get Wes's barbecue takes from Texas after
working the sidelines? No, we did it. Great question, great
leadoff question. How was the barbecue doll there?
Speaker 3 (02:14):
It wasn't for the team dinner. We want to have Italian,
don't ask me. Yeah, I was just like, all right, Italian.
Bet who made this decision? Somebody that signs paychecks and
we can't critate. No, I'm not going to say that,
but I'm just saying that. Yeah, I mean the team
leader did that and decided that we would have Italian.
So I was like, okay. So I was reduced to
(02:38):
at the DFW airport. I had seen when I arrived
there that they had a barbecue spot there and they
had a nice looking brisket sandwich that they had on
a display. So I made a mental note to myself
and I said, when I come back here tomorrow, I
will probably stop here and get something.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
So it's called Dicky's.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
It was a place that had been around since nineteen
forty one, apparently was part of their marketing. And so
I went and got me a little three three meet
combo with a couple of sides. And I was so
hungry too, because I hadn't eaten since breakfast before the
game had started, so I was pretty hungry. It was decent,
but it wasn't you know what I was looking forward to.
(03:19):
You know what you would think of when you go
to Texas.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Look, when you go to Amarillo, you got to get
the Gabba Ghoul because it is top notch down there. Yeah,
anytime you're in Texas state lines, get you some scampy,
some alfredo because that's what they're known for. I'm sorry,
whoever this team leader is needs to be questioned. I
can do that because I don't get a paycheck for it.
Is no no question.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
When I saw it, I was like, okay, so no
Terry Black. And then the spot too. The food was
very salty. It wasn't that great either. Man. I was
on it a few times. I did not finish my meal.
I turned it in. I ate about two thirds of it,
and then I was just like, are you into space?
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Probably not after just one game, but are you okay
now going on your own? If somebody makes a decision
like that, yeah okay. And I did say that. I
was like, you know, if it's not you know, my liking,
I'm like, I'm going to be said. If you guys
are in Miami this weekend, which that's your next game
Miami us F if you're in Miami this weekend and
somebody says, let's go get Miami's finest pizza, then you
(04:18):
need to go get some seafood somewhere.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
That wouldn't be the worst thing, because there are a
lot of New Yorkers that do live in Southern.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
But it's not the same Flounder, it's not.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
It's still not It's not the same. And I would
say that you would still want to get something. I mean,
what's Miami's signal? Yeah, you want to go with Cuban
a lot.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Of international flavor that and I've been to Miami enough
times now I have a pretty good layer of land
out which I know Checkers will certainly uh might be
visited at some point.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
I am nominating you team leader. Yeah, whoever your team
leader is. You go up to them and say, Walker said,
I'm the one in charge. Now, yeah man, I'm the captain. Yeah, yeah, man.
So I have to, like I said, figure this thing out.
But yeah, Miami, I have a pretty good feel for
things now, all right, So I'm hoping that you actually
get some good Cuban food. By the way, a Cuban
sandwich so good, I mean, just delicious. I don't know
(05:13):
if you're a big Cuban sandwich guy, but I absolutely
love it. No, I like Cuban food. Sure, I know
a little bit of a twist. I know, a proper
Cuban is supposed to have mustard on it, and I'm
not the biggest fan of mustard, so I just try
to go light with it. But Cubans, I'm supposed to
have mustard on it, so I try to keep with
the spirit of things. But also just plantains. Oh my god,
(05:33):
I love fried plantains, the rice and beans. Yuka yuka
is very, very, very good. And I don't know what
I'm eating when I'm eating yuka, but I know I
like it. So if anybody tries to take you to
Siborro and say we need to try Miami's finess, then
you need to say you're not team leader anymore. Let's
pull up to the scene. We're a little late doing it,
but we still have plenty to get to here. And
then getting off of the bus segment, we got the
(05:55):
bus driver, mister flound dog, he's behind the wheel. Open
up the doors, Flounder. Let's pull up to the scene
and get off the bus. We looked good getting off
the bush I'm sorry. I've seen some excellent suggestions on
the FanDuel text line of what you should eat when
you go down to Miami.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Smooth says conch fritters.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yeah, conk fritters. Yeah, I've I've heard those. I've had
those before as well. Herman Photography. Now this is not
one that I was saying is a great suggestion, but
he said Miami signature is cocaine, So please know that
will not happen, no question. No, we are some coke
heads here when we're fans of Jalen Coker, but that's
the only way that we could describe ourselves. Man, how
much cocaine I am back at this point, pretty bad.
(06:40):
Countdown has begun for return.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Pretty bad, pretty bad, especially with the timing being so terrible.
Trading Adam Thelen, who did drop a key pass last night,
did come back with a two point conversion close to
the sideline, but Adam Thelen no longer here. The next day,
the next day after you trade Adam Thelnd, Jalen Coker
goes down with a pretty significant injury, landing on IR.
He won't be back at least for the first four games,
(07:05):
maybe he misses six games. It's a big deal if
we start to turn towards the positive takeaways, and we
did this a little bit. I think t mac is
the biggest positive that you can take away from that
game against Jacksonville. If you look at Joe Person referencing
some of the stats and the milestones that t mac reached,
he actually had the third highest receiving total by a
(07:26):
rookie in franchise history, trailing only Musen Mohammad who had
ninety six in his debut, and Kelvin Benjamin who had
ninety two receiving yards in his debut. Now, Kelvin Benjamin,
the career did not work all that well out for him.
Moosen Mohammad has his name in the Ring of Honor
as well as he should. I was talking about this
with Flounder on Friday, how I just wanted t Mak
(07:47):
to come out just guns of blazon. Gangbusters didn't do that.
Didn't have one hundred yards and destroy the competition. But
in my opinion, I thought he looked really good. If
you look at the NFL nerds going all across the
film with all the rookies and what they did, they're
fawning over at Mecha Abuka as they should looked awesome
down in Tampa. They're doing that with t Mac. They're
(08:08):
doing that with a couple of other guys, Dylan Samson,
Harold Fannin. They had some good rookie performances up there
in Cleveland. Tyler Warren was awesome man in the first drive,
just peppering him with targets.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
But Tea Mac.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
It's nice for me as a Panthers fan to see
te Max's name among the top best rookie performances in
week one, and after looking at a lot of the
other things that went real poorly for Carolina, I am
comforted by that fact that it does look like you
have at least a hit in the top ten. It
doesn't mean that it's absolutely gonna happen, but you're off
to a great start with what you got week one.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Yeah, I mean it's pretty much the positive that you
had to take away from the game is t Max's performance.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Other than that, I mean, where else are you going
to go at this point?
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Because Tuba Hubbard, you know, he is the steady force
on the offense, but game script and everything that was
going on had his numbers not looking like you would
want them.
Speaker 5 (08:59):
To.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
So, yeah, if you had to point to something that
you would absolutely take with you and say, hey, at
least we have this, it would be Tedorowa's performed.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Should we run the offense through tim Ac? Now, No,
I'm not sure about that. I don't know that he's
quite ready for that. He is a rookie.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
And again, like I said, now it's going to be
interesting because now that the book is kind of out
on the Panthers offense, then we'll see if he comes
through and dominates this week, like if he has a
one hundred yard performance or something along those lines, then
I think maybe you start to think about it, because
that's when you know when you're that guy. You remember
Antonio Brown for all his faults, remember he gave Juju
(09:35):
Smith Schuster the warning after he left. He said, it's
completely different when you become the guy. It takes a
special dude that you know the coverage is coming to me.
It takes a special dude to know I'm getting the
best corner every single week and you still find a
way to make plays. That's when you emerge as that
number one receiver. So teams going forward are going to
dictate coverage to him and he's going to get the
(09:57):
best corners every single week. So if he's able to
throw through that, then yes, I say so.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Which is nice that Jalen Coker will come back and
hopefully relieve some of that pressure that is on his shoulders.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
And if J T.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Sanders gave it a hurt people from it, maybe and
if j T. Sanders can start to cook a little
bit more, just just catch the ball, JT. That's all
we're asking. Mccaukeey writes in on the FanDuel text line.
T Mac looked like the first skilled player that could
become a real superstar for us. Since CMC, I agree
with that, and that's what I want to get to
because if you're gonna bring in somebody in the top ten,
(10:31):
I would like for a top ten guy to become
a pro bowler or flirt with some All Pro appearances
down the line.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
And CMC gave us that.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
I don't think he gave us that right away because
there was still some mixed j Stu carries and then
c Mac his first year and then the next year.
As soon as se Mac got a full season's worth
of work, you knew he was one of the better
running backs in the league. The only other guys I
can point to Wes greg Olsen wasn't a draft pick,
but he was a star at his position. DJ Moore,
as much as I love him, I think he was
(11:02):
a wide receiver one by definition. I guess there are
thirty two wide receiver ones, but really there's probably twenty
twenty five, right. I guess those are probably the numbers
I would throw out there. I think DJ was probably
towards the bottom end of that list, but all he
did was bring in eleven hundred twelve hundred yards with
bad QB play. TMAC seems to have a higher ceiling,
(11:23):
and I think that's what if you're trying to find
the light at the end of the tunnel and see
the rainbow through the storm. Tm AC is that in
terms of possibly giving us a star return on investment,
which we have not gotten in quite some time.
Speaker 5 (11:37):
J C.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Horn on the other side, cornerback, I think has that
potential but offensive player skill player wise, this is the
first guy that I feel like we have signs of
that early on.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Yeah, and so you have to be excited about it
because the thing is he's checking off the boxes of
what you thought you would see that's the biggest thing.
You have confirmation on things that you thought you would
see from him. I guess the only thing left is
for him to catch a deep fifty to fifty ball
for a big game for people to really really start
to get on board with him. But he was a
guy that was able to flash enough during this first
(12:08):
game that you felt like, yeah, this is why we
drafted Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
In top five and receiver grade among all receivers in
the NFL. Had a couple of contested catches, but also
people were discussing how much separation he got just through nuance.
And I think that's the difference between Xcel and t MacMahon.
I was talking about this with Joe Ovius. Actually, like
you look at both of these wide receivers, two first
round picks, one top ten pick, which is very different
(12:31):
than thirty second but still first round selections. Nonetheless, there's
just nuance and some headiness to t max game, mixing
up speeds. There was one route that he had on
a comeback where he's attacking the football, which he was
great at at Arizona, and it just feels like the game.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Isn't too fast for him.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Yeah, it might be too physical for him at times
at the line of scrimmage. It didn't show up in
week one with a very very physical corner in Tyson Campbell.
So there's some nice tests that he passed there. But Excel,
how much is he thinking?
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Man?
Speaker 1 (13:01):
It is slow for him, as you've talked about, he
doesn't play for three nine speed, which I completely agree
with that take that you've had for quite a while.
It just doesn't look easy for him. It does look
pretty easy for t Mac And I'm not saying that
he's never going to have any struggles, just in terms
of the nuance of the game, the fluidity. He's not
as explosive as Excel, certainly with straight line speed. But
(13:22):
who do I feel more comfortable getting open at a
consistent rate. It's that guy that they just took with
the top ten selection.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Yeah, and the game slows down because, like I said,
when you have players, you can take a four to
six guy. But if he knows what he's doing out
there and he knows where he needs to be, he's
going to play faster than even.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
A guy that runs four two.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
I mean, who could remember John Ross and he broke
the combine record, but he would get out there and
look like a tortoise because he didn't know what he
was doing. He wasn't comfortable out there. That will make
a player play slow no matter what when you don't
know what to do. Yeah, and I was pleased with
a lot of that. I'm with you on running your
offense through t Mac. The running game it has to
cook for this team to be successful. The offensive line
(14:02):
was good at run blocking last year. Cuba Hubbard was
a twelve hundred yard guy missing time with almost a
five yards per carry.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
You got to run with Cuba. I'd like to see
Rico Daddle mixed in a little bit more. Also, it's
going to open up things a little more for a
coverage that might be covering Tmac way more than all
the other wide receivers. So the run game would be
nice for Bryce and Tmac to get open a little more.
So you gotta run. I'm totally with you on running
your offense through t Mac. Not quite yet. Let's go
(14:29):
ahead and hand off the football to Cuba a little more.
But maybe we should tweak that question into should the
passing game run through Temac right here, right now?
Speaker 2 (14:39):
And if that's the question, I think the answer is absolutely.
Oh Yeah, that's.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Definitely easy, and you don't want to diminish anything that
he's done. But that's by default. I mean, that's like
who actually going to run through renfro.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Exhale or just at well the idea of Bryce Young
being a point guard and letting him pass to the
open guy.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Okay, yeah, by those guys ain't getting open. I need
you to force feeded to team back. Honestly, I need
t MAC. I'll be honest. I need TMAC with double
digit targets a game right now. If Cocher comes back
and he plays well, then I'll be okay with eight,
like nine every once in a while, but I need
TMAC having a healthy diet of targets.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
It's WESN.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Walker Sports Radio ninety two to seven WFNZ. There are
a few topics we did not get to yesterday that
we wanted to bring back to the table today. Long term,
short term worries. What are the things we're worried about
for the rest of the season, and what do we
think are just one game or just two game worries.
We'll get to some of those topics on the other side.
It's WESN Walker Sports Radio ninety two to seven WFZ.
(15:44):
Wesn Walker back on a Tuesday Sports Radio ninety two
to seven WFNZ. Appreciate everybody joining us here in the midday.
Hopefully you do every single midday. We only have one
guest today, Hunter Bailey gonna be hopping on at two thirty,
not the normally scheduled two o'clock. He's going to be
hopping on at two thirty to discuss some of Tim
Albin's comments at his presser Tim Albyn the Coaches Show
(16:06):
last night, happening right here on WFNZ, so Hunter can
go over some of those comments. Connor Harrold is going
to be starting a quarterback again this weekend against Monmouth.
I wonder how long that's going to happen. He played
better against North Carolina. Grayson Loftis was a better thrower
of the football until he threw a couple of interceptions.
So I have to imagine a head coach making those
(16:27):
types of decisions. What wins out in those scenarios is
whether you turn over the football a lot or not.
And if Grayson Loftis is going to look good throwing
the football except for two turnovers, the two turnovers is
all you.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Really need to see. I hate it.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
I would like to be wild a little more in
the passing game, but I understand it from Tim Albin's
point of view. We'll talk more Charlotte football a little
bit later on. Let's go back to the FanDuel text
line seven oh four five, seven oh ninety six ten
people are happy about t mac Bagel. Guys said, you
can see t mac as a polished receiver. Xcel had
one breakout year and only because jus Wells got hurt
(17:01):
Spencer Rattler had no one else to throw to, so
you got obsessed with the size and speed. But Xcel
doesn't know how to be a true wide receiver. Yeah,
I don't want to speaking of diminishing years. I don't
want to do that for XL who was awesome that
last year at South Carolina. But there isn't a whole
lot of polish to his route running. And it's something
we knew was going to be an issue, but I
(17:22):
guess we just haven't seen it develop all that much
over the last year and some change.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, we have not.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
And that's the thing a lot of people point out
when they see him that, like, you know, there doesn't
look to be a lot of improvement in his game.
He still looks like a raw prospect, and so I
think that's something that a lot of people have been
frustrated a boy. And it does bring to light the
point that we talked about before the draft that a
lot of scouts talk about how receivers they're a little
bit leery of when they don't really get this shine
(17:48):
on until there last year at a school, especially been
there as long as he was.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Yeah, and Tamac is somebody that's the exact opposite, just
a beast pretty much right away at Arizona Jack and Die.
It says not only the number nuance, but t Mac
just carries himself like a superstar.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
He's real chill dude.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
I will say it is refreshing to hear some of
the comments from t Mac when asked about some of
the missed opportunities in this game. He took it all
on himself to have saying he should have caught that
one handed attempt in the end zone, saying that was
all on me. I wanted to create a special play.
I didn't do it for my quarterback, and I take
that responsibility. He did that in the preseason when he
(18:26):
didn't get his head turned around quickly enough, he said.
Even still, he didn't drop any footballs. Really, there was
no recorded drops. He even said on a couple of
those quick head turnarounds, that was I think the first
reception of the game for t Mac was Bryce a
little bit under pressure, has to throw it with the anticipation,
does a great job. T Mac catches it, but it's
bang bang with the head getting turned around. Here he
(18:48):
is still talking about how in that game, Yeah, I
gotta get my head turnaround, like I'm playing with a
quarterback that puts it right on the money quickly. He's
just taking all the responsibility. Not that exces well is
it When you ask him about it? He does, But
Team Act does seem to go that extra mile in
terms of this is all on me. Any mistakes that happen.
I know what it is. It's on me as a
(19:09):
rookie receiver. That's refreshing to hear from a guy like that. Yeah,
it definitely is. And that's the way professionals do it.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
You know, if there is something where it wasn't your fault,
you keep that type of stuff in the house because
you want to limit distractions. It anytime you have a
player that has that kind of mentality.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
You're doing the right thing, all right, So keep speaking
of keeping things in house. I don't want to make
a mountain out of a mole hill here. But there's
a comment going around. We addressed it yesterday as soon
as it came in. That has my eyebrow raised just
a little bit. Let's go to long term concerns, short
term concerns. Ajaro Avero, let's start with him. They allowed
two hundred yards rushing again to a team that was
(19:46):
not good running the football last year. They made Travis
Etn look so good. And maybe this is because of
the Etn. He looked way better in this first game
that he had all last year. So maybe it was
just the injuries holding him back.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
But when you the.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Panthers, they allow you to go off constantly. Yes, you
go back to last year. Guys had career years and
career and season highs against Carolina and et looked so good.
They just decided to trade Tank Bixby. He just got
traded yesterday at Philadelphia as a backup running back for
the Eagles. It's the Etn slash Beshall tootonshit. Yeah, so well,
(20:22):
they also ran Laquinn Allen. They did that was surprising
interesting that they liked him a lot when camp started
as well, So it does look to be etn Anyways,
Aavo allowing a bunch of rushing yards, the offense looked
pretty good for Jacksonville and Avarro's defense has done this
quite a bit. So Averro also decided to go with
(20:42):
the veterans in fifty to fifty propositions of who you
play at certain positions. He's not playing the young guys.
Dave Canalis was asked about the young guys not getting
many snaps on the defensive side of the football. Here's
what Dave canal has had to say.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
Yeah, well, I'm pushing that.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
You know.
Speaker 5 (20:56):
I'd love for all of our young guys to play.
I really believe that it's so valuable for those guys
to be out there.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Are they going to be perfect?
Speaker 5 (21:04):
No? Will every rep that they take be a valuable
and beneficial for their future? Yes, you know, and so
I would love for those guys to get opportunities out
there so that we can see what we have. And
then also just knowing like it's a long season and
a lot of people are going to play, you know,
at different times, and so it'll help us, you know,
going forward.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Listening to the audio changes my take a little bit,
not so much. But I think you have two schools
of thought, and I do think you have a Jaro
Rivero on one hand wanting to win and put out
a good performance as badly as possible because his job
is on the line. He's much more on the hot
seat than Dave Canalis is because David Tepper does not
(21:46):
want to fire another head coach halfway through the regular season.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yeah, you can.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Fire a Jero Rivo if you want to, going into
his third year with back to back terrible defensive seasons.
So Dave Canalis, understanding that ownership will be more patient
with him, does want to see what happens long term.
He just mentioned it with those rookies. He wants those
guys to get as many snaps as possible. He just
said it. You heard it in the SoundBite. Is it
(22:12):
going to be perfect, No, but those snaps are valuable.
That's Dave Canalys's bottom line. I want to build towards
the future. I want these young guys to go out
there and play. Jero Vero's got a job to say,
who does he feel like are the best defenders bar none.
If he feels like you're the best defender, guess what
you're getting A bunch of snaps Ooman Yellen, your third
(22:36):
round pick. I can't trust you as much right now,
so you're going to come in when we need to
give one of these other star or starter edge rushers
a breather, and that's the only time we're going to
play you. Scorton kind of the same thing. I trust
you more, but i'll play you in certain packages and
when I need to give an ed drusher another breather.
(22:57):
Different schools of thought here, and I do wonder if
if those two schools of thought serve as a catalyst
for a Vero being on up out of here sooner
rather than later. And I understand it from both sides.
Defensive coordinator don't want to get fired. Head coaches don't
want to get fired. But those timelines change for different people.
Next year, Canalis might want to just put out the
best players as much as possible because his job is
(23:19):
on the line. But right now, I think these are
the two mos for each of these authority figures, one
on defense, one on offense.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
Yeah, I think so too, and so for at zero Avero,
it is going to be intriguing because his hand may
be forced. I mean, he may have to sit there
and just put guys in no matter what. But as
I said, I think that this week in practice, they're
going to make sure an emphasis has put on the
young players really understanding what's going on out there. So
I think that those guys will be getting coached up
(23:48):
more than maybe normal because they're going to get more opportunities.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
The head coach wants to see it.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
And as I said, it's better to be bad and
young than to be bad and old, because maybe those
young players will turn in too good players.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Based off the experience.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
That's why he talked about how important the snaps are
because other than that, if you've got a bunch of
vets that understand another defense inside and out, but still
you're getting keeled every single week, then what's the point
of you playing.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Dave Canalis is the head coach, He's the person in
charge of this entire operation. The further you can go up,
there are other spots ahead of Dave Canalis, but a
Guero Vero defensive coordinator is not one of them. So
when he says, I'm pushing the defensive coordinator to play
some of the younger guys. A lot of people right
in and think what.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
Do you mean pushing?
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Put your foot down, say guess what, play the young
guys or you're gone, and then you can throw your
weight around a little bit.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Now.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
I want to take a step back from that, just
a little bit, because Avero is a respected coordinator in
this league. When Dave Canalyis was welcomed as the head
coach and his introductory presser, we didn't know a Verro
was coming back quite yet. He's the one that kind
of broke it. I remember Joe Person asking do you
expect to Varo to come back? And he didn't answer
the question. He talked about it as if it was
common knowledge he was already back, and discussed that Tampa
(25:08):
Bay offense going against the Panthers defense and really having
a rough time. I think he valued a Vero a lot.
I think that was his decision. Maybe there was some
backing from ownership and Dan Morgan to keep him, but
it doesn't seem like Dave Canal's really put up a fight,
so I think he respects him. I don't think you
want to go in and throw your weight around and
start calling all of the shots, saying I want you
(25:30):
to play the young guys, but at the end of
the day, it's your call. I don't know when you
start to put down the trump card, do you do
it now? Wes like, as soon as you get to
week two, do you want to tread lightly? And if
it happens again where you suck and the Cardinals score
thirty points and you give up one hundred and seventy
five rushing yards or more, do you just wait until
(25:53):
after that fact? When do you start to throw your
weight around as the head coach and say this is
what I want, So this is what you have to do.
And if I told you before, you're completely in charge
of the defense.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
I think probably if I were to guess, and this
is just me guesstimating here, I feel like that Avero
would probably be gone before something like that happened, because
I know he's probably going to be sitting there like,
look man, like they're not ready and this is my
reputation on the line, not yours. If this defense goods
out there and they look which I don't know that
this possible to look worse, but it could. I mean
(26:24):
Jacksonville did kick a few field goals, So that's what
I'm saying. They can score more touchdowns. And so if
they're just out there really just discombobulated, guys don't know
where they're going, especially doing stuff they young guys do.
And Avara's gonna be like, this is on me, not
on you, because nobody's gonna remember these conversations. Nationally, nobody's
going to bring up these conversations. All they're going to
(26:45):
say is a Gerald Everro's defense. That's what's going to
be uh the headliner when they talk about this unit.
And so for him, I think before Dave Canownce would
do something like that, I think that a Varro would
probably be gone.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
So we agree some long term concern for the run defense.
That's a pretty easy, huge take Avero. It's safe to
say we have long term concern about him, right, Yes, Okay,
let's move on still defense. But what about covering the
middle of the field and giving up yardage to tight ends?
You talk about something that's been a thorn in our
side as Panthers fans for quite some time. It does
(27:22):
feel like tight ends go off on the Panthers first
drive right away, just peppering Brenton Strange Hunter Long had
the touchdown because Trevin Wallace didn't know where he was.
Looked like Nick Scott was the culprit and giving up
that touchdown for about ten seconds and then upon further review, No,
it was Trevin Wallace not being in the spot he
needs to be. We know about Christian rose Booms problems
(27:44):
in coverage, but he was the better linebacker by far,
the best one that we had. Not saying a whole lot,
but he was the best linebacker that we had in
this game against Jacksonville. I think covering the middle of
the field and the linebacker spot west that's also like
a huge long term concern for me the rest of
the way.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Yeah, and it looks like you don't want to say
you wasted your time and money with the offseason efforts,
but it's just the way that this conversation is going.
And when you look at this defense, it's like, who
will be the holdovers? Who are the guys that you
feel like that you can build around. And I guess
that's one of the reasons why coach Canalis wants the
young players to get out there, because he wants to
figure out Okay, who are going to be the guys
(28:21):
that I can build around going forward, because again, it's
gonna be another long offseason where they're trying to figure
out and again, this game one is wild that we're
even talking about this, but if things continue to go
the way that they're going, it's going to be another
long offseason because they're going to have to overhaul several
spots on this defense yet again, and so you have
to start figuring out who are the guys who are
(28:43):
going to play here going forward? Who are the guys
that are better but circumstances aren't making them necessarily look
that way.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Will Pack James says on the FanDuel text line, Trey
McBride is about to light us up and then puts
a bunch of has I imagine that's a I'm going
crazy laugh. Yeah, if you are a fantasy football player,
it is straight boom all the way to the moon.
Trey McBride two touchdowns over one hundred yards, nine receptions
on twelve targets. I'm not kidding. I would expect Trey
(29:15):
McBride to eat all day, especially j C. Horn on
Marvin Harrison Junior. Marvin had a decent Week one doesn't
seem like he's living up to the hype that surrounded
him making his jump to the NFL. Trey McBride is
your biggest matchup issue against this linebacking corps. I would
take the over on whatever I see on Fandal, I
really would. Yeah, that's a long term concern. Continuing on
(29:41):
with long term concerns. I wish I told you this
was just a one off for some of these guys.
Yesterday I said Bryce was a one off. I thought
he played bad. Doesn't mean I think he's going to
play bad against Arizona Austin Corbett man in terms of surprising,
in terms of like how bad it was. That was
a terrible performance from him. You're snapping it really high,
(30:04):
you're giving up pressure on the inside. At least you
were decent enough run blocking. But an all time bad
opening game for a center who was pretty good last year.
The problem with him, Wes, is that he suffered injuries
each of the last couple of seasons, and Cad Mays
comes in and played better but lost to the veteran
in Corbett. I think the reason people are so ready
(30:27):
to move on from Corbett right now is that one
it's not like he was a pro bowler. Okay, so
we were not moving on from a guy that has
a history of just turning in Pro Bowl appearances. And
Caid May's played pretty well, so we have an answer.
It's not who else do you go to situation like
you Havebitt linebacker. I can't bench Rose Boom because we
can't go anywhere else. You can go somewhere else if
(30:48):
you want to bench Corbett. That's why to me, it
probably is a little bit of a long term concern
with the injury history that he has and his inability
to snap a football. One last thing, it's not like
center is his primary position. Historically he did have to
change kick inside to that spot. Kate Mays might just
get his name called sooner rather than later. Yeah, And
(31:08):
I mean this is a position to me that's been
a concern.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
I feel like that they've been carried by the guards
because you look at Corbett the last two seasons. Yes
it was limited snaps, but he goes forty seven point
nine and sixty two point two Advanced Metric grade from PFF.
So I never looked at the centers as a position
of strength. And I when we went through the draft,
when we were talking about what they should do. We
definitely had center on the board as an early round selection.
(31:34):
So that's going to be another position that they're going
to have to address going forward because I'm not a
huge fan of Mays or Corbett and I feel like
that obviously, you can do a pretty admirable job of
hiding a center in the NFL, especially if you have
decent to good guards around them, because you can call
different protection slide protections, fan protections, different things like that
(31:56):
or whatever it is. The free guy on the inside
one of the guards, they can always help out as well,
so you can always mask kind of a center if
he's not that great. And so for Corbett Man, again,
it's just another player that's going to have to be
evaluated and then you're gonna have to figure out what
you want to do with them.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
If you assume that you can upgrade at every single position,
you only have so many swings of the bat to
do it.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
So center, if you just want to play Cad Mays
probably is lower on the priority list. With all the
defensive pieces you need to add, with some wide receivers
that you need to add, Cad May's at least with him,
Like got a seventy five pass blocking grade last year. Yea,
like one of the better grades at center. Run blocking
was fine enough, which is why it was surprising, I
(32:39):
guess to see Corbett got the job as soon as
he did in the offseason. He was named that guy
quickly because what they said, they said they like the leadership, right, Yeah,
I'd forget what exactly they said. So centered, Like, offensive
line is important, But how much money are you going
to invest? We're already investing more money on our offensive
line than any other team in the league.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
That's great.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
You have to calculate some losses if you just want
to keep spending up front, which I value. Like, I'm
totally cool spending more money on the offensive line than
any other team. But are we just going to have
five guys making twenty million dollars or fifteen million dollars
or more a year? Ida know, cad If Corbett struggles again,
(33:21):
just bring in Caid man. I don't the snaps. We
didn't see many snap issues from Caid last year. We
saw it a bunch in this last game against Jacksonville.
Are you talking about short leash? I think Corbett has
one of those. Yeah, and he could. And that's the
thing too. Man, it's like yet a year in the NFL. Man,
you got to update that resume. So I'm wondering.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
Obviously they talked about the leadership, but then you know,
did he digress this year in practices?
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Did he digress?
Speaker 3 (33:44):
Because you know, if he was playing at well, you
wonder if the Panthers coaches would have gone with him
regardless of what they wanted to say about leadership and
things of the like. But I guess you know, more
than likely he will get a chance to figure it
out and get in them play.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
It was just real last thing.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
The injuries, they take a toll and I don't know
how much they've taken a toll on Austin Corbett.
Speaker 4 (34:03):
Well, this brings us back to the guy that they
could have drafted in the twenty twenty four draft, Zach Frazier,
who's looking awfully good for the Pittsburgh Steelers and could
have been your selection instead of Jonathan Brooks. So to
get back to poor drafting choices by Dan Morgan, there
you go, that's one of them potentially right there.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Yeah, to give him some grace, You could probably do
that with a bunch of guys. But you're right, center
was a priority with somebody that we were looking at
quite a bit, Fraser specifically, and they decided to move on.
I with all the help you still need defensively, I
just wonder if center is a top two position you
want to address top three.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Yeah, it's pretty important, though, I mean, they got to
figure out something to remedy that, because, like I said,
that's the quarterback of your offensive line. And you don't
really find many of the big time offensive lines that
don't have a really good center.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
And you'd rather have one better than kid from what
he showed you last year. Yeah, okay, Oh you gave
me stakface.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
You don't like Caid. You're not sixty four?
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Uh well yeah, sixty six pass blocking it's pretty good.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
I don't know like he was. He's not amazing.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
I would say eye test was better than pro football
focused numbers would tell you.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Yeah. Yeah, Like I mean, but keep it a buck.
How much do you really watch center? Well?
Speaker 1 (35:15):
I guess for the Panthers a lot. For anybody else,
not much. Yeah, Like, I I don't know, you're.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
I mean, people talk about offensive linement, but I just
don't know how much they watch offensive line plays.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
You're talking about us too.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
I'm just saying a lot of people they talk about
whole line playing.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
I'm like, all, are you really watching center though?
Speaker 1 (35:33):
How much are you watching it? I watch it a lot.
I hey man, we cover the Panthers. Yeah, you know
what I'm saying. Now, ask me that about I didn't say,
you know, well, you were giving me a little.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
I didn't say you.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
I just said I would not want k Mays as
my center going into like for the future, Like, I
think you got to get somebody else.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
That's fair, that's fair.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
Just if you do that, then are we going to
be mad at the Panthers a year from now when
we say, oh, you could have drafted this edge rusher,
Like this is what.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
You have to here, and you you are one hundred
percent correct. You can't get everything you want in an offseason.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
Obviously Rome wasn't built in a day. We get that.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
But I'm just saying it's got to be you got
to figure out, you know, what you want to do
and prioritize different things. And I think it also is
a circumstantial thing, Like are you sitting there in the
draft this year and there's a center that you feel
like could really be a formidable start in this league
as opposed to edge rusher that you feel like may
not be as good as that position. Or in free agency,
is they have much better free agent that you could
(36:33):
go out and get as opposed to another position. So
I think that's what it comes down to to a circumstance,
like what's what's there? But if you've got an opportunity
to get a center that's a difference maker, then you
got to go get it.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Yeah, I know that it wasn't Corbett yesterday. That we know,
and we'll see exactly how much longer he's starting at
that spot on the offensive line. So we'll move on.
We'll talk more Panthers coming up next. Sports Raded ninety
two to seven, WFNZ. Weston walker Back Sports Radio ninety
(37:09):
two to seven WFNZ. We got some people texting in
FanDuel text line seven oh four five, seven oh ninety
six ten, And this is what happens when you lose
a bunch of football games. People start looking back at
the draft and saying who the Panther should have selected
rather than the guy they did.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
End up playing twenty half.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
This is what happens man bagel guy, says Edge Cooper,
remember him linebacker for Green Bay that really picked up
some steam. Flounder brought up Zach Fraser. Here we are
looking at these wide receivers like lad mcconkeye Keon Coleman playing. Well,
this is what happens, man, This is why I made
the point I did with t mac Like you had
other wide receivers throughout Week one of the NFL perform
(37:49):
and at least we're not saying, see, you could have
drafted Abuca, you could have drafted Golden.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Yeah, that'd be bad. I'd be real bad.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
Thank god, thank god, because it doesn't mean that we've
dodged it. It's going to have to happen every single week.
But this is what people do, and I get it.
I get it to a certain extent. I think we
get a little overboard with that because every other team
could have drafted him as well, Like, Okay, if you
were so high on Zach Frasier, then why didn't all
(38:16):
these other teams in the first forty nine picks take them?
Or wherever he was selected, you know, everybody had a shot.
You could have traded up to go get him. Same
thing with even a I don't know, like Harold Fan
and Junior. I've Harold Fannon was awesome for Cleveland. Kevin
Stefanski found a queen on the chess board and decided,
what if I just have him touch the football all
the time in different areas of the field and watch
(38:37):
them cook. And he kind of did that against the
Bengals defense. It's the Bengals defense, but they used him
quite a bit, and I could say, hey, Panthers, we
need some play making. A tight end or at least
two tight end sets would be kind of cool. Also,
put him out there with JT. Let Harold take some
snaps and wildcat like he did against Cleveland. That would
be fun. Why did you select him? Or I could
(39:00):
have that same argument for all the other teams in
the NFL outside of Cleveland as to why they didn't
take them.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
So sometimes GM's taken it.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
I mean, if the Fans had a draft after Week
one of the season, then you know we'd be having
GM Hall of Fame candidates with the way we will
go back and say, Yay, you should have picked him,
should have picked him.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
We would, But the picks you make they do have
to hit to some degree. And I think this is
the hard thing we're parsing out right now, Does Dan
Morgan have enough hits to justify what he's done so
far in the selection process, And right now twenty twenty
four doesn't look too good. Yeah, twenty twenty five, it's
(39:41):
been one game. Who the hell knows what happens with
this past NFL draft, Like a team ac If that's
a hit, that's already a monster step. If you have
a nice selection in the top ten and you hit
on that man, that does a lot of covering your
behind for everything else you do. But it's still important
everything else you do.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Draft class.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
It's funny because it felt like we were making some
real progress at the beginning of last season in twenty
twenty four, and then it's been anything but since. Jalen
Kocher give him credit for that. Chow Smith Wade getting
some starts at L Nichols play all the time, now,
give him some credit for that. But not hitting on
your first, your second, and your third and maybe your fourth.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
If J. T. Sanders doesn't show up, twenty twenty four
doesn't look to be so yeah, that's bad.
Speaker 3 (40:24):
And like I said, it starts to clock for you,
especially when your first rounder doesn't hit from your first draft,
that's going to start the clock.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
And so that's why as you see.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
The great organizations, they're able to draft really well and
those you know, those middle rounds, and they're able to
take advantage of things there because you have to be
able to have something to cover you up. And right now,
Dan Lugan doesn't have much to go on right now,
and I think a lot of the hopes of this draft,
obviously for this year, you're looking at Laythan Ransom and
you're looking at those edges.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
I mean Tetoroa.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
He looks like he could be a solid selection so far,
but a lot's gonna hinge on those edges. I think
late and rounds, some fourth rounder for sure, because of
what he showed in the preseason, and I do think
once he gets his opportunities, he could make the most
of them. But if you look at a draft way
you're saying teddor Moroa McMillan is your hit and the
two edges don't hit, that's gonna be real bad.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Yeah, it's a tough, tough outing.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
If Nick Gordon doesn't become anything and Princely Manmuelan doesn't
turn out to be a starter level player. That's gonna
be real tough. Here's somebody, Rob from Salisbury writes, Marty
Herney made a career from his first round draft picks. Hell,
he would pick somebody in the second round that was
missing a foot, But his first round picks they looked
(41:39):
really good. Nobody ever even thought about it when he
would make a first round selection. Here's my question. Would
you take the Marty Hernie track record two point zero
and Dan Morgan if you could, or would you rather
hold out hope for possibly hitting on other picks outside
of the first round select Marty hint he took you
to the Super Bowls, So you would take it again,
(42:01):
like just just hitting on first and having a terrible
track record afterwards, because that's what it was. I mean
as as opposed to the track that we are on
with Dan Morgan. Yes, you would take that because at
least you had some established stars that were among the
best at their position with some of the picks that
Marty Hernie had.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
Let let's listen to the NFL MVP.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
How do you feel how do you feel about taking
just Marty Herney two point oh In terms of drafting,
not free agents, we don't have to pay all the
running backs. We don't have to do all of that.
Marty did a lot of really good things with this team.
Would you take that? Two point h and Dan Morgan
seven oh four five, seven oh ninety six ten, Kat
and Charlotte are saying, please, guys, let's give the Panthers
(42:41):
a break. Talk about other takes. I listen to WFNZ
every day, all day, and every show on the station
is talking about the same thing.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
And we're talking about the Panthers. Man, we're in need.
Speaker 3 (42:52):
You're gonna get your fixed. Like that's the most captain
obvious take.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
This could happen. It'sday talk about the Panthers. In Charlotte,
it's too.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
Scott and Belmont also writing it in though too, like, hey,
can we chill with every little decision?
Speaker 2 (43:06):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (43:06):
So it seems like we're getting some of that on
a Tuesday rather than Monday where it was scorched earth.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
Yes, we're starting to shift in the other.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
These people that are saying is they aren't paying attention
to the other hunreds of ticks that we are getting
that are about the topics we're talking about.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
I thought about this too. Carter from Charlotte says, I
hope salesman isn't listening. Yeah, because salesman not a big
Marty Herney fan. And like, I look, I get you, salesman. Okay,
you got to hit on your second and beyond picks.
But if you're just drafting pro bowler after pro bowler
in the first round.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
That's important. It help.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
I'll be honest with you, I would probably hold out
hope that Dan would hit on these other draft picks
rather than just take the Marty Herney blueprint. Yeah, but
I understand it's a risk that I'm doing that. It is,
I do get that. Let's say you flatter, Is that
something that you would do. Would you just sign up
for hitting on all of your top thirty two selections
and then missing on every other one?
Speaker 4 (44:01):
I I would say yes, because you would have those
guys that would eventually become Pro Bowl lever level type
players that could at least lead your group. I mean,
eventually you would have to hit on run stoppers, right,
I mean that's if you're if you're going with those
guys in the first round, eventually you're drafting someone that
can stop the run. Eventually you're figuring you're you're figuring
(44:23):
out potentially your tight end position. We've seen those guys
be drafted in the first round, so I would I
would say, yeah, I'd probably sign up for that at
this point because that'd be a step in the right
direction from what we're dealing with now, which is basically
missing on everybody. I mean, that's that's what twenty four
looks like, is like you've missed on pretty much everybody
that you drafted in that class. Uh.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
Last text before we move on, M Dog says Walker,
you were sauced when I saw you on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (44:48):
All right, nice, here we go again.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
Well, you know what I snitched on myself by reading
the text message one shout out to them, Shout out
to m Dog. It was great seeing you at the tail.
But this is what happens if you it's I just
saw Eli Manning. Give this piece of advice out to
young quarterbacks. Don't take any picture with a beer in
your hand because of what Eli went through in college.
It makes so much sense because with my resting drunk
(45:15):
slash high face, if I have a beer in my
hand as well, then automatically drunk like that's just how
it is. And so when I see em dog. I'm
excited by the way M Dog DAPs me up about
thirteen different times. Was not the he was the one
saying I love you, man. It was something like that.
(45:36):
It was reciprocated.
Speaker 2 (45:38):
Somebody to be in there with him. That's right. It
looked it was reciprocated. Okay.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
I loved that experience, and I love seeing you. But
you know how my face anytime, anytime, man, anytime I
take a picture, I look drunk or high.
Speaker 3 (45:51):
It can't help it. What was your face flushed? Was
it fleshed and red? I didn't think so. I didn't
think so. Am dog man out here trying to call
me out when you're the one?
Speaker 1 (46:01):
Man?
Speaker 2 (46:01):
Great to see you, great tee, it was great to
see you too. I don't mind your business. What's going on? Man?
All right?
Speaker 1 (46:06):
It's the campus KNA come up next. Sports Radio ninety
two to seven WFNZ. Listen to the West and Walker Show
Wheaties from noon to three only on Sports Radio ninety
two point seven FM UFNZ, the official home of the
Charlotte sports Fan
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The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.