December 1, 2025 • 18 mins
In this edition of the Live Wire, Walker and Flounder react to Charles Lee discussing his use of LaMelo and Brandon Miller in the game with Toronto, Dave Canales talking about Chuba's strong performance and Kay Adams saying Bryce is the best quarterback in his draft class.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You ready to go with the live wire here? Ready
to play some sound? Yes, all right, time now for
the live wire with flound doc.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
There it goes, took it in a minute. He's in
the West.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
In the West, up, offloaded down.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Live wise guy.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
All right, and let's start with the little hornets here
because we haven't talked about them yet here today. But
Charles Lee was talking after the win on Saturday over
the Toronto Raptors. He was asked about juggling the minute
restrictions while trying to make a comeback in that game.
Of course, the minute restrictions he's talking about both lamellow
Ball and Brandon Miller.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
How did he juggle it?
Speaker 4 (00:36):
Yeah, you just have to, I think, keep the process,
the long term vision in mind, even when you're in
these moments. We want to win this game, obviously, every
game we want to win really badly, and I think
that those two guys obviously help you do it. But
we do have really good depth, and so you lean
on that depth in moments like this and the maturity
of those two guys to understand that there is a
bigger picture and trying to maximize their availability. I thought
(00:59):
they did a good job of staying engaged even if
they had to sit out for longer stretches than they're
used to, and then when they come in the game,
they had an impact. You know, I thought that that
was huge for them, And I look at this box scorn,
I'm glad that they're where they at and we'll see
how they recover after their first back to back in
a while. So really happy with the process and also
their approach and maturity to dealing with it.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Well.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
So for the first question is how excited were you
to see that they played in a back to back
both guys were back out there and played in both
of those games. And second, what did you think about
how Charles Lee managed their minutes while trying to make
it come back against the rapt.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
But Buddy, there is a lot a lot to comb
through with what the Hornets experience. We have not done
a show since Street Turkeys last week, and once we
got off of the air, we had to go watch
the Hornets play the Knicks. They got beat down by
the Knicks at home, and what I think was the
most embarrassing loss of the season. I thought LaMelo gave
us the most embarrassing performance that he had given US
(01:55):
all season long, and that was after what I thought
was a terrible performance against Indiana. I thought he was way, way,
way worse against the Knicks. So the minutes restriction, I'll
answer first. I do like the minutes restriction. It clearly
matters more to have LaMelo appear in as many games
as possible, Brandon Miller to appear in as many games
as possible. So LaMelo playing the twenty nine minutes that
(02:19):
he did against Chicago seven minutes less against Toronto. There
is some conversation about whether he got benched and Charles
Lee is hiding behind the minutes restriction as to why
he only played twenty two minutes. It is the lowest
amount that he's played so far. Remember it's the second
night of a back to back, and Brandon Miller also
played seven less minutes than he did the first time
(02:39):
playing against Chicago. So I think it does line up,
even if you can hide behind it if you want to.
LaMelo wasn't playing well against Toronto. I think the effort
was there. I think he was looking for other guys
and getting them involved, but he's not hitting a bunch
of shots fair enough. I understand why you have the
minutes restriction here and Brandon Miller really struggled shooting the
ball against Toronto to be fair. One of thirteen from
(03:00):
the field, oh of six from three point land not
very good. Yet this is where we get to the
other side, they responded. In my opinion, after having that
terrible loss against the Knicks, I flounder. That was as
frustrated as I've ever been with LaMelo Ball. I thought
he checked out. I didn't know if the rumors got
(03:22):
to him.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
He just wasn't involved. He was going to the sideline,
not really hearing anything that Charles Lee had to say.
And just to be crystal clear, that to me is
not a typical LaMelo Ball. I think that he has
been misunderstood for really his entire career here in Charlotte.
I think he's young. I think he likes to have fun.
I think he's goofy. I think people use that as
(03:44):
a reason to call him extremely selfish. I don't believe
that to be true about LaMelo. We even heard Mark
stein We saw what he wrote in his Steinlein report
that LaMelo was not a malcontent off of the court.
It's not somebody they worry about. Okay, it's in report,
it's in rum. They're not worried about the way that
he behaves off of the court, nor should they be
(04:04):
on the court. Against New York, I thought he checked
out and everybody that questioned his effort deserved to.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
You know who else questioned it.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Charles Lee was mad at him, saying, you got to
understand you can affect the basketball game in other ways
outside of scoring. LaMelo answered the bell the ball if
you will. The very next game, I thought LaMelo, despite
not shooting a very good percentage by the way, like
he wasn't efficient against Chicago man, he played his tail
off and I thought he was actually a little too
(04:32):
unselfish at times. There are times where I wanted him
to throw that ball up from three point land, and
every once in a while he would give us the
one legged jumper. I don't want him to completely get
rid of that. That's still what makes him special. But
I thought he really answered it well against Chicago, like
six of nineteen Flounder, that's not a good shooting performance.
Even still, he played much better in that game than
(04:55):
he did the previous time out against New York, and
they won the game. They won the game, which It
goes a lot into selling the message to your team.
If you're Charles Lee, back to back wins against two
above average play in Slash playoff teams Chicago and Toronto,
who had been one of the best teams in the
Eastern Conference. I throw all that back at you and
say congrats to the Hornets for answering the way they
(05:16):
should have in the last two games. LaMelo answering the
way that he should have in the last two games. Clearly,
the macro approach is to keep these guys as healthy
as possible. I agree with it. We'll see what happens
tonight when the Hornets take on I need to look
this up because I forget.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Who they play. It is.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
We are scrolling. We are scrolling some more. The Hornets
play Brooklyn, I apologize, Oh see what hey.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
So NBA adjace basically because my god, that team stinks.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
They are three and sixteen on the year. Please take care.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Okay, so they'd see that's the thing, right, yep, Yeah,
You've taken care of business against a couple of teams
that are actually pretty decent. Now lock in against this
team that stinks and find a way to blow them out.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
You did it. In the first game of the season
against them.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Now you got to be able to do it here
in this one, all right, Speaking of a team that's
locked in, let's go to Dave Canalis. He was talking
actually earlier today and was mentioning Chewba Hubbard and how
he's liked what he's done since he's lost his starting
running back role.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
I just love the way Chuba went right back to work,
and that's his mentality. He's going to handle what's right
in front of him, control the controllabules, take care of
his body, get himself back to where he feels great.
He looked amazing yesterday. He looked explosive, and he looked
strong and really brought an attitude to our group and
it really impacted us as a team. On the sideline,
I could feel that just by the way the intentionality
(06:39):
of how he was running the ball and making yards
and just really proud of the way that he's worked
himself back and all he wants to do is win.
All he wants to do is help his teammates. I
love that about him, all right.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
So what did you think yesterday about the distribution of
carries in the backfield and is that really one more
of what we were looking for when we talked early
in the season about them a running back.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Rotation, seventeen carries for Cuba, eighteen for Rico. Cuba ran
really well, eighty three yards on seventeen carries. Rico had
fifty eight yards on eighteen carries, not a great yards
per carry, but I thought he still ran hard. It's
just that Cuba showed a lot of that burst that
we had been missing really all season long, and Cuba
(07:21):
being not as healthy as maybe he was letting on
when he came back. When Rico has the breakout games
against Dallas and Miami, Cuba probably does feel the need
to return a little sooner than he should. Cuba, even
talking about how the Lord hurt his prayers, he was
really going through something spiritually, trying to figure out how
he could come back and be his best self. Well,
(07:42):
he was his best self and he looked a lot
better against San Francisco. That was some of the issue
that we took with Dave Canalis for not calling more
run plays was not only had Rico been balling all
year long, but Cuba looked better against the forty nine ers. Now,
this is the proof of concept for the fan base saying,
give Cuba the ball a little bit more, Give Rico
the ball a little more. Cuba looked great yesterday against
(08:05):
the Rams, which ultimately I think comes down to something
we know about but maybe don't discuss as much. Man
playing running back effectively. Oftentimes it does come down to
just how fresh you are. Not a whole lot of
wear and tear on Tuba this season, right, probably feeling
a lot better when Rico was balling out. Not a
whole lot of wear and tear on Rico, probably feeling
a lot better. Okay, now's the time where you use
(08:28):
both of these running backs quite a bit. If you
want to stick to the run, and you want to
give Rico a little bit more rest, Cuba a little
more arrest, they will be a fresher running back for you.
In these last couple of games, two of them against
a division opponent that you need to be in order
to win the NFC South. I think this is happening
(08:49):
at the right time. You get a monster win over
the best team in football, and now you have two
games ahead of you against technically the best team in
your division, and these running backs. You can give Rico
a little bit more of a spell because Cuba is
healthy now, it's happening at the right time. Floundy love
what I saw from the running back yesterday. No, it's
coming together at the right time. There's no doubt about that.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
And that's what I think is if you're looking at
what makes this team successful, what makes this team consistent,
it's if you can run the ball with both of
these guys, because there's gonna be times where Rico doesn't
necessarily have it. I mean there were times yesterday where
Rico didn't have it to have that guy that you
can count on in Cuba. Now that he's fully healthy,
(09:30):
you saw that burst. That's gonna be a difference. That's
where when people compare them and say they're the same
running back, I don't think they are, because there is
that little bit of burst when he's healthy from Chewba Hubbard.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
So the elusivity for Rico, the passing game from Rico,
I think there's a lot that overlaps one another in
the Venn diagram that is Chuba, Hubbard and Rico daddle,
but there is still something unique about each of them
when compared to each other.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
On the outside of that diagram.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
All right, Let's go to Bryce Young because he was
talking on the and yesterday and he brought up the
fans and how impactful they were in the victory.
Speaker 6 (10:04):
For sure, for sure, that means means a ton, you know,
for the Caroliners to come and support us. You know,
we take a lot of pride in protecting the bank
and you know, for us to get that, it's a
huge advantage. You know, it's you know, it means a
lot of your effects the game. So we're super grateful
for the fan base. It was definitely felt like normal,
So yeah, we're all super grateful for that.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
So what did you think about the support of the
fans yesterday? How about middle of an offensive drive, a
key pounding chant literally starts going. Someone said on social media,
can't remember the last time that happened. Really seemed like
a great day from the fans.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
It really did, especially with the weather being pretty nasty.
It was cold. It wasn't unbearably cold, but it was cold,
talk about below fifty, especially with the rain and the
wind chill and all of that. There were people that
needed to come up under the awning in order to
avoid the rain, But it really wasn't that many people
man like. There were still a lot of people down
below just dealing with being wet watching the Carolina Panthers
(11:01):
play football and their parkas are soaked, and it couldn't
have been a pleasant experience from a weather standpoint. It
was from watching the Panthers like what they did. It
was an entertaining game. I think that's why you saw
a lot of people nationally watching this contest between the
two saying, hey, everybody, if you have Sunday ticket, go
ahead and put it on this Panthers Rams game because
(11:22):
it's really exciting. It's living up to I don't even
know if it was living up to the hype. It
surpassed the hype. There wasn't much hype about this game,
even from people in this building now who thought the
Rams was going to win going away. But the weather
perhaps it affected the Rams more than it did the Panthers,
because the Panthers just ran it constantly. Your MVP throwing
the football a little off on some of those intermediate throws,
(11:45):
to be sure, even just I would say Pooka Nakua
coming up big forum DeVante Adams early in the game
was wide open on some of those throws from Stafford
and you had turnovers, like the most critical turnovers that
you can force is what happened. Two in the red area,
one close to it, one directly in the red zone,
(12:05):
and another was a pick six. I would says you
could have.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Here's the thing. You can blame that on.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
The rain really wasn't raining that hard when he threw
those two interceptions, So you can't.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Say that was almost leather if you wanted it. I mean,
I guess you could say the fumble like Stafford wasn't
protecting that ball a ton, but like, no, you're right
the interceptions. It was not raining nearly all that much
at that point.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
All right, we move on to ky Adams because she
just decided, you know what, I'm gonna throw one of
the hottest takes of the NFL season, potentially out earlier
this morning on her show, she says that Bryce has
been the best quarterback from his draft class.
Speaker 7 (12:47):
It's time to have a conversation about Bryce people. It
is a twenty one game sample size. He returned from
the benching. I don't know what that did, but it
did something. They pick up the over the Saints, and
he has now led these Panthers to a winning record.
They beat the Rams, they beat the Packers, remember that
they beat the Cowboys. This year, he has thirty seven
(13:09):
touchdowns and thirteen picks and NFL best nine game winning drives.
So those thirty seven touchdowns top ten over that span,
more than Aaron Rodgers, Jordan Love, Drake May I'm gonna
say it, and CJ. Stroud and I just want to
highlight and CJ.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Stroud.
Speaker 7 (13:26):
Okay, so Tepper's drafted him, stuck with him, and look
what's happening. And there's a lot of work left to do,
of course, but he now has his team back in
the playoff race. And this is a very significant sample size.
This isn't a couple of games. Okay, He's been the
best quarterback in the twenty twenty three draft class. Question Mark,
you guys tell me yes he has.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
All right, So how hot of a take do you
think that this is from Kay Adams And do you
think at this point, with what we've seen from Bryce
availability part of it as well, do you think he
has surpassed CJ.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
Stroud.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
That's tough for me to answer, man. I love what
Bryce has done. I don't think it's that hot of
a take. I'll answer that because I do think it's
kind of tough now with what c J. Stroud has
or has not done eleven touchdowns to six interceptions. The
thing is, I do think this, if Bryce Young had
the same situation that c J. Stroud had each of
these last two seasons, I think we would be using
(14:22):
that situation to defend Bryce Jung's poor play because that
offensive line down there is still quite poor and all
the weapons that you've drafted or signed the last couple
of years, Stefan Diggs gets injured after a while, Nico
Collins is in and out of the lineup, Tank Dell
still isn't playing football.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
I don't want to give c J.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Stroud excuses so much so that I continue to say
that he's better than Bryce, but I am trying to
be fair with all of this. He did also just
beat an Indianapolis Colts team that was the darling of
the first ten games of the NFL season, and he
threw for two hundred and seventy six yards while doing so,
did have the interception, did get sacked a couple of times,
didn't have any touchdown that's fair, but made the plays
(15:03):
they needed him to make.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
When they needed him. When they needed him to do so.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Like, so all that to say, it's a win that
Bryce has made this a conversation flat out because CJ
was a star, and I need people to understand that
after that rookie season, you couldn't go to any podcast
without hearing that host discuss just how CJ was going
to be the future.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
C J.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Stroud won a playoff game. He's won a couple of
playoff games already, if I'm not mistaken. Did he win
the one last year they got to the postseason either.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Way, Yeah, I don't remember for sure. Either way, what
c J.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Stroud has done has been impressive, especially more so just
looking at that rookie year and he was all over
the place and he had all of these fun takes.
And now Bryce has closed the gap to the point
where there might not be a gap between these two guys.
So look, if he hasn't passed CJ, I'll say that
he's right there with him. I'll say that he's right
(15:55):
there with him, and that that he has played so
much better since getting benched. With the other thing, I
wanted to push back on just real quickly with what
Kay Adams was saying. She said David Tepper stuck with him,
and that they deserve a lot of credit for that. Look,
this is coming from somebody that has given Temper quite
a bit of credit over the last year.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Man.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
We got to remember, I'm not sure Bryce comes back
if Andy Dalton doesn't get in the car wreck and
injure his wrist. Right, it was his wrist that he
injured when he got in the car wreck or stuff stuff.
Excuse me, sorry, yep, it was his thumb. And you know,
if they would have gotten the right kind of value
for a trade, would they have moved on from Bryce.
That's the kind of thing I'm not so sure I
(16:36):
need to give him or the Panther's all that much
credit for.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
But they threw him back out there.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
He's played a lot better, and now I think he's
played well enough if he keeps it at this level
the rest of the season to at least pick up
the fifth year contract or a fifth year option on
this contract. And that's not a small thing. That's an
important thing to have happened with your first overall selection.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Yeah, no, I think you're right, by the way, Yeah,
CJ Shroud two wins in the playoffs, so that's certainly
something that Bryce is going to have to get to.
The Other thing that's interesting though, when you have this
conversation about these two, is look at what CJ's backup
was able to do in that system?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
He was Davis Mills was pretty good.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
So does that sort of take away a little bit
from what CJ did?
Speaker 1 (17:19):
I guess Ad Dalton was too in some moments and
then he wasn't. So like if we just would have
gotten a larger sample size from Davis Mills, would Davis
have shown us why he's a backup tb CJ. Stroud
just came back quicker than what Bryce did, right, So
I think it's very comparable.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
I think that's the story to me, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
I think honestly, I said it was one of the
hotter takes. I think when you think about it, it
probably is. I don't know if it's a right take,
but it is pretty close to being right.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Sounds like a first take topic who's better out of
the class?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Bryce Young Hersell, Well, that doesn't that doesn't involve a
Bears quarterback, so they probably won't talk about it or Dallas.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
So yeah, Philly don't figure out a way how to
put Lebron in there as well.
You ready to go with the live wire here? Ready
to play some sound? Yes, all right, time now for
the live wire with flound doc.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
There it goes, took it in a minute. He's in
the West.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
In the West, up, offloaded down.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Live wise guy.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
All right, and let's start with the little hornets here
because we haven't talked about them yet here today. But
Charles Lee was talking after the win on Saturday over
the Toronto Raptors. He was asked about juggling the minute
restrictions while trying to make a comeback in that game.
Of course, the minute restrictions he's talking about both lamellow
Ball and Brandon Miller.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
How did he juggle it?
Speaker 4 (00:36):
Yeah, you just have to, I think, keep the process,
the long term vision in mind, even when you're in
these moments. We want to win this game, obviously, every
game we want to win really badly, and I think
that those two guys obviously help you do it. But
we do have really good depth, and so you lean
on that depth in moments like this and the maturity
of those two guys to understand that there is a
bigger picture and trying to maximize their availability. I thought
(00:59):
they did a good job of staying engaged even if
they had to sit out for longer stretches than they're
used to, and then when they come in the game,
they had an impact. You know, I thought that that
was huge for them, And I look at this box scorn,
I'm glad that they're where they at and we'll see
how they recover after their first back to back in
a while. So really happy with the process and also
their approach and maturity to dealing with it.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Well.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
So for the first question is how excited were you
to see that they played in a back to back
both guys were back out there and played in both
of those games. And second, what did you think about
how Charles Lee managed their minutes while trying to make
it come back against the rapt.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
But Buddy, there is a lot a lot to comb
through with what the Hornets experience. We have not done
a show since Street Turkeys last week, and once we
got off of the air, we had to go watch
the Hornets play the Knicks. They got beat down by
the Knicks at home, and what I think was the
most embarrassing loss of the season. I thought LaMelo gave
us the most embarrassing performance that he had given US
(01:55):
all season long, and that was after what I thought
was a terrible performance against Indiana. I thought he was way, way,
way worse against the Knicks. So the minutes restriction, I'll
answer first. I do like the minutes restriction. It clearly
matters more to have LaMelo appear in as many games
as possible, Brandon Miller to appear in as many games
as possible. So LaMelo playing the twenty nine minutes that
(02:19):
he did against Chicago seven minutes less against Toronto. There
is some conversation about whether he got benched and Charles
Lee is hiding behind the minutes restriction as to why
he only played twenty two minutes. It is the lowest
amount that he's played so far. Remember it's the second
night of a back to back, and Brandon Miller also
played seven less minutes than he did the first time
(02:39):
playing against Chicago. So I think it does line up,
even if you can hide behind it if you want to.
LaMelo wasn't playing well against Toronto. I think the effort
was there. I think he was looking for other guys
and getting them involved, but he's not hitting a bunch
of shots fair enough. I understand why you have the
minutes restriction here and Brandon Miller really struggled shooting the
ball against Toronto to be fair. One of thirteen from
(03:00):
the field, oh of six from three point land not
very good. Yet this is where we get to the
other side, they responded. In my opinion, after having that
terrible loss against the Knicks, I flounder. That was as
frustrated as I've ever been with LaMelo Ball. I thought
he checked out. I didn't know if the rumors got
(03:22):
to him.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
He just wasn't involved. He was going to the sideline,
not really hearing anything that Charles Lee had to say.
And just to be crystal clear, that to me is
not a typical LaMelo Ball. I think that he has
been misunderstood for really his entire career here in Charlotte.
I think he's young. I think he likes to have fun.
I think he's goofy. I think people use that as
(03:44):
a reason to call him extremely selfish. I don't believe
that to be true about LaMelo. We even heard Mark
stein We saw what he wrote in his Steinlein report
that LaMelo was not a malcontent off of the court.
It's not somebody they worry about. Okay, it's in report,
it's in rum. They're not worried about the way that
he behaves off of the court, nor should they be
(04:04):
on the court. Against New York, I thought he checked
out and everybody that questioned his effort deserved to.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
You know who else questioned it.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Charles Lee was mad at him, saying, you got to
understand you can affect the basketball game in other ways
outside of scoring. LaMelo answered the bell the ball if
you will. The very next game, I thought LaMelo, despite
not shooting a very good percentage by the way, like
he wasn't efficient against Chicago man, he played his tail
off and I thought he was actually a little too
(04:32):
unselfish at times. There are times where I wanted him
to throw that ball up from three point land, and
every once in a while he would give us the
one legged jumper. I don't want him to completely get
rid of that. That's still what makes him special. But
I thought he really answered it well against Chicago, like
six of nineteen Flounder, that's not a good shooting performance.
Even still, he played much better in that game than
(04:55):
he did the previous time out against New York, and
they won the game. They won the game, which It
goes a lot into selling the message to your team.
If you're Charles Lee, back to back wins against two
above average play in Slash playoff teams Chicago and Toronto,
who had been one of the best teams in the
Eastern Conference. I throw all that back at you and
say congrats to the Hornets for answering the way they
(05:16):
should have in the last two games. LaMelo answering the
way that he should have in the last two games. Clearly,
the macro approach is to keep these guys as healthy
as possible. I agree with it. We'll see what happens
tonight when the Hornets take on I need to look
this up because I forget.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Who they play. It is.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
We are scrolling. We are scrolling some more. The Hornets
play Brooklyn, I apologize, Oh see what hey.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
So NBA adjace basically because my god, that team stinks.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
They are three and sixteen on the year. Please take care.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Okay, so they'd see that's the thing, right, yep, Yeah,
You've taken care of business against a couple of teams
that are actually pretty decent. Now lock in against this
team that stinks and find a way to blow them out.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
You did it. In the first game of the season
against them.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Now you got to be able to do it here
in this one, all right, Speaking of a team that's
locked in, let's go to Dave Canalis. He was talking
actually earlier today and was mentioning Chewba Hubbard and how
he's liked what he's done since he's lost his starting
running back role.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
I just love the way Chuba went right back to work,
and that's his mentality. He's going to handle what's right
in front of him, control the controllabules, take care of
his body, get himself back to where he feels great.
He looked amazing yesterday. He looked explosive, and he looked
strong and really brought an attitude to our group and
it really impacted us as a team. On the sideline,
I could feel that just by the way the intentionality
(06:39):
of how he was running the ball and making yards
and just really proud of the way that he's worked
himself back and all he wants to do is win.
All he wants to do is help his teammates. I
love that about him, all right.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
So what did you think yesterday about the distribution of
carries in the backfield and is that really one more
of what we were looking for when we talked early
in the season about them a running back.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Rotation, seventeen carries for Cuba, eighteen for Rico. Cuba ran
really well, eighty three yards on seventeen carries. Rico had
fifty eight yards on eighteen carries, not a great yards
per carry, but I thought he still ran hard. It's
just that Cuba showed a lot of that burst that
we had been missing really all season long, and Cuba
(07:21):
being not as healthy as maybe he was letting on
when he came back. When Rico has the breakout games
against Dallas and Miami, Cuba probably does feel the need
to return a little sooner than he should. Cuba, even
talking about how the Lord hurt his prayers, he was
really going through something spiritually, trying to figure out how
he could come back and be his best self. Well,
(07:42):
he was his best self and he looked a lot
better against San Francisco. That was some of the issue
that we took with Dave Canalis for not calling more
run plays was not only had Rico been balling all
year long, but Cuba looked better against the forty nine ers. Now,
this is the proof of concept for the fan base saying,
give Cuba the ball a little bit more, Give Rico
the ball a little more. Cuba looked great yesterday against
(08:05):
the Rams, which ultimately I think comes down to something
we know about but maybe don't discuss as much. Man
playing running back effectively. Oftentimes it does come down to
just how fresh you are. Not a whole lot of
wear and tear on Tuba this season, right, probably feeling
a lot better when Rico was balling out. Not a
whole lot of wear and tear on Rico, probably feeling
a lot better. Okay, now's the time where you use
(08:28):
both of these running backs quite a bit. If you
want to stick to the run, and you want to
give Rico a little bit more rest, Cuba a little
more arrest, they will be a fresher running back for you.
In these last couple of games, two of them against
a division opponent that you need to be in order
to win the NFC South. I think this is happening
(08:49):
at the right time. You get a monster win over
the best team in football, and now you have two
games ahead of you against technically the best team in
your division, and these running backs. You can give Rico
a little bit more of a spell because Cuba is
healthy now, it's happening at the right time. Floundy love
what I saw from the running back yesterday. No, it's
coming together at the right time. There's no doubt about that.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
And that's what I think is if you're looking at
what makes this team successful, what makes this team consistent,
it's if you can run the ball with both of
these guys, because there's gonna be times where Rico doesn't
necessarily have it. I mean there were times yesterday where
Rico didn't have it to have that guy that you
can count on in Cuba. Now that he's fully healthy,
(09:30):
you saw that burst. That's gonna be a difference. That's
where when people compare them and say they're the same
running back, I don't think they are, because there is
that little bit of burst when he's healthy from Chewba Hubbard.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
So the elusivity for Rico, the passing game from Rico,
I think there's a lot that overlaps one another in
the Venn diagram that is Chuba, Hubbard and Rico daddle,
but there is still something unique about each of them
when compared to each other.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
On the outside of that diagram.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
All right, Let's go to Bryce Young because he was
talking on the and yesterday and he brought up the
fans and how impactful they were in the victory.
Speaker 6 (10:04):
For sure, for sure, that means means a ton, you know,
for the Caroliners to come and support us. You know,
we take a lot of pride in protecting the bank
and you know, for us to get that, it's a
huge advantage. You know, it's you know, it means a
lot of your effects the game. So we're super grateful
for the fan base. It was definitely felt like normal,
So yeah, we're all super grateful for that.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
So what did you think about the support of the
fans yesterday? How about middle of an offensive drive, a
key pounding chant literally starts going. Someone said on social media,
can't remember the last time that happened. Really seemed like
a great day from the fans.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
It really did, especially with the weather being pretty nasty.
It was cold. It wasn't unbearably cold, but it was cold,
talk about below fifty, especially with the rain and the
wind chill and all of that. There were people that
needed to come up under the awning in order to
avoid the rain, But it really wasn't that many people
man like. There were still a lot of people down
below just dealing with being wet watching the Carolina Panthers
(11:01):
play football and their parkas are soaked, and it couldn't
have been a pleasant experience from a weather standpoint. It
was from watching the Panthers like what they did. It
was an entertaining game. I think that's why you saw
a lot of people nationally watching this contest between the
two saying, hey, everybody, if you have Sunday ticket, go
ahead and put it on this Panthers Rams game because
(11:22):
it's really exciting. It's living up to I don't even
know if it was living up to the hype. It
surpassed the hype. There wasn't much hype about this game,
even from people in this building now who thought the
Rams was going to win going away. But the weather
perhaps it affected the Rams more than it did the Panthers,
because the Panthers just ran it constantly. Your MVP throwing
the football a little off on some of those intermediate throws,
(11:45):
to be sure, even just I would say Pooka Nakua
coming up big forum DeVante Adams early in the game
was wide open on some of those throws from Stafford
and you had turnovers, like the most critical turnovers that
you can force is what happened. Two in the red area,
one close to it, one directly in the red zone,
(12:05):
and another was a pick six. I would says you
could have.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Here's the thing. You can blame that on.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
The rain really wasn't raining that hard when he threw
those two interceptions, So you can't.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Say that was almost leather if you wanted it. I mean,
I guess you could say the fumble like Stafford wasn't
protecting that ball a ton, but like, no, you're right
the interceptions. It was not raining nearly all that much
at that point.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
All right, we move on to ky Adams because she
just decided, you know what, I'm gonna throw one of
the hottest takes of the NFL season, potentially out earlier
this morning on her show, she says that Bryce has
been the best quarterback from his draft class.
Speaker 7 (12:47):
It's time to have a conversation about Bryce people. It
is a twenty one game sample size. He returned from
the benching. I don't know what that did, but it
did something. They pick up the over the Saints, and
he has now led these Panthers to a winning record.
They beat the Rams, they beat the Packers, remember that
they beat the Cowboys. This year, he has thirty seven
(13:09):
touchdowns and thirteen picks and NFL best nine game winning drives.
So those thirty seven touchdowns top ten over that span,
more than Aaron Rodgers, Jordan Love, Drake May I'm gonna
say it, and CJ. Stroud and I just want to
highlight and CJ.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Stroud.
Speaker 7 (13:26):
Okay, so Tepper's drafted him, stuck with him, and look
what's happening. And there's a lot of work left to do,
of course, but he now has his team back in
the playoff race. And this is a very significant sample size.
This isn't a couple of games. Okay, He's been the
best quarterback in the twenty twenty three draft class. Question Mark,
you guys tell me yes he has.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
All right, So how hot of a take do you
think that this is from Kay Adams And do you
think at this point, with what we've seen from Bryce
availability part of it as well, do you think he
has surpassed CJ.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
Stroud.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
That's tough for me to answer, man. I love what
Bryce has done. I don't think it's that hot of
a take. I'll answer that because I do think it's
kind of tough now with what c J. Stroud has
or has not done eleven touchdowns to six interceptions. The
thing is, I do think this, if Bryce Young had
the same situation that c J. Stroud had each of
these last two seasons, I think we would be using
(14:22):
that situation to defend Bryce Jung's poor play because that
offensive line down there is still quite poor and all
the weapons that you've drafted or signed the last couple
of years, Stefan Diggs gets injured after a while, Nico
Collins is in and out of the lineup, Tank Dell
still isn't playing football.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
I don't want to give c J.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Stroud excuses so much so that I continue to say
that he's better than Bryce, but I am trying to
be fair with all of this. He did also just
beat an Indianapolis Colts team that was the darling of
the first ten games of the NFL season, and he
threw for two hundred and seventy six yards while doing so,
did have the interception, did get sacked a couple of times,
didn't have any touchdown that's fair, but made the plays
(15:03):
they needed him to make.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
When they needed him. When they needed him to do so.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Like, so all that to say, it's a win that
Bryce has made this a conversation flat out because CJ
was a star, and I need people to understand that
after that rookie season, you couldn't go to any podcast
without hearing that host discuss just how CJ was going
to be the future.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
C J.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Stroud won a playoff game. He's won a couple of
playoff games already, if I'm not mistaken. Did he win
the one last year they got to the postseason either.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Way, Yeah, I don't remember for sure. Either way, what
c J.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Stroud has done has been impressive, especially more so just
looking at that rookie year and he was all over
the place and he had all of these fun takes.
And now Bryce has closed the gap to the point
where there might not be a gap between these two guys.
So look, if he hasn't passed CJ, I'll say that
he's right there with him. I'll say that he's right
(15:55):
there with him, and that that he has played so
much better since getting benched. With the other thing, I
wanted to push back on just real quickly with what
Kay Adams was saying. She said David Tepper stuck with him,
and that they deserve a lot of credit for that. Look,
this is coming from somebody that has given Temper quite
a bit of credit over the last year.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Man.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
We got to remember, I'm not sure Bryce comes back
if Andy Dalton doesn't get in the car wreck and
injure his wrist. Right, it was his wrist that he
injured when he got in the car wreck or stuff stuff.
Excuse me, sorry, yep, it was his thumb. And you know,
if they would have gotten the right kind of value
for a trade, would they have moved on from Bryce.
That's the kind of thing I'm not so sure I
(16:36):
need to give him or the Panther's all that much
credit for.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
But they threw him back out there.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
He's played a lot better, and now I think he's
played well enough if he keeps it at this level
the rest of the season to at least pick up
the fifth year contract or a fifth year option on
this contract. And that's not a small thing. That's an
important thing to have happened with your first overall selection.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Yeah, no, I think you're right, by the way, Yeah,
CJ Shroud two wins in the playoffs, so that's certainly
something that Bryce is going to have to get to.
The Other thing that's interesting though, when you have this
conversation about these two, is look at what CJ's backup
was able to do in that system?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
He was Davis Mills was pretty good.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
So does that sort of take away a little bit
from what CJ did?
Speaker 1 (17:19):
I guess Ad Dalton was too in some moments and
then he wasn't. So like if we just would have
gotten a larger sample size from Davis Mills, would Davis
have shown us why he's a backup tb CJ. Stroud
just came back quicker than what Bryce did, right, So
I think it's very comparable.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
I think that's the story to me, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
I think honestly, I said it was one of the
hotter takes. I think when you think about it, it
probably is. I don't know if it's a right take,
but it is pretty close to being right.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Sounds like a first take topic who's better out of
the class?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Bryce Young Hersell, Well, that doesn't that doesn't involve a
Bears quarterback, so they probably won't talk about it or Dallas.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
So yeah, Philly don't figure out a way how to
put Lebron in there as well.
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