All right, joining us now on Panthers playbook, Mr Boomer Asiain, of course, he is the host of Game Time with Boomer that you can watch here in the Raleigh North Carolina area on Fox 50 check your local listening for the Times. Uh, thank you so much for joining us and of course, uh, I can’t forget that. Uh, you are an NFL, former NFL quarterback and, uh, you are a good friend of Frank Reich. So the last time we spoke was right before the NFL draft. You told us that, uh, he loves his big quarterbacks, but of course, the Panthers ended up getting, uh, Bryce Young who’s, uh, 5 ft 10, um, you know, right at £200. Uh, so it’s the opposite of a big quarterback, but, uh, just, I wanna get your thoughts just really quick on, on Bryce Young, the Panthers haven’t been doing well, but Bryce Young himself, um, has in the first seven, his first seven starts has completed over 20 passes per game in all of those and only Justin Herbert has done that NFL history in their first seven starts. What are your thoughts on his play? And how he uh fits in with what Frank Reich wants to do offensively. You know, the first thing I would always say is you got to preach patience with these young men. I mean, they are going through, uh what is a very difficult transition from college to professional football? Things are faster players are bigger. Uh The field is smaller, believe it or not, even though it may, uh at the same size as a college football field, uh just things are happening so quickly. And, you know, Bryce, like every young quarterback, including Troy and his head coach, Frank Reich struggled their rookie year. So, uh, none of this is surprising to me. Um I was nice to see that they were able to beat Houston and CJ Stroud a couple weeks back, but at the end of the day, it’s gonna take time, they got to build up the team around him. Uh They have to make sure that, you know, he’s got the, the receivers that he needs the running game that he needs. Um, you know, the offensive line that he needs. And you know what I see in the Panthers is a team that is rebuilding or around a young quarterback. So any difficulties that Bryce has had and I know he’s just come off of a pretty bad game where he threw a few interceptions. You know, these are all learning experiences for him. Nobody and I mean, nobody expected the Panthers to go to the playoffs this year. Uh, that’s still a few years away as they still try to rebuild around the young quarterback. So, um, I’m not discouraged. As a matter of fact, uh, watching him two weeks ago against Houston, I was genuinely encouraged by the growth that I’ve seen from him. All right, talking about the encouragement and the growth. But we’ve seen some times this season where he’s made the same mistake multiple times. How concerning is that to you as someone who’s a former quarterback. So I’ll tell you how concerning is to me here in New York. I’m watching Zach Wilson do the same thing, the same thing and the same mistakes three years in a row that makes me concerned. Uh, you know, Bryce has played seven games, eight games, whatever it is. And I mean, we’re just touching the surface, scratching the surfa, you know, he will be a completely different player next year that I can guarantee you when he walks into that building next year, he’ll know that he’s the unquestioned leader. He’ll know the offense, he’ll know how to talk to his offensive and defensive players on the practice field. He’ll want more from his wide receivers, his offensive line during the game. He’ll be able to get in their faces a little bit. You know, you guys don’t realize how hard it is to really gain the respect of your teammates, understand everything that the coaches want from. You and believe you me, he knows from, you know, being in Alabama and being successful what it takes to be a success. And I will tell you personally that Frank Reich has told me he’s been nothing but impressed with the mental acuity that, that Bryce has and how, when they do tell him something, um, he, he definitely digest it, he understands it. And sometimes when these young kids make mistakes in games like he did, especially this past weekend, you know, it’s frustrating because you tell them not to throw the ball where they can’t see. And I think a couple of times this weekend, that’s exactly what price did he got lost in the sauce, lost where he was and then made two critical errors that ended up at 14 points and then the game gets away from you. So, I mean, you, you know, Frank, uh, you guys, former roommates, of course, still good friends. Um, and how do you go from liking the bigger quarterback? 6364, to, to the 5, 10 guy, like, you know, what, what was it about Bryce from your conversations with Frank? And then what you’ve seen on tape that, you know, you can get comfortable with making that decision even though you’ve never worked with a quarterback like that before his head and his heart. Um, those are the two most important things for every quarterback. And, uh, Frank said that you listen, when they were doing their pre scouting and predraft scouting and interviewing, um, you know, his head and his heart was what really stood out that he was bright. Uh, he cares, uh, he is not afraid when he’s on the football field, although at times it may look like he’s a little anxious right now because things are happening pretty fast around him, you know. And the other thing too, when we last talked and I told you what Frank told me about like what he likes to see in a quarterback that 95% of us who have played the game fit that kind of physical mold where we’re 62 to 66, somewhere between 210 and £230 maybe a couple of us were a few pounds heavier than that. But that’s like the general mold that you would like your quarterback to be because you want to make sure that they have a really strong, powerful base to be able to move around and take hits below the waist when they, when they’re standing in the pocket. And these are all things that, you know, you’d love to have in everybody. But the thing that you most want is to be able to have that, that brain and that heart. And, uh, I’m telling you, Bryce is says he has the heart of a champion from everything that I have heard. And, you know, he’s going through growing pains like we all did, like I said, and I know patients wears thin in these, uh, in these types of situations. But I’m not worried if we, if we see this kind of stuff next year when he comes back then I would be worried. But right now it’s just a, a natural growing, uh, pains going on and, um, and hopefully he’ll get through it, uh, sooner than later. What’s his biggest weakness right now? Well, for me, you know, it’s obviously when I watch him struggle in games, um, it’s that he’s not reading his defenses correctly and he’s late with the ball. And when you’re late, especially this past week, those late passes out to the flat or those indiscriminate passes over the middle, uh, are gonna get picked off in this league. I did a game a few years ago when Tony Romo, I think it was during the COVID season, Tony Romo was out. So I sat in with, uh, Jim Nance and it was a game between the Cardinals and the Rams and both quarterbacks for that game were backup quarterbacks. One was a kid by the name of Chris Dreer who actually had some success in the Canadian football league. And as I’m doing the game, Chris Traveler decides to throw one right down the middle of the field and it was late and I could see that it was gonna get picked off as soon as he let it go. And I said this is not the Canadian football league, meaning that it isn’t a wider field and slower players. These are fast dynamic defensive players. So that’s something that price I think has got to get used to and he’s got to be careful not being late when delivering the ball, he has to anticipate a little bit quicker. Also, if you just kind of look at the, the, the folks that he has to, to play with, right, like the, the receivers aren’t really separating as much offensive line is, uh, one of the worst units in the NFL. Um, so he doesn’t get a lot of time. I mean, he has, I think it was what, 2.83 seconds, Dennis, um, you know, before contact or something like that. Um, and, and that’s, uh, like, I think fourth worst in the league. Uh, we saw what happened, I think the Giants are like one of the worst or, or the worst we saw it happen with Daniel Jones, uh, recently in that situation. I mean, he ended up just getting hurt, just it, it was all non contact but, you know, maybe just a build up of some of the, uh, some of the hits that he had been taking. Um, how do you see his game, Bryce Young’s game, uh, getting to the next level once the Panthers are able to one protect him from the line, but also get receivers that can, that can separate. See, so you know, my general theory is, is that I don’t ever want to put a kid out on the field that can’t protect himself. And, you know, Andy Dalton is there and Andy Dalton did play against Seattle and Andy Dalton actually played really well. And Andy Dalton, I think is a great person in Bryce Young’s development right now. I think he’s really, really important. People don’t understand this but, but here’s the thing I would have loved to have seen and I don’t make these decisions and I know Frank is a part of a, a group there that makes a decision, uh decisions collaboratively. Uh I would have loved to have seen them start Andy Dalton, maybe for the first six weeks, settle everything down, let Bryce and watch kind of like Patrick Mahomes did with Alex Smith and then put him out there when you’re ready to go and you know that he’s sure of everything that’s happening around him. Now, one of the things that happens with rookie quarterbacks is that everybody that he’s on the field with the other 10 players are all affected and there’s a lot of indecision that’s going on in the meat of the game, whether it be pass protections or whether or not he’s going to be checking out of a run where the receiver is going, where, where to put the ball back, shoulder throw over the top. I mean, all these things he’s got to learn and then when he finally does get comfortable, he’ll become the leader that they drafted, he’ll become the leader that he was at Alabama. And then all of a sudden now everybody around him, he’s lifting their level of play up. So you have growing pains for the quarterback. You have maybe guys that aren’t at the top of their game just because of those growing pains and the indecision that comes along with that. And then when you start turning the ball over, that’s when it really starts to get ugly. And that’s why this past game against the Colts turned out the way it did. It wasn’t because of the Colts doing anything, you know, miraculous, they didn’t even blitz Bry on, as a matter of fact, they sat back in, in zones and, you know, he’s got to be quicker making his decision. So, like the turnovers are the killers, the inexperience hurts everybody else around him. And then like I said, when he comes back next year, um, he is gonna be char, he’s gonna be in charge and when you are in charge as a quarterback, that’s what makes you great because then you lift everybody’s play up around you and you know, they’ll draft and they’ll sign some players in free agency. I’m sure next year to shore up things around him. All right, we see CJ Stroud was taken second overall by the Houston Texans. He and Bryce Young and Anthony Richardson are always gonna be compared because they were drafted so close to each other in the same draft. Well, we’ve seen the success that CJ Strout is having in Houston right now with the Texans. So the big question that’s taking place in the State of North Carolina right now amongst Panthers fans, did the Panthers get it right. Well, with all you could say is time will tell. Um, you know, right now, if you compare the two, I can tell you that head to head Bryce won the game, but the next week CJ Stroud went out there and threw for 470 yards and five touchdowns in the NFL game. That only all of us who have played the position could wish we had more of those types of games. So, uh, I don’t ever want to take away anything from CJ Strout. The interesting thing is is that both of them were highly respected. That’s why they were drafted where they are drafted. Uh, CJ Strout certainly has the physical prowess that we would all like as a quarterback. There’s no question about that and the one thing that looks like that CJ has a little bit ahead of Bryce Young right now. Um, a little bit better team around him, a better situation in order for him to be successful. It seems like he and Tank Dell have really found, uh, kind of like this sweet spot between the two of them when he needs a play to be made, he finds him on the field and those two rookies really have made a name for themselves. I, I think that’s a, that’s a really important point right there for, especially for fans when they’re looking at just the wins and losses too many times that’s attributed as a quarterback stat. And that’s a, that’s a team stat. So, I mean, let’s, let’s go deeper on that. How important, uh, is that gonna be for, for Bryce’s future to have, uh, a better setup, kind of like what CJ Stroud has right now. Yeah, I think it’s definitely gonna be important. I, I would just say I’ll give you an example. You talked about Daniel Jones and he, he just had a non contact injury. But prior to that, he had a neck injury where he missed three games already this year. You know, Daniel’s been here for, I think, five years now. He’s had three different head coaches, four different offensive coordinators. And as John Merritt, the owner of the Giants said when they hired Brian Dabo last year, you know, we screwed this kid up six ways to Sunday and we just want to give him an opportunity to show us that he belongs here. And last year he led the team to the playoffs and this year they came out of the box and they were flat and they were awful and the Giants gave him a two year, $82 million guaranteed contract. So they have a huge question mark on their hand right now as to whether or not he is going to be their leader and this is after five years in the NFL. So I know we all want immediate success, but it’s unrealistic to expect rookie quarterbacks to really enjoy that much rookie success. Now, of course, CJ Strout is probably going to be the rookie of the year assuming he stays upright. But Anthony Richardson found out what it means to be an NFL football player, no matter how big you are, how strong you are and how great of an athlete you are. Do not take on those defensive players, man. They are, they are out for blood when they see a quarterback run with the football. So at least price has had an opportunity to play this year. He’s getting up off the mat, he’s got a short week this week. It’s not going to be easy. He’s got to go on the road. They’re not playing a great team in Chicago. So there are expectations that they should win. But in Chicago, they’re saying the same thing about the Panthers, there are expectations for Chicago to win and most likely with Tyson Bain as their quarterback, their rookie free agent quarterback, I might add. Uh, so this ought to be a very interesting game Thursday night, II, I think it’s gonna be a low scoring and I think there’s gonna be a lot of mistakes and both defenses should be able to control the opposing offense. My final question for you kind of building off where you talk about Daniel Jones and the situation that he is in with New York with constantly having different head coaches and coordinators. How hard is it gonna be for Bryce going from having Frank Reich, the head coach call plays to now shifting to Thomas Brown. He’s literally had a second play caller and he’s not even eight games into his NFL career. I think I, I can’t speak for Frank. I can only go, I’m looking for like 30,000 ft above. But how is that gonna be for Bryce? Well, it’s gonna be tough for Bryce, but I think really what, why Frank would do something like that or why any head coach would do something like that is because they want to make sure that they have their pulse on every player on the, on the team and it’s not just an offensive head coach that he’s got to be the head coach to everybody. So, uh, you know, for Bryce, maybe it might work out better for Bryce. Um, it’s hard to say after this last performance, but hopefully Thursday night, he’ll go out there and he’ll play well, he’ll play smart, he’ll play clean. And the one thing that I would try to always impress upon any quarterback that was playing for me, I would say, look, guys, we got to limit the turnovers. I don’t want you to lose your aggressiveness, but I don’t want you to be careless. So it’s a balance of being careless and reckless or being like right there at the end and being aggressive. So I, I, again, it’s a, it’s a learning curve for everybody involved. Everybody’s like, uh, wants immediate success. And I would just say we got to give it at least a year and then when he comes back next year, you got to see whether or not you have significant growth and I would think that you will see that with Bryce because he’s that type of kid. All right, the last time we spoke, um you gave me a great quote from Bill Parcells. Uh Do you remember what that was? Oh jeez, there’s so many great quotes that Bill Parcells has said that that was, that was, that was pretty vague. Uh So I apologize about that, but uh if you’re getting a quarterback that’s under 6 ft tall, he better be Jesus Christ um that, that stuck with me. And so I know that’s, that’s tongue in cheek and, uh, you know, that’s not meant literally, but um from your evaluation of Bryce Young so far, not asking if he’s Jesus Christ, but uh with uh with more experience, a better line and better receivers, uh, what could Bryce Young be in the NFL based off of what you’re seeing right now, what you want, what you want to hope for is for him to become Drew Brees. That, that’s the guy that you want him to become. And if you remember Dr Drew Brees was with the San Diego Chargers and in his last game, he blew out his shoulder and the Chargers didn’t want him anymore. Uh They moved on from him and they went and got Philip rivers and then there was an opportunity for the dolphins or the Saints to sign Drew as a free agent and the Saints took him because the Dolphins failed a uh medical on his shoulder. And all he did with uh Sean Payton was turned into a, you know, a hall of fame quarterback down in New Orleans. And that’s when he had all those great players around him, a great defense and he had a great offensive head coach. I think that’s the case for Carolina. You just gotta, everybody’s just got relax and realize, you know, what you’re dealing with here and how hard it is to play this position. And I, I’m just telling you my rookie year, I played four games. I had no idea what I was doing, but I do remember my head coach telling me this, you know, Boomer and my head coach was Sam Weiss at the time. He said, you know, Boomer, no matter what you do on that football field. I want you coming off that field with your head held high and I want you to be the leader of this football team, even as a rookie, they have to believe in you that you can lead them back to victory. And, uh, it was a me, it was a message that I remembered all throughout my career. Never to hang my head, never to feel bad about myself, never to, uh, uh, you know, blame it on somebody else. It was always something that I had to take on myself and that’s something I think Bryce is getting uh a doctorate in right now. So, uh hopefully he turns into Drew Brees or Russell Wilson when Russell was playing great. And by the way, Russell’s playing great right now. Why? Because he’s got Sean Payton as his coach and he’s not babying him, but two different players because those players had more experience when Sean got them as players, Frank is trying to break in this kid much like he broke in uh Carson Wentz in Philadelphia. Well, you said it right there, Panthers fans. I hope they heard it. Relax. It’s just the first one. You got a long way to go. It has been a long way already. Boomer size and host of game time with Boomer. Uh check it out all your local listings. Uh Thank you so much for joining us and uh and giving us some insight on what’s happening with this uh rookie quarterback in Caroline. Alrighty guys. Thank you so much, man. I’ll see you soon.

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