Hey, Chris. Um, is it just me or are you still riding the high from Sunday? Are you still riding the high from Sunday? I think it’s victory. Monday’s turned into victory week. Uh, you see, I got the W up, I’m not gonna eat it like Jameis Winston, but oh, please don’t. Uh, uh, but I got the WS up. Let’s get this sucker started, get dialed in Panthers fans. Here comes an in depth. Look at your team exclusive interviews, locker room in sight. Let’s huddle up. Let’s just do it on Four Panthers Playbook driven by Carolina Ford Dealers. Here are your hosts, Dennis Cox and Chris Lee. Welcome back to another episode of Panthers Playbook. That’s Chris Lee. Dennis Cox here with you. Leave your thoughts in the comments section here below. Have your expectations for this season changed now that Andy Dalton is that quarterback before we dive into that here? A little bit. Carolina Ford Dealers is your sponsor of Panthers Playbook, wherever you go. Whatever you do with the power and technology of A Ford F 150 on your team, it’s a game on, see your Carolina Ford Dealer today. And Chris I was thinking back to Sunday, it’s been a fun week. It’s a moment that we have not had in a long time here in the state of North Carolina as a Panther fan. But I was thinking Sunday has to be more than just a fun moment. It can’t be like, hey, remember when Andy dropped 303 Toddies? It can’t just be a great moment. Every team, every player is capable of a great moment, but it’s what you are consistently is who you are and what you do consistently. And I hope that the Panthers understand that Sunday can’t just be a fun moment. We remember it, but it can’t just be that. Yeah. And you know what, I, I think that with uh the veteran leadership of, of Andy Dalton, I think they still can um add on to that. I don’t think that a win or a loss necessarily uh continues or discontinues that on Sunday. I’m more so looking at the long run, right? Because also we got to remember who’s coming in the Cincinnati Bengals who are hungry for a win. Nobody, if, if you would have said at the beginning of the year one team going into week four between the Bengals and I’ll say the battle of the Queen Cities and we know what a real queen city is, but in the battle of the Queen Cities between the cats, one team is gonna be oh and three the other team is gonna be one and two. You would think that the Bengals would be one and two. You think that the Panthers will be zero and three? We would not have guessed that it will be the Bengals O and three under any circumstance whatsoever. So, this team hungry for a win, um, they’re not an O and three team, they’re just a good team that just got caught by other good teams, uh, over the last three weeks. So, you know, the Panthers are gonna have to look out for that. Here’s another thing I watched QB school, I watched this breakdown of, uh, what Andy Dalton did and I know that jt o’sullivan, jt o’sullivan and, um, there’s a couple of things I saw during the game where there was a couple of bad throws. Then jt o’sullivan was pointing out a lot of times these throws, especially the, uh, two touchdown passes to Thiele and, uh, to, um, uh, Deontay Johnson, those were really just bad. It was bad defense from, from the Raiders and I, when I’m looking at it and the part that jt o’sullivan doesn’t say, but just because we watched Panthers games, it was bad defense because everything you’ve seen from the Panthers up until then is that everything is gonna be underneath. So it felt like that’s what the safeties were doing. Now, this team has had a week of preparation for Andy Dalton. They know, ok, he’s gonna spread it out. This isn’t gonna be a Bryce Young offense where everything is underneath. You know, some of those throws may not be possible. Is Andy Dalton gonna throw it in harm’s way he could have been picked off a few times on Sunday. Is he gonna be smarter with those throws or are they gonna, you know, do a better job with that? So we’ll have to see, there’s a lot of questions with it, but you’re absolutely right. Building on this past Sunday, it can’t just be a moment. You have to still play competitive football and look like, uh, you’re a real team in the league now. No one’s expecting their starting quarterback every single week with the exception of maybe like two guys to throw for over 300 yards and three touchdowns every single Sunday. There’s very t, ok. I mean, I mean, you know, I, I ain’t gonna hate it like an MVP out there like, you know, it might be this year’s Joe Flacco. I don’t know, maybe go out there and just start slinging it, but there are questions now going forward about. They do have like other teams actually have tape on what your offense looks like when it actually is good. It’s like, oh, ok. That’s what it’s supposed to look like. But also you’re gonna be down one of your most reliable targets in Adam Thiele, he’s down, he’s on injured reserve. He’s gone for the next four weeks, Jayla Coker gets elevated up. I know a lot of people were very high on him in the off season, but he’s a rookie hasn’t played in a real NFL game yet. I mean, outside of Deontay Johnson, David Moore has been in the NFL for a long time, but he’s never been like a top n wide receiver in the league. I think this is where Xavier Le gett first round pick this year. You got to step up, Jonathan Mingo, you got to elevate your play just a little bit as well because the whole team has to make up the difference. We saw Tommy Trumble get involved early in the game as well. I wonder if Andy Dalton leans on him a little bit more. Maybe Javi and Sanders gets involved but the loss of Adam Thin, I think does kind of change the compl, uh, you know how this offense is really gonna operate because you don’t have old, reliable out there anymore. Yeah, I mean, Tommy Tr uh, did a good job and, you know, he was targeted, uh, a pretty decent amount by Andy Dalton. Uh, we didn’t really see Jaben Sanders really targeted. I would like to see that changed. I would like to see him getting, getting a few more opportunities out there and maybe that could help out. But you did bring up the, the right two names, Xavier Liga and Jonathan Mingo. Uh, Jonathan Mingo didn’t put the team in harm’s way this past Sunday that he made a couple of plays that didn’t show up on the stat sheet. Like, for example, the block you threw on Tuba Hubbard’s touchdown. I was like, ok, can I see you young man the first down he got, uh, when they were backed up at the four, their backs against, uh, you know, the end zone there and he was able to get that first down off of a good block from Tommy Trimble too. So, um, you know, those are some of the guys I really wanna see, uh step up. Uh I think Xavier Liget also wasn’t targeted, uh uh, as much in this past game, I would like to see him get a few more targets, but when he did, uh get his opportunities, he made a lot of it and uh the positive and not having Adam Thiele there is that everybody that’s gonna be on that field is gonna be able to run at a normal NFL speed, right? That’s no, no shade to Adam Thin. He’s just a tick behind everybody else gets open. He still gets open though. That’s the thing though. He still gets open. So maybe this is a situation where Adam I’m sorry, uh Andy Dalton can make quicker decisions on where he, where he, um, you know, throws it. He was making some quick decisions this past Sunday no matter what. Uh, but also the part that you’re gonna be missing is that guy who’s always open, he’s reliable and he’s pretty much gonna catch everything that’s gonna go his way. Um, so we’re gonna have to see what happens with that, but I’m excited to see what this team looks like, uh, just without him for a little bit, just to see if, uh, those guys can step up. And also Deontay Johnson. I don’t, you don’t need to have the same game that you had because it was a career high, literally his best game. Unless you’re gonna do it. Unless you’re gonna do it, bro, you’re gonna do it unless you’re gonna do it, man, because you wanna get paid, right? Perfect opportunity to step up. Oh yeah. Hey, you know what if you down eight for 122 in a tutie, I’m all in, I’m all in on that. This is also, I think we’re a, you still got to keep in mind very new play caller. He’s only called 20 games and Dave Canalis, this is where he’s gonna get tested. He’s like, ok, they have tape on me. How do I stay ahead of what, how another team might react to what we did? How am I gonna use my personnel groupings, how I change up formations and different things like that to stay ahead of what other teams might be doing. So it’s like you gotta, you gotta stay ahead of the curve. Maybe he goes to tight ends more now. There’s also no Damian Lewis, it looks like for this Sunday as well. Looks like Chandler Zavala is gonna start at left, uh, left guard. Does that impact your running game? You know, how all different things, like all these different factors that kind of play into a game each week. But I’m excited. I don’t know if my expectations for the season have changed. Chris. I think the offense that we saw Sunday was what people were hoping to see with Bryce Young. I think that was the expectation, maybe not 36 points, you know, every single game but a competent offense that was balanced in terms of, we got some shots downfield, we can work in the intermediate, we can go on the side, the middle balance run game. I think the expectation for me is still like a six win team, but I’d be damned if I’m not excited and if I’m not excited, you know, I, I think for me, the expectations did change because they changed after the first two games like it went from, ok. I think this team can win 67 games and maybe down like towards the end, we’re saying this is a possible French playoff team, uh because I wasn’t expecting Saints to be really good. Um And, you know, and they lost this past Sunday. Yeah, they came back down to earth. So we’ll still, we’ll still see what happens in the NFC South. Um But then after I saw the first two games. I was like, yeah, um, I don’t know if this team is gonna win two games this year. And now all of a sudden, number one pick now all of a sudden under Andy Dalton, it’s like, all right, you know, it, it’s looking pretty good. It looks like we can win, you know, just off the strength of any Dalton a few more games. So it went back up to that 67, maybe eight range because there are some winnable games here. And let’s just say, you know, say it how it is like that Chicago game, right? Like, even though Caleb Williams and Chicago have done decent, Caleb Williams himself hasn’t arrived yet and his stinks, their O line stinks, right? And uh our defense started playing better and that’s the main thing. Can they continue to play really well? Because if our defense can start shutting down their wide receivers, when we’re talking about Chicago again, we’re, we’re way ahead of ourselves talking about Chicago. I think that our defense can end up rattling the rookie and Caleb Williams and that could be a win right there on the road, which will be huge. And another Andy Dalton revenge game too at that. So that’s something to look at. Here’s something I wanted to point out though to you, Andy Dalton revenge tour baby. Let’s go. Oh, and he’s got like literally all the teams on the list right now. Cowboys coming up later on, or Saints again. So, you know, we’ll see what happens. Uh, but here’s what I wanted to bring up. Uh, according to Pff Damian Lewis and Robert Hunt, remember those are the two guys, two guards that we went and got in the off season in free agency combined for 81 wraps. This past Sunday. They were only beaten one of those 81 reps combined. Right, right now, the Carolina Panthers as far as their interior offensive line, not the entire offensive line. Interior guards in center have the number one ranked interior offensive line in the NFL. They were 31st in the NFL for their interior last year. This is one of those things that is not very sexy. Not a lot of people are really talking about it and because of the first two games, people were already talking crap about, um, Dave Canalis, but also Dan Morgan. Hey, Dan Morgan, you did that. Yeah, you did, you did that, you did it because it’s, it’s happening, it is happening and they are, they are here. They’re right, they’re right here, they’re here, they’re here. And, and that’s the really encouraging thing about the Carolina Panthers is that for the offense, Dave Canalis, I think prematurely said that the, the wide receiver group was probably his best group coming out of training camp. That’s not the case. It’s your offensive line. When was the last time we said about the Carolina Panthers, that your offensive line is the strength of your offense. Hm. Cause it wasn’t the case for Cam. No, no, it wasn’t. That’s why Cam, that’s why Cam isn’t playing right now. That’s part of it. Um, so part of it is, you know, I, I’m, I’m so excited and I think that’s something that needs to be talked about more. Uh, it sucks that, um, that Damian Lewis is gonna miss the game, but they look like they’re so they’re sold on Chandler of Island and what he’s what he can do and hopefully he does step up and, and play a little bit better and, and it might be the difference in center play because last year he was getting beat all over the place next to Bradley Bozeman. Maybe Austin Corbett is gonna keep him together a little bit more. Might be. Here’s the thing. Andy Dalton was only hurried three times and we took a couple of sacks, hurried three times. That was, it, pockets were clean, clean, like clean. And, and there are a couple of times where Dalton, if he did get a little bit of pressure, he could step up, avoid or slide to the right slide to the left slide, slide slip, but he slide and he was able to deliver, deliver the ball. For example, the Deonte Johnson touchdown, pressure was coming from his left because Iki Kwan who got beat, he takes a little step to his right drops it in there takes a hit touchdown. That’s something we weren’t seeing two weeks ago. Week one, week two, we weren’t seeing that with Bryce Young, which makes me wonder, Chris, if people saw, I mean, NFL teams are seeing, seeing the same games that we’re watching and they say, wait a second, the offense is working with Andy Dalton, or at least we saw it this week and with Bryce Young, the former number one overall pick, he couldn’t do those things. You think his trade value took a dip or like, uh, honestly, a dip fell off a cliff, fell off a cliff. Maybe. I don’t know, I don’t, I don’t know if teams are really gonna offer a whole lot for Bryce definitely fell off a cliff. But, um, according to, to Joe Person and the athletic, um, teams, basically, the Panthers would have a hard time getting anything better than a day three pick for Bryce Young right now. And to me, to me, if that’s the case, might as well keep him at least through this season, at least through this season to kick the tires, see what’s there. But even even with that, like, what do you do next year? Like, you know, he still, he still has, uh, the years left of the deal. So you’re gonna have to try to trade him anyway. So, you know, it’s, you know, un unless they’re cool with the fourth rounder. But if that’s all you’re gonna get, might as well just see, see what’s there. Honestly, I honestly, I’m, I’m fine after this season. If they, if they trade him for 1/4 that’s fine by me. Really. Cut your losses, move forward, cut your losses and move forward because I know I got Jack, if Jack Palmer is gonna be a decent backup there, he goes capping for Bryce Young again. I didn’t say anything positive about Bryce and I didn’t say anything positive about Bryce Young. Honestly, I think he’s worth more than 1/4. That’s it. Yeah, I mean, maybe a team might do it. But here’s the thing, if you believe that Jack Palmer, for example, is good enough to be your backup quarterback. If you think if you think he is, then then make him your backup. I mean, there’s a lot of like cheaper options that you can go with other than keeping him because you can move on from that cap hit also as well. Like I know it’s a rookie contract but it is still 1st, 1st overall pick. You know what? Take the cap’s face, that’s fine by me. If he ain’t gonna play them, go ahead and move forward, like separate yourself from it. That’s the way I view it. But I, I honestly if you keep him for the rest of the year fine because if you, if you trade him now and you elevate Jack Plummer, you’re 11 bad moment away from Jack Plumer being your QB. Maybe Jack Plummer is better. Maybe Jack Palmer is better. I don’t know. I don’t want that. I don’t know. I don’t want that for Jack Plummer. That’s a difficult situation for him. But I would say after the season if someone offered you 1/4 cool, take it, go for it. I mean, honestly, if we have Jack Plummer in at quarterback, you might as well keep Bryce. You know what I’m saying? Like the difference is Jack Plummer is tall, but like, you know, it’s, it’s just Jack Plummer didn’t look good the first two weeks of the, of the preseason against third or fourth string defenses. You know, he looked better in the third week. He did a, he did a better job. So you, you, he showed some improvement, which is good, but he’s not gonna go against third and four string defenses. Um, you know, if he were to come in to play, he’s gonna go against real NFL. Like he’s gonna have guys, like when the saints come back to town, we’re gonna have Cam Jordan come after coming out when they play Atlanta, he’s gonna have to throw against Jesse Bates. You know what I’m saying? Matthew Judon, like, like, come on, uh, I like, I’d, I’d take Bryce over that. Um, but I mean, that’s, that’s just me. There he goes, there he goes, there he goes again, talk about Bryce Jones. He, he loves Bryce Jones. He says nothing negative about your Bryce Young and Jack Plummer. Let’s just which one would you rather have? No, here’s the, I just hope we never get to that point. I just hope we never get to that point. But I will say this though, Chris is that for me something I’ve noticed based off the comments. So people leave which by the way, keep leaving the comments. There seems to be among Panthers fans, we can wrap up on this, like a renewed sense of energy that this team has not felt in a long time. I know there’s a bit of that when we had Steve Wilkes and there was that little push there at the end of the 2022 season, but it felt like there was a renewed sense of energy. Like, wait a second, this is what competent offense looks like. This is what competent quarterback play looks like. This is what a competent offense looks like. Oh, wait, our defense is making plays now. Oh, our defense isn’t out there on the field trailing in a game. They’re actually playing with lead those kinds of things matter. There was a sense of energy that I felt from the fans and you know what? I know it’s just one game, but when you haven’t had that feeling in a while, you latch onto it and Chris, I do not blame him. Here’s one thing I want to talk about really quick before we uh you know, end this thing. Dave Canalis said, Jonathan Brooks DJ Wham Dane Jackson and Mari Barno in the final stages of returning. Yeah. Ok. Reinforcements, baby. I’m excited because if you think about what is, what is the weakness we talked about on defense edge rusher. So Amari Barno not expecting him to do a great job with that, but maybe he gets a little bit better, maybe he shows some improvement, but also he’s, he is somebody that stands out on special teams. Not that special teams have been bad, but the first week it wasn’t too good. So to have another guy that you, that you really trust as we’re also waiting for Sam Franklin to come back, that’s gonna be uh important. But I’m excited to see DJ Wham on the other side of Jadeveon Clowney and shouts out to Charles Harris, man. I thought he looked pretty good in his first game and, and like, you know, he, he, there wasn’t a lot of pressure from the Panthers defensive line, but I did feel like, uh, he was around the ball a lot and he definitely set some edges. I think he’s gonna continuously get better. But now if you have DJ Wham Charles Harris and David Clowney as your main guys and we can not have to use DJ Johnson as much. Hey, I’m with that. I think that’s gonna be good. Did you notice Tron Wallace playing a little bit on the edge on Sunday and Shaq and Shaq, like they started using those guys a little bit on the edge too and I liked what I saw from both guys. I’m for it. I liked what I saw from both guys because we need to use more packages to get more people towards the quarterback. And I’m excited to see what Dane Jackson does because Mike Jackson has already looked phenomenal. He’s looked good. DJ. Uh uh uh JC Horn has gotten better over the season. He didn’t have a good first game, I don’t think. Uh but he’s gotten better overall this season. If he stays healthy, that’s good. So having Jackson Jackson and Horn are gonna look really good back there. Uh And then Jonathan Brooks, oh man, who him and CBA, who, who him and Tuba, bro. Jonathan Brooks and Cuba. Let’s go. Jonathan Brooks and Cuba, let’s go. I might get a tuba. I’m just saying I don’t, OK. I was gonna say, I don’t think you heard me but you heard me, you about to break out the baby oil just like daddy because Jonathan Brooks and Tuba, bro. Ok. That’s all I gotta say. I’m ready. I’m ready. You know what, I’m ready for it right here. I’m ready for the Ford F 150 on your team. It’s game monster, your Carolina Ford dealer today. Carolina Ford dealers, your sponsors a pass, play a book. You, you, I mean, I am dealing with a little something, a little, you know what I’m saying? A little something going around. So I wasn’t able to hit that note like I normally do. It’s gonna come back next week and I’ll be better. We’ll be, we’ll be better on Sunday because you and I are both gonna be at Bank of America Stadium. We’re gonna be in the locker room, we’re gonna talk to players, we’re gonna talk to Canalis the whole, the whole bit. We’ll be, we’ll be in the press conference. Jonathan Brooks and Cuba though. Hm. I’m ready. I’m ready. We’ll see you on Sunday.

Source: wralsportsfan.com