Roses are red. The Panthers wear blue. Cuba Hubbard’s rushing yards, we won’t be taxing you. He’s from Canada, y’all. Hey, Canada might be the 51st state, but Cuba, you’re first in our heart. Yeah, you are. Yes, you are. You’re number one running back. We’re gonna write some Valentines. Let’s get the sucker started. Get dialed in Panthers fans. Here comes an in-depth look at your team. Exclusive interviews, locker room insight. Let’s huddle up for Panthers Playbook. 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. Uh, we’re actually, we’re gonna, it’s Valentine’s Day is coming up this week. So we’re gonna, we’re gonna have a little some Valentines for some Panthers players. Chris has worked hard on writing some Valentines. For some of your favorite Panthers players, we’re also gonna talk about how the Panthers are gonna approach this offseason when it comes to the draft, especially when you look at the team that just won the Super Bowl and how they’ve constructed the roster and how the Carolina Panthers can follow that same blueprint. But Chris, It’s the season of love. It’s the off season. Before we get into our Valentine’s for the Panthers, uh, I wanna take, take down the fourth wall a little bit, Dennis, um, any special plans for Valentine’s Day this weekend? Are you just playing it a little low key? What are your thoughts on Valentine’s Day? You know, my girlfriend and I are going out to dinner on Thanksgiving evening, so we got a reservation at a restaurant in downtown Thanksgiving, good Lord. Because my man is gonna be eating. My man is gonna be eating, OK? Darn right he is. At a restaurant in downtown Raleigh, in downtown Raleigh downtown Raleigh, definitely gonna be doing that, uh, so you’re doing that on Friday night for Valentine’s Day. So that’s that that is our plans and I got our, you know, a couple small gifts and we got some, you know she, she, she can hear me right now. I don’t want to spoil everything. OK, OK. Oh yeah, yeah, OK, yeah. Um, I’m with you, man. I got I got a nice little night planned for me and my wife. I love Valentine’s Day, I’m one of the few guys that I know who likes Valentine’s Day, so it makes me excited. I really, you know, why not be romantic? People say, oh, Valentine’s Day is every day. No, it’s not because you don’t do that stuff every day. No, you don’t. You don’t, you’re not Thanksgiving every day. You don’t you’re not eating Thanksgiving meals every single day. So, you know, hey, you know, so you can have a day where you make your woman feel special, she makes you feel special, and you just have a great time together in your love. Speaking of love, we love the Carolina Panthers. That we do. Chris, I know you wrote some Beautiful Valentine’s Day poem. Yes, I, um, I have a few right here. Uh, let me go into my notes. Let’s start off with Bryce Young, and I just want to say, Um, when people, when you hear this, if you decide to just to clip me and all that, don’t clip me out of context. This is all from a fan perspective, OK? Fan perspective here, right here, fan. We’re not going out here, this is here, fan perspective. Bryce Young, you must be a quarterback because you just threw a touchdown pass straight to my heart. Hey Bryce Young, Roses are red, violets are blue, you scramble so well, I’d run after you. Your passes are smooth, your footwork’s elite. If love were a game, you’d never get beat. So this Valentine’s Day, I’ll make the call, be mine forever, or at least until football. Should we do another one? Let’s do another one, let’s do another one. Hey Dave Canalis, oh, you must be a play caller because you just dialed up the perfect love play. Roses are red, the defense is shook. My love for you is straight from the playbook. Panthers playbook, subscribe. Ding ding ding. You scheme up success. You lead with a spark. If love had a draft, you’d be my first mark. So this Valentine’s, no need to review, let’s run this romance, no 4th down to you. This is all corny. I love it. I love it though. All corny. Um I do have a one-liner for for David Tepper. Oh. You might have a different one liner, um, but I’ll say, Mr. Tepper, you must be a billionaire because You’ve invested heavily in my heart. And in concerts in downtown Charlotte because it sure hasn’t been investing in wins, infrastructure, restaurants. Uh, should we do, um, do you want JC Horn, or you want Robert Hunt? Which one do you want? Oh, give me Robert Hunt. OK. Are you a pulling guard, because you just led the way straight to my heart. Hey Robert, roses are red. Defenders get spun, but nobody moves me quite like you on the run. You clear the path, you pancake with grace. If love was a blitz, you’d give me a safe space. So this Valentine’s, let’s make it a feast. No flags, no holding, just love and some beef, but not for me because I’m vegan. That that you gotta end on that one right there. Go to end on that one right there. It’s just Chris Lee, ladies and gentlemen, Chris Lee, this is all fan perspective perspective right here, right here with that. Nothing wrong with anything we’re very accepting, but fan perspective right ally, straight up ally. So, Chris, we, by any chance, obviously watched the Super Bowl this past Sunday. Philadelphia Eagles just straight crushing the Kansas City Chiefs. And one thing that we have been pushing for this offseason for Dan Morgan when it comes to the NFL draft with 9 picks and a draft that’s loaded with defensive players that play in the front, whether it’s the interior defensive linemen or edge rushers, or even guys that might be able to play off the ball a little bit as well, people that are around the football when the ball is snapped. Yeah. I looked at the Philadelphia Eagles. I went back to the last 4 years of what they drafted in the 1st 3 rounds, the premium picks, day 1, day 2 rounds 12, and 3. If you go back the last few years, you’re looking at 3 defensive tackles, 2 defensive ends, 3 defensive backs. Three offensive linemen, all drafted in the 1st 3 rounds. 1 wide receiver, as well as 1 off-ball linebacker. That’s what’s been drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles, and look what their defense did against the Kansas City Chiefs. They blitzed 0 times. They just sent 4. They sent 4 and they won because they got drafted and invested in the premium positions on their team. Interior, defensive line, defensive end, offensive line, defensive back, and one off ball linebacker. And guess what? Those dudes made the difference on Sunday. Absolutely they did, and let me just say this, um, this was back in the day before I was here at WRL or anything like that, but, or I’m sorry, when was it? When was Jalen Hurts uh drafted? Uh, I think he was drafted in 2019. Uh, he was drafted in 2020. In 2020, so right as I got to uh WREO, I Want the Carolina Panthers to draft Jalen Hurts. I thought that the, the, to me, the best idea, keep Cam for his last year of his contract. Remember, he was still was contracted for one more year in 2020. Keep Cam for for the last year, bring in Jalen Hurts to to study under Cam for a year. You know, um, that’s a little bit off topic, a little bit off topic, but like it was attainable that particular year, and I think that the Carolina Panthers should have done that, and maybe a lot of the picks that they’ve had to trade away and things like that to to finally get to this place where we feel comfortable with Bryce Young at least for another year, uh, they could have already had that, but they didn’t do that, right? So there was no real plan there. But I say all that to say, um, Those picks that were traded away could have helped build that line on the offensive side and the defensive side. It could have been to do exactly what the the Philadelphia Eagles have done. If you think about it, since they last won a Super Bowl, was that 2017, 2018, whatever it was, um. You know, they’ve had a couple of down years, but they haven’t really fallen off the map. They may have had, like, you know, uh maybe a six win season or whatever, but then they bounced pretty much right back up, and they’ve had a, they’ve had this level of consistency to where they’ve been right there and they’ve been able to have patience with a young quarterback who’s not a first rounder. And uh while insulating him with a very solid offensive line, you had a pro bowler retire after last year, and still, everything looks good, right? Like they’re fine because Go ahead. That was one of the guys they drafted, Cam Jergens, who started at guard ended up moving to center for, for, for Jason Kelsey. And also, they also in the defensive line, they had Fletcher Cox, no relation. They have Fletcher Cox on the interior of their defensive line, and they still drafted Jordan Davis and Jaylen Carter, early first round picks. So they were still investing in those positions even though they already had studs there. And I was gonna say, like, you know, with that same thing that you just said right there, uh, going on the defensive line, they basically looked at Georgia and said, yeah, we want that and got those guys and and brought them into their team and look where they’re at, and they’ve invested heavily in that. So this is essentially what we need from the Carolina Panthers and what we’ve been saying, right, um, on this show. This is a deep defensive line draft. I wouldn’t mind if at some point, maybe 1st round, maybe 3rd round, maybe 4th round, you bring in 3 defensive linemen, one who’s an edge rusher, two can be in the middle right there to help out Aon and uh and Derek Brown, and you just have a nice little rotation between those guys, uh, because it’s looking like maybe Shy Tuttle can get cut, um, you know, in March we’ll talk about that if that happens, when it happens. But there’s, there’s so much that Um, the Carolina Panthers should do, just by looking at what the Eagles have done. That is the We got away from that, and this was the good thing about Dave Gettleman. He always talked about the hogmaley, Build it up upfront. You gotta look at the line, and that’s what he was into, and we kind of got away from that, uh, with Marty Herney and Scott Fitterer. We need to get back to that with Dan Morgan and make sure that those guys up front are always stouting together. And I, I’ll point this out really quick. I know I’ve been long-winded, but the last time the Chiefs lost the Super Bowl, why did they lose the Super Bowl? It’s because their offensive line got manhandled by another defensive line. And what did they do right after they invested in the offensive line, came back and won two Super Bowls. So now they’re gonna have to do the same thing all over again. It’s just that cycle. Once you keep focusing on that. Everything is gonna, everything works out from there. So if you look at the first three rounds of the draft over the last 4 years, that same time span that the Eagles were picking and what the Carolina Panthers were drafting in in 2021, they drafted JC Horn first round, Terrace Marshall Junior second round, Brady Christensen, Tommy Trimble. Those were picks all in the first three rounds. The year after that, it was Ikeywanu Mac Corral. The year after that was Bryce Young, Jonathan Mingo, DJ Johnson. Then this past year was Xavier uh Xavier Liget, Jonathan Brooks, Trevon Wallace. How many defensive linemen were mentioned there? OK, there’s John DJ Johnson’s an outside linebacker edge guy, but How many defensive linemen were, were right there. Now, I understand in 2020 you drafted Derrick Brown, but That’s the that’s the last major one though, like if you think about it, um, Brady Christensen, Icky, and Derek Brown are like the last. Examples we have of of the Panthers going uh big up front in the top three on either side of the ball. That’s it. That’s it. And that’s not good enough. No, it’s not. And we wonder why this defense struggled this past year because you haven’t had the investment in those positions. And guess what? With the offensive line, Brady Christensen was a backup filling in. He started as a replacement at center, started a couple of times for Iki U Kwonu at left tackle. Only Brady Christensen, I’m sorry, only Ikey Kwonu really started on the offensive line. Like that’s it. There’s no defensive line starters. DJ Johnson is an edge guy. Who hasn’t really done anything the last couple of years. Like that’s the only real investment that you’ve had upfront. You had to go pay two offensive linemen this offseason because you haven’t invested in those positions with high draft picks. Yeah, you went and drafted Cade Mays in the 6th round or Chandler Zavala in the 4th. Round. We’re talking premium draft positions on premium spots. The premium spots being your offensive line, particularly offensive tackle. I know you had Taylor Moten, so you didn’t have to worry about that, but particularly offensive tackle, offensive line as a whole, defensive line, particularly the edge rusher. Corner, because the guys, you gotta have guys that can cover and obviously the biggest premium position being quarterback and you’ve drafted two of them. In the last 3 years, in the 1st 3 rounds, Matt Robb being a 3rd round pick, didn’t even play a snap for you. That’s like a waste of a 3rd round pick. It just, the thing you obviously you made all the trades to move up to get Bryce Young. There have been, what did we mention as well of those 1st 3 rounds? Three wide receivers drafted actually 1st 2 rounds. Terence Marshall Jr.s 2nd round pick. Jonathan Mingo’s 2nd round pick. Xa get 2nd round pick in two over the last 4 years. Not even on a roster. Exactly, exactly, exactly. This team has to nail the draft. They’ve gotta do it. They’ve got to do it and it’s got to be an investment on the defense. Focus on the premium positions. Again, go back to Philadelphia. Devonte Smith was the 10th overall pick. Damn good wide receiver. Where did AJ Brown come from? They traded for him. They traded for him. Jahan Dotson, the number 3 wide receiver, what did they do? traded for him. Where’s Saquan Barkley come from? Free agency. That’s smart franchise right there, yeah, right? How’d that work out? Oh wait, it didn’t. Oh wait, it didn’t. I shout out to Daniel Jones. I like, I like my guy, but like that’s the guy that you decided to pay. Yeah. And Dallas Goddard’s been with the team since 2018, so he’s, he was a second round pick. But the point is being this, they’ve invested heavily in the premium spots. Where does the Panthers have it? Simply put, I, I think it was, uh, maybe, um, Dave Dorn up here, uh, NC State’s head football coach. I wanna say he said this in a 2024 season, maybe 2023. I hope I’m getting the right coach right, but uh it was in. He said on offense, he’s mostly a defensive minded, no, I’m sorry, no, no, no, uh, was it him? Anyway, I think it was him where he was looking at the, uh, he was looking at the offense, he’s he’s asking, uh, he was asked like what is he looking at uh on the sideline and he’s when he’s looking down the middle, he was like, I try to just see what the push is up front on either side of the ball, and from there I can um Maybe closely determine what will probably happen on that play. If we’re on offense and our offensive line is getting pushed back and being manhandled by the defensive line, it’s probably not gonna be a positive play for us. But if our offensive line is blocking and pushing forward and, you know, especially if it’s a run play, uh, it’s probably gonna be a positive play and opposite when we’re on defense. I believe Dave Dorn said that, I probably if I had the wrong guy, I’m sorry about that. But it was, but it’s it’s a good indication. As to what is, you know, winning football and um using NC State as an example, like their defensive line got pushed around this year, the offensive line kind of got pushed around this year. Look at the results, you know, I know we’re talking about professional football, but also, hey, let’s look at the Carolina Panthers over the last few years. Right, when is, when is the last time the Panthers had a defensive line that really scared you? You’re probably gonna say names like Charles Johnson and Julian Peppers, you know what I’m saying? Like scared, scared you like Awan Short, like you’re gonna say names like that. So it’s been a while. When’s the last time before this past year that we looked at an offensive line for the Carolina Panthers and said, wow, we have a lot of faith in those guys. It’s been over 10 years, been a minute. Even when you have Brian Burns and Derek Brown in the 2023 season, it was still like. You know, and I, I would say that the the line that um that Cam had 14, 15-ish, was serviceable, but like it still probably wasn’t as good as the line that he had in 11 and 12, I would say. Uh, we still had Jordan Gross. So, you know, it’s there there’s a lot of work that uh that needs to be done, and of course they did it on the offensive line, now the defensive line needs it, but still, you know, we still have some questions to answer at center, so you can’t. Uh, completely just leave, uh, offensive line to it, um, to his own devices. So, uh, I’m excited to see what Dan Morgan does. I think that The Super Bowl for everybody in NFL will be a wake up call. Oh yeah, you know what I’m saying? Cause, you know, uh, a lot of play like look at Atlanta. You think that Atlanta should be so much better because of all of that first round, um, you know, uh. Talent that they have and the skill positions. Drake London, Kyle Pits, you know what I’m saying, like Robinson, you have all these guys that’s there and you would think that it should be the best offense in the NFL, but guess what they don’t have? Top lines. Their defensive line actually gets to the quarterback at a worse rate than the, than the Panthers do. So, you know, it’s, it, it does make a difference. It really does make a difference. I think the last time they had Of 10 guy with 10 + sacks for the Atlanta Falcons, I think it was 2016. When they actually the year they went to the Super Bowl, like that’s the last time they had someone get 10 + sacks in a season. And we think Panthers are starved for pass rushers. Look what Atlanta is dealing with it. So I, I 100% in agreement with you on that one, Chris. It’s, it’s an investment. Inside the interior, it’s all about like Dave Canalla said, it’s all about the ball. You build from there out. You build from that point out. Yeah, let’s go back to get the hogmaley. Yeah, like our, like our old guy said to us before, um. Hey, hey, Dennis, yeah, hope you enjoy your Valentine’s Day, man. I hope you enjoy your Valentine’s Day. You think, uh, you think uh Cam or uh Steve Smith is gonna send a uh Cam a Valentine? Mm. You know what, send them some flowers? Um, Steve Smith, whenever he sends Valentine’s Day gifts to other guys, I think it comes in the form of a of a fist. Because my man is not afraid to throw some blows at all. And you know what, like, typically I’ll take Cam in a fight, but versus Steve Smith, I gotta think about it a little bit, you know, Cam’s got the height and the reach, but I don’t, I gotta think about it a little bit. Steve Smith’s got that got that it in him. Just really quick factor. For those who don’t know what we’re talking about, Cam Newton was on Travis Hunter’s podcast and uh was talking about the pressures of being a number one pick because Travis Hunter could possibly go number one. And so he was saying, hey, when I came into the NFL, I came into a locker room full of losers. And uh a lot of former teammates of Cam Newton didn’t take very kindly to that. Uh, I think Jeff Schwartz probably had the best comeback of everybody who was on the offensive line for the Carolina Panthers. Uh, he was like, um, that same group that went 2 and 14 was 12 and 4 a couple years before that. Uh, so, one, it wasn’t a locker room with losers, and Cam came into a locker room, uh, with a Pro Bowl, um, um. Offensive linemen and had uh two running backs and two other offensive linemen who were either all pro or uh Pro Bowl um during his time there. So it wasn’t a bum group. Yeah, I, I think, I think what rubbed some people the wrong way is that was not that long after we heard him say he wouldn’t trade his MVP for the Super Bowl. And I think that rubbed people a long ways like, well, you wouldn’t trade your individual accolade for the team’s success, but now you’re talking about you had to come into a team full of losers. I think that rubbed some people the wrong way a little bit too. I’m wondering if Cam was maybe just used a poor choice of words and we meant to say, I was coming to a locker room for a team that that wasn’t winning, that was used to losing. I just come off a losing record, but like you said, a couple of years before that, they were 12 and 4. Uh, you know, he, he has a, um, a history of using a poor choice of words in the moment. I think he has a hard time, um, knowing what’s coming out of his mouth before it does. I think he lets his intrusive thoughts kind of come out. Same same thing like why he got in trouble with the whole Jordan Roderick thing, right? You know what I’m saying, like he just kind of, he just kind of doesn’t think about what he’s saying, but, um, you know, I might ruffle some feathers. I’m not sure I disagree, I’m not saying I agree with him. I’m not sure I disagree with Cam on the trading the MVP for the Super Bowl part. I’m not sure I disagree with that, but I will say, Cam, don’t call you guys losers because also, Steve Smith made a good point. He kind of has been going in on the Panthers, which Panthers have deserved it in some ways, but it, it makes that um that reunion at some point when he does go into the ring of honor and when his jersey is retired, it makes that get pushed back just a little bit more. There needs to be a few more conversations to happen and I hope that everything can get back together because we need our family to be together and still keep. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Love you, Chris. Hey, I love you too, Dennis Jamel Cox. We also love you, so make sure you subscribe, leave your thoughts in the comment section down below and thanks to all of you. No, in all seriousness, thanks to everyone that does subscribe, does leave comments. We really do love the interactions. So Chris, enjoy your Valentine’s. You out there enjoy your Valentine’s and we’ll see you all next week.

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