Carolina Panthers may still be looking to add a QB

This is the best of the Adam Gold Show Podcast brought to you by Coach Pete at Capital Financial Advisory Group.

Visit us at capitalfinancialusa.com. This is the Adam Gold Show. We are 13 days away from the Panthers first game, 10 days away from the start of the NFL season. Where are we headed to today on our NFL city tour, Dennis? Oh, your favorite place in the world, Landover, Maryland. Oh, what used to be known as Raljohn, Maryland.

Oh, we'll talk about that. I have strong ties to Raljohn, Maryland. Hey, we might even talk about the Washington Commandos before we are done discussing things with my friend, Will Brinson.

We're going to talk to Will about the Panthers' number two quarterback situation and a lot more. Real quick, if you're wondering what Raljohn is, the former owner of the Washington franchise, Jack Kent Cooke. When the team moved from RFK Stadium to what is now FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland, he wanted to have the stadium in a city that he renamed. He had two sons. One name was Ralph.

The other was John. So he tried to get the city renamed Raljohn. Just around the stadium was going to be called Raljohn.

Yep, it didn't go well as you could expect. Will Brinson, senior NFL writer, CBSSports.com, Pick Six podcast moderator joins us as he does every Monday. Have you ever been to Raljohn, Will? Raljohn? No, I've been to John Ral.

Yes, it's wonderful. I have a request for Dennis on the bump back from the commercial. Can we play the song Piper by Fish? Piper by Fish? Okay, Piper. You know, Piper shows up sometimes and comes calling and you never know. Okay, well we have to pay the Piper sometimes.

Sometimes you do. So we will bump back with that in our second segment. Let's start with the Panthers' second string quarterback situation. We don't know how long Sam Darnold is going to be out. Matt Ruhle really playing the role of a college head coach by, I'm surprised he didn't mention HIPAA when he wouldn't, did I get that right? Is it HIPAA? I don't know what it is. I think it's the Dak Prescott thing. It might have been.

I can't talk about it, but it's HIPAA. Exactly, whatever. So I'm surprised he didn't cite some legal term why he couldn't announce the injury to Sam Darnold or even more disappointing is Zane Gonzalez.

And I think Matt Ruhle said the quiet part out loud was that it's a really big deal for us because, you know, we kick a lot of field goals because they're not good enough or they settle. So Jeremy Fowler floated the name Cam Newton. They're not going to do that, right?

I would be very surprised if they did that. I mean, look, this is what we talked about for like eight weeks now or ten weeks now or three months now. I mean, this team is, you know, is a potentially good team if everything breaks right, but there are so many possibilities of like this obvious little situations that fall apart and all of a sudden the Panthers are a five win team for the third year in a row. Right.

Well, here's the thing. It's interesting you say five win team. I looked at their schedule.

It's the first time I'd really broken it down bit by bit. I think if everything goes right for them, I think they can win eight games. I think nine is the feeling. Okay, but kind of the same.

Right. And I think, yeah, I'm not saying if everything goes wrong, but I could, you know, I kind of look at them as a five or six win team. More than likely they just didn't they didn't draw a really favorable schedule is they do have four of their first five games at home, though.

I just don't know how many of those they're going to win. Well, I mean, they like the prevailing logic here is like that they would win a bunch of games involves the offensive line being elite or above average. Baker Mayfield playing at a higher level than we've most seen Baker Mayfield play at. And then, you know, I don't know. The defense like a bunch of defensive guys take a big leap forward.

I mean, there's so many different things that have to happen. And I think that, I mean, I know for me, you know, I've told you for me, like I keep talking myself into the Panthers like more and more as the season is the awesome long. And it's like, I mean, should we be doing this, just because they got Baker Mayfield, because if the team had Sam Darnold starting at quarterback for the first year for the entire season.

The under six and a half is an absolute mortal lock. Like that's why it's like just like I like I love Baker, I think Baker's a good player, but Baker's definitely had some bad seasons when the offensive line is a great or wouldn't get along with his receivers. So it is totally fair to question whether Baker Mayfield makes that team and automatic like you set a three win upgrade that quarterbacks are really important, but they're not worth like three to five wins unless you're going from like David Blau to Aaron Rogers. If we were going to Josh Allen versus Baker Mayfield, I think it would be a different animal, but they're not.

And again, I agree with you. I like Baker. I think Baker's a clear upgrade over Sam Darnold, which I've been saying from the very beginning, even before they traded for him. But Baker Mayfield is not the answer. He doesn't solve all of their problems.

And they've got other problems, most notably because you already mentioned it. The offensive line, I think in time will be good, but it has not looked as a unit really good yet. And again, it is the preseason. Bill Belichick says the preseason is meaningless.

We'll get to that. Well, actually, let me just ask you, is it meaningless? Is the preseason meaningless? Assuming that we're not ravaged by injuries, and I don't believe the Panthers have been ravaged by injuries, is the preseason meaningless?

I mean, yes and no. I think it depends on what team we're talking about, right? For the Panthers, the preseason matters because you're talking about a quarterback battle between Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold. And even though it's a fake quarterback battle, it's still one of those things. Like Kenny Pickett's performance in the preseason is not meaningless.

But you also have the world champion, you know, Super Bowl-winning L.A. Rams, who didn't play a single starter, a single snap in the preseason last year before winning the Super Bowl, and immediately after winning the Super Bowl. Uh-oh. We might have had a face-mute situation there.

Really possible. Oh, there he is. Sorry.

Okay. A friend of mine, James Singleton, was calling me. Hi, James. Say hi to James.

James, turn on your radio and listen to me instead of calling me, please. Exactly. Anyway, it's entirely possible, yes, the preseason is meaningless. It's likely the preseason is meaningless, but it does matter for certain teams and certain position battles. Although, I do think the interesting thing about this is you start to sort of hear more and more coaches. Bill Belichick's one of them. Sean McVeigh's one of them. A lot of smart coaches believe this, that when the Panthers practice against the Patriots, it's scrimmage against the Patriots. Yes, those matter.

That's worth more than the preseason games. Adam Gold here from my man, Coach Pete DeRuta with the Capital Financial Advisory Group. We are talking retirement.

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The next 10 people will do for you your very own tax and retirement plan that will help you minimize taxation all the way through retirement. 800-661-7383. All you got is call or you can text Adam to 21000 for Coach Pete DeRuta. Yeah, which is why in those practices, the Panthers leaned on Baker and Sam and then didn't play either of them in the game. They did not play because Matt Ruhle had seen all he needed to see in those practices and probably the decision was made the day they traded for Baker Mayfield.

But that's another story altogether. All right, let me let me ask one quick thing about the Bills who basically played nobody in their in the preseason finale that the Panthers won 21 nothing, including punter Matt. I don't know if I'm pronouncing his name right.

Arisa Arisa. Okay, so he was a draft pick, right? They drafted him. I think in the sixth round. Well, I mean he I mean, I mean just from a pure college production on-field perspective, Matt Arisa is one of like the best punters ever seen in a long time right in terms of his ability.

He can put them on 80 like 82 yards. Tremendous. So they so like a day or so before the game the story comes out that he was named in a civil lawsuit for a gang rape of a 17-year-old girl when he was in school at San Diego State. And even though he claims that it's not true and I'm not this is all alleged. They they have not closed the door on a criminal charge at this point. The Bills said that they were aware of it, but then new information came out. My guess is the new information became public and that was probably enough for the Bills. I mean, what just your thoughts?

I don't know what they're I mean, I think they did the right thing ultimately, but they obviously they left something to be desired when it came to the entire investigation part. Yeah, I mean, it's obviously a very I would say that the Bills are a lot less likely to be a star quarterback or star wide receiver and I'm that's just sort of the nature of the you know, they're like, well, we want to let this play out and let the judicial process handle itself. I mean, that's just sort of the nature of how the NFL works.

I mean, Steve Keim, you know, famously supportive player. I tell you what, let me get a break here. We have to we have to reconnect because we were kind of losing will Brinson there. We'll take a short break.

We'll come back on the other side. The Pittsburgh Steelers have a bevy of injuries to deal with and a decision to make or was it already made at starting quarterback. We'll talk about that plus the most talked about player in the NFL right now. June 19th, 2006, but it all started May 6th, 1997 with the announcement that the Hartford Whalers were coming to North Carolina.

It's a story of transition of heartbreak of figuring it out on the fly. The Canes Corner look at the 25th anniversary of the move presented by the Aluminum Company of North Carolina. Listen, now find Canes 25th anniversary wherever you get your podcast. I'm Adam goal. Will Brinson, senior NFL writer, CBS Sports dot com. Pick six podcast moderator.

Big fan of fish and this is Piper, the Piper pay the Piper, Peter Piper, one of those. He joins us as always on Mondays next week. We are going to predict all the divisions. All of them. Yes, there's a thousand of them. We're going to pick all of them next week and next week.

I will give you a team. Yeah, I didn't hear any of that. Dennis. Yeah, we just we kind of lost you for a second. All right, let me let me ask you real quick. Couple of things before we have to say goodbye. The Pittsburgh Steelers had a costly final preseason game.

Well, we'll see how costly it is. TJ Watt hurt. Deontay Johnson wide receiver hurt. Oh, we lost them. All right, we'll try again. But the Steelers went into their final preseason game.

Frankly, I don't even know who was against doesn't matter. They lose TJ Watt to an injury. Hopefully, he'll be he'll won't miss time. He gets to get two weeks to start said and on top of that, he actually came back in the game to play Deontay Johnson, the wide receiver. He got hurt.

Hopefully, he'll be okay. I think the more problematic the more problematic injury to me. Will was the Najee Harris discovery that he has a Lisfranc injury and Lisfranc has been all the rage the last few days.

We had Matt Corral Panthers rookie quarterback, Najee Harris, Jen Holmgren for the Oklahoma City Thunder is going to miss the entire season with a Lisfranc injury. Of those three injuries, Watt, Johnson, Najee Harris, which is the more problematic for you? Oh, I mean, Watt for me, because he, I mean, Randy, defensive player of the year, sack master, young, still getting better. It is a challenging zone to tie sack record this year. And I think Pittsburgh with the quarterback situation is so dependent on this defense playing really well. Like, GJ Watt, you know, it has to be elite. We need, they need to just make if it's catching them a huge year, Kim Hayworth has to stay healthy.

So I think that's a much bigger problem. Given what Pittsburgh is fighting uphill from an offensive standpoint. But Lisfranc, man, I wouldn't have an ACL turn in Lisfranc injury. Well, I mean, I don't know if I completely agree with that as long as it's not a tear.

So Matt Corral lost his entire season, Chet Holmgren, again, different sport, lost his entire season. But as long as it's not a tear, then you can come back. It's just going to take a while. And hopefully it's not something that Najee Harris will have to deal with for the entire season. If you try to play running back with a Lisfranc injury, you're going to reinjure it and you're going to end up missing the rest of the season. That's just how it's going to go.

Okay, you might be right. But Lisfranc, man, that might be the MVP already. Lisfranc, the real MVP?

It might be the real MVP. All right, is Tua Tungava'oloa right now, for whatever reason, the most talked about player in the NFL? I have seen way, way too much discussion about somebody who I think at best is a top 20 NFL starting quarterback. Did somebody tip you off about what happened with me and Dolphins fans last week?

No, did we have a problem? Yes, I said too much is being made of Tua. He might not be, you know, I'll put the Patriots to win in week one because Bill Belichick is a good coach against young quarterbacks. Tua's getting over-hyped by, and the freaking Joe Shabs started dragging me out here because I said that the Dolphins media is too exuberant in their coverage of the team, which is totally true. There's like so many homers down in Miami.

Anyway, yes, way too much Tua talk. Tiger Hill won't stop blabbing about how great he is because of better ball than Mahomes. This is such quintessential training camp, all-season height. And look, I like Mike McDaniel. He's a great coach.

Jaylon Waldo and Tiger Hill are obviously awesome players. They're going to do great things in that offense. And Tua can win by delivering short, accurate passes that his guys get yak off of without throwing deep. And at the end of the day, like, let's see Tua play some real games and look awesome before we start crowning this guy. Miami is, for 10 years, it's often been the off-season champions every year. And here we are again, and they're the off-season champions by, despite the fact that they were being sued by Brian Flores, they hired Mike McDaniel. And Tua is like training for Tiger Hill, and Tua is having a magnificent training camp, and you're 11 on, like 7 on 7.

Like, come on, let's see, let's see the action first, and then we can decide. See, here's the thing about it is that they also have a terrible offensive line. So it's going to be very difficult for them to sustain any kind of offense without a good offensive line.

It just seems to be like a complete mess again, which is something that they have had to deal with. Look, I have, Tua looks like he's in great shape, and I hope he plays well, but I'm not entirely sure that the Dolphins have completely bought into Tua as an organization. Because they were, last year, they were all about getting Deshaun Watson last year, and it ain't like Tua was amazing all last year to make them change their minds.

They tried, I mean, in the draft, they tried to trade up and get the number one pick in the draft. They tanked with Tua, and they were like, oh, do we really want Tua? Now, one thing I will say is that if you trust people who know the medical stuff around the hip thing, the hip string or whatever, it's possible that the timeline is now getting to the point where maybe Tua could be a little more aggressive down the field. Because if you play golf, sort of football, you're rotating your hips are a key factor. And it's difficult to throw down the field if you don't have the proper hip action or the proper hip power, proper rotation.

Maybe that's something that starts to really come around this year, but I mean, that sort of feels like grasping at straws to suggest why Tua can't take these deep shots. Yeah, that's when my golf game went in the toilet, when my hips no longer activated. And I can't activate my glutes either. So that's also a problem. I can't really, I can't activate anything in my, you know, my 41-year-old body.

That's why it's just, you know, non-functional. All right, final thing for you, and I know next week we are going to do all the divisions. Best candidate for a worst to first? There are two possibilities. I think there is only one correct answer.

Best chance for a worst to first is where? Well, I believe the Ravens technically finished last, right? Yeah. Then that's the answer.

That is the answer. When the Jaguars are last, they're the first pick. Yes. And they're a great candidate for worst to worst. Although the Texans will probably finish last in that division.

I think the Jaguars are a sleeper to win that division. Really? Yeah. I mean, think about it. Like, we're going from Urban Meyer, the single worst professional, the highest in the history of professional football.

Like, it's not even close. He makes Hugh Jackson look like a good hire. And you go to Doug Peterson, who's a Super Bowl winning coach, who is just not Urban Meyer.

And I think you'll see them get so much more on Trevor Lawrence. Don't think he's got a scheme that is designed to compete against NFL caliber players. I mean, Urban Meyer is caught like two weeks in. He's like, Meyer, you play in Alabama every week.

It's like, jump. You don't get Rutgers on your schedule, Matt. I mean, the Jaguars are a legitimate sleeper.

They're pass rushers. Oh, my gosh. That's such an indictment over the other two teams at the top of that division and the Colts and the Titans. Oh, it is.

Such an indictment of them. Well, we'll see. That's why the NFL is undefeated because schedules make teams often. All right. Well, Brinson, next week, all the divisions, we will discuss all of them.

And maybe we'll talk about Tom Brady going snorkeling for 10 days. But I'm OK with it. I don't care. It doesn't bother me.

The pre the preseason is in many ways sort of utterly meaningless. All right. Well, we'll talk to you next week, my friend. This is the Adam Gold show. June 19th, 2006, but it all started May 6, 1997, with the announcement that the Hartford Whalers were coming to North Carolina. It's a story of transition, of heartbreak, of figuring it out on the fly. The Canes Corner look at the 25th anniversary of the move presented by the Aluminum Company of North Carolina. Listen now. Find Canes 25th anniversary wherever you get your podcast.