Preseason hockey has officially kicked off and Adam talks to Rod Brind'Amour, the Carolina Hurricanes Head Coach, about the work they've been putting in during the off season.

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. I'm Adam Gold. Vita the Victoria is back from the many baby showers she attended over the last two days. Yep. 8, 9, 10, how many?

Yeah, somewhere around there, about 9. Everybody's having twins, boxes of diapers everywhere. Gotta bring some good juju this Sunday.

Needed. Although, Arizona Cardinals ain't all that in my opinion. They're just not fun. And the Panthers also haven't had too much trouble with the Arizona Cardinals, if I am not mistaken. Yeah, it has been a favorable matchup for them. Give you some more detail about that in a little bit and we will talk about the matchup between the Cardinals and the Panthers at Bank of America Stadium on Sunday, which happens to be four o'clock game, not a one o'clock game. And I don't know if the NFL did that.

So all of us here could get a chance to watch Josh Allen and the Bills take on Lamar Jackson and the Ravens. Thank you. We talked about. Yeah.

Thank you. National Football League for that. We were actually talking about this yesterday, Victoria, that there aren't. We're in a quarterback void right now in the NFL. And we've got some aging quarterbacks that are still really, really good, if not.

Well, they're great. Tom Brady is still great. Aaron Rodgers is still great. I think the jury's out on whether Russell Wilson is still great. It's unfortunate, but I think the jury is is very much out on that. Matt Ryan's no longer great. I'm not sure he was ever great, but he was at the very least really good.

And it's obviously it's not quite there. We just don't have like so few of the young quarterbacks really have become good. Quarterbacks get drafted like in big bunches at the top of the draft every year.

Now, I mean, this this past year was sort of an outlier. Kenny Pickett was the first quarterback taken at number 20. But, you know, the Baker Mayfield year, there were four in the top 10. Right. It went Mayfield one, Darnold three, Josh Allen seven.

And was it a Josh Rosen was 10. Right. Yeah.

Right. Rosen's already basically out. Darnold's pretty much never going to be anything other than a career backup. Mayfield might be headed that way.

My point is that the young quarterbacks success rate is not panning out very well. Mitch Trubisky second round pick is going to be a career backup. We don't know what Justin Fields is going to be down the road.

Right. He was in that like, how did the Panthers pass on Justin Fields class? And honestly, I'm not sure Chicago thinks that he's the answer.

No, I mean, they haven't kicked him to the curb yet, but I'm not sure they think he's the answer. So the quarterback, especially quarterbacks taken in the top half of the first round over the last five, six years, we just don't know. And the league has a dearth right now of starting quarterbacks.

There is no more than seven great starting quarterbacks. And then we have questions about a bunch of guys. So and we have 32 teams, right? So there's a lot of teams. Anyway, we got a lot of things to do here. And we started talking about quarterbacks and and baby showers.

So that's fine. Let's go. Especially when history was made last night, Aaron Judge had not homeward in seven games, then in the seventh with the Yankees and Blue Jays tied at three this. He's been chasing history and now he makes it. He and Roger Maris are tied with 61 home runs, the most anybody has ever hit in a single season in American League history.

That's right. It is the tide for the American League record, by the way. Here's how it sounded on. That was Michael Kay on the Yes Network Yankee TV. Here's how it sounded on Yankee radio with John Sterling and the payoff. There goes that he left it as high as far as number 61. He ties Roger Maris for the American League single season record with 61 home runs. It's a two run judge and blast.

Here comes the judge. A two run blast and the Yankees take a 5-3 lead on number 61 for Judge. And the entire Yankee team is out on the field.

They are hugging him one by one. Patty Judge is standing behind the Yankee dugout. She got a big smile on her face and the Yankee team outside the dugout. Everyone hugging him.

And the payoff. That was John Sterling and Susan Waldman on the Yankees radio network. Look, Judge's mom was there. Roger Maris' son was there. Roger Maris was the former Yankee record holder of 61.

So they're tied. Cool moment. Baseball was given back to Judge.

I want to talk about that later. That is, well, it was a ball player. It went into the Blue Jays bullpen, so a ball player gave it back to Judge. And I wonder what, because somebody almost caught it in the stands, what is that ball worth? That ball is not worth as much as the next home run ball. So it's not like a million dollar ball. 62 might be, but it also depends on your point of view.

And we will get to that in a little bit. He went seven straight games without a home run. By the way, the home run comes off of Tim Mazza for the Blue Jays lefty. Yankees went on to win the game 8-3. Seven straight without a home run for Judge.

It's actually not the longest stretch. He had gone this year without hitting a home run. That was nine games back in early August. And for Aaron Boone, the Yankees manager, I think he feels like maybe a weight was lifted. I think there was a little weight taken off of him, for sure. I don't think it's something that's weighed, worn him down or weighed on him too much. But that said, it's been a handful of days now and everyone paying close attention. So I think the smile was a little easier when he got back to the bench.

So yeah, I think there was a little relief there. Look, he was still taking walks. I mean, a lot of teams were pitching around him, which frankly, you probably should if you're trying to win a game. I mean, he has carried the Yankees offense. The Yankees offense is coming back now, maybe not to what it was before, but the Yankee offense is coming back. I wouldn't let Aaron Judge beat me if I'm trying to win a baseball game. Not saying you walk him all the time, but you have to be careful because he is their most dangerous hitter and it's not close. Tuesday, the Yankees clinched the division without Aaron Judge hitting a home run.

But again, he walked a bunch of times. Now, the raging debate. Adam Gold in studio with my man Coach Pete DeRuder with the Capital Financial Advisory Group. We are talking retirement. Coach, let's say I have more than a million dollar balance in my 401k. Congratulations.

Thank you very much. How can that actually come back and bite me? Well, because, and this is a thing that we, it's a mirage. You see mirages.

I've ridden in the desert before. You see what's water ahead, but it's not there. Well, your financial mirage is thinking that that total balance in your 401k or your IRA is yours. We have two people that want to get ahold of it. Two uncles.

Uncle North Carolina and Uncle Sam. Both of them are going to do some damage to that balance depending on what kind of other income you have. You could lose 40% of your value.

So if you're looking at a million dollar IRA, maybe it's only worth $600,000 to you. So how do we get around this? Well, you don't get around it because you end up in jail if you try to do that. But you can do tax planning to minimize the effect of taxation into the future. The tax train is coming, Adam. We need to make sure to minimize the effect of the derailment of our financial accounts. And for the next 10 people, we'll do it at no cost or obligation.

Put together your very own tax and retirement plan. 800-661-7383 or text ADAM to 21000 for coach Pete DeRuta. Well, I guess we're a little premature because he hasn't hit 62 yet. So he's not the single season American League record holder. But who is the home run king assuming that over the next six games or seven games, Judge hits number 62? Is it Bonds, Barry Bonds, who hits 73 in 2001 or is it Judge Max Kellerman from Keyshawn J.

Will and Max on that? Barry Bonds was the best player in baseball and one of the two or three greatest left fielders who ever lived. First Ballot Hall of Famer already. Then he jumped on the stuff and he hit 73 home runs. He walked 200 times. He became the greatest player who ever played any sport.

It was like a cartoon. I'm not recognizing it when I know the only reason he did it was the cheating. And Maguire and Sosa, they suddenly become the greatest home runs.

Stop. So Aaron Judge, on the other hand, comes into the league, hit 52 home runs as a rookie. Then in seasons where he barely played over 100 games, 27 home runs. Then last year, like Roger Maris, hit 39 and played 148 games, getting back into the rhythm flow of things.

Now, at the age of 30, having finally been healthy for the first time in a long time, I thought he was going to go for 60s and a contract year on top of it all. So that's different than what the other guys did. I mean, I don't really disagree with what Max said, other than the record is 73.

Other than that, the record is 73. We speculate and we hope. And I think actually I heard a quote from Roger Maris Jr. And he said that he respects the fact that Judge has done it clean. And I'm not suggesting that that is not true. I am simply saying that, yeah, probably. Because we honestly don't know. And I think history tells us that we have been let down before. So like most people didn't think A-Rod was using.

And then all of a sudden, oh, OK. So I'm just saying we hope. And there is no indication that it's not. So I'm not in any way suggesting anything like, man, if he's a baseball hero, he's a great one. I mean, he looks like like one of the Avengers. This is 600. He's so big.

And he seems like a great guy. Yeah, we all want that to be true. So let's let's just leave it at that quick at least. Pennant update. Braves fell in extra innings last night in Washington. Three to Atlanta actually tied this game at two in the eighth on a throwing error. But the Nats won it in the 10th Mets trailed the Marlins for nothing last of the seventh. Then Eduardo Escobar went to work to run home run in the seventh bases loaded to run single in the eighth. Then the game winning base hit in the 10th Mets rally to win five for what it means. Mets up by one with six to play both off today, starting a three game set in Atlanta tomorrow night. Fingers crossed.

Ian might impact this. The Mets had offered, since both teams are off today, to start this series tomorrow or rather today and give your give give everybody some flexibility. They've even talked about playing a doubleheader on Sunday. Braves said no. I'm not suggesting that the Braves should have said anything other than no.

I'm just saying that's what has been reported as having happened. Anyway, magic number for the Mets with the one game lead is six. But just one win by the Mets this weekend in Atlanta will will lower that more than just the two. Because the magic number total number of met wins plus Braves losses, because if the Mets win one of the three games, they will own the tiebreaker with Atlanta, which means that Atlanta must beat the Mets to win the division. If they finish tied, the Mets would get the nod and win the NL East. So the Braves need to sweep New York this weekend, which they are more than capable of doing.

Anybody who thinks otherwise is crazy. Here's the pitching matchups. It's Jacob deGrom and Max Freed on Friday. Max Scherzer and Kyle Wright on Saturday.

Chris Bassett, Charlie Morton on Sunday. Jacob deGrom, by the way, has been very normal, like human in his last three starts. We actually bad 11 earned runs, 15 hits, last 15 innings.

homers allowed in three straight starts. All right. On the injury front last Wednesday, remember the Panthers put Christian McCaffrey on the injured list and the world lost their collective minds. Yes.

All right. As it turned out, he was fine, right? He ran rush for over 100 yards. He was clearly the best panther on the field.

Always. Well, yes, but it was he was very good. So I don't think that he was hampered at all by an ankle injury.

We argued that they should have just put vet day and been done with it. But Panthers, whatever I might have tweaked an ankle, so whatever. So and and McCaffrey said after that, like, man, if I go to the bathroom, they're going to put me on the injured list.

Yes. Which, yeah, probably accurate. Well, he's on the injured list again. And this one, they actually are a little concerned about didn't practice again. He doesn't practice on Wednesdays. Didn't practice yesterday, but they had him on the list with a quad issue. Wow.

And this time, though, he stayed in the facility and to get treatment. Hopefully this will not be a problem. This is something that surfaced on Monday. And hopefully he'll practice today. Maybe he has already. I think they have already practiced, but we'll find out. Hopefully he'll be fine if he plays.

They need to wrap him in bubble wrap. I keep saying this like it's it is what it is at this point. And I am not I still do not believe that we are dealing with an injury prone player. I really don't. Let's wait and see it play out.

Somebody on Twitter is like, oh, he needs to retire already. He said he was kidding. That's fine.

OK. But I'm sure that that has been floated out there like, no, man, football is hard football. I don't know how guys aren't hurt all the time. It is a game of attrition in terms of your roster.

What is it? What is your roster look like when we get to November? We're not even in October. Well, we will be in October for the next game, although tonight is the last game in September. But we're not even in October yet. And we've their injuries all all across the league are massive.

All right. Final thing before we talk to Rod Brind'Amour, because the Hurricanes are in Florida tonight. Tua Tagovailoa has been like the sensation of the NFL over the first three weeks of the season. If the sensation isn't Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles.

But that doesn't mean that there is not some debate. And in this case, the obvious, at least it looked obvious to us, head injury. He suffered in the win over Buffalo. I think it was late first half. And they walked him to the locker room and his head hit the ground and he wobbled and staggered when he got up.

All right. Well, the Bills or the Dolphins said after that, that it was a back issue. Well, he's got back and ankle issues, apparently. And right now is questionable.

Adam Schefter from ESPN with the update. Tua is day by day, but he's listed as questionable for Thursday night's game against the Bengals. And I think the feeling within the Dolphins locker room is he is expected to play despite his questionable status. Do not to being in the protocol, but due to back and ankle injuries to questionable for Thursday night, as is Jalen Waddle.

Yeah, look. Tua has had a really, really good start to the season. So I know everybody wants to fast forward and get to the end game, but we don't know. But he's had a great start to the season. And Dolphins are in Cincinnati tonight. All right. It is time.

Hurricanes are in Florida. Time to check in with the head coach Rod Brind'Amour. All right, sir. Jack Drury playing with Jordan Martinuk and Andre Kasha. What are your hopes for Jack tonight?

And are you going to ask Maurice to stack Alexander Barkoff against him? Yeah. Well, I don't have a lot of, you know, saying that I actually like to see that to be quite honest.

I know you do. But we'll see what happens. You know, I'm just looking to see our young guys. I mean, we talked about this a little bit. There's some competition here. And I want to kind of see how they, you know, fair out against the other team's best players.

So it would be great if that's how the matchups worked out. And, you know, we got a lot of other guys do that. I'm still trying to figure out a little bit. And then there's some competition on the. So there's a there's kind of a game within the game going on there. So last year, we only got a two game look at Jack and he played very well in those two games, one twelve of his fifteen faceoffs as well, which I know impresses the head coach.

But what are you looking for him? What is the another step for Jack to take to make a mark and make this team? Well, I mean, I guess in a way, if he can continue that. Right. But I think it's that two games, you know, we need to be able to see that, you know, every night type thing and maybe not that dominant, but just being able to do it consistently.

And then can he do it again? So it's like we said, maybe you get to get some better players. And that's that's where, you know, obviously, you know, eventually you're going to get out there against these guys. So you have to be able to hang with them. And I don't think you'll have a problem with it, being honest with you. But, you know, that's why we got to play these games.

All right. Some other familiar faces. Derek, step on back on a PTO. He's going to center a line with Ryan Dzingle, also a guy who's trying to reestablish himself. And Stefan Nason only scored forty eight goals in Chicago last year.

And it was with the Hurricanes a little bit during the season. What are your what are your expectations for them? Well, I don't know.

I'd be honest with it. You know, that's where that competition kind of comes in. We've got a lot of bodies for not a lot of spots.

So, you know, I want, you know, I think separate way. I know what he brings. So he probably has a leg up on just me understanding what his game is. But some of these other guys, you know, it's a chance for them to kind of establish what they want me to think of them as if you know what I mean.

So we're like I say, it's a preseason game, but there's a lot at stake for a lot of guys. What is the best thing about Derek Stepan? Well, lately I've been just the versatility, you know, I've been able to, you know, move them through the wing.

And he was that all right. I know he can obviously play center a little bit. And, you know, it's kind of I think just being able to kind of throw him wherever. And I think him accepting kind of where he's at in his game now and in his career and just kind of, OK, whatever I got to do to help the group.

And I think that's sometimes it's not not easy for guys to do. I mean, he's done that well. What did you like most about Dylan Coughlin and Jalen Chatfield as a duo on Tuesday night? And they will be in the lineup again tonight.

Well, they were solid. And, you know, reporting Coughlin on his offside, which that's that's already kind of a tougher spot for a guy. But he handled that well. So that we know we got a pretty good feel for him.

I mean, he was here for quite a while last year and then obviously played the organization. So I really like the way he moves very like he's very, very quick. And we had a couple of instances the other night where he was kind of beat, but he able to catch the guy, just turn and go catch him. And that's kind of a maybe a little underrated skill that he brings. Yeah. I mean, Darryl Green, the old cornerback for for the Washington football team, used to get beat all the time, but he had great recovery speed.

Maybe Chatfield will appreciate the analogy there. Calvin DeHaan, who was, I thought, an unsung hero of the playoff run in 2019, is back also on a PTO. What are your thoughts on him? And he's playing with Ethan Bair tonight.

I want to ask you about him, too. Well, you know, that could be a potential pair that we go with. Like, we don't know. You know, I think Calvin, you know, obviously I don't I don't need to really see his game too much. I mean, we have a pretty good feel for him, although it's been a few years looking at him in practice.

I don't think much has changed. So I kind of know we're getting there. And that's a consistency factor that makes him pro. So, you know, he's not going to put up a lot of numbers, but he's going to, you know, help you defensively. And that gets that hard to play games kind of role that is so valuable in that pairing. So we know we get there, you know, there we know what's there as well.

It's just going to be consistent with it. And can those guys, you know, play well together? I mean, chemistry is a big, big deal, too, that kind of gets overlooked. We have a couple pairs that, you know, obviously have it. And so they mesh well and they cover for each other well. But sometimes it doesn't work that way.

So that's another reason why we got to play the game. Yeah. Bear before Covid looked like he was going to be a pretty good part of your top six. Was there a noticeable drop off because of that? Or was it a different factor?

You know, I don't know. I think that definitely you talked to him. That definitely put him back and never kind of was able to regain kind of what he brought at the beginning, like you were saying. And then I think other factors came in. Other guys really stepped up, you know, played really well. So then it became hard to get back in there.

And that's, you know, that's the old ad that you never want to come out of the lineup because you just never know. Right. You know, who's taking a place would end up happening.

So there's a little bit of that as well. I think with in his situation last year. How long for Aunty Ronta tonight? Well, hopefully the whole game. You know, I mean, obviously they got a pretty good lineup going at it.

So, I mean, I'm not going to, you know, I don't even want to go down that road. I mean, I mean, the plan is that he plays the whole game and, you know, we need to get our starting goalies. You know, France and Freddie at least a couple games of preseason action to get them ready to go.

All right, final question. I referred to Paul Maurice, who's the new coach of the Florida Panthers. And he is not necessarily a proponent of the run and gun freewheeling style that the Panthers have played in years past. What are your expectations for the way they will play under Paul Maurice? Well, I think it's going to be hard to change that game. I mean, I don't know what you would change too much.

I mean, they were the best record in their hockey, right? So, you know, he didn't like, I know, you know, it says they gave up too much. But I think that's pretty much an easier sell than to try to get teams to score. So, you know, you should play a little harder away from the puck. You know, I think he's going to probably keep most of what they were doing offensively because why wouldn't you?

That was pretty impressive. So, you know, that remains to be seen. I don't know. We'll get a look at it tonight and, you know, I'm sure, I guess we'll play them right away again. So, we'll in the next couple of days, we'll know pretty much how that's all going to shake though. Yeah, through Saturday as well.

They will be the opponent on Saturday at PNC Arena, a matinee. I appreciate your time. Good luck tonight. You got it, buddy.

Take care. Thanks, Rob. Ed Smith, former NFL tight end, was actually on the Falcons team that was what? 1998 Falcons team that was in the Super Bowl and helped John.

Well, I didn't help you there when John Elway won a Super Bowl. Anyway, we don't have to bring up. Is that a good memory or a bad memory before I continue the introduction? It's a great memory because we were there.

It's a bad memory because we lost. All right. I thank you very much for doing this. On Twitter, you can follow him at Ed Smith Speaks. He's with the Believe Network. We talked to Terrence Copper last week, and he's part of a show that's Believe in the Cardinals. And it's BLEAV, the Believe Network on Twitter.

You can find them there. Quick question about the Cardinals as a team over the last few years. Is there a theory why they seem to be a different first half from a second half of the season team?

I have my own theory, and I think it falls on Cliff Kingsbury and the fact that he's really good at putting initial stuff together, meaning game plans to start, you know, competition, but he failed at making the adjustments that I think all NFL coaches have to do. Once you jab and jab and they start, you know, the other side, figures out what you're doing, you got to have that second verse. Same thing goes for the course of a season as teams start to get film on you early in the year, they start to make adjustments to try to, you know, stop what you're doing.

He kind of keeps that same mode of, well, it worked earlier, let's stay with it. And unfortunately, you know, we've seen the over the last couple of years, especially that by the second half of the season, it's not as successful because he's not taking that note and getting to that next verse. And this year, unfortunately, we've had the slow start. So if you match the slow start with the bad finish, this could be a rough year for the Cardinals.

Yeah, you know, it's weird. The Rams last week, the Rams have had care of Arizona's number. And, you know, to be honest, the Panthers, I think, have won six in a row and each of the last three years, these two teams met and we'll talk about last year's game in a second. But the win this year for Arizona was really a remarkable comeback over the Las Vegas Raiders. I thought that they broke, the two-point conversion, I thought broke Vegas. Describe that play as you saw it unfold, because for those people who haven't seen it yet, and it's a week and a half, almost two weeks old now, but it's one of the most incredible things I've ever seen.

That is absolutely right. And I actually described the play as something that only Kyler Murray and maybe a couple other human beings on this earth could pull off, you know, to extend a play for 16 plus seconds in the NFL. I mean, that is, you know, it's virtually impossible and he was able to do it. And in reality, it was like a video game play.

It was something, you know, my 12-year-old son, I played Madden with him and he toys with, you know, because I don't play it that much. You know, he's got that ability just to extend the play on that dog on video games. And that's almost what it was like. I mean, to watch him, you know, and then, you know, I felt so bad for those offense or the defensive lineman chasing him.

You could tell they were just, they were about ready to kill over. And he hit that, you know, if anybody knows plays video games, he hit that turbo button and he just went and it was, man, it was unbelievable to watch. And like you said, it broke the Raiders in terms of, you know, what was to come and they, you know, they finished that game off in dramatic fashion, but that was an unbelievable play to watch. Yeah, like you talk about a video game.

I'm actually going to bring it to more towards our era, Ed, in that it was more like Pac-Man in that he was, it's almost as though he is controlled by a joystick. It is incredible to watch Kyler Murray. What's the next step for him to take as a player or is, you know, the second half drop off more along the lines of what you, what you kind of talk about with Cliff Kingsborough. My biggest thing for Kyler Murray has absolutely nothing to do with his physical abilities is his leadership skill.

You know, he's a young man who's faced adversity very few times in his life. He's always been successful at everything, but at this level of football, it takes more than just that, you know, your athletic ability, especially at the quarterback position. I'm still waiting on him to kind of put this organization on his shoulders.

And it's more than just what I do on Sunday afternoons or, you know, Monday evenings, it's about me leading this team by, by example, and by my words as well, we know what happened with the off season, with the scrubbing of social media and then all the contract and this and that. And he still hasn't taken that next step, even though he's gotten the money, he's got all the money in the world, but he still hasn't taken that next step in terms of being that leader. And that's what I need from him more than anything to take him to that next level and in turn take this organization to the next level. One of his downfalls might be a Cliff Kingsbury, though, as his leader, as a head coach and CEO. I'm not, I'm not quite sold on Kingsbury to this point. Yeah, well, look, there, his second half problems go all the way back to his tenure at Texas Tech as well. Ed Smith at Ed Smith Speaks.

Believe in Cardinals is the online show and you can go to believenetwork.com and check it out. I am curious about that contract and we obviously we talk about it here. The NFL is national.

Every team is fair game for every market. My read on this from afar was, look, if you're going to have some provision like that in a contract, you can't make it public. That has to be a private conversation here.

We need you to do this. So has that impacted the relationship? Has it impacted Kyler to the point where there's like eroding trust between the two? That was an embarrassment for them one to leak it and then have to feel like they had to put that in a contract to begin with. As far as residual, if there are any bad things from Kyler, we rarely know what he's thinking because he's very introverted. His comments and his press conferences are always coded. So even when they ask you, when you, when you ask them a question, it's almost like you have to decipher it. So this, to this point, nobody really knows how he feels, but you know, for me, it would have been a wake up call for me.

If my organization came to me and said, Hey, we need you to study more and we're going to put it in the contract. You know, as far as his tears, I know he had to take some flack over that. And it probably stung a little bit in the locker room and might've validated some of the things that his teammates were thinking already.

I don't know, but it's not a good thing moving forward. They did a good job of like sweeping it under the rug, almost like it never happened. But, you know, it's almost like a bad blood stain on a white shirt. You can still see it. You know, I know you got the most of it, but you can still see that spot on there. And I think that's what that that clause is going to be moving forward. It's just a bad spot on Kyler Murray.

All right. Eighty seven points allowed. We're talking with Ed Smith.

Believe in Cardinals is the show on the Believe Network. Eighty seven points allowed. How has their rush defense been, especially in first halves of games? Carolina obviously wants Christian McCaffrey to dictate the way this game is played. So what is Arizona's challenge defensively? Arizona's challenge defensively is everything. We lost we lost Chandler Jones last year, didn't replace him on the interior. We're probably one of the worst cornerback rooms in the NFL. So with that mix and then we got two young linebackers still trying to figure it out. And Collins and Simmons, who seems to have been benched or at least his production is way down because it snaps away down. So, you know, we we don't have the push up front. We don't have the linebackers to stop you once you get to that level. Our secondary will Buddha Baker. He's making a lot of tackles.

I always say if your safety is the star of the team making a whole bunch of tackles back there. You're bad. That's exactly where we are right now. So, you know, if we can't stop you from running it, you can't stop you from throwing it.

That's a bad recipe. And, you know, teams going to have some mighty success against us because of those issues that we have. Well, maybe I don't like we watch the Panthers every week. Panthers offense has been less than spectacular.

Christian McCaffrey aside, Ed Smith, before we let you go. What kind I know there was we have the Kyler Murray contract, but Cliff Kingsbury also got an extension. So I am curious, what kind of heat is there under Cliff Kingsbury this year? I keep telling everybody there can't be heat because they gave him that extension. And why did they do that? It was, you know, it was premature. They also gave time in extension.

And once both of them got those extensions, it was almost like, hey, we know we got what we need now. You know, security is here and or Arizona has always been a frugal. I don't use the word cheap.

I use the word frugal organization. So with that being said, there would be a heck of a buyout like they have. They just like these. He's locked into 2027. So if they were to have to buy him out, then, you know, that's a lot of dead money. And he got to go pay a new head coach and GM, if he decided to get calm out of here, it seems like he's got security for all the wrong reasons.

And I don't understand it. And, you know, you would have imagined, you know, and maybe they thought the success of making it to the playoffs last year and getting our heads bashed in was enough proof that he's the right guy for the job. Didn't sell me on him. And it appears that we are, I won't say stuck with Kingsbury, but he is probably comfortable with, you know, keeping his house off the market for at least a little bit of time here, which could be a bad thing for the Cardinals in the end. If Steve Keim has the power and he just extended Cliff Kingsbury, then it would appear that this is a union that is going to stay intact. And before real, real quick, since you played in the league, who do you think the best team is? Up until the other day last week, I thought it was Buffalo. And I would probably still have to say I think Buffalo is. They're the most complete team minus a running game of Josh Allen. I think they need to get their running game more established and not beat him up.

But I do think they're the best team in the league, even though they had that loss to the dolphins. I agree with you. And I appreciate the time, man. By the way, also a public speaker. That's probably a motivational speaker. That's what speaks probably means at Ed Smith Speaks on Twitter. Believe network.

Believe in Cardinals. I thank you very much for the time, man. I appreciate you, man.

Look forward to being in touch soon. You got it. Ed Smith from Believe in Cardinals. This is the Adam Gold Show.