The Carolina Panthers have butchered their QB situation

This is the Adam Gold Show. Hi, it's the Adam Gold Show.

I am Adam Gold. I think it's homecoming. Homecoming?

I don't know. Dennis Cox is here today. Who? Welcome back to the program, sir. Oh, thank you. I missed you since last week. Yeah, yes, exactly. It's been so long. So I guess it's going to be sort of everybody's all over the place between now and the end of the year.

Yeah, everybody's trying to use up PTO. I know I have something to use. Yeah. Oh, it's coming. Yeah, it's coming. So thank you very much for sitting in.

Victoria is on assignment. I have to add baby shower. I'm not really sure, but that's fine. We got might be. Well, it is possible. It is baby shower season, isn't it? Well, shout out to my culture sake co-host Chris Lee, who just had a second child. That's right.

That's right. Child's going to be a track star. Baby, I don't know. Isn't the baby kind of long, right? 20 inches.

Is that long for a baby? I wouldn't know. I wouldn't know. I don't have any.

You have to you tell me. Yeah, I don't remember what Jack was when Jack was born. I have no idea. I have no idea. I know he's a load right now. That's all. That's all I know is that he is an absolute beast at this point who now all he wants to do is work on his step back fade.

Hey, nothing wrong with that. He's going to be a stretch five for his middle school basketball team. Stretch five. That's what he wants to be. He wants to be a stretch five. It's really it's all comedy. He is absolutely immersed in watching highlights of Luca Doncic.

If there's someone to emulate, it's not a bad one to pick. Gosh, he loves Luca Doncic. So we got a lot of things to do. Dennis Cox is here and so we'll go through a lot of things.

We have a bunch of cool people to talk about talk with today, including at the bottom of the hour, Darren Ravel of Action Network on the fallout from Yay and Adidas. I mean, Yay said some pretty suspect things recently, although this ain't a new phenomenon. No, it's not for those who don't know. Yay is for me known as Kanye West. I mean, the kids all know who I'm talking about, Dennis. Yeah, but I didn't.

Yeah, I'm kind of new to that. Like when I started reading the stories, I'm like, who's Yay? Who's this Yay guy? Why do I care?

Oh, okay. Now I know what it is about. Hear Yay. Hear Yay. Yeah, it's Yay. It's not Yay.

It's Yay. All right. Well, there we are. Let's start. So the Panthers are on the front page of ESPN.com again.

Let's go. Moving up in the world. So remember we spent all summer, like why are they obsessed with the Panthers? It was about the pursuit of Baker Mayfield, right? Baker Mayfield was a topic every day during the summer, the late spring into the summer until he was traded to the Panthers. And then he was a subject just about every day. This was the opportunity to cover the pant.

I don't know. But the Panthers are on the front page of ESPN.com again. NFL national NFL writer Jeremy Fowler on the piece. And it's all about the quarterbacks and how the search for the quarterback has set the organization back. And that is simply a fact.

Well, I shouldn't say it's a fact. You can't document it, but it is a logical conclusion to which we should all arrive because it has been going on since Matt Rule took over. I appreciate the national media finally catching on to something that we have been talking about for years. So let's quickly trace it back because it began when Matt Rule got the job. Remember, David Tepper wanted Matt Rule so badly. He carried Matt Rule's luggage. Remember that? That I did not know.

Oh, yeah. No, Tepper carried Matt Rule's luggage. I always found that to be okay. You're very interested in Matt Rule being your coach. Look, Matt, I think Matt is a very disarming personality in terms of he's a really nice human being. He always came across to me as the anti football coach football coach. He was just a guy. And I think Tepper took to that.

I think a lot of people take to that. He also has a track record of success in college. None, no pro experience apart from like offensive assistant with the giants for one year. He was not in charge of anything.

He wasn't in charge of a position group. He was simply an offensive assistant with the giants for one year. And he did great work at Temple and he did great work at Baylor. But that's a long way from an NFL job.

Either way, without getting into that, the decisions that were made definitely did impact the organization. And we can go all the way back to Cam Newton. Last year, Cam Newton's contract, Matt Rule didn't want Cam Newton. So, in comes Teddy Bridgewater. Actually, Bridgewater was signed to a free agent contract before Cam ever was kicked out. Bad timeline, by the way. Cam out, Teddy in.

That lasted a year. Teddy out, Sam Darnold in. How to downgrade the quarterback position in two easy steps. Sam out, Baker Mayfield in. Well, we all thought that would be a step up. As it turns out, it wasn't.

I'm not saying it was a step down, but it wasn't a step up as it turns out. Have you seen the depth chart for this upcoming game against Atlanta, Dennis Cox? Do I want to know? Who do you think is backing up? PJ Walker. Is it still Jacob Eason? No.

No? No. Sam Darnold. Baker Mayfield. Oh.

So. Almost said Matt Corral. Healthy enough to play, because he's your number two quarterback, but the guy you were all in on to the point where if Matt Corral doesn't get hurt, PJ Walker is on somebody else's, on somebody else's roster or somebody else's practice squad.

He's not here. If Matt Corral doesn't have the foot injury in preseason, that's where we were. PJ Walker would not have been here, but that's the plight of the Panthers and the pursuit of a quarterback.

Keyshawn Johnson from Keyshawn J. Will and Max this morning had some thoughts on the future of Baker Mayfield. PJ Walker looked like the second coming of Cam Newton compared to Baker Mayfield. I mean, they're a worse football team.

Everybody thought that this was it. Oh, Sam Darnold. Oh, he stinks. Get rid of him. Baker Mayfield.

So much for that, huh? I think there's part of Keyshawn that is still Team Darnold. I believe that. Part of that is because I actually think Keyshawn, even though it didn't end well with the Jets, I think Keyshawn still has a little jet in him, right?

I think a little bit, but also there's the Southern Cal tie, right? Because Darnold was obviously a great quarterback at Southern Cal. Next is where Keyshawn believes Baker hurt himself, and it ain't about this year. If, in fact, he would have made good.

Listen to me now. If he would have made good with OBJ, they would have never even tripped on him. They would have visualized him as a baller.

But once you opened up that window and they saw you, they was like, on top of not being a baller, he's an ass. We don't like... Wait a second. Did you hear any of the conversation also with Chris Canty this morning on ESPN? I did not. Oh, my gosh.

I actually think they worked blue this morning. But look, I don't know Baker Mayfield to be that. So I'm not saying that Keyshawn's right or not, but I will say that Keyshawn hasn't necessarily, in terms of the personalities of players, I think Keyshawn's been pretty good about the personalities of players.

His opinion of whether a guy is good or not, everybody's got opinions. But I think in terms of personalities, and I don't think it's out of the realm of... Not possibility, but... Baker didn't make himself likable for some of the players he was playing with. I think Baker carries himself like a number one quarterback. But I don't know that Baker, to his teammates, instills that kind of faith and trust. But in terms of his public perception, Baker is a franchise quarterback. That's the way he carries himself.

But it hasn't translated necessarily on the field, and it hasn't necessarily translated that way to teammates. Interesting stuff. Look, I always thought it was David Tepper, who was the distracted puppy chasing the squirrel.

I really do. I'm not 100% convinced that this was Matt Ruhl's doing, but we talked to Joe Person yesterday from the Athletic, and he assigned more of the blame to the head coach. Listen, Ruhl had control of the 53, and that was an awkward situation when Tepper decided to keep Marty Hurney after hiring Ruhl, and basically had to go hire a GM in Scott Sitter, who's a smart guy and a good dude, but had to kind of play nice and be cooperative.

And I think they had a pretty good relationship, honestly. But Ruhl was driving a lot of the quarterback talk. I think Joe Brady was the Teddy Bridgewater whisperer. Ruhl signed off on it. You know, I think Sitter and Ruhl were kind of both on Sam Darnold. And then finally, I think Ruhl kind of talked Sitter into Baker Mayfield, is kind of my impression.

And Sitter, you know, listen, he signed off on it, too. And where are they now? Oh, my gosh.

Last time I checked, Matt Ruhl was hiking around Umstead. Great route combinations there. I'll tell you, that was one of the best videos you've ever done. I watched that a couple of times.

It was really one of the best videos you've ever done. And shouts to Chris Lee for playing a supporting role in that. We're going to talk more about the Panthers.

And I do have this. This is what I would do if I were David Tepper, and we'll close this subject on this. If I were David Tepper, I would hire Steve Wilkes to be my head coach today.

I would say, Steve, you're the guy who is going to lead us out of this. I think he is invested in his team. He is invested in the franchise. He is invested in the city. That's what I would do if I were David Tepper.

Three-year contract. You're my guy. We need to rebuild.

You're going to be the face of it. Boom, we're moving on. If Steve Wilkes says no to that, that's fine. But that's what I would do if I were David Tepper.

I would hire Steve Wilkes to be my guy. Moving on. Did you know 77% of women who wear bladder weakness products experience intimate skin irritation? As if having incontinence wasn't stressful enough. But Tena Intimate Pads have been gynecologist tested and do not cause skin irritation. Gentle on my intimate skin. I need to try Tena Intimate Pads. Visit tenasample.com for your free sample.

Kind to Skin protects like Tena. From the it's never too late to make a first impression file. This is the final weekend of college football before the college football playoff rankings are released. We already went on a rant yesterday about people. Those rankings don't matter. But what it does signify is now it's sort of like when you get into the second semester of high school or of your of your like your last I would say junior year in high school. Now everything starts to matter just a little bit more or the second half of a college basketball season when you are really making impressions on the committee to get into the tournament. Now there's a lot of games that matter. There's only a handful of games that matter to the playoff. But there are games that matter to teams that want to be in the playoffs. First of all Clemson and Alabama are idle. They are off this week. Ohio State to Penn State.

I will ask this question to the masses but I know Dennis Cox knows the answer. Ohio State at Penn State. How many games how many good teams has Ohio State beaten this year?

Dennis Cox. Take the under. Zero. None. No good teams.

Nobody has talked about this. I have not heard a single person mention that Ohio State scheduled to this point has been booty. Incidentally they only have one good team left on their schedule after this week and I think it's debatable whether Penn State is going to be that much of a challenge for Ohio State. Penn State is 13th in the country I believe. All that's left is the home date against Michigan. Now it's not Ohio State's fault that the majority of the Big Ten isn't good.

It's not their fault. But we do hold it against Clemson don't we? Even though Clemson plays in the more difficult division of the ACC.

Right? Here's Joel Klatt from Fox and I have my issues with Joel Klatt. I think for the most part Joel Klatt is on the right side of the argument even though he over rates the conference for which he does games. There's no other team in the country with an easier path to the playoff than Clemson and it's been this way for quite some time.

Quite some time. This is a team that has gotten the benefit of an eight game conference schedule not nine and a ridiculously weak one team conference. You know not I mean even Oklahoma had a tougher gauntlet through the Big Twelve to go to the playoff in some of those years than what Clemson has had throughout their tenure. Dabo's tenure in these playoff years and that's not to say like they didn't have good teams. No of course they like they had great teams.

They won national championships. So I'm not arguing that they shouldn't go. I'm just saying like boy do we really think that they're any good. I don't think so and we're not going to know until the playoff and they're going to be there by the way. So we're really playing for three spots. Yeah see I agree with that last part because I agree that I don't think Clemson is national championship good. But that isn't the question. The question is are they playoff good.

And the answer is probably. But isn't it convenient that we bang on the Tigers for playing in the ACC when they have played a far more difficult schedule than Ohio State. Ohio State start of the season at home against Notre Dame. We thought Notre Dame was good. They're not. They're not. They're not good. I'm not going to say Notre Dame is bad because I don't think they're bad but they're not good.

They're no longer ranked. They're playing Syracuse this weekend. Syracuse is the ranked team. By the way that's a big game for Clemson.

Just want to lay it out there. It's important for Clemson that Syracuse wins that game. Not Notre Dame. Syracuse wins that game. Syracuse has a chance to finish with all 10 wins maybe. And if that happens and Wake finishes with 10 wins. Well if state can somehow get to 8 or 9 then Clemson you look at Clemson's record against ranked teams or teams that win 8 or 9 or 10. It's going to be more than what Ohio State's going to have. Ohio State's schedule hasn't been good because the big 10's not good this year. But we didn't mention that did we Joel. No. Because we always think that.

Aw man. Like we dealt with this with Alabama. I don't know how many years ago it was. Where Alabama scheduled the SEC West was weak and Alabama's schedule was basically two games. It was like LSU was always good so it was LSU and then oh I don't know whoever else they played in the SEC Championship game.

It just wasn't that good a schedule. But apparently we're not allowed to say that. But it's OK to bash Clemson because they play in the SEC. Which I think in general Klatt's right.

In general. But not this year. Wake's legitimately good. That's not an easy game.

They may not be great on defense but they are great on offense. And Florida State was pretty good this year. Who beat LSU by the way.

They did. Although that game was a. That was a tough watch.

That game was a tough watch. Anyway we have a lot of really interesting games. I think the most interesting of which is Tennessee at home to Kentucky. Because Tennessee plays Georgia next week. So but Tennessee can't afford to look ahead. Kentucky's defense is very good.

Very good. And they have a dangerous quarterback. I just Tennessee can score on any one.

I think Tennessee will score plenty of points if Kentucky keeps pace and keeps it interesting. Now is where it gets interesting. At the Home Depot when you buy select real be tools. You'll get an extra real be one plus battery for free. Now you can give a gift that not only keeps on giving but also keeps your favorite tools going. So whether your holidays sound like this. Or this. We have the gifts to make your holiday magic.

Plus get free delivery on over two million eligible items from the Home Depot. How doers get more done. Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady are in the news. In a lot of these days it's not because of. The fact that they're playing great and killing it on the field. Right. It's not about that.

Both teams are three and four. I like this. Billy Joel song. No.

Sounds like a Billy Joel song. Look these teams have lost a combined five straight games. The Packers and the Buccaneers. But the Bucks are still in first place because NFC South three and four tied with Atlanta. The Big 10 of the NFL.

The Big 10 West. Yeah. Of the NFL. Yes. It has been that bad.

Tom Brady who is using I guess the Royal Wii here. There has to be more urgency. You have to understand that what we're doing just is not good enough.

And that's very evident. So what do you do. You focus on the process of improvement and that's what it has to be. We're going to have to change it from the player's standpoint because we're on the field that can do something about it. And if we want to do something about it we've got to do more. And we've got to commit to one another more. There's no quit in our group.

And there will never be quit as long as I'm a part of any team. I know that for sure. OK. That's Tom Brady. Right. Now the Packers lost to the Giants Jets and commandos in consecutive weeks. Just want to throw that out there.

Anybody that had that in Vegas. Wow. Here's Rogers on how it needs to change. I think when the players really take over. Then you're going to see the possibility of us making a run. So when the players really take over. I'm not talking about usurping power from coaches. I'm talking about we take over. We take ownership of what we're putting on the field. Now some of that might be in the plan. So some of that might be hey I really want to do this offense defense teams whatever it might be.

But the other part is taking ownership of your your daily habits and your routines. Just because we're a young team we can't just write that off as oh they're figuring it out. The rookies are figuring this thing out and they're going to go through their rookie wall and blah blah blah. We need everybody on the same page to make the plays that are possible. We need them Monday to Saturday to put in the time to be ready to play Sunday.

Because there's too many times in the game where there's simple simple things that just are not being accomplished. All right. Here's what's fascinating to me about this dynamic. Which of those two quarterbacks is the national media slamming. Rogers. Right. What was the difference in those two comments. Neither quarterback is talking about themselves. Tom Brady is not saying I need to be more invested in this because we know that Tom Brady is invested in this. Right. Brady is talking about the team as a whole.

And that's what Rogers is talking about. Again removing Brady from the equation. But heaven forbid somebody slams Tom Brady and I'm not saying we should. I just don't think either quarterback. What is your performance on the field. That tells us whether or not you have played well. And I think that it leaves to be desired for both players individually. They have not performed at the same level.

There's a lot of factors for this. My friend Steve Logan always like to say this about the quarterback position. It is not played in a vacuum.

You are only as good as the pieces around you. The Buccaneers have had a lot of injuries their offensive line is in shambles. Not on it's not surprising that Tom Brady has struggled the Packers injuries to the offensive line. And other than the two running backs who are great the receivers haven't been good.

They're either young or not good or in some cases both. Not surprised that it's been a tough go in Green Bay. But only one of those quarterbacks is taking shots from the national press.

Only one of them. I guess we're afraid to criticize Tom Brady. But again I don't think either of them deserve it so I'm not sitting here saying we should criticize Brady.

I think Brady looks more washed than Rogers but it don't matter to me. Don't matter that I say it. This is the Adam Gold Show. At the Home Depot we have the tools to make your holiday magic in the easiest way possible. With our easy to assemble artificial trees you can have a fully shaped realistic tree up in your house within minutes. And you know your holiday look wouldn't be complete without our classic animated Santa that collapses for easy storage. Get free delivery on over 2 million eligible items and you can spread holiday cheer to the whole neighborhood easily. The Home Depot. How doers get more done.