Should the Carolina Panthers make Steve Wilks the Head Coach?

This is the Adam Gold Show. You must certainly are.

Most certainly are, not must certainly are. Gosh. One day I'll be good at this. It's the Adam Gold Show.

That is Dennis Cox on the main room strings. Well done. You do so many things so well, sir. Must certainly am.

Can we start over after that debacle? Just gosh, so bad. Who knows who's working on just a handful of hours of sleep? Me. Yeah, I know you got up early. You did a show very early.

I was going to say before I got up, but no, I was already up. Hurricanes played last night. We had a very exciting Carolina Hurricanes win. The Eagles went to 8-0 last night. We have a World Series where the Phillies are now on the brink of elimination.

I guess really it's probably better. The Astros one went away from wrapping up their second World Series title in the last six years. There is a lot going on.

Kyrie Irving got his self suspended yesterday. There is a ton of stuff to talk about. Couple of quick things, Dennis. Welcome to the program today.

Thank you. I haven't seen you since Wednesday. Actually, I saw you yesterday, but for the sake of other people not knowing, let's see what else we have. We have a big weekend of football. We do.

We're going to have to talk about that. We got the Panthers and the Bengals. We're going to talk to Darren Gantt.

We've got Luke DeCock coming in. We're going to talk ACC football. Carolina is going to Virginia where traditionally it's been a problem, but the last few times hasn't been. No. Carolina is better than Virginia.

They shouldn't have a problem at all. We have state and wake. That's a big game. I'm curious to see which NC State philosophy is going to show up. I've been saying this since the beginning of the season. What are we going to try and be? Not who we are. What are we going to try and be this year?

And when they had to, they decided to play offense, which was very good for MJ Morris. So a ton of things to do. We welcomed Dennis in for the program today.

And then I don't know if we get back to normal on Monday or not. I have no idea. Nobody does. I know nobody has a clue. It's a jigsaw puzzle. All right, let's start.

Train of thought could be an issue today. I don't know why. I don't know why I think that one game away from the Houston Astros second World Series title in six years. They win it three to last night. First time in the World Series that a team was not ahead. Five, nothing. First time in the other four games, a team led five to nothing.

Amazing. Great defensive plays at the end. But how about the exploits of rookie shortstop Jeremy Peña? To and to the count as Peña lifts one in the air to left field.

It's hit pretty well. Schwarbers back at the wall and will watch it go. Jeremy Peña wafts one into the seats in left for a home run and the Astros go on top two to one. Peña had an RBI single in the top of the first that gave the Astros a one nothing lead. Then he hits the home run. He was also he was also in the middle of the inning that had the Astros tack on a run in the top of the eighth. Three for four, a home run, a couple of runs batted in. He is hitting 381 in the series. Stands a pretty good chance.

I wouldn't call it automatic. Pretty good chance of being the MVP. He's had a super postseason. Remember when Carlos Correa was their young shortstop of the future?

Ages ago, it was. It was all of a year ago. Correa spent this year in Minnesota and he's going to be a free agent again. But man, this Jeremy Peña kid is a pretty good ball player. So Houston Stake Justin Verlander to that one nothing lead in the first and remember game one of the series when they stake Verlander to a five nothing lead and he got crushed from that point on. So what happens to the first batter he faces after getting the one nothing lead? Kyle Swarber hits a home run, Justin Verlander hung tough. I mean, initially you're like, you know, that sucks, but I mean, as a starting pitcher in there done that, you I mean, it just is it just sucks because of the moment and obviously all the questions and weight. But, you know, you have to rely on the hundreds of starts and the thousands of pitches I've thrown before and just kind of say, OK, like I've given up lead off home runs before. Let me bear down and, you know, that's not going to be indicative of what's going to happen the rest of the game by any means. Let's see what happens.

You certainly hope not. But when you have Verlander's World Series history, it's natural for doubts to creep in, and I'm sure that they did. But he pitched very well from there on out. Dusty Baker is now one went away from his first World Series, but he has been there before. He has been one went away from a World Series title.

As a matter of fact, it was 20 years ago when he had the Giants one went away. They lost. They also had a game six lead, but they were in Anaheim against the Angels. And then they got beat by a rookie pitcher named John Lackey in game seven. I think the the Giants just got blown out in game seven, but they blew a lead. I believe a seventh inning lead. They blew it in game six. All right. The Carolina Hurricanes are now seven, two and one on the season after last night's four three shootout win over the lightning.

Another game that sent the Kings Twitter into a free fall. By the way, Dennis, you ever like peruse Kane's Twitter during games? I mean, yeah, it's kind of my job for Bally. Oh, good. Yeah.

So, yes, I do. Kane's Twitter is they're beside themselves when things don't go right. I mean, like every game is a referendum on everybody, of course, but it's always entertaining, but Carolina was utterly dominant. Last night, they were the better team than Tampa at five on five. I didn't think it was close.

Yeah. They mean Tampa scores two power play goals. It seemed like other than that, Carolina was all over him creating chances. Can somebody score into a yawning cage, please?

Oh, gosh. Jesper, fast, Paul Stazny, Jordan, stall, a Seth Jarvis, I think had a wide open net chance. He had scored a goal, but it could have been to my guy. Hurricanes could have scored six goals last night. Could have done the same thing against Washington a couple of days ago.

What was Monday? But that's how it is. This team, however, does seem to have a knack of figuring a way through. So you're down three to your power play. Your penalty kill has already yielded two goals. Both in the second period.

Second period has been a problem too, by the way, for Carolina. And Brett Pesci goes to the box, although I didn't think Brett Pesci did anything to go to the box, but whatever. Pesci goes to the penalty box with about seven and a half minutes left. And the lightning power play with a lead is coming on the ice. Brady Shay makes a play at the blue line, goes the other way with Sebastian Ajo.

With Sebastian Ajo, Jesper Fost goes to the net. Shay gets enough room to beat Vasilevsky. And it's 3-3. We had to overtime. Kane's waste of power play in overtime, but still they win it in the shootout. Tremendous, tremendous game performance. Better result. And I think unsung here is that Tevo Taravainen and Sebastian Ajo each scored in the shootout.

Huh? That's Ajo's first shootout goal since 2017. Yes, it's his fourth all-time. But they don't even use him in the shootout. Well, yeah, he's been 0 for his last eight. That's not a lot though, 0 for 8.

No, but still. He just doesn't get used in the shootout. Well, it's funny. I remember Jacob Slaven early in his career was great on shootouts, and I don't know why he's not using them. I think he is still part of the mix, but I thought it was tremendous in many ways that Taravainen scored.

Because they're about to lose because Ross Colton had made it 1-0 in the fourth inning. Ross Colton, did he get a Golden Globe for last night? I think so. Good job for him.

All right, we're going to talk to Rod Brenda more in five minutes, so let's move away from that. While all of that was going on, the Philadelphia Eagles were going to 8-0 on the season. A surprisingly mediocre 29-17 win over the Texans. Probably not Philly's best game of the year. They did what they had to do. They put it out of reach with an early fourth quarter touchdown. Jalen Hurts threw both of his touchdown passes in the second half. It was a 14-14 tie. After 30 minutes, here's Hurts on the record.

I know it's special for the city of Philadelphia. I've been 8-0 before and lost the national championship. Just take it day by day. Take it day by day. We haven't accomplished anything yet. It's a day by day thing of us trying to grow every day.

I think that's truly what it's about. The head coach, by the way, is also 8-0 Nick Sirianni. It's just the next one. At this particular point, being 8-0 sweet, and it beats the alternative of being 7-1 or 6-2. We know that our goal wasn't to go 8-0. Our goal is to take one game at a time. That's our goal. Is it good to be able to have this long weekend and sit at 8-0? Of course, but we know that we're going to get back to work on Monday and go attack this next game against Washington like we attacked this last game against Houston.

It's sad to me that we've already started the talk of can Philly go 17-0. It bothers me, right? But what else is? I never mind.

I'm not going to do this. But they do have a pretty soft schedule. I mean, there are some tough games. They've got the Titans left. They still have another game with the Cowboys. That'll be in Dallas. I think they have another one with the Giants. So there are difficult games left on their schedule. So I'm not saying that they basically play, you know, Eastern Kentucky the rest of the way.

But it is silly from this standpoint. Like, I know the Eagles are good, but I don't think anybody believes that the Eagles are a juggernaut. I mean, there's really just one of those in the NFL, maybe two, if we assign the Chiefs the same status. The Bills are the juggernaut. I think the Eagles are very good. I think they are the best in the NFC. But I don't think... And because I don't think they're a juggernaut, I have a hard time seeing them go 17-0 no matter how bad the schedule is.

And by the way, who you play does matter. I've heard that this morning, that, well, it's not the Eagles' fault that their schedule has been solved. Nobody's blaming the Eagles, but who the Eagles have played to this point actually does matter. Shouldn't they schedule better out of conference?

They tried. Is that what the committee wants? They tried to schedule better out of conference.

All right, real quick before we hit the Rod Brindamore. This is a great story about conference realignment, especially for those who always push back on basketball not mattering. It appears that Gonzaga is in talks with the Big 12 about leaving the West Coast Conference and joining the Big 12. Now, there's some talk about Gonzaga starting a football program as well.

Whatever. If that's what happens, that's what happens. But we all understand that Gonzaga would be doing this to play basketball in a better league.

So there's a number of things I want to point out here. The first is, if this happens, George Klyavkov and the Pac-10 or 12 or 8 or however many teams will be left should shutter their doors immediately. If you are the Pac-12 and you allow Gonzaga to join the Big 12, then you're done. You're just flat finished as a league, especially when you're losing UCLA. You have to add Gonzaga if that's a possibility. All right, that's that. Apparently, they also talked to the Big East, which I know I saw your eyes.

I saw your eyes, Dennis. You went, what? The Big East? They're in Spokane, Washington. The Big East?

Put up a middle finger to geography a long time ago. Creighton in Omaha, Nebraska is in the Big East. Denver and LaCrosse plays in the Big East. There you go. See, there it is. Marquette in Milwaukee, Wisconsin plays in the Big East.

Yeah. DePaul in Chicago is in the Big East. There is no geography in the Big East.

It has nothing to do with geography. It is simply a basketball league. Gonzaga would fit beautifully. Butler in Indianapolis is in the Big East. It would be extreme, but I appreciate the Big East for exploring the possibility. But I think Gonzaga needs this move more than the Big 12 needs this move.

I know they're talking about, oh, the Big 12 clearly would be the best basketball league. Okay, I'm not getting into silly debates, but I've said for a long time, there's a reason why Gonzaga has not won a national championship beyond that it's hard to win a national championship. The reason is that Gonzaga plays in a conference that does not make them better.

Every other team inside their league, they have to get better over the course of the season, otherwise you lose a ton of games. Gonzaga doesn't have to do that. At best, there are two losses in their league at best. If they're really good, they shouldn't lose any except maybe at St. Mary's. That's it. It's the only time they should ever lose because the rest of the league isn't even close to their level.

But this would be a game changer and it would help Gonzaga basketball. Now we've got a hockey game tonight. It's easy.

Simply go to geico.com or contact your local agent today. All right, Rod Brindamore. How do we talk about that double minor without getting you in trouble? Because to me, Jalen Chatfield, maybe I saw it wrong, I didn't think Jalen Chatfield committed a penalty on Hayden Fleury, and then somehow they tacked on additional two in the scrum that I believe was initiated by Tampa. Is there a way to talk about this without getting you in trouble? Depends who's listening, I guess. Well, nobody's listening.

You're right. I mean, I've kind of gotten to the point where it's just at some point it's going to be, you know, not me. We need like a player that has clout to say we got to change, right? And then I think any of the kind of recommendations that I've made over here might actually work, you know, but when I do it, it just sounds like sour grace, but when the guys that are playing say enough's enough, because it's just its impact in the game, like totally. And it's, you know, we've talked about this at length. We're wrapped in the dark age, essentially.

And the technology is so good, and these guys are great. I mean, it all looks like penalties to me when we watch it live. Like, okay, then you see it two seconds later, and like, wait a minute, that's not funny. And then that leads to something else that leads to the game being impacted too greatly. You know, you want the guys out there to settle it, not, you know, not based on something that's avoidable. So these calls, you know, that led to a five-on-three and another incident later in the game, like it's just the embellishment and all that stuff. You just look at it, you see it, that it's clearly, you know, it'd be settled a little differently, I guess. We'll get through it at some point, but the players are going to have to be the ones to, you know, say, okay, wait, is there a better way to do this?

And there clearly is. And again, this is not against the officials. I think they do a tremendous job, tremendous.

I just think the technology is there to help them out, and they can do it efficiently. Embellishment could have been called, but it was not called. But it's all right.

I think Ross Colton has a Golden Globe in the mail coming to him. Here's the thing that I don't want to get lost in all of this, and it's a good thing that you guys did end up winning the game, is because I thought you guys were really good last night. I mean, at five-on-five, that might be the best game that you guys have played for 60 minutes, no?

Yeah. We've had maybe two or a game and a half where it hasn't been good, five-on-five, in my opinion. So that game was solid.

You just said it. Against that team, that's the one. And we have had games. It felt a little bit eerily similar to a lot of games we've had against them where we're going along great, and that goal is keeping them in it, keeping them in it, and then something crazy happens, and they end up on a five-on-three. It just reminded me of playing in the playoffs and things like that. But the difference just down the road was when we were able to get the win. I like the way we were able to kind of take the blows, or the bad bounces, or everyone looked at it and just kind of park it and just keep moving forward. You had a lot of chances to score, and this is not just last night, but it kind of goes back a few games.

I saw Jesper Faust, Paul Stazny, and Jordan Stahl all look up at the rafters after missing what I'm sure they believe were tap-in putts for goals. Deal, just laugh those off at the end of the day. Well, it's a lot easier when you at least get the two points. Those ones sting big time if you lose the game.

Those are the ones that you don't sleep at night. You probably don't anyway as a player because you want to score. I think Jarvie had one too, actually. We had, like you said, more than our share that just put that game away. That doesn't always work their way, and traditionally with us, it's always been a little harder. So it's just part of it. It's actually helped us in a way because we have had a lot of games like that. It's not like that's new to us. It's just the way we play and maybe just the way we have, unfortunately, that sometimes we don't get a lot of goals on our scoring chances. We should.

So we need a few extras. I think the guys understand that, but it's still frustrating. I mean, the Washington game could have been five or six to two, and we needed to shoot out for that one. Two good things, I thought, even in the shootout, and we'll start with Tevo Tervine, who I thought actually played, especially defensively, a pretty good game.

It was his pass to Stazny that Paul actually slid back through the crease after beating Vasilevsky. But Tervine, in scoring the goal that you had to have to keep the shootout going, can something like that translate for him? Well, you're going to build on that and hope it does. I personally don't know if one game leads to the next at all.

You know, it shouldn't really. You know, good or bad. You've got another job to do, but as a player, you know, seeing it going in that really helped, like you said, in a crucial time for the group. You know, you hope that that makes him feel good about his game and, you know, if you feel bad about what you're doing, generally you play better.

So hopefully that jump starts him a little bit. And Sebastian Ajo, who you never use in a shootout, and we needed almost two shootouts to get to him. But that was a nice little move. I guess he was watching Kuznetsov the other night. I've never seen anybody slower in a shootout succeed. But Seabass pretty much slowed it down to a crawl and made a great move. It was a great move. The thing about beating that goal is you have to, you know, Tervine's move was very, very special.

Yeah. You know, he had a bunch of fakes in there, a bunch of like, maybe I'll shoot, maybe I'll do that. It's the only way you beat the goal. I got, he's that good. And, you know, I don't think, you know, I don't know that he's let into in a shootout before.

Like, I mean, I'd have to go back and look. But it's, you know, that was a good move. And you have to pull it off, I think. All right.

Final thing. And we're going to, we all can agree that Martin Neches right now is playing his best hockey. But let's talk really quickly about Brady Shea, who has been tremendous really since he got here.

I heard you talking about it last night. But the play that he makes at the blue line on the, on short-handed really leads to the goal. And Jesper Foss being available as sort of a decoy on the right side probably helped it out as well. Well, there's a lot on that play, right?

And you touched on it. The and part is great, but the stand at the line and then the read and being able to jump your guy and, you know, then jump up in the ice. But the goal doesn't happen if, you know, a cookie doesn't go to the net, because it doesn't drag that D back. And, you know, then you have to have the great pass and a great shot.

So there's a lot of things that go into it, but that's, you know, what you have to have. And that will see a huge goal at that time of the game. Good luck against the Sabres tonight. They're just scoring like four and a half goals a game.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a high, you know, some really special players. Big two that can fly and they're playing, you watch them play. It's like they're just going for it. You know, they're kind of playing with on the loose. That's what it kind of feels like.

So they're going to be dangerous, that's for sure. The one and only Darren Gantt, Panthers.com. So you traded Christian McCaffrey and discovered a running game.

How does that work? Yes, I alone was responsible for it. Thank you very much. You know, battle down before me, all you fantasy football GMs.

Finally got to live the dream. No, it's interesting. I think part of it is Deontay Foreman has been that guy in the past. Yeah. I mean, if you look at what he did last year in Tennessee, when Derek Henry goes down, it's kind of, you know, it's almost as if that's why they brought him here. You know, as the plan in case, you know, Christian wasn't available for a different reason, but he's done this before and he's a big physical back, leans on people, creates contact on his own. So, you know, he's a different kind of back.

It's more old school. He's more of the Steven Davis type, who we've obviously seen come in and do some good things here. So, you know, we'll see what it looks like in the long term. I just think with Christian, you know, as I'm sure you guys have talked about a lot, it almost just felt like it was time.

It was people who needed different things in a relationship. And, you know, Christian is in a spot where, you know, it's probably the perfect place, honestly, for him and his skill set out in San Francisco. And what they needed was draft capital, because as they look in the next offseason, they're obviously going to be looking in for quarterbacks. And now they've got more picks with which to try to acquire one.

Darren Gann, Panthers.com is joining us. I actually termed the, I guess we haven't spoken since the trade. I actually have termed the McCaffrey trade a mercy trade. It's sort of like, you know, the animal is suffering. And because you love the animal, then we put the animal down. So they decided that the relationship between the Panthers and McCaffrey, well, not a bad relationship, just his career here needed meaning. So we put this career down and we gave him, we assigned meaning to the rest of his career, because it just didn't look like it was going, this team was going to be good enough.

By the time his skills maybe eroded in three years or so. But I am curious. Boy, that took a dark turn, Adam. I'm not going to lie. Look, I have a lot of time to think about these things.

I have a long drive to and from the show, the station every day. So I have a lot of time to reflect on things. But I think it was a good trade for both sides. I appreciated that the Panthers got some draft capital back.

And we'll talk about that draft capital in a bit. But there has to be a different feel around that team. And it has nothing to do with we finally got rid of Christian McCaffrey, because that's obviously not the case. Right. But there has to be just a little bit of a different feel with Steve Wilkes and with some other people who have basically now have no choice but to step up and contribute.

Right. And I made the analogy the other day in the mailbag, which you can read at Panthers.com. It's almost like a foxhole mentality.

And when you're in a battlefield situation, the guys in your foxhole are your closest friends, because they're the only ones that can save your life some days. And there's a little bit of that. I mean, it's almost like, what's left around here?

And everybody's looking around like, well, we're the only ones. So they have, and I do think a good bit of credit goes to Steve Wilkes. One of the things I'm always careful about, I think there's a reflective thing in sports journalism or sports media. It's not all journalism. When somebody's gone to make everything that was wrong that guy's fault, you can disagree with the Matt Rule idea or era and still recognize that some of the stuff he put in place here is valid. And some of the things he was saying was true.

It just wasn't getting done. And I think Steve's got a – Steve's done a good job of kind of grabbing guys up and saying, hey, this can still matter. It does still matter for us. And for the people in that foxhole, it does still matter. Steve Wilkes is coaching for a future, and every player on this field right now is the same way.

But I'll be honest with you. I mean, last week in Atlanta, I've seen – after the pick six right before halftime, I've seen Carolina Panthers teams of recent vintage, not just Matt Rule teams, but other teams lose that game by 20. And they did not lose that game by 20. They were in position to win it a couple of times.

Should have won it, to be honest. And I heard it again this morning. I heard Mike Greenberg on ESPN say, if DJ Moore keeps his helmet on, the Panthers win.

Maybe. I mean, Eddie Panero did miss the same field goal that is an extra point in overtime. So I don't blame DJ Moore at all. Not one single bit I don't blame DJ Moore. I mean, if you wanted to blame anybody, and I don't even like that because Kickers are – he's not trying to miss it. You know, Eddie Panero needs to make either the 48-yard extra point, which is almost 80% pretty much for NFL Kickers these days, or make the one in overtime and then the Panthers still win.

So I'm not even going to play that game. Listen, multiple things can be true at once. DJ should have left his helmet on. Eddie should have made the kick. Brian Burns should have tackled Marcus Mariota in the backfield, rather than letting him scramble 30 yards in overtime to set up the game-winning field goal. That's another good thing.

You know, PJ Walker shouldn't have thrown a pick six right before halftime. So, you know, there's plenty of that to go around if you want to go down that road. I mean, and listen, I get it.

We've done this for a long time, you and I. So you know how the game goes. I mean, Eddie is still – I was kind of amused that there were people thinking, Eddie's going to be cut. This was the 33rd kicker in the league, you know, when your regular kicker got hurt in the preseason.

So he was the first guy off the recycling pile. And, you know, he's the best available at this point. What are you going to find that's better than Eddie Pinheiro right now? You're not.

He's in the top half of the league in field goal percentage. So, you know, I mean, we can be mad about things and also have some perspective. All right. Here's some perspective with Darren Gamm. And I've been talking about this now, and I think – I came to this realization, and I think it was when the Robbie Anderson – Robbie with a Y – blew up on the sideline.

With a Y with an I who can – No, no, with a Y. It's not new Robbie. It's old Robbie. The – I love Steve Wilkes. I think they should take the interim tag off him now. I'm not concerned with how many games they win. It's easy for me to say that here. I freely admit that. But I think it matters to him.

Can you spend somebody else's money? Exactly. I think being the head coach of the Carolina Panthers would matter to him, not as a job, but as sort of as a mission. Something that – because I think the organization means more to him because he's from here. I think that matters. I think – I'm using as an example the head coach of our hockey team here. Rod Brenda Moore wanted to be the head coach of the Hurricanes, not of an NHL team of the Hurricanes. I think this would matter to Steve Wilkes. I think he's a great guy to be the front face of your franchise.

Yeah, and we – it's hard to tell. And people ask me what I think it's going to – you know, this thing could change six times between – six, eight times between now and the end of the season. And right now everybody thinks, oh, you've got to get an offensive line.

My thing on offensive guys is that supply's kind of picked over now. And for every great young coach you think you're getting, there's a couple who may not be as great. They don't all get to be Shanahan or McVeigh.

So, it's weird. I do think Steve has done some things in the last couple weeks. And you could tell in that post-game locker room the other week after the win here that it was just different. And the feeling, it had been right or wrong.

I mean, coming down the stretch of the mat rule era, there was a weight on this franchise. And, you know, everybody kind of felt it. And, you know, you had a suspicion that it probably wasn't going to turn around any time soon, especially with the injuries in the quarterback situation. But, you know, in that post-game locker room it was all lifted. And, you know, they weren't supposed to be Tom Brady ever, especially with DJ Walker at quarterback, especially with an interim coach after firing 1-5 games into the year.

None of this stuff was supposed to happen. And I think that feeling in there was real. And the guys have talked about it in the days since. And a lot of that's got to do with Steve. He does carry himself with a competence, with a gravity that, you know, is able to keep what could be a frantic situation calm. And that's a credit to him.

I mean, that's what he exudes. And, you know, that kind of calm, competent leadership. And, you know, that's what they needed in this situation. Because whether, you know, it's an interim coach, it's an interim quarterback, it's an interim runner back, it's a lot of interim pieces right now, to be honest with Carolina Panthers.

So I think those guys that are still here are just trying to make the best of it. Let's talk about the interim quarterback before we wrap this up with Darren Gantt at Darren Gantt with two T's on Twitter, Panthers.com. The interim quarterback, maybe PJ Walker is the right guy for this situation for right now, and the Baker Mayfield era or the Sam Darnold era is simply over.

And we can just let PJ, assuming he stays healthy, roll the rest of the season and be done with it. What a time to be alive. Think about that for a second. Think about the words that just fell out of your facehole, Adam. I mean, this is Phillip J. Walker, who was going to be cut at the end of training camp if Sam Darnold and that crowd don't get hurt.

Mm-hmm. In the preseason. I mean, that's not an opinion. That's a thing that was going to happen. And now, my coworker at Panthers.com, I guess Stone, wrote a story about PJ this week that included comparisons to Tom Brady, who he beat, Patrick Mahomes, who name-checked him for the pass at the end of the Atlanta game the other day, and the fact that if PJ had enough attempts to qualify, he would be 11th in the league in passer rating right now, right behind Aaron Rodgers and Lamar Jackson. I mean, those four names just came out of my head in regards to PJ Walker. I mean, think about that for a second.

None of this is supposed to be happening. So, PJ, to his credit, and I almost said bless his heart, but he doesn't deserve that. PJ, to his credit, has seen some things and lived through them. He was in Indianapolis when Andrew Lutt decided to retire at the end of a training camp. So, what's going on here right now isn't even the weirdest thing he's been a part of. He's in the XFL, for God's sake. So, yes, in that situation, much like with Steve Wilkes, I think his personality lends itself to kind of the chaos that's swirling around him because to him, it ain't all that chaotic, and he's played well. I mean, I may or may not have been a little sarcastic the other day during the Rams game when I said, let PJ cook.

Yeah. But at the same time, in that Rams game, they handcuffed him. They didn't let him throw down the field because they didn't want him to make a mistake. I mean, in his career at that point, he had two touchdowns and eight interceptions.

It seems reasonable. But in the last couple of weeks, it's an old-school plan. You run the ball and you let the guy throw down field and get yards in chunks. It's very Dan Henning-Jick DeLong when you look at it that way because that 0-3 offense was all based on handing it to the big back and running play action off of it, moving the ball down field. It's also how the Raiders became the Raiders. Run the ball and then take shots down the field, and it's worked. I still can't believe Atlanta allowed DJ more behind the defense, but, hey, that's an Atlanta problem. He split two guys. I mean, that wasn't Haruki Nakamura.

That was an offensive player making a play. Oh, that was great. Darren Gantt, you're the best. I appreciate your time, my friend. Yeah, and anytime. You got it. Add Darren Gantt with two T's for extra talent. That's still not an answer.