Panther insight for the old guy, on Draft day....

The latest greatest era of Carolina Panthers football starts today when they stride to the podium, literally, I guess not figuratively since the commissioner is the only one who strides to the podium and they make the first pick in the draft. I think it will be Bryce Young. We don't really need to talk about whether or not Darren Gant from panthers.com. We can ask the old guy who he thinks it's going to be.

I think we can assume it's Bryce Young to this point, but have you considered the contrast between the last time they picked the quarterback number one overall and this time if it is in fact Bryce Young? Could you have more polar opposites? Well, probably not. Probably not and I'll be honest with you, I mean if that's how it turns out tonight and I apologize for not picking up the phone earlier. Frank pulled me into the draft room to ask me my last thoughts.

They were finishing polishing up some things. They just wanted to make sure we were all on the same page. No, I think if you look at it from that those standpoint, no. I mean it's not, you know, he is not like Cam Newton, but you know Charlotte is a place where I'm old enough to remember the early to mid 90s when people thought Charlotte wasn't big enough to be an NFL city and I remember guys like Sam Mills who weren't big enough to be hall of fame linebackers and I remember wide receivers who kind of came in angry and were about 5'9 and change and everybody felt they were too little to succeed in the NFL and it worked out okay for Sam Mills and Steve Smith. So, you know, there is at least some precedent here in Mayberry for guys who aren't, you know, physical marvels like Cam Newton or like Julius Pepper.

And I think that's part of the story that humanizes it a little bit. I mean it's, you know, when you look at Cam Newton it's like he's otherworldly. We are not the same kind of human being as him.

No one is. Same way when you look at Julius it's just like, I remember one of Julius's old teammates called him the next evolution of man and that's just kind of what you've looked at in some of the guys like that. But if it turns out to be Bryce Young, he is a guy who does it a different way, not through sheer physical might but because he sees and understands and processes the game at a different level. I think I saw Greg Cosell who's a film, you know, NFL film geek.

You know who he is. For many people who don't, Greg Cosell really cut his teeth at NFL films and he's a film evaluator, there's a player evaluator, and he says that Bryce Young has a PhD in playing the position. And there are very few players coming out of college with a PhD with a deep understanding of how to play the position because it's not taught.

It's not taught. It's not their job in college to teach these guys how to play quarterback for the NFL. Right and the thing about him too is I mean he's been in an NFL offense for the last couple years. Say what you will about Bill O'Brien as a head coach but that's an NFL offensive coordinator and that's been the guy over the top of him and he's doing NFL quarterback stuff. He's calling plays at the line of scrimmage. He's check with me. He's doing all that kind of stuff. I mean he's just, he's that guy by every indication and the more people you talk to, the more people who explain to you the way he processes, the way he sees. I mean you you hear more and more stories about that and we have many of them coming at panthers.com in the coming days, Adam. Darren Gantt is always the best at making sure we know where to find everything at panthers.com. You can ask the old guy. I don't know if you've spoken with his former high school coach but that guy loves him some Bryce Young and the stories he told us.

I'm gonna play another clip of that for people coming up in a little bit. He was that way in high school. They let him freelance, not freelance and run like so many high school quarterbacks do but he was freelancing and going going off script to make plays in the passing game in school.

They threw the rule book away for him because of the the way he processes the game. What is the optimism like that you can tell from people around us? It's Macy's friends and family. Get an extra 30% off great gifts for her just in time for Mother's Day when you use your coupon or Macy's card and take 15% off beauty essentials or shop specials she'll love while supplies last. Plus star rewards members earn on every purchase except gift card services and fees at Macy's. Sign up today at macy's.com star rewards.

Savings off regular sale and clearance prices exclusions apply. I agree with a lot of what you said and backed up we had Augusta Stone my very talented co-worker was at Alabama's Pro Day and talked to the guy who was coaching him on the position in eighth grade and you hear those same stories about you know the way he thinks about this kind of stuff. So it's just so consistent through everything he's done. I think the other thing that it's worth remembering no matter who the pick happens to be Adam because we don't know yet the Carolina Panthers have created the condition for success for a quarterback. Frank Reich understands the position having played it for a long long time. Josh McCown the brand new quarterbacks coach understands the position having played it for a long long time and been that veteran mentor back up.

Thomas Brown was one of the bright young minds of the house of McVeigh who knows how to offense differently than other people and they brought him in for a different perspective on this thing. And listen Jim Caldwell is sort of walking around on the fringes as this extra coach and it's like that's Jim Caldwell that was Peyton Manning's position coach. Jim Caldwell is like dropping a competency bomb on the entire building.

He just when he walks the halls it's like yep that's a real one right there and I just think adding in all those layers and layers and layers of redundancy and instruction and insulation for whoever this pick happens to be puts him in a good spot. Yeah you know I've been talking about that as well. I think the term all-star coaching staff can be overblown. It can be but it's fair.

That's exactly what I think. I was one of the co-workers I was just talking to moments ago I told him just being out there on the field the last three days for a minicamp watching this team practice it's different gang. This coaching staff is different than anything I've seen around here in a long long time. Now John Fox had some good staffs and Ron Rivera had moments where there were so many talented people mostly on the other side of the ball on defense but this collection of people just watching them run a practice it's adult.

It's mature. It is a group of people who are absolutely yeah they know what they're doing. There's a lot of reasons this thing might go wrong and there's a lot of things with this team honestly. We've talked so much about the quarterback. We've talked so much about the offensive personnel whether it's bringing in a Thielen, a Miles Sanders, a Hayden Hurst, a DJ Chart to this mix you know in a turnkey offensive line.

That part of it's set up. The Carolina Panthers too had some work to do. The defense is a little you know they got some questions. They could use another pass rusher. Brian Burns is going to be on the shelf for another you know a little bit here while he recovers from ankle surgery. So there's still questions about this team.

There's still reasons it might not be fantastically successful immediately from day one but it ain't because they didn't invest the resources and you know making sure that quarterback had everything he needed. Darren Gant, you're there and the quarterback the new quarterback can just ask the old guy whenever he wants panthers.com great content forthcoming. Sir, enjoy the day.

Thank you for your time. I will tell you one last tease from panthers.com. We've got a neat little story that should be up within the next 30 minutes about the room where it happened.

If you want to know what it was like in the 60 minutes when they went from thinking they were trading to the second pick to saying the heck with it let's go to one. Let's do this right now. I think we got something you might enjoy coming up here in just a little bit. 30 minutes? 30 minutes? All right I'm just trying to make sure that I'm in a break so I can read it uh before we come back on the air. I'll even maybe I'll tease that I'm going to read Darren Gant's piece on panthers.com and I'll tell you what's in it when we come back or I'll just direct people to it.

Sounds good. All right man. Thank you. Thank you Adam. Y'all have a great night. You got it. At Darren Gant with two Ts for extra talent on Twitter. Regular sale and clearance prices exclusions apply.