Roundtable Time!!  

We're still waiting on Travis Hancock, but we have Vasht Ihert from Carolina Blitz. Let's play the music. Camelot. Camelot.

It's only a model. Until Travis Hancock from WFNZ and Charlotte gets here, it's just a table for two for me and Vasht Ihert, CarolinaBlitz.com. I'm glad, Victoria did not tell me that she had contacted you about doing this.

I'm glad you're here, Ms. Ihert, for this reason. Your video last night spoke to me when you asked Frank Reich, and I know Scott Fitterer was there and you may have posed the question to both, about the who is quarterback one when Bryce Young walks through the doors. And Frank took about a minute or so and kind of talked himself into a circle and then just went, he's going to have to earn it.

Which, of course, of course he's going to have to earn it. But my takeaway, what was your takeaway from his answer? It was for Frank and we're still getting to know him.

It was very long-winded for him. And which means he might not have been as comfortable with that question in that moment. But he did say that he and Scott Fitterer discussed whether Bryce would come in as QB one or not.

You know, I mean, come on. He said the right thing. He said he's going to have to earn it. He said, and then, as you mentioned, toward the end of his answer, he said he's going to be QB two.

But when the Panthers take the field for their starting game, I guess in September, it will be Bryce Young under center. That's exactly, exactly. He said the only thing he could say, and it took him a while, he probably should have taken a deep breath first. OK, it was a good question. And again, I use so much stuff from your Twitter feed, Keep Blitzen, because they're really smart questions that fans want to know.

And I appreciate you asking them. The question of who QB one is, like, it's going to take one preseason game. Now, probably not the first. I don't think we'll see Bryce Young play the first preseason game. But the first time he plays a preseason game, I'm sure the next week he'll become QB one. Not that Andy Dalton is not a capable quarterback, but they didn't draft Bryce Young to have him watch Andy Dalton play the position. They also, I have to think they believe not a finished product, but more than ready to step on an NFL field.

Well, that's why you trade up for him, right? And you don't bring Andy Dalton in to be your QB one. The Panthers have done that.

They are over that. You bring Andy Dalton in to be a guy who is a formidable backup. And that's what they've been having with starters for the last, what, three years. They've been having backup quarterbacks play Stark be starters.

And so, yeah, I mean, I agree. You know, you don't trade for the number one pick and put on everything. I'm here in Charlotte. I'm at the stadium now. They had a whole to do blue carpet band, everything. You don't do this to have your quarterback sit on the bench. This is a revitalization for this franchise, new coach, new quarterback, and people want to see him play. They rolled out the blue carpet for Bryce Young. So we aired the press conference. It was like 40 minutes late. So how many autographs did he sign before he sat down?

Not many. And it's crazy because the actual portion where he got out of the car and walked the blue carpet and banged on the drum, that took all of maybe 15, 20 minutes. I think that the long part was him walking through the stadium, going through the locker room, meeting the coaches, meeting the staff. That was the stuff that we had to wait for. And then finally he came and I guess it's starting the media portion. I guess I'm sitting in a booth and right next door, he was doing an interview with the NFL Network. So I think this is this is part of the scheduled day, but he went through the meeting of the staff and the coaches first. And then he came to us, which is why I was so late. So think about all that and I heard CarolinaBlitz.com is joining us here on Twitter. Keep blitzing.

You should check that out. He is he's so prepared for stuff like this based on where he played his high school football and where he played his college football. I mean, it's probably I mean, I know high school games are not nationally televised, although I'm sure a couple of his were. And this guy has played basically every game like he's an NFL player. He's been groomed for this. And, you know, I think about another player who was kind of groomed for the spotlight and I'm not comparing them before people come at me. But LeBron James was green for the spotlight. Right.

Yeah. He was deemed as the one and then didn't go to college, but he came right into the NBA and had all of that pressure on him. And I think that that is important for somebody who has always been groomed for the moment.

It's like it was from a long time ago, right? They will groom to be in everything that they did was so that they would be able to be in the place of leadership. And that's how it is with Bryce Young. I mean, he's quiet, but then he would ask the question about whether he would instead of what disadvantages height was or is, what advantages there are to his height. And I heard excitement in his voice. And I'm imagining that who will hear what they'll see in the locker room.

But I mean, he's a quiet guy, but he's been groomed and prepped for this moment his entire life. I personally think that we're about to see the narrative about the cookie cutter. Quarterbacks must be big.

All of those things. I think we're going to see those change. I think in many ways, Drew Brees did change the narrative about quarterbacks who were not 6-2, 6-3, 6-4. Russell Wilson, again, is part of the changing of the narrative. Now, this is the first one that we drafted. I shouldn't say first one because Kyler Murray was drafted one overall, too. But I think you could probably use there's other elements of Kyler Murray that I think get in his way. But this could be another one.

Another another example of what we used to think about the position probably doesn't hold today. Yeah. And crazy. I'm liking the basketball stuff, but I think about Steph Curry, right? Steph Curry came in and Bryce is a huge Steph Curry fan, which we mentioned in the press conference today. Steph Curry kind of came in and revolutionized the game.

He was always too short, too small. And he came in and changed the game with his three-point shot. And Bryce has a chance to be that guy as well. Not Kyler Murray-ish, but in his own way.

Because as you mentioned, I think that they're two different guys, two different strengths. But if he can come in and have success after all of the hoopla and all of the questions regarding his size, it could really change that quarterback position and how it's looked at for the foreseeable future. All right, Vashti. I heard a couple of more things and then we will let you go.

Oh, no. Oh, he's here. Let's pull up a chair for Travis Hancock from WFNZ Mac and Bone in the morning. Were you in line to get Bryce Young's autograph? What was going on? No, I was talking to Will Leviss.

He's had a rough couple of days, so I was pretty sure he was okay. I apologize for being late. I'm not normally late, so I apologize for that. It's quite all right.

Since you were talking to Will Leviss, I promise the listeners this will be the last time I will mention it. Can we all agree that if you are seen on video putting mayonnaise in coffee, that that is the biggest red flag you could have? You're not going to be drafted in the first round of the draft, Travis? Yeah, that's got to be. I mean, we're talking about, you know, did he not meet well with teams? Is it a toe injury? No.

If you're putting condiments like that in your coffee, that's probably why you're sitting there as long as you are. I mean, I just can't. I promise everybody I'm going to get off of that topic.

Real quick before I throw another couple of questions at you guys. Travis, your thoughts on what 5'10", 190 means and overall thoughts on where we are with Bryce Young? I think it's been interesting to talk so much about a quarterback height.

I've never talked more about something in my life than I have that the last, you know, two, three months, especially the last couple of weeks. Look, it matters. It's definitely something to discuss and it's something, but when we watch Drew Brees and Russell Wilson play football, I never really thought much about their height, the way they played. They overcame that. When I watched Bryce Young play at Alabama, we watched him plenty at Alabama.

I never watched him and thought, Oh my gosh, he's short. He overcame it. There are times when athletes play bigger than they are.

They figure out a way. This is not. Bryce Young did not just become 5'10 and a half. He's been that way his whole football life. So I think that, yeah, it's something certainly to discuss and it's, you can't avoid it, but he's one of these athletes that just plays bigger than he really is. Charles Barkley was 6'4 and a half playing power forward in the NBA.

It did not hold him back at all. Vashti, what's next? What did the Panthers do tonight?

Second and third rounds. I don't know. I think the Panthers are a little aggressive tonight.

I don't know. You know, they, they sit at 39 and there's still some, some good egg rushers and good, still some good linebackers on the board. Those are areas that, that the Panthers could be speaking up in. There was a wide receiver who they talked about was very impressive during their visit. Maybe they pursue that. I wouldn't be surprised if they, you know, they traded and maybe got a third round pick which I don't think they have right now. So yeah, I think that, I think that, I think that Scott Fitterer and Frank Wright would be aggressive. I like David Pepper who is like, he looks like he's a kid in the candy store.

Like, I don't know who this guy is. So yeah, I expect the Panthers to go for it tonight. So Travis, what do you think they do tonight? I'm going to throw a couple of, a couple of names and positions at you guys because there's a lot, there's a lot of names. There's a lot of positions on the board and areas of need for Carolina.

Where do you think they had? Well, I, you know, with Scott Fitterer, you can always assume that there's going to be a lot of moves. I would not have said trade up at all because there are so many guys at 39 that either fit what they need or have been linked to them by a visit.

So I would have never said 39 would be a spot to trade up from, maybe trade back. But the fact that Joey Porter Jr. is there, the corner from Penn State who's fallen a little bit further than we thought. Look, he's the rangy long corner that Fitterer likes, the Seattle Seahawks mindset. He's got the lineage like J.C. Hornad with his father. If there's a guy to get up there and get, Joey Porter Jr. paired with J.C. Horn, that's kind of intriguing to me in a move up scenario. I also love Drew Sanders at 39, the linebacker slash end from Arkansas if he was there. He's the guy that hurt Bryce Young, by the way.

Kelly Ringo is also there. Cam Smith, the other guy, just get the entire Gamecock quarterback contingent. So they're great players at quarterback. Basically, other than the kid from Utah, all the tight ends are there.

All of the good ones are there. Not to mention, I know there was a run on wide receivers, but there are some pretty good wide receivers out there that Carolina could get in the second round. Vashti, you mentioned edge rusher is an area of need.

I think it's more of an area of want than an area of need. What do you think about those other positions? You mean outside of edge rusher? Yeah, I think they need to add some pieces to the linebacker room, especially going from a 4-3 to a 3-4. And I do like that Joey Porter. I like that Porter pick. So yeah, I think linebacker, I think edge rusher potentially a quarterback, but I think edge and linebackers.

We'll let you both go and I appreciate your time. Lamar Jackson signed his contract yesterday. Travis, your thoughts on Lamar didn't get the deal that he was trying to get with the Deshaun Watson deal, but he basically got Jalen Hurts contract plus a little extra. Did he win?

Well, it certainly wins something with that amount of money. I'm not sure exactly what he was going for, but Jalen Hurts and the timing of that push that to the direction of getting it done. I will say what happens now though is Baltimore. It's been sort of in my mind going forward Cincinnati Buffalo in Kansas City because of the unknown of Omar with the Ravens in the AFC. But you start to look at Baltimore and how well they roster managed usually with that team and the net day.

They had a flowers yesterday. They sign Odell Beckham Jr. in the off-season. They've got Mark Andrews.

I've got JK Dobbins. All of a sudden you start to look at Baltimore and with Lamar in there. And as long as he's healthy for the duration of a season, which has been the question the last couple years, not the beginning of the year, the end of the year for Lamar. You got to kind of put Baltimore in the category of those really good AFC teams. They're certainly better than the Jets.

I'm not feeling the Jets love. Vashta, what do you think about Lamar's deal? You know, I wanted more for Lamar and I understand what he was trying to do, you know, and trying to make it fully guaranteed.

I think we all agree that there was some type of collusion among not have that be the new trend, you know, he's now the highest paid player. I just, I just feel like, and I know that he shot out to Jalen Hurts and his and his agent for kind of setting the framework. I just think he should have gotten a little more, maybe, you know, maybe 300, maybe 200, maybe 200 guaranteed. I think you mean so much more to that Baltimore Ravens team and Jalen Hurts means to the Eagles. So I think that I think he should have gotten more.

Yeah, I mean, I, I can certainly see that mindset. And the truth is, is that he held out for it on principle as much as anything else. And for whatever reason, and maybe it's just the culture of the NFL, he was not getting that deal from anybody else. And yes, of course, it was collusion, whether it was stated or planned.

Nobody was going to do the deal that they all hated that Cleveland did with Deshaun Watson vest. I heard at keep blitzing on Twitter and we've got we love her. We love her, by the way. I didn't know you were going to have T-bone on.

You guys are both flat out awesome at T-bone WFNZ. Well, yes. All right. We already had a guest call himself handsome earlier.

You're both wonderful people and very, very attractive. And I will talk to both of you later. All right. Well, appreciate it. I've now lost control. That's fine.