Darin Gantt on the Carolina Panthers' progress during OTA's

I am Adam Gold, DarrenGanttPanthers.com, in just a couple of minutes. That was from yesterday's program.

It is sort of an evergreen discussion. Where's the best place? Here we are in North Carolina.

This is the Adam Gold show. You can listen to us in Wilmington. Shouts to my man Randy. I missed Randy in the round table last Friday because Hayes Permar was here. We were also heard in Asheville. Jeremy Green, Asheville, all the way out in the mountains. Wilmington, already all the way over there on the beach.

You can get us everywhere. But in this state, where we are so beholden to the traditions, especially when it comes to college sports, we believe that things should be as they always have been. And I have always been of the mind is that basically when eras change, that we should change with it. I'm not saying you ignore the history.

You can't ignore the history. There are certain elements of our past that are absolutely paramount to our future. For instance, if Jim Phillips, the commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference, asked me what I would do about whether it's locations for championships, scheduling, I would say for scheduling purposes, your history matters almost in front of everything else. So the traditional matchups need to be maintained. State and Carolina, state and in football, you know, the big four should always play each other.

Always. But there are other rivalries that should also be played off. And this is part of the reason why getting rid of divisions was so good, because at least now, State and Virginia Tech should play at least every other year.

There's too many similarities between the two schools. But State and Clemson should play each other every other year. And I realize they were playing each other every year because they were in the same division, but that was kind of a lark.

That was just kind of lucky. State wasn't in the same division as Duke. Shouldn't State and Duke play every year? So now the way they're doing it with the, you're never going to go more than a year, I guess, without playing somebody in your league, in football. I mean, that just makes the most sense. Rivalries matter for scheduling purposes.

The only other change I would make in scheduling is that I would try to make the schedule. I love what other leagues do in terms of backloading the schedule. Having the games. Darren Gant, we're going to ask the old guy. Panthers.com.

All right, sir. OTAs. I am seeing on my timeline here that has not been a good day for quarterbacks, even though everybody was talking lovingly about Bryce and his development and whatnot.

What have we seen so far? Oh, my gosh. You're kidding me, right?

No, I'm not real, is it? I don't know this. Who said that? I might want to call people out, but there might be a beat reporter for a certain paper in town that is not, has not been bullish on what he has seen. Well, here's the thing.

If you get too hung up on one isolated rep in one isolated ODA in the one day a week, you get to see, you know, maybe that's true, but I choose to, I choose to pursue perspective from a little bit wider lens. I mean, maybe when you stand around, watch 28 years that maybe when you're out here every day watching practice, you realize that one throw going wrong might not be indicative of the greater product. Well, I can tell you, Bryce Young looks like a guy who does the things that Bryce Young did at Alabama. He appears to be decisive. He appears to be smart. He appears to be able to get the ball out quickly. He appears to make the right reads. And I think when you do all those things, it doesn't necessarily make for big highlights.

I mean, he's probably not a guy. There was a deep ball in practice today down the sideline to DJ Chark who this just in is fast and big. And everybody went ooh and aah and TB got some good video for the six o'clock news. But I think for the most part with Bryce, it's been about making the right decision. It's been about, you know, learning everything.

He going to be just fine. Here's the other thing. Here's the other thing that tickled me today. There were, there was a lot of breathless commentary about Bryce is taking the reps with the first team today. Is this a change in the depth chart? Hey, this just in. You want to call this breaking news from panthers.com staring game.

Yes. Bryce Young probably going to start much football games this year, gang. Maybe the first one weather. Yeah, probably at first when the shocking part is not that he's working with the first team in June. The shocking part will be if he's not with the first team in Atlanta on September 10.

So, you know, I guess this is the kind of stuff the modern media machine has to do to keep itself occupied in June. But listen, I mean, Bryce is doing what Bryce is always expected to do, which take a bunch of snaps and get ready to play in that opener. All right, Darren.

Yeah, I'm glad you I'm glad you quashed that as as thoroughly and as forcefully as you did. We are asking the old guy here. Let me let me ask you about JC horn level of concern for another foot injury from someone who is as important to their defense is almost anybody.

I'd say at this point, I would say low medium. I mean, he's, you know, JC is not going to be practicing for the next week and a half at every indication and Dr. Robert Anderson, one of the foremost foot and ankle specialist in this fine country, was here Monday and checked him out. And basically, JC should be fine for the start of camp. I mean, he was working out on his own last weekend, rolled his ankle, you know, foot had a little bit of swelling or whatever, and I don't know, but, you know, Bob comes in, checks out the foot and the ankle says put him in a boot for a little bit, and he won't practice until we get Spartanburg. So as long as that remains the case, and he gets back out there, it's also worth pointing out. It was the other foot.

It wasn't okay, anyone from his rookie year. So you know, this might be just a little thing where he rolls his ankle and, you know, keeps on moving. But we'll see once we get to training camp in terms of importance. That's, you know, you can't put a scale on that there is there are a few players not named. I don't know, maybe Brian Burns, who are more important to this defense than JC because when you look around the case, and this is true with both those guys, when you look at the rest of the depth chart at their position, there ain't a lot.

I mean, without JC out there today, you're looking at a group of corners, which includes BJ Henderson and Keith Taylor and, you know, some lesser known stars like Stanley Thomas Oliver and Herb Miller and the like. So yeah, I mean, it's, it's obviously a position of concern if he's not going to be able, but you know, everything I understand about JC's condition and even from seeing him in the training room the other day, I wasn't getting treatment. Don't worry, I'm okay. That was your foremost concern. But he was fine.

I mean, he looks at me and he says, Yeah, you know, short term thing. I said this earlier, there again, I'm sorry to cut you off. I'm glad you're okay, even though you're, you're hanging around the training room.

Thank you. I for, for an elite defense, if the Panthers want to have an elite defense, I don't know that there is an elite defense in the NFL that doesn't have an elite shutdown cornerback. And that's what JC horn is supposed to be. That was my level of concern. He missed almost entirely, you know, year one, he is in year three. And this is about the time where he is establishing himself as that.

Don't throw it to this side of the field type of level. Oh, no doubt. He's that guy. He is him as the kids say sometimes. I believe they also say he has a dog inside of him or something like that.

I don't know. Anyway, no JC horn really good at football when he's out there on the field. And, you know, again, last year when he had the broken wrist coming down the stretch after that Lions game, did they miss him against Tampa Bay? They did. Is that the reason they didn't go playoffs?

Maybe. I don't know that this is necessarily going to be an elite defense with or without him. I just don't know if they're putting in a whole new thing.

And they're still putting together a lot of pieces that don't necessarily fit. I mean, they're really thin at linebacker. Once you get past Shaq Thompson, I mean, Frankie Lugo is going to start inside next to him in the base package. Frankie's not necessarily a natural inside linebacker in a three, four. Got a guy in Jeremy Chen, who is probably going to play a lot of nickel this year and do some stuff up near the line of scrimmage, almost like a linebacker role.

He's in his rookie year and that's not necessarily normal. I mean, it's the they're going to have to tweak this thing and modify this defense and specialize it a little bit, you know, kind of customize some roles because they don't have traditional three, four defense parts. I mean, you see what they did in free agency. They had to go out and sign three, four defensive linemen just to go out and line up because they didn't have any.

So I think it's going to take time, probably more time than they can spend this off season to get that thing fixed to the point where it's three, four personnel like you'd want it to look. But you know, again, obviously, to your point, J.C. is a huge part of that because no matter what the front looks like, he is the kind of guy who can make half a field go away. He is the kind of guy that people just don't bother throwing at.

And now part of that is you. You go through stretches last year where all they had up opposite him was C.J. Henderson, who was not as bad as I think some people think he is. He's very talented. He's just great. And Keith Taylor knows guys. But, you know, J.C. should be back for the start of training camp. Oh, by the way, Donte Jackson is OK at this, too, is on track. I was talking to Donte the other day and he said, you know, Spartanburg, he should be good to go, which is good news for those guys, because if you're building a defense around those two corners, that's a pretty good place to start. You just got to keep them on the field. And no question about a final thing for Darren Gant. Ask the old guy.

Panthers dot com. And maybe this is in relation to the last guy who had this position. But there is something about listening to Frank Reich that reminds us that solid and somebody who's been there and gets it really does matter at the head coaching position.

I just he just sounds like a guy to me that, you know, that he's not going to be surprised by anything. Right. And not to compare him to anybody else, you know, who used to be here or John Fox or Ron Rivera, George Seifert or anybody. I mean, but when you look at the entirety of this staff, Frank kind of represents the off season scene.

They wanted adults in that room. And when you feel it and when you fill it up with Frank and Jim Caldwell and Dom Capers and the like, you know, you've got experience. There's over 200 years of NFL coaching experience on this staff and another 75 plus years of playing experience in the league among those guys. So when you look at whether it's Josh McCown or Sean Jefferson or Thomas Brown or do Staley, I mean, they've got guys who have done it and know it and know the material.

You know, and I said I I've said over and over probably said it to you. To me, the biggest difference in this staff and any staff they've ever put together around here is the fact that Jim Caldwell, not a good coach, a great coach. Jim Caldwell is walking around in this sort of nebulous senior adviser role where nobody really knows what he does from day to day.

That's like dropping a competency bomb on this place. I mean, Jim Caldwell is an incredible NFL head coach. I mean, my God, he won in Detroit.

Nobody wins in Detroit since Buddy Parker, for God's sake. So, you know, it's just it's a serious staff made up of serious people. And Frank does. I mean, he just kind of exudes that, hey, we're working through this thing. I mean, today, when everybody got kind of lathered up on the talk about the depth chart in June, Frank was like, hey, this is where we want to be. We knew Bryce was going to get sprinkled in here. We're doing everything we can to get Bryce ready, but we don't have to make a decision today or announce the depth chart that we're not going to. Amazing stuff. Darren Gantt, at Darren Gantt on Twitter.

Two Ts for extra talent. My friend, asktheoldguy at panthers.com. There is a there's a it's not an ask the old guy. It's just Darren's byline is on a story.

So you should read it. I appreciate your time. There will be more. We'll have more from Bryce Young's day on the practice field and at the lectern post practice at panthers.com and the latest installment in our behind the scenes inside the training room. Austin corporate rehab diary. Very nice.

Only read at panthers.com. Adam, that's why you're hanging out in the trainees room. There you go. We're trying to take you places other people cannot. All right. Thank you so much, man.

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