Kickoff to Carolina Panthers training camp!

Adam, already on his way to the ACC tournament. He's heading down to Charlotte. But the Carolina Panthers are reporting to training camp this week as well. Which means I got to turn to my good friend, my Culture State co-host, WREL Sports, Chris Lee. If you're in the Triad, you may have known him as Sho's move on one or two jams, or you may have saw him as Chris Lee, either wrestling or on WXII out there in the Triad. But Chris, I know you're heading down to Spartanburg, which I'm sorry you have to head down to South Carolina.

That's very unfortunate. But Chris, earlier in the show, we talked about some concerns that we have offensively for the Carolina Panthers. But I want to get into some concerns we have on defense for the Carolina Panthers. A new defensive system, a 3-4 scheme, with a new defensive coordinator coming in. And there are concerns, injury concerns with this team.

I looked first at corner. Bradbury coming off of an injury with the Achilles tear. JC Horn has been nicked up multiple times in his career. Just two seasons in, but he's been nicked up multiple times. Questions at depth at linebacker.

Defensively, what is the most concerning thing for you that you see with this Carolina Panther squad on the defensive side? Yeah, Dante Jackson is who was coming off that Achilles tear. I'm sorry about that. I accidentally said Bradbury, not Dante Jackson. My apologies.

But go on. I think the main concern really for me is going to be, you know, what's the linebacker depth going to look like? There's a few guys that they've signed, but behind, you know, Shaq Thompson and also Frankie Louvou, there are some real questions as to who's going to be there, what's going to be there for them. You know, will somebody like Brandon Smith take a step up this year? He showed some flashes last year filling in. Can he take a step up? There's, you know, different guys that's been signed, Gruyere Hill. And, you know, will he make the team? Will he be somebody that could be a part of it?

So that's something that to look at. But then also at corner, you know, you mentioned it, you know, Dante Jackson is coming off of the Achilles tear. He's known for his speed. How fast is he going to be? He's somebody who can get beat. And he's somebody who likes to use his speed to make up for some of his mistakes when he likes to jump routes.

So is he going to be able to do that at the same level? And you also mentioned as far as J.C. Horn, is J.C. Horn going to be able to stay healthy for most of the season? And, you know, I'm not as concerned with him mainly because the two injuries he's had has been, you know, just straight up breaks. And, you know, one, you know, of course, you understand the one from Jeremy Chin, you know, as his arm gets stuck.

And then the other one was just, you know, a stress fracture. So can he stay healthy during the entire season? But those are the two positions that I'm really looking at defensive line.

Yeah, I'm fine with I would. There is a question as far as like who is going to set that edge on the other side of Brian Burns. But there's enough guys to fill in if they do not go the free agent route that those guys on the other side of Brian Burns could help him out at a certain point. So that's and I'm not worried about safety either with Von Bell being there, Xavier Woods and also Jeremy Chen. So that's all going to be taken care of. It's really corner and linebacker that I'm worried about. I think safety actually is a strength.

We'll actually get into that here in a little bit. Chris Lee, WRL Sports, joining us here on the Adam Gold Show. Dennis Cox sitting in for Adam this afternoon. Now you talk about opposite of Brian Burns. Now, Brian Burns is a great player, but opposite of him.

Who do you think actually has the currently on the roster? The the. All summer, the Shenandoah Valley is coming alive to the sound of music. The Shenandoah Valley Music Festival kicks off July 21st with Three Dog Night. Don McLean the next day. The Doo-Wop Project on the 28th and 1964 a Beatles tribute on July 29th. Then it's Forever Mote Down on August 18th and Steep Canyon Rangers on August 19th. Discover the complete lineup and get tickets at musicbest.org.

That's musicbest.org. Brought to you by our gold sponsors, First Bank, Loudon Mutual, and LD&B Insurance. Who's the leading man to take over that spot? I know they went into the draft to take a guy who's really old in that position in the third round with Johnson, but who is it?

Is it Haynes? Is it going to be by committee? Because last time I checked, if there's no one that's a threat on the opposite side of Brian Burns, a lot of attention can go to Brian Burns. Someone has to be somewhat of a threat opposite of Brian Burns if they're going to generate pass rush outside of Brian.

Yeah, I think it will be by committee to answer a part of your question. And that's that's going to be very interesting. I think Marquise Haynes is probably the leading guy on that other side.

But then also you have Uturo Gross-Matos. This is going to be a position change from him from defensive end to basically outside linebacker. So can he use his athleticism and play a new position to get him to being a threat on that other end for the Panthers? That's something where he feels good about it. He's excited about this change.

That's something that he said that's been reported. And also, it looks like they've been pretty much happy, the coaching staff has been happy with what they've seen from so far. Then there's also Amari Barno, who showed flashes last year as well on that other side.

And then you also mentioned DJ Johnson. So I'm not worried about the committee that they have on the other end, because you have four guys who all have something to prove. And out of that four, you got to think that at least one, maybe two will eventually come out and show that they are going to be that I wouldn't say permanent, but at least the person who's going to be the opposite edge of Brian Burns for the rest of the season.

Chris Lee, WRAL Sports joining us here on the Adam Gold show. We talked about safety a little bit with Woods, with Bell and Jeremy Chin. How does Evero, you think, use Jeremy Chin defensively? Do you think we're going to see him, what we saw with Chin's rookie year in terms of him playing up near the line of scrimmage more, more up in the box, being a playmaker around the line of scrimmage, or do we see him dropping back deep in coverage? So I thought he was most effective when he was actually closer to the line of scrimmage, making a lot of plays. You know, they've, some of the stuff that's been reported so far is that they, well, kind of keeping that close to the vest exactly how he will be used, but they have reported that there's a chance that he's going to be playing nickel a little bit as well in their nickel packages.

So you can see him in coverage in that way. I think you're going to see a mixed bag, kind of like you did, like you mentioned his rookie year in the league. You could see him back there and, you know, back, you know, playing safety back in coverage. But then there's also a lot of times where he was the most effective. The game that comes to mind is that Minnesota Vikings game where he had two touchdowns, two defensive touchdowns and back to back plays.

Right. And so that was him playing close to the line and being effective, you know, as a hitter and as a tackler. And so I think you're going to see a lot of that as well, because again, there is that question with linebacker. And after you get past that, you know, the three defensive linemen and the outside linebackers are going to be right there on the line.

It's just, you know, Shaq Thompson and Frankie Lou. Makes me wonder if maybe in some packages you'll see, you know, Jeremy Chen, you know, join them, especially, you know, when it looks like the other team is going to go for a run and you can kind of load the box that way. So but I think Jeremy Chen is definitely going to be a mixed bag for sure. And I'll be interested to see what practice looks like once they get on the field on Wednesday to see, you know, what, how they're going to have him lined up with that starting defense. And one thing we see a lot now, because NFL offenses are so spread these days with, with three, four receiver sets that you're constantly in sub packages. So we see oftentimes like these kind of larger safeties or, you know, plus size safeties sliding up to play a weak side inside linebacker spot. I mean, I could easily see Jeremy Chen being used in that role. So he's still around the line of scrimmage, but can still cover backs or tight ends, whatever it may be. So I could see them definitely using him in that role because once again, it seems like, yeah, you have a base three, four, but you're only in your base defense, what, like 30% of the game.

Let's, let's be honest here. And he's, he's a big guy and he can absolutely do that. He can handle it. He's, he look, he's a lot bigger than what he looks on TV. And even on TV, he looks big, but you don't realize that he's a legit six, two, six, three. And the guy is about, you know, he's probably listed two 25, two 30 probably all of that, but a lot of muscle. So he, he could legit be the, be a linebacker if you want it to be, but he has the speed of a safety. So a really good gadget tool for a zero ever road to use in his first year with the Panthers and maybe even you know, maybe he used Jeremy, Jeremy Chen so well that he's only with the Panthers one year and gets a head coaching job. Who knows over under 10 and a half games, number of games JC horns plays the season over, under 10 and over, over.

Okay. I think JC, JC horn, I think has to play at least 15. I mean, he played 15 games last year. He got hurt at the end of, at the end of the season last year. And it was going for a tackle and him and Jeremy Chen collided and his arm got stuck and the arm got broken. So, you know, that's, I think I understand that injury.

I'm not going to hold that one again. Yeah, I know. But I know he got a little nicked up in the off season and all that kind of stuff. So anyway, I know it's a big season for JC horn. He's he's that good. I mean, he really is that good. Cause when he's out there, the defense is totally different. He is that good.

Chris Lee, WRL sports. Thanks for your time. Please come back safe from South Carolina in Spartanburg. That's the only thing I ask of you, sir. The week after that at next week, I'll have to also go to Alabama. So like, I'm just really getting all the best the South has to offer right now. All summer, the Shenandoah Valley is coming alive to the sound of music. The Shenandoah Valley Music Festival kicks off July 21st with Three Dog Night, Don McLean, The Next Day, The Doo-Wop Project on the 28th and 1964, A Beatles Tribute on July 29th. Then it's Forever Mowed Down on August 18th and Steve Panion Rangers on August 19th. Discover the complete lineup and get tickets at musicfest.org. That's musicfest.org brought to you by our gold sponsors, First Bank, Loudon Mutual, and LD&B Insurance.