Panthers camp continues … anyone hurt? No? GOOD!

All right, so let's get right into it. Carolina Panthers training camp week two is underway. And as they put the pads on for the first time today, really start to get into true 11 on 11 drills because now we actually get a pass rush on quarterbacks, right? We actually can see what the defense is going to do in a true 11 on 11 situation. We can actually see how the offense adapts. Now at this point in the season, early on, base defenses are so much easier to install than offenses, right?

Because offense, you got to worry about cadence, motions, different formations, a base defense and base coverage is a lot easier to install. So defenses generally are going to be a little bit more ahead of the offense generally at this time of the season. Usually, especially when you have a whole new coaching staff that comes in. Yes, thank goodness on that. But when you're coaching staff for the most part in terms of head coach, coordinators is all different.

Well, guess what? Sometimes the defense is a lot easier to install. I played football in college my freshman year, decided to play lacrosse for four, but it was easy. It was just, here's our base front, here's your alignment, your assignment, and go pursue the football. That's it. Alignment, assignment, go pursue the football. That's it.

Okay. If there's a pass situation, this is your coverage. This is your zone that you're in. Well, for man to man, this is who you're guarding. This is your gap. That's it.

It's a lot easier to install those things. Whereas there's different timing and things like that with offense. So don't be surprised, don't freak out when we see that Bryce Young throws an interception. It's okay.

It's okay. I'll get into this a little bit later on. Uh, actually at 1230, we're going to dive into expectations for Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers. What will be considered a failure this season? We're going to dive into that at 1230, but five things that I want to see Victoria through it now that we have the pads on and practice training camp. Number one thing, stay healthy, please just stay healthy.

Please. If the canes teach you anything from last season, stay healthy, just stay, just stay healthy. Now there's a couple of particular groups and individuals I'm looking at looking at you, JC horn, please stay healthy. JC horn is so freaking good.

If that dude plays a full season, you're people are going to be talking about him as one of the best cover corners in the entire NFL. He's that good, but he's just got to stay healthy. They're the kind of like the freak injury with the, with the forearm, like the hit by Jeremy chin last season that knocked him out the last few games with a little bit of an ankle and foot injury during the off season as well. Hopefully he's all good to go.

I want that guy healthy. Uh, Jackson coming off of the, the torn Achilles from last season. That's not an easy injury to recover from period. It's just not an easy injury to recover from either though you do fully heal up because well, the torn Achilles just your gate of how you walk, all that stuff is altered. So for a position that requires speed, things can get a little bit dicey, but also also on the offensive line, Austin Corbett is recovering from the torn ACL that he suffered in the last game of the season against the new Orleans saints.

Okay. He's starting right guard. Also Chandler Zavala, their fourth round pick out of NC state this past season on the physically unable to perform list because of a pectoral injury. So a guy that you drafted with anticipation like, Hey, this guy could start for us. Now they brought all five starting offensive lineman, including Austin Corbett back. So Iki Iquanu, Brady Christensen, Bradley Bozeman, Taylor Moten, Austin Corbett, all five of those guys coming back, which I think is great.

I actually really do like their offensive line. Yes. But when you have one of your starters is recovering from an injury, you're not training, you're recovering. There's a difference between the two. And one of the guys you drafted as part of that depth is hurt. Okay. Cade Mays, sixth round pick last year out of Tennessee.

Let's see how you developed. And this is sometimes where okay, you get the injuries just kind of start to pile up. Then before you know, you're like, Oh, actually we got some holes on the offensive line. It would not surprise me if at some point we do see like a depth receiver get traded for depth offensive line and something along those lines. It wouldn't, it would not surprise me if we saw that, but nonetheless, I often the line help health is paramount, especially with the rookie quarterback and Bryce.

Oh yeah. So those are things I'm looking to see one, stay healthy. Number two, let's see how Bryce young would, you know, we'll dive more deeper into Bryce young and a little bit, but two, let's see how Bryce on continues to build his chemistry with the receiving core pro. As of right now, what we've seen, we've seen Adam Thielen, DJ Charcas, the two starting receivers, seeing a lot of Leviska Shrenault working in.

There's kind of like a gadget player, Victoria, which I'm okay with. If you can make that piece work in terms of, okay, if we can get Chanel, whether it's a carry out of the backfield, a jet sweep or different, different ways that you can get him the ball, if you can get him to space. Okay.

That's fine. And also if he could be multiple in terms of where he can line up and how he's effective and how he's used and he is effective in those ways, Victoria, I like the idea of just when he's on the field, teams have to really pay attention to where he is. Yeah.

If he's unconventional, then you don't really know what to plan for trips people up. Exactly. It makes things a lot harder for defensive coordinators when it comes to game plan. But so I want to see Bryce Young continue to develop not only with this receiving core in terms of the perimeter, but what about Hayden Hurst?

How does Tommy Trimble developing now in year three? So there's a lot of different things I would like to see Bryce Young do. Now that you actually have 11 on 11 drills, you actually get a pass rush in your face. Now, by accounts, I'll see in this morning that Bryce Young threw an interception again.

This time was like a diving interception by Frankie Louvou. Okay. Yeah, that's fine.

You throw those interceptions during practice, get them out now and it doesn't count. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Again, we'll dive more into that at 1230. But third thing I'm looking forward to.

How does the playbook offensively evolve early in training camp? Now you get the pads on and you go full speed, you may realize some things that you thought would work, might not. And that's okay. You're trying to figure this stuff out. But also vice versa. You might realize, oh, we're actually able to do more of this. This is actually going to be working better than we anticipated. Actually thinking back to my time when I was coaching college across and we were trying to do installs, different, different things on offense that we wanted to run. And we started realizing, wait a second, some of the ideas and the concepts we wanted to use weren't exactly the way we thought. Yeah. But we were able to kind of deviate slightly off them because you start to figure out what everyone is capable of doing. You got a lot of new pieces on this team last year.

Yeah. The five starting offensive linemen are back, but all my receivers are basically new, at least my starting receivers. I know Shy Smith, Terrace Marshall Jr. But I mean, I got Mingo. I've got, I know Chanel's back, but I got Jonathan Mingo just drafted. I got shark and feeling that you brought in starters, Hayden Hurst as a tight end, new in there as well. New running back with Miles Sanders, but also you have a new coaching staff, right? So you got to figure out what works. Yeah. You have to figure out what's what works. And also it's an opportunity for the coaches as well to figure out, to figure out what also works for them in terms of Frank Reich is bringing different stuff that he ran with Indianapolis and with Philadelphia.

Thomas Brown's coming under the Sean McVeigh coaching tree from out in, with the Rams out in Vegas, almost at St. Louis. But nonetheless, they're bringing different philosophies and different viewpoints. Okay. How does this all mesh and blend together?

Right? Because everyone's bringing in a little bit different, which I think is good. It's so it's hard to truly predict what their offense is going to look like this season. We don't fully know. We haven't seen them play against someone else, but I also think they don't really know. They have an idea of what they want, what they're capable of doing.

But until you actually play somebody else, you just don't really know. And I kind of like that we don't know what we're doing because it feels refreshing. Obviously it wasn't working last year.

So let's change it up and make something else work. And last year we saw the running game after Matt Ruhl got let go. We saw the running game really take off last season. Didn't have much in terms of the passing game. Thank you, Sam Darnold.

Thank you, Baker Mayfield for your time. But the running game we saw was great last season. But again, different people, different running backs, different coaching staff, totally different mindset. Different year. Different year. It's totally different season. So again, we just don't quite fully know. Like, okay, we can look at what McVeigh did in St. Louis so we can see, okay, that's what Brown's going to bring in.

Well, we can see what Reich did in Indianapolis or in Philadelphia. But again, even they've evolved and changed. You have to adapt to your personnel. And it's no one truly knows, but that's okay.

All right. So fourth thing here are things I'm looking forward to training camp wise. Now that we get we have the pads on. Yes, I love it. How does new defensive coordinator Ejiro Ivero use Jeremy Chin?

Be very interesting. I think this is a big year for Jeremy Chin. I hope so.

I think so. I think it's not only just a big year for him, but I also think it's an important year for him as well, in the sense that we saw a lot of that playmaking ability his rookie season in 2020. There's a lot of it around the line of scrimmage. We didn't quite see it as much in the last couple of seasons. And I think that's a byproduct of how he was used. Because we saw him dropping deep into coverage as a safety a lot last season, where we saw him make a lot of his plays was near the line of scrimmage in the box, right?

Kind of sometimes even playing as a like an off ball linebacker, to an extent. So I'm curious to see what Ivero does with chin, especially now that we have 11 on 11. Okay, you brought in Vaughn Bell, which I think is a really, really good signing. Yeah, bringing in Vaughn Bell from the Bengals is where he was last year.

Yeah, so bringing in Vaughn Bell, bringing in, I'm sorry, also keeping Xavier Woods. So okay, where does Jeremy Chin line up? Do you line up a little bit at nickel corner? Do you line him up in these sub packages? Because yes, they run a base three, four now under Ivero, but the NFL the way they spread things out so much you're in, you're in sub packages all the time, right? So are you going to move him up closer to the line of scrimmage in these sub packages, right? When teams go three wide either even four wide.

So how are you going to use them? Are you going to use them around the line of scrimmage? Are you going to blitz him more often? I don't know. I'm intrigued to see because again, you have the depth there at safety with Woods, with Vaughn Bell.

So Jeremy Chin can be used in a lot of different ways. I, as someone who grew up watching the Pittsburgh Steelers. Yeah. To me, I remember Troy Palamala was just all around all over the place. And there's actually times in situations where Dick LeBeau, the defensive coordinator was like, all right, Troy, you just kind of roam around and do your thing. I know it's like, seriously, like we'll have everything else covered. You roll around and do your thing. Like just be instinctual and play like you want to rush if you want to drop in coverage or jump a route, whatever you want to do.

I'll be okay. Jeremy Chin did that. I'm not saying Jeremy Chin, it's Troy Palamala. I'm not saying that.

He obviously doesn't have the hair either. Exactly. That's a big thing. He's like Samson.

That's where all this power came from. But I would like to see them use Jeremy Chin in multiple ways. Like we kind of talked about Leviska Cernol a moment ago about always like, if he's on the field, like, okay, what's he going to be doing here? Like, is he running out past routes? Is he going to get a carry? Same thing with Jeremy Chin. When he's out there, it's like, okay, what's that guy doing?

Yeah. Like what is he going to drop in coverage? Where's he going to drop in coverage? Is he going to blitz? You really have to pay attention to what he is.

So I'm really curious to see what Aveiro, the new defensive coordinator, what he does with Jeremy Chin and how he uses him. The final thing is, fifth thing I'm looking forward to. Is this the most important thing that you're looking forward to?

I wouldn't say most. These are just five things. Okay.

Just five things. Who's going to be the one that takes ownership of that opposite outside linebacker, edge rusher spot, opposite of Brian Burns? Who's going to take ownership of that? DJ Johnson, third round pick out of Oregon that the Panthers traded up to get that pick. Who's also like really old for a guy that got drafted.

Okay. How do you develop DJ Johnson? Are you able to take ownership of that in true passing situations when it's third and eight? Can we plug you in there and know that you're going to get pressure on the quarterback? Amari Barna, sixth round pick last year out of Virginia Tech. All right. Year two for you. How do you evolve into this role? Etor Grossmato, second round pick in 2020 out of Penn State.

Where are you? I want to see how you now, again, you're probably going to be standing up a little bit more often in your base three four as an outside linebacker as opposed to a defensive end. Okay. How do you handle the position change? Because it's different.

It just is. You're going to be asked to do a lot of different stuff. How do you evolve? Who takes ownership opposite? Is it Haynes? Marquis Haynes?

Who develops opposite of Brian Burns? Because now if it's a rotating cast of people that are effective in different ways, then fine. If you got to do it on the aggregate, okay. But I would like to see someone really take ownership opposite of that. And there could be situations where, you know what? It's third and 15 and the other team spreads things wide. Well, Frankie Louvoo, move him out there on the edge.

You can drop Jeremy Chin down an inside linebacker next to Shaq Thompson and those sub-baggages. Yeah. I'd be okay. I'd like to see them do trickier things. Panthers have not been a team that will do tricky things.

Like, you know, they don't, you don't see them do the ring around the rosy thing like the chiefs in my homes, but I just, I feel like in a third and 15, you know, spot. Yeah. They may just try to play it safe.

And sometimes you don't, you can't play it safe. Yeah. And I would like to see this defense evolve as, as the season goes. I think they have a lot of really good pieces. I think there's some questions in terms of depth, that linebacker, once you get past Shaq Thompson and Frankie Louvoo in terms of the interior. And again, who's opposite of Brian Burns listed a bunch of names.

We know these names, but again, effectiveness is what matters. And then obviously corner Jackson's horn, please stay healthy. Not bad.

We're going to dive more into the Panthers here at 1230, but let's move on to college football real fast. Adam gold got to talk to Drake May last week. Again, if you missed that conversation, it's on the best of the Adam gold show podcast. It's also available on 99, nine, the fans YouTube page, which is where we're based out of in Raleigh, North Carolina, but Drake may UNC quarterback was announced today that he's on the Maxwell award watch list, which is awarded to the best player in college football and our comprises of writers, coaches, sportscasters, as well as the Maxwell football club.

They're the ones that vote on it. So different group of voters in the Heisman trophy, some folks who have won it in recent years, let's go back and look, let's go back and list. All right. Caleb Williams won it last year. Bryce young know that guy, Devonta Smith, Joe burrow to a, you get the picture, right? These guys also won the Heisman.

They're pretty good. Okay. Which it makes sense that this guy is on the, this guy Drake may is on the Maxwell watch list. He's also going to be on the Heisman watch list too. And you know what comes with those expectations and very high ones. And you know what?

That's okay. If you're Carolina football, you should have high expectations with some of the transfers and the guys that you brought in, you have a new offensive coordinator that Drake may was part of that decision, or at least part of the process of that decision. Yeah. You're all in on this season.

You know why? Because you have a guy who's projected to be a, one of the top two quarterbacks in the NFL draft. You have that guy on your roster. Now I know you got lost some, some talented players like Josh downs has gone, but this is, this is your year that we, because in professional sports, we've talked about like, all right, we could build like a five-year window, right? Like for example, Bryce young got the rookie contract four years, plus the fifth year option.

Okay. We get this five-year window that we could really build out the roster, really pay for some guys. And you know, before an extension really does kick in, like we could really build the roster up in that five window college football, that window ain't as wide. It's not, it's just not because you had Drake may last year as the first year starter as a red shirt freshman. And if he plays like we expect him to this year, guess where he's going to be or not going to be, he's not going to be at Chapel Hill in 2024.

If he is, it's a totally different conversation and totally different story. But nonetheless, your window is now, if you're Carolina now, we are going to get into a little bit here in a moment about what Carolina has been doing recruiting wise. They might've got another four star recruit from here in state, but nonetheless, this is your time now for UNC football.

If not now, when, right? If not now, when you got to the AFC team, the ACC championship game this past season, right? You lost pretty handedly to Clemson team.

Clemson team that was just better than you. That's okay. You can admit that, but now it's your chance.

Now's your chance. Take advantage of it right now if you're North Carolina. Now I did mention about North Carolina and recruiting. They did land another four star recruit, Alex Taylor from Grimsley high school right out there in the triad.

You know that area very well, Victoria. Number three, overall player in the state, according to 24 seven sports. Also ranks 26 nationally amongst wide receivers. And they have them also ranked one 54 overall of all the high school recruits.

Pretty good. It's a top 300 player. Top 200. Yeah.

Add this on top of four star safety Mount Malcolm Ziegler from Fuquay-Varina. Who's a, the number one player ranked in the state, according to on three, all these different sites, different rankings and stuff. But nonetheless, they've eight commits from inside the state of North Carolina.

Why is that important? We saw a lot of the guys that just graduated from NC state. We're from the state of North Carolina, Drake Thomas, Thayer Thomas. We've seen guys like Ricky person, Bam Knight, Peyton Wilson who came back this upcoming season. All those guys are from the state of North Carolina, all from, from in the state.

This is why this is important. I think it's healthy for college football in this state. When I recruit state in state, we saw last season I'm on record saying this, it was, you can argue the best year of college football in the state of North Carolina as a whole with state Duke, Carolina wake, all making bowl games, Carolina get into the ACC championship, NC central winning the celebration bowl. So that's, that's post-season cause they won the MEAC winning the celebration bowl. Campbell had a great season.

Elon Davidson, shout outs to the Wildcats as well as Gardner Webb. Those three schools all made it to the FCS tournament, right? The post season. I mean, app didn't do that, but they did win game day.

Exactly. Like they had, they did win game day and they had a big upset last year with, with Texas A&M and all that, but they still went six and six. They didn't make a bowl because two of their wins were against FCS schools. But overall it was a great year of college football in the state of North Carolina. I love seeing the recruits stay in the, in the, in the, in the border of our state.

Me too. I love seeing it because I think it's good for, I think it's just good for the health of all these, these schools that play. And if you're a three star that committed to, to app or to ECU or go to Charlotte, that's awesome. I like the fact that our top recruits are staying here. Those are guys like Dexter Lawrence went from Wake Forest high school, just North of Raleigh down to Clemson.

Bryce, Bryce Love goes out of state. That's why I like that Sam Howe, Drake May, these guys stayed in the state of North Carolina. There's got other guys I mentioned that just finished up at NC State. Those guys are from here. I think that's good.

I want these guys to stay in the state of North Carolina. All right. Final thing out here out of the gate. Let's go to the pitch. If you could stay up till three, till three a.m. tonight, you can watch the U.S. Women's National Team play against Portugal.

Yeah, I'm not going to. If you want to wake up early, do you, they have DVR folks. You can still do that. Exactly.

That's your VCRs to record. But U.S. Women's National Team, they play Portugal. Can we say tomorrow morning? Sure. The game's at three or is it tonight? It's at three a.m. Eastern time. Technically tomorrow morning, so you're not wrong.

So if you're out there on the West Coast listening right now, just stay up till midnight. That's when the game kicks off. But U.S. Women's National Team beat Portugal. Win the goal differential, you win the group, which is what you want to do. You want to win the group because things are just going to be a little bit easier for you when it comes to the knockout stage. You don't have to face some of the other top countries like Sweden, who's number three nationally. You don't want to face those teams yet, those countries yet. Do your job against Portugal. Beat them.

I don't think, I think in five matches overall between Portugal and U.S. Women's National Team, Portugal hasn't scored a goal. Let's keep that streak going. Yeah. Let's keep that streak going. It is the Adam Gold Show. Dennis Cox sitting in for Adam Gold this afternoon.

Victoria is producing the show today. Again, coming up just under an hour. ECU head football coach Mike Houston is going to join us live at 120. Get a look at the Pirates season as the outlook of the Pirates season as camps get underway this week. Did you know that one month from today? One month from today? Wow. NC State is up at UConn one month from today.

That's crazy. Where did summer go? What is going on? It's hot. Trust me, it ain't going anywhere.

You sit outside. Yeah. Well, you can actually see how hot it is outside. The heat is just fuming. It's stupid. It sucks. This heat outside is awful. Yeah.