Panthers camp continues … anyone get hurt today? No, again? GOOD!!

Panthers camp.

Today's day two of pads. Yeah. And you know what? I got five things. Five things. I gave five things yesterday about training camp. I'm looking forward. But here's five more things about the Carolina Panthers that I want to see as this preseason continues and progresses.

So first thing on that, Victoria. Yes. We got into a discussion yesterday about depth, especially on defense. And honestly, there really wasn't a whole lot of depth at linebacker behind Shaq Thompson and Frankie Louvain in terms of off ball linebackers in the interior of the defense. Well, the Panthers addressed that yesterday.

So check this one off. Carolina Panthers worked out yesterday and signed Deon Jones at linebacker in providing depth with Shaq Thompson and Frankie Louvoo. I think it's a solid signing. He was a pro bowl player early in his career with Atlanta, with the Falcons. 28 years old, got traded during the season last year to the Cleveland Browns.

Got a little bit nicked up. Production wasn't quite there. But one thing that we saw early in his career, really solid in pass coverage, which this is kind of the evolution. We talk about how like running back sometimes get devalued. I think actually off ball linebackers sometimes are actually devalued nowadays because if you're not great in coverage, a lot of teams really aren't looking for, you don't need that run stuffing, you know, like back in the day, like the neck roll, Zach Thomas, you know, you need guys that are versatile.

Yeah. You want them to be effective against the run, but you got to have guys that can cover in space, especially tight ends running down the middle of the field or backs coming out of the backfield. Inside linebackers have to have the speed to do that.

It's actually interesting. You see off ball linebackers have gotten smaller. Yeah.

Over time. Like you can see guys that may in like four, three defense that play on the weak side of the defense off the ball. Some of them are like just 220 pounds. Like honestly, a lot of them are Jerry, like Jeremy Chin size. Yeah.

Like six, three, two, 22, 25. That's where you see a lot of weak side linebackers actually playing now guys are off the ball. So that's how that position has evolved over the years. We don't really see a lot of great inside linebackers nowadays. Far, far day far gone are the days of Ray Lewis and Brian Urlacher.

Yeah. Those days are far gone, but now we see guys that have to be good in coverage because this is a pass first league. So we saw that early in his career, especially in Atlanta, Dion Jones has five interceptions in his career, which is pretty solid for an inside linebacker. So hopefully is he the player that he was when he was 23 years old, 24 years old when he was making a pro bowl?

No, he's probably not that, but he provides depth behind Frankie Louvoo and Shaq Thompson in case there is an injury, but also just gives you more options. Yeah. That's really it because we talked about yesterday.

We need to find the Carolina Panthers need to find somebody opposite of Brian Burns in terms of an edge rusher. Well, now you can get fancy with it. You want, you want a more trickery and fancy Victoria. You said yesterday. I do.

Okay. Well maybe this gives you the option of moving Frankie Louvoo up towards the line of scrimmage. Now on certain situations, you can bring Dion Jones. Yeah.

So it gives you a little bit more flexibility, a little bit more versatility. We gotta be sneaky with this stuff. Sneaky. You gotta be one step ahead. So a veteran player who still has something left to give out there for the Carolina Panthers again, providing depth for the team.

All right. So that's number one. Let's go to number two, something I'm looking to continue to see from the Carolina Panthers and Bryce young, the veterans that were brought in on offense to help Bryce young before he was even drafted the signings of feeling shark Hayden Hurst, bringing in miles Sanders, but just the offensive staff that was put around.

It was like, whoever this rookie quarterback is, they put a pretty good infrastructure around them. Yeah. And also the key piece in that as well, Victoria, you and I were talking off air before the show started. Yeah. Any Dalton, like the interaction between Dalton and Bryce young, we don't necessarily see all of it because we just see what's during practice on the field and that's it.

Yeah. Plus it's all about Bryce too. So they're just going to show Bryce as much as possible, but we don't hear the conversations.

The two of them are happy. We don't hear or see the conversations they're having in meeting rooms or when they're watching tape and all those kinds of things, just teaching him how to be a professional things to look for. And I wish they did show that more often.

I would like to see how he's shaping him or the advice he's given. Now, me personally, I wish cam was giving him this advice because I love cam Newton, but you know, they didn't bring him back. So no, no, no, no, no.

Again, that's a different conversation. Uh, unfortunately I think cam's career is done. Um, it's sad as it is. I just, that's just, it is what it is.

It is what it is. That's something we can definitely get into a later point. But my point is this, these guys were brought in, especially got like feeling feeling not only helps out Bryce young, but he also helps out the young receivers at the Carolina Panthers have as well. He's helped Terrace Marshall jr. It helps Jonathan Mingo help shy Smith guys who are rookie second, third year players, DJ charge. He's still younger in his career.

He's been around for about five years. He's experienced some different stuff played in different in a couple of different systems, Jacksonville, Detroit. So these veteran guys that are brought in to help Bryce young, I want to see that continue to grow. And speaking of the benefit of having veteran players, Bryce young yesterday, talked to me that after practice, this is what Bryce young had to say about having a veteran player like Adam feeling, you know, having someone like Adam, obviously, who's, who's done it for a long time, had a lot of success and is a real pro, you know, super consistent.

And, you know, again, he's, he's seen it all. And, you know, for me as a young guy, having a safety net like that, where you know exactly where he's going to be, he understands the play, he understands the full play design, he's always where he's supposed to be that that's really important for me, it's, it's helped me a lot. And you know, he's the one getting open.

So for me, it's just just on me to find him getting the ball and he's doing all the hard work. Now, something else as well that we are seeing is the relationship and chemistry that's being built up early between Bryce young and DJ shark. Here's Frank Reich, the head coach of the Carolina Panthers, on that chemistry and that connection that Bryce young and DJ are having. I'm, I'm excited that it's happened.

You're exactly right, Joe. I mean, it seems like they do connect every practice. You got two really smart players.

DJ is a really smart player, very savvy and instinctive, and then he's got the speed to go with it. And I think, you know, Bryce, obviously, same way. And, you know, I think that that's looked good. We're excited about that.

So that's exciting. If you're Carolina Panthers, I I'm not quite as bullish on the receiving corps as a whole that a lot of people are. Just here's my thing with the receiving corps is that Adam Thelen never really has been a number one in his career. He's a very good player.

Do not get me wrong. He's had a solid career, but he's never been a number one. So he's never been matched up against a top corner all the time because he's played alongside Jefferson, Justin Jefferson recent years. And before that, Stefan Diggs for a long, long time. So he's never had that matchup. DJ shark when he's healthy, he's been really, really good. But last time he was actually healthy for a full season was 2019 in Jacksonville. And I know a lot of Carolina Panthers fans that saw him when Detroit came into Carolina last year, put up some pretty big numbers against the Panthers last season, but he's been injury ridden. So that's the thing.

Okay. Are you going to stay healthy this season? Because that dude could stretch the field. That's no, I mean, that, that is unquestionable, but can you stay on the field? And then Jonathan Mingo as a rookie, it's, he's a rookie.

You just don't know. He could pop off for a thousand yards this season. If he develops great.

Awesome. But it wouldn't surprise me as well that he ends up being the number four or five receiver, just because again, development, you just don't know. Terrace Marshall Jr. All right. You're coordinate pro football focused. You're one of the highest rated wide receivers last season in terms of go routes. Can you run more than just go routes? Can you develop like use that big body that you have as well? Can you be more than just a guy that runs go routes please? And then you got throwing guys like shy Smith as well. Like how do you develop as a slot receiver? And then we'll viscous Chanel. How are you going to be?

How is he going to be used this season? So again, I have a lot of question marks. That's saying that this receiving core is terrible or it's bad, but I have question marks.

Yeah. I just have questions about them moving forward. That's again, not saying they can't be good. Well, and you know, we would have had those question marks regardless of the staff, whether we had the same staff, thank goodness we have a new staff, but now that we do have a new staff, we definitely have question marks because what are they going to do now? So that's, what's intriguing. So there's, there are questions not saying they can't be good, but I just have more questions going into the season than, than some might have. All right, let's go on to number three here. I'm talking about Bryce young interceptions, right?

He's thrown a few in practice. It's okay. That's all I'm going to say. It's fine.

It's okay. If you throw some interceptions during training camp, the important thing is that he learns from them grows, doesn't repeat the mistakes multiple times and he tests his limits. That's what a lot of training camp is. It's like, all right, can I do this?

Can I make this work? Yeah. Like, all right.

I think I see someone open. Where can I place the ball in order to make sure my guy can get it? And it's very cliche, but you have to be uncomfortable. You have to make yourself be uncomfortable so you can grow. So yeah, it's uncomfortable to throw an interception, especially with all the cameras and people and fans and whatnot around you.

But you need to do that because when it counts in a game, we want you to actually connect with your receivers. So mess up now, Bryce. Yeah.

It's okay. Get it out now. Yeah.

I don't want to see it at bank of America. So we're seeing, uh, people tweeting out for practice today, some different stuff regarding, uh, regarding that, but we're seeing how Bryce young apparently in the 77 red zone drill that they had. Yeah.

When three for four, three touchdowns, the only in completion was a drop. Nice. So there we go. Let's go.

Super ball ready. Let's go. All right. The fourth thing and a very important one. Yeah. Building your identity as a franchise. This is a total reset this off season.

Yeah. A total reset from new coaching staff. There's a couple of guys retained, but it's a new coaching staff. You brought in a new quarterback. You trade it up for your franchise guy. Let's find an identity for this franchise.

Are you moving forward? That's the big question mark because under Matt rule under that guy, he who shall not be named, right? Yeah. There was no identity.

None. There was no identity of this team. Now when Steve Wilkes took over last season that keep pounding mentality came back and guess what happened? Oh, this team had an identity and they actually had success. Yeah. You know, they almost made the playoffs last season. Well, and he was trying to build an identity with, you know, heavy defense and you know, running the ball.

So there was that. But now with the new staff, are we going to lean more offensively this time? I mean, we have a great defense, but it's, it's even that, like, what are we going to do on the offense? If we are more offensive with the I'm just, I look at identity more than just what your schematic, like what your schemes are on the field. Yeah. Because that oftentimes just dictated by your personnel.

I'm looking at it from the mindset of all right. For example, like the staple franchise, a lot of people use the Pittsburgh Steelers. What are they known for? Stability, blue collar work ethic. That's it.

That's it. Stability, blue collar work ethic. Look at the Baltimore Ravens tough, hard-nosed physical. And that's Lamar Jackson at quarterback.

Like it's still tough, hard nose, physical football. That's what they're known for. That's their identity. Right?

So that is something that you got to keep in mind when it comes to forming identities is who are you as a, as a team, as a whole, not what your, just what your scheme is. Yeah. Right.

Yeah. Like for example, Pittsburgh's known for consistently having it three, four defensive defensive scheme, but that doesn't necessarily mean that's just their identity as a, as a, as a franchise. I'm like, what's your identity now as a franchise moving forward, find that develop your culture.

Prime example. We look here in the state of North Carolina, look at the last five years under Rob Bryndham or the Carolina hurricanes. That's an identity of a franchise in terms of work ethic, how their style of play, whatever it is like that is ingrained in the culture of the team. Yeah. Always the underdog, but showing up.

Exactly. That's something I want to see the Carolina Panthers truly form and develop as the season goes forward. And final thing, number five, real quick to stay healthy. I haven't seen anything major today in terms of injuries. I know Bryce Young is actually already talking at the podium after practice, which is good, which means he's dead big. He's healthy. Right.

He's healthy. And that's all that matters. All right.

Let's move on here. ACC preseason. So those are the five things from Carolina Panthers training camp. I like it. Let's keep number five in mind. Yes. Always keep number five.

Yes, please. All right. ACC preseason poll is here. Team picked to finish number one, number one, overall school pick finished number one Clemson. Oh, what a shock. What?

But here's the thing. They got 103 first place votes for the state. Number two, 67 first place votes for Florida state. Not surprised that Florida state's number two, but this is a lot tighter of a vote than in years past. A lot of people are pretty bullish on Florida state.

Understandable what, what they've built down there in Tallahassee building back up from the doldrums and what they were just a few seasons ago. Jordan Travis at quarterback. There's, there's a question at quarterback in terms of Kate Klubnick. A lot of people think that he's the next guy for Clemson, but we haven't fully seen it yet. We anticipate it. We haven't fully seen it yet.

Jordan Travis, we know is a special playmaker. Picked third with five first place votes. UNC. Oh, look at us. That makes sense. In the triangle. That makes sense.

Yeah, no, it does. Those picked to finish fourth in the league with one first place vote. I'm curious who this one is. NC state.

Just one. NC state picked to finish fourth in the league. Followed by Miami. Tied for six was Duke and Pitt, Louisville eight, Wake Forest nine, Syracuse, Virginia tech, Georgia tech, Boston college, and then Virginia, the bottom five teams in the conference.

All right. So I'm going to give you what I voted for. I'm gonna give you my, my top picks here in terms of the ACC. I picked Clemson number one. Yeah, I think, yeah, it's still a line from Ric Flair to be the man you got to beat the man.

Sure. And last time I checked Clemson still runs this conference, which Ric Flair was at galaxy con. Yes, he was. I walked by him multiple times. He was in Raleigh.

I was walked by him multiple times. I picked Florida state to finish number two. I think they've really built something solid down there. I picked Carolina three. I'm, I'm staying in track.

I'm standing tracker here. I actually, I picked do this. This is where things get really tricky for, I think Clemson Florida state Carolina is a pretty solid one, two, three. And I think a lot of people had that and reflects obviously here in the voting, but we get like four through nine and the ACC toss up a hundred percent. Wake forest was picked to finish ninth overall. If Wake forest finished fourth in the ACC, the season would be shocked. Yeah. Wouldn't shock me a bit.

Nope. NC state was picked to finish fourth. If they finished ninth this season, the ACC would not shock me either. So my fourth team actually what would Duke because of all the returns that they have coming back, I know their schedule is a lot harder this season because they do have to play Clemson. They guys still got to play Carolina and NC state.

Their schedule is a lot more difficult. I think a lot of people are overlooking Duke this upcoming season. I picked Louisville actually to finish number five.

This was a really, really tight vote for me. I picked Louisville to finish number five because of the transfers that Jeff Brom has brought in to Louisville. I think some, I think some people might be sleeping a little bit on Louisville because they weren't picked to finish eighth. I know they lost Malik Cunningham who's now in the NFL, but to me, I think it works out for them to potentially finish number five.

Again, if they finished ninth, wouldn't be shocked either as well. And at NC state finishing sixth in the conference, I'm really excited to see what their offense does with Robert and I and Brennan Armstrong coming in. Brennan Armstrong in Virginia last season who didn't have Robert and I as his offensive coordinator struggled mightily last season. It was also just a bad year overall for Virginia and just obviously the tragic ending to their season with the death of three of their players. But it was just a, just a down year for Brennan Armstrong.

Can he be, can he, in his last season of college football, can he revive and recreate what he had in 2020 and 2021 with Robert and I as his offensive coordinator? I had picked seven and then Wake Forest eight and then Miami nine. I picked Miami nine because you know what?

Miami, the U, until you prove something otherwise, I ain't picking you to finish high. I'm sorry. You ain't back until you back. That's all I'm going to say. You ain't back until you back.

And right now they ain't back. All right, let's switch over to a little, I mean, it's the Adam Gold show. I have to talk soccer, right?

Dennis Cox sitting in for Adam Gold today. The U.S. women's national team this morning escaped with a draw against Portugal. I woke up this morning and watched it on replay. I avoided any of the spoilers in terms of like, I made sure I got no notifications on the score of the game, anything like that. Well, I was sweating bullets.

I was like, wait, hold on a sec. Are we advancing to the round of 16? Because how they lost that game won nothing and Portugal had some chances late. The U.S. would not be in the world cup anymore. They would've got knocked out. Now, granted, if they had won the game just because the Netherlands crushed Vietnam seven, nothing based off gold differential, I don't think U.S. would have won their group because after you go points, it goes to gold differential. But Carly Lloyd, former U.S. women's national team captain now covering the world cup for Fox Sports, she didn't hold back with her criticisms of the U.S. team.

I have never witnessed and just seeing these images for the first time right now on the desk, I've never witnessed something like that. There's a difference between being respectful of the fans and saying hello to your family, but to be dancing, to be smiling. I mean, the player of the match was that post.

You were lucky to not be going home right now. What she's referring to is that Portugal late in the game, late in the second half, had a clear scoring opportunity. I forget the player's name.

My apologies on that. Takes a shot, gets past the goalkeeper and it hits off the post and comes back out. Wow.

Like literally if you're talking like two inches to the left, the shot is posting in. And guess what? Portugal's moving on.

U.S. is done. Yeah. She even said, Carly Lloyd said, I'm just seeing a very lackluster, uninspiring, taking it for granted where winning and training and doing all that you, all that you can to be the best possible individual player is not happening.

She did not hold back. No, I don't think it's off base. I really don't. I haven't watched the game. I was like, it was kind of lackluster performance.

I expected better. If you go back to the game against the Netherlands, when the U.S. trailing won nothing, saw Lindsey Horan get fouled by a Netherlands player. And then after she got up, because it was a pretty hard tackle from the side, she gets up and there's a corner kick about to happen. She gets up in that girl's face, shoves her, like just gets up in her face. And you'd tell her she was ticked off.

Guess what? Immediately on that corner, she scores the header and you know what showed me it's like, and then from after that, the U.S. just control the game. Now they didn't get the win, but they controlled that game. But like that was inspired play.

And again, they controlled the match moving forward. Also, much of the World Cup, I think much of the world and women's soccer is just kind of caught up to the United States as a whole. Like there's a lot of other countries now that are putting resources and money into women's soccer or they haven't in the past. I'm not saying this U.S. women's national team is bad or the individuals are bad.

They're just not also just not as good of a team as they were 40 years ago. Just not. There are more identity threats than you realize. Even if you monitor your credit, only a little personal info needs to leak out like your social security number or password. LifeLock alerts you to threats you could miss. If your identity is stolen, a dedicated U.S. based restoration specialist will work to fix it. No one can prevent all identity theft or monitor all transactions, but everyone can save up to 25% off their first year.

Go to lifelock.com slash aware. Yes, some aging players who aren't adding much on the field right now, like Megan Rapinoe didn't even play against the Netherlands. She came in late in the game against Vietnam and late in the game against Portugal. Alex Morgan isn't really doing a whole lot, really isn't creating a whole lot of opportunities upfront. And a lot of their young players didn't really get a lot of international experience at a young age due to COVID.

This is something we got to keep in mind. Like Sophia Smith, Emily Fox. These are players that are 20, 22, 23 years old. They got some young players playing on the U.S. women's national team that are really, really young.

They're good. They're talented, but they didn't get the international experience in international friendlies back in 2020 and 2021 because these matches really just weren't being played because of COVID. So they didn't get that international experience. Whereas, you know, like, for example, if Megan Rapinoe or somebody like that or Alex Morgan wasn't playing, okay, well, this is where Trinity Rodman, who's 20 years old, would have gotten a lot of those reps, would have gotten a lot of that international experience.

But we don't have that. Plus, you also tack in or, you know, factor in that some injuries. Sam Lewis not playing. Mallory Swanson, formerly Mallory Pugh, she's not playing either.

These are some of the top players in the U.S. women's national team that are playing because of injury. So those are all things to keep in mind as well. But they are into the round of 16. Good. Channel my inner Jim Valvano. Survive in advance, right? They've got to play Sweden, I think, in the round 16.

I think he's ranked third in the world. Not the easiest thing to do. Also, real quick, Major League Baseball trade deadline is today. Here's the proposed trade that I have. I want the Tampa Bay Rays to trade for Shohei Ohtani and then send him down, air quotes, on a rehab assignment to Durham because we're located here in the Triangle because I want to see Shohei Ohtani in person play in the Durham Bulls.

Me too. I want an Ohtani Durham Bulls uniform. I would buy that shirt. That would sell. Yeah.

Are you kidding me? Like, you couldn't print those jerseys. You couldn't make those jerseys fast enough.

Nope. I want it to happen. You put the Durham Bull on there and then Ohtani somewhere. Oh my gosh.

That thing would be the top selling jersey in the world right now. Done. You will fail. So what? Everybody does. But your gym, your watch, your yoga pants, they pretend you won't. So when you miss a day, eat the pancakes. Give up on a workout?

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