We were told the Panthers would look like THIS and we’re still waiting

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Let's talk to my friend Vashti Hurt, carolinablitz.com, at Keep Blitzen on Twitter. See what we have to deal with all the time? People are so triggered and they don't even want to admit they're triggered.

They tell you they're not triggered when you bring up, hey, why not just kick the tires and see what he's got? Nope, be a circus. Nobody complained when Tim Tebow came to New York. But that's another story altogether. How are you?

I'm good. I mean, you bring, I mean, New York is a circus. They thrive off of that. I mean, they, that media would love the attention that would come with that. So the, that, that, I mean, look at what Aaron Rodgers brought and all of the, oh, is he coming?

Is he not coming? Like New York loves that. So that, I don't, I don't even think that's a good excuse. It's a terrible, better than that. It's a terrible excuse.

And they don't want to admit it. All right. Tell me, because I have been following you specifically throughout the first three weeks of this season, Ms. Keplitzen, the, you, you have been, I think, very subtly critical in a way that I think is fair. You thought that Bryce would be better. You thought the Panthers O-line would be better. You thought this team would be in better shape. Where do you think they are through three games of this season? I think they're winless, number one.

And, and there, I, you know, I don't know where, I don't know, I don't know the identity of this team and I don't think the team knows its identity. And I think especially offensively, and that's why you bring in an offensive minded coach. I think that's why, you know, why David Tepper was so hung, go on bringing in an offensive minded coach. And I think that's why I think it's important to have an offensive mind to try to get this offense in line with where the league is going. And I haven't seen anything yet that would show me why Frank Wright was the right pick.

I mean, they're paying a lot of money for this staff. I mean, you have Frank, right? You have Jim Caldwell, you have a dude Bailey, you have these, you know, you're expecting maybe not, you know, the pan, maybe not expecting the Panthers to light things up. I mean, I think it is important to understand that Bryce is a rookie, but I wanted to see flashes and I haven't seen flashes yet. And, and given what we were told in the preseason about all, we're doing things vanilla because we're going to come out and bang, y'all are going to be shocked. We haven't been shocked yet.

We're in hiding usage. We were told this was going to be a team. You know, they aren't running the ball.

Andy Dalton threw the ball 58 times on Sunday. So the core identity of this team is still unknown. And I think that that should be, we should know that by now, even if they haven't found success yet, we should see glimpses and we haven't seen them. That's I heard Carolina blitz.com is joining us here on the Adam Gold show.

This is something I've been talking about for three weeks. They want to be a running team, but they haven't really, I mean, week one, they, they ran the ball, uh, pretty effectively against Atlanta. They probably should have won that game. Uh, were it not for two really bad interceptions that Bryce threw and a fumble that basically gave Atlanta 17 points.

So really one good drive of off the three turnovers, but it was, it was 17 points off turnovers. That was the difference in the game. Uh, but the real problem for me is that, and I think we might have to, I mean, I think it's fair to at least wonder that maybe Icky Aquano is not a tackle. And then he's actually a guard. Um, he has been terrible in past protection. They don't protect whoever the quarterback is Bryce or Andy Dalton. They haven't been able to run to give them more time, uh, in that way, because they don't have playmakers on the outside and it's kind of, uh, these things are, I think they have good players. I don't think they have good enough players. And I think it's just all kind of catching up.

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Call one eight eight eight S O T Y K T U to learn more. Yeah. And it's tough with Icky because he showed such promise last year. Uh, he had a rough couple of weeks and that's understandable. I mean, out of the gates last season, the Panthers went up against a couple of the top pass nurseries in the league. And then he kind of felt his stride and the expectation would be for the expectation was that he would, you know, continue to build upon what was a very solid rookie campaign.

And I think it's too early for me to say that he's regressed, but I haven't seen the step forward yet. Uh, for false starts in Seattle, um, you know, allowing QB pressures, allowing QB, uh, sacks. That's just not why you draft, you know, Icky, as high as you drafted him and, and whether he's a guard or a tackle, you know, they have a Zavala playing right next to him, another NC state product.

Um, I think, uh, actually, I think Icky graded higher than Zavala, um, out of that game. And, and, and it's just, you know, they're young along the offensive line, offensive linemen really don't hit their stride until you're three, potentially you're four. But given what we saw last season where they were solid, I just, I, you know, I can't answer what's going on because they actually looked good in the first game against, against, uh, Atlanta. And you mentioned that, but maybe the, maybe Brady Christensen going down into a season ending injury, maybe that messed up the chemistry and now they're trying to find it. And we're not sure how long that's going to take, but I just think on offense all around, it's just been unacceptable. No, I, I, I agree.

I, there's, there's no way to really dress it up. Um, I just think that the problem is more that the personnel, if the offensive line were better, they could make something work out of this. And I think it really does come down to, yes, they're missing two starting players. They're missing Christensen and they're, uh, missing Corbett. Uh, Iquano hasn't played well.

I would argue that Taylor Moten hasn't played well. Uh, that, that they've got like an offensive line that we thought was becoming good last year that hasn't been this year. I think it all comes down to that. If they could figure that out, uh, then I think everything would be better. Cause I think Bryce needs a running game more than it needs any single thing. Uh, but right now they can't, they just can't give it to him.

Yeah. And, and, you know, we were told this would be a run first team. You go out and you pay mild standards that money for him, for, you know, for him to lead, uh, that offense in rushing and, and, and being a back who can, who can run and catch the ball as necessary.

Uh, I just, uh, I'm trying to figure out what the identity of this team is. And like you said, you know, what more can help a young quarterback than a strong run game. It opens up everything else in the passing game, but if you abandon it, now you put a lot of pressure on your young quarterback to make plays. And Bryce is getting trashed right now among fans. It's tough to see so early in his career, but, you know, Panthers fans are used to cam Newton who came out game one and set a record for passing yards from a rookie in his opening debut.

So this is what they're used to and, and for him to come out and, and being, you know, not what, not what, not what was expected. And also, um, Adam, the coaching staff really hyped up Bryce and they didn't do him any favorites either because, and, and we had media, what we saw was like, okay, this guy is different, but now what we're seeing when you're up against other, other NFL players is, you know, it's going to take some time and maybe that should have been the message from the beginning, from the coaching staff is yes, Bryce is a great guy and he's worth his number one pick, but you need to understand it's going to take some time for him to get used to the system, get used to the speed of the game. And I think the expectations were too high and now fans are happy, are having to temper them, but, you know, it's tough when, you know, we're talking about potentially making winning the NFC South and now they're all in three in the, in the, in the division.

So it's, it's, it's, it's rough. I was guilty as guilty of that as anything, because I saw a path where they can get to eight or nine wins. And I thought that eight or nine wins might, might win the division and it might still, uh, but this offensive line has regressed. And it's funny you brought up Cam Newton.

I think you and I might've spoken about it, uh, back in May, I don't know, May or June or whatever. Uh, but I think people maybe just now are remembering just how much of a unicorn Cam Newton was. I don't think that he has, he has never gotten the credit for being as great as he was because, well, maybe because he didn't win that Superbowl. Um, I don't know, but man, that guy was, they broke the mold.

He was like in, in many ways, he was a quarterback version of Julius peppers. Uh, that's I heard Carolina blitz keep blitzing, uh, on Twitter or X or whatever we're calling it at, uh, on Carolina blitz.com. Thank you, my friend. I appreciate it. We'll talk to you soon. All right. Thanks for having me, Adam. From I heart podcast Supreme the battle for row tells the story of the unlikely champions behind the landmark case row V Wade, starring Maya Hawk as 26 year old lead attorney, Sarah Weddington, or challenging the Texas abortion laws in federal court and Academy award nominee William H Macy as Supreme court justice, Harry Blackman time is not the most important factor. Getting it right is listen to the podcast Supreme the battle for row on the I heart radio app or wherever you get your podcasts.