When are the Carolina Panthers going to win A game?

I found the following very interesting from Joe Person's column in the athletic coming out of the game against the Minnesota Vikings.

This is something I believe those of you who have listened to this show before have heard me talk about. Last year, when the Hurricanes traded Christian McCaffrey, which got them assets to acquire the first pick in the draft, which became Bryce Young. I said at the time, why aren't you going to trade Brian Burns too? And because every fan base falls in love with their own players.

Everyone does. You fall in love with players, you fall in love with prospects. And in the case of the NFL, there are no prospects. You're either a player or you're not. But young players we fall in love with. I said last year, last year, when the rumors or news hit that there were two first round picks on the table in exchange for Brian Burns.

I'm like, why wouldn't you do that? Now, there must not have been that because I don't believe the Panthers are dumb because I take two first round picks for almost anybody. Joe Person covers the Panthers for the athletic.

And that's what Joe wrote about yesterday or two days ago now. I don't even know how my dates correct after the Panthers lost to the Vikings. Joe, how close do you think they are to maybe making a decision to continue the rebuild by acquiring more assets? I think they got to be getting close. I mean, this is a team that looks like they're going to have a hard time winning more than maybe three or four games this year. I don't think they're going to win any before the bye week in two weeks. So that gets them to oh and six. Then it begins the stretch of rookie quarterback Derby where they have home games against Houston and CJ Stroud followed by Indianapolis and Anthony Richardson. And then the trade deadline. Here's the thing.

You and I can sit here and we feel like it's obvious. If you can get half of what you were offered for Brian Burns last year and including a first round pick, if you can get in, it won't be, you know, it's not going to be the number one or number two pick, which they would have had had they kept it. But if you can get a first round pick, I'm doing it. The problem is you've got somebody like David Tepper, who has never had a winning season since he bought the team from Jerry Richardson. And he's not about, I mean, he wants to win. He wants to win now. But I mean, you're 0 and 4.

Like at some point, you got to punt and move on. They're 0 and 4. And I don't know if you and I are aligned in what we see. I bet we probably are. I see an offensive line that they thought was better, but as it turns out, might not be.

And I realize they're missing two interior pieces. Brady Christensen is hurt. And we're still waiting for Austin Corbett to come back. But now this is however many games into his NFL career. And I'm not entirely sure that Iki Iquanu is a championship caliber left tackle that maybe he would be better suited to move inside as a lot of scouts thought that he could be a great guard, but he might not be a good tackle if they have to figure out things like that. But the offensive line, Adam Thielen, bless his heart, was amazing against the Vikings.

And he basically had no help. Is Hayden Hurst still there? I see him on the field, but I don't see him doing anything on the field because he's really not involved. And the running game just hasn't been able to get on track. I just think they have so many things they need to address. I don't even blame Bryce Young.

Yeah, I don't even know where to start to unpack that. Let's start with Hayden Hurst. I mean, this is a guy that they paid pretty good money to thinking that Frank Wright's offense has traditionally featured the tight ends. Hayden Hurst has a pretty good track record. Other than week one, he has been just missing an action, nowhere to be found. I agree with you on Adam Thielen. Without him, this offense would look like the 2010 Panthers, when Jimmy Clawson was throwing to David Geddes and Steve Smith sometimes.

Just a mess. And your first point is probably the most concerning point for me, is that's the offensive line. This line, they were the bell cows last year when Steve Wilkes took over and gave Ben McAdoo the directive that we're not going to win with these quarterbacks we have, so let's win with a power downfield rushing attack led by Deontay Foreman, but featuring the same guys up front. The problem is two of those guys, as you know, both starting guards are hurt.

I sent this, I sent this to the wrestling team yesterday. They were the bell cows last year when Steve Wilkes took over and gave Ben McAdoo the directive that we're not going to win with these quarterbacks we have, so let's win with a power downfield rushing attack led by Deontay Foreman, but featuring the same guys up front. The problem is two of those guys, as you know, both starting guards are hurt, right?

Never, I sent this, I sent a text to somebody yesterday. I said, boy, never did we realize that Brady Christensen and Austin Corbett were like the MVPs of this team because they look lost up front and not just Icky, his NC State cohort, Chandler Savala has struggled in a mighty way early in his career. So how do you rebuild that without first round picks? And this is where I get back to where I was a year ago, that when that rumor hit, and they were saying you could get two first round picks with Brian Burns. And frankly, I'm not even sure that was true.

And I speculated that I don't buy that for a second. Because while I think Brian Burns is really good, he hasn't necessarily been the most noticeable player on defense. I'm not sure at any point this year, I think we've seen better from Frankie Lubo. And I'm not knocking Brian Burns. I think other guys have been better than Brian Burns, whether it's Lubo, I think Derek Brown has been outstanding. That, I mean, if I could find somebody that wanted Brian Burns, I'm not saying that edge rushers are a dime a dozen, because that's not true. But I mean, they've found, I think, veterans that have been good.

Hassan Reddick, who has moved on, Justin Houston has been pretty good. So I think you can replace that. But you have to get assets so they can give Bryce some help. So a couple of things.

That is true. The Rams offered them two future first round picks. It wasn't one in 2023.

I think it was 24 and 25. And a third round pick. You know, to do it over again, they had just dealt Christian McCaffrey. I think the feeling was, you know, we have to have somebody here to build around. And I remember being told at the time that it would be, it was easier to replace a running back in this league than a premier edge rusher.

And that might be true as a rule. But boy, you look at what Christian McCaffrey has done. And you could make a strong argument that the 49ers underpaid for Christian McCaffrey. So this, you know, and then we start talking about, to your question, how do they rebuild without a bunch of draft picks? They have a lot of cap space. Do you trust Scott Fitterer to be the ones, be the guy pulling the trigger in free agency? I mean, you mentioned Frankie Lubu. That was by far his best signing since he got Don Reddick, another one, although I think Hassan was one of one of Fitterer's. But he's had a lot of misses in the draft and in free agency. I think if this thing continues to go south, he's the guy whose future I would be most concerned about. I think Frank Wright would be safe for at least a second year.

But I don't know if the wheels completely fall off of this, which they're already loose and rattling, then it could be a bloodbath for everybody. Yeah. And you mentioned the teams coming in after the bye week. Again, I am still team Bryce. I have not I am not dismayed that it hasn't looked good. I think he has been put in no position to succeed, which is kind of why I've talked about this before, and although not with you, that I would advocate for letting Andy Dalton play some and letting Bryce watch a little bit so he doesn't get gun shy and so he doesn't get exposed because the protection is so bad. But when C.J. Stroud, who's had a great start to the season, and Anthony Richardson, who's been all over the place but exciting and he's made so many winning-type plays, when those guys come in, it's just going to be more reason for the fan base to get restless.

Those are going to be hard games to swallow if Bryce Young is outplayed by those two guys. Have we learned anything about the new David Tepper or is the new David Tepper the old David Tepper? How much do any of us really change? I think he's I think he's impulsive. I think he and his wife, who's a perfect, very smart, sharp woman and done terrific things in the community and with the organization. I don't know that I love the fact that they inserted themselves into that number one pick as visibly as they did. Every owner is going to have a say in it.

Look, I mean, one stroke in the check, but for them to be front and center at all the pro days, I don't know. I just think it makes it hard for the football people to make the decision if the owners kind of got his finger on the scale. Did Tepper tip it to Bryce Young? I don't know. My read all along was that Frank Wright, again, back to how much do any of us change, Frank Wright likes big quarterbacks.

It's his track. He played in an era of big quarterbacks. I think he would have preferred. I know he liked Derek Carr a lot.

That's a whole other discussion. I think if we're up to Frank Wright, they might have tried to really sign Derek Carr. But here we are. And I'm with you.

I'm not ready to pull the plug. Far from it on Bryce Young. I mean, it might take a year or two. And you hate that when he's the number one overall pick. Right. But if they can at least get through this year and say, oh, yeah, he's our guy. There were some hiccups. There were some bumps in the road early. We didn't give him a lot of help with playmakers or protection, but he's clearly our dude.

Then you feel at least a little better moving into year two. Joe Person from the Athletic at Joseph Person on Twitter, where he is more formal and wears a tuxedo. I appreciate your time, my friend. I'll talk to you soon. Thanks for joining us. Have a good week.