Opinions on yesterdays Carolina Panthers press conference

Yesterday, Dave Canales and Dan Morgan were introduced as the new head coach and new general managers, respectively, of your Carolina Panthers. I know Vashti Hurt was there at carolinablitz.com, at Keith Blitzen on Twitter. And Josh Graham probably followed from afar because he's got an afternoon radio show out there in Greensboro at Sports Hub Triad. And they both join us.

There's Josh wearing his Orioles shirt. Congratulations. Before we introduce Vashti, congratulations on the Orioles acquiring Corbin Burns from Milwaukee.

But more congratulations on a new owner who won't pee on the fans' happiness by saying we're not going to keep these players. It's the greatest week of my life, Adam. Wait a second, you got married last year. So my wife said, but what about our wedding? I'm like, this would be like getting married twice in the same week. No, you can't come back from it's the greatest week of my life after getting married. No, I'm sorry, I'm not allowing it. It's like two weddings and then two can Carolina play tomorrow?

What's better? I'm on the Adam Gold show. All right, stop. Vashti, well congratulations anyway, Vashti Hurt at Keith Blitzen, CarolinaBlitz.com.

All right, you were there. Talk to me about your first impression of Dave Canales and Dan Morgan. Interesting combo. You know, Canales is a young guy. He's energetic. He's a little swaggy.

And Dan Morgan is, I mean, sometimes he's seen and literally looked like a deer in the headlights yesterday during the press conference. But I mean, I think that there and we did have an aside where the beat writers were able to speak to them off the record, but in a more casual setting. And they seem to be they seem to click.

They seem to be cool. And, you know, looking forward to seeing how they gel and what they end up coming up with. And, you know, they have a tall task ahead of them. Oh, my gosh.

We're going to talk about that task before I throw it to Josh. Let me just because I agree with you. First of all, this was my impression about what I saw yesterday and heard yesterday.

And I agree with about Canales. I thought he seemed obviously energy is something we have heard about him. Everybody that's talked to him talked about his positive energy. But I also I love the way he communicated. I love the fact that he had no notes, that everything was off the cuff and he was able to clearly tell everybody what his vision was, even though we can't get into specifics about the team and kind of the things that they're going to do. I know it sounded to me like Dan Morgan was not entirely sure that he was supposed to be on the on the dais yesterday. Like he seemed ill prepared to be speaking. And he went into a lot of football platitudes about passion and guys who love football. It's like somebody tried to win the win the press conference at a cut for a college program.

But so that. But I also think that he clearly cares. And I think he might have been also a little nervous. I'm going to give him a pass, but I know what you're talking about because I felt that I felt it exactly the way you did as I was watching it. Josh, what was what were your thoughts on yesterday? Yeah, I think Dan Morgan was feeding nostalgic catnip to Panther fans talking about the loan and Smitty and all the greats.

And if another GM candidate did that, it would sound hokey and pandering. But when Dan Morgan has the bona fides that he does and the and the resume he does, it sounds legitimate. It kind of seems like an 80 buddies, an 80s buddy cop movie. Dave Canales and Dan Morgan, where you got like the surfer. It's like point break almost where, you know, Dave Canales is the surfer type from California with the positive zen, right?

Pete Carroll vibes while Dan Morgan is like the the rugged cop who doesn't blink anytime he's on screen for 30 minutes. So I'd watch that buddy cop movie. I think someone should make it like a Beverly, not Beverly Hills. Is there a Hills in Charlotte? We can go something hills. Three Hill Mint Hill Mint Hill ego. Exactly.

Mint Hill Blues. It's not really a buddy cop thing. All right, Josh, what is what is job one? Because I think it's for Dan Morgan. What is job one for Dan Morgan? Finding receivers that you could surround Bryce Young with because I'm not so convinced you need an offensive line overhaul.

I think you need to find a scheme. If you're Dave Canales, that fits the offensive line, not something that's more outside zone, but more power run like we saw successfully with Steve Wilkes down the stretch of the twenty two season. But receivers, they they whiffed on DJ Chark and Hayden Hurst, even though he wasn't on the field for a lot of the season, doesn't really seem like he was a great fit. You hope that you can find whether it be Mike Evans.

Hey, you're already thinking a bunch of Tampa's assistants. Why not take him as well? Who's a free agent? Maybe a Calvin Ridley who's a bit of a veteran, too.

He's a free agent as well. I would probably veer away for, you know, how expensive they're going to be receivers like T Higgins or even a Hollywood Brown or twenty five and twenty seven respectively. But I think retooling and trying to maximize Miles Sanders because you're not going to be able to move that contract is a priority. And bringing in the running backs coach from the Jags might have been intentional in that, considering there's some overlap in terms of skill set with Travis Etienne that he's had as a top ten running back, top ten rusher of the last two years.

That might make some sense. And I think since the offensive line, you're not going to be able to overhaul that so easily. Receivers the place that you go if you're Dan Morgan, you've got to upgrade that for Bryce Young.

What do you think, Vashti? Then I'll respond to both of this. You have you have the offense obviously needs help. I think the the but to me, Dan Morgan has to figure out what he's going to do with Brian Burns. You have Brian Burns. You have Derek Brown. You have Frankie. Well, you have your defense that litter statistically by total based on total yards given up.

We're we're a top ten unit. You have to decide if you're going to keep those core pieces and how you're going to do it. I think you first have to decide what you're going to do with Brian Burns. Are you going to tag them? Are you going to tag and trade them? Are you going to sign them to a long term deal? I think that's probably one of the major things he has to decide going forward, because he is basically one of your most tenured guys in the locker room, especially on the defensive side of the ball and one of the clear leaders.

So if you're going to get rid of them, you have to decide whether you're going to do that. Then you have to work from there because you have you have that side of the ball was your strength. Do you want to tear that down and have offense and defense that you have to build back up? Or do you want to keep that that corner defensive side? He has to decide what he wants to do with that.

That is the correct answer. Brian Burns decision and I'm going to take it one step further. I think they have to trade Brian Burns and get the most that they possibly can for him. Not that I want to trade or I don't I don't think Burns is good. I don't think he's a top 10 edge rusher in the league, which means that he's not necessarily a game changer for me. He's certainly a very good player. This is not about whether or not he's good. The only piece on that defense that I absolutely would not not move is Derek Brown because I think defensive tackle in his what year for.

I mean, to me, he is the best part of that defense. I don't think Frankie Louvou is going to be super expensive. The other part of the Burns trade is that you've only got about 30 million dollars in cap space. I know they could probably maneuver some things and create more. But at the very least, Burns eats up at least half of that. So if you want to have some cap room to improve the rest of the roster, then I don't think Brian Burns can be part of it.

And don't forget that they added Brant Tillis, who was introduced by David Tepper yesterday as the cap guru from the Chiefs, that put together that Patrick Mahone's contract, which made people feel like that the salary cap was actually just Monopoly money and like birds, not real. Maybe you can figure out with Brant Tillis has helped a way to create sort of like what Hermione Granger did to her purse, where she could have every like the entire world in her purse. Right. Let me go. So let me go.

So exactly for I love bringing up Harry Potter references when we're talking about talking about sports. But but I would I would trade. I would trade Burns. I would trade.

I would look. Jeremy Chin, if if the zero is still here, I mean, Jeremy Chin was basically not even part of their defense last year. He's another guy that they might consider moving. I kind of don't think they'll move J.C. Horn because he did come back at the end of the season.

And I don't know what you can get for somebody who's missed more games than he's played. But as good as their defense was, I think they could they could actually afford to lose some pieces. I don't don't they have to. Josh, don't they have to come up with more than six picks in this draft? You would think so. But I think you there's an argument to be made that they don't need more than six picks in this draft.

Yes, there is. And the argument is the Indianapolis Colts last year who they decided if for those who don't know, they fired Frank Reich at the middle of the twenty twenty two season and kept their defensive coordinator. He did a really good job in his replacement.

Sound familiar, Gus Bradley. And then they hired away the trendy play caller Shane Steichen and they had a top five pick who got hurt two weeks into the season. So they were without that pick. And how did the Colts do? They more than doubled their wins in a division that wasn't all that great. So if you have the right play caller that can maximize what you have around you, like turning Gardner Minshew into a pro bowler like Shane Steichen did. Hopefully that's a little bit more plausible. You could do that with the number one overall pick and Bryce Young and they now said all the right things yesterday. I don't think it's inconceivable that if you make the right decisions, like bringing back a Brian Burns or, you know, finding ways to figure out the right offensive line blocking scheme, run blocking scheme, that this could be a lot quicker of a rebuild than people suggest just because it's the NFL.

And that's how the NFL's design. Man, what is the Kool-Aid? What flavor is the Kool-Aid? I love it.

I got Teddy Teddy Valentine's like red protein. I love it. What flavor is the Kool-Aid?

It's like the orange Kool-Aid. It's good. I'm feeling good. I'm feeling good today. Like I said, best week of my life, Adam. I was a high C kid.

I was a high C kid growing up. Vashti, are you sharing this optimism? Because I think it's a three year, I think it's a three year rebuild. I actually agree with Josh where I don't I don't know if they need to be pressed for picks, you know, draft picks.

You got it. The thing about draft pick is drastic. You got to hit on them, right? Not just about having them.

You have to drive properly. And the Panthers have not drafted properly. So in recent years.

So that's another thing that Dan Morgan has to have. But I do think, you know, and you hear old heads or old, old ball coaches say that the answer is somewhere on that roster. Now, all of the answers aren't on that roster. However, I do think that they're that Panthers roster that we saw last year is better than what we saw on the field.

And there were a lot of things going on. I'm not drinking the Kool-Aid. I don't think next year they're going to be a playoff contender. The hope is that they improve and show some type of improvement. But I think that through through really getting good free agents with high upside, maybe a hit on maybe a top, maybe one one guy that that, you know, go for the swing for the fences for one free agent, maybe get a couple of guys and develop who you have on your roster. I don't I don't know if they need to acquire more picks.

I don't know. I'm for proven talent over unproven pick. I understand. You know, if they draft the way they have been drafting and we know the drafter will be different with Scott fitter or no longer in charge.

If they draft the way they have been drafting, then I would argue for fewer picks, not more because, frankly, it's been a kind of a wasteland. All right, there's a basketball game tomorrow night. So we will close on this. Vashti, who wins? Who and what is the reason for that team winning? Adam, I don't know why you're having me pick a winner. Why not? It's fun. It's fun to be wrong.

I'm going to be wrong. It's tough because I really think that these two teams match up better than what people think. And, you know, the I'm going to I'm going to say I'm going to pick Carolina because of the home court advantage. But Duke has been playing better. They've been shooting the ball better away from Cameron. It's just going to it's going to be it's going to be a good game, I think.

It'll be close, I guess. I think R.J. Davis is the X Factor. He's been playing lights out right now. He's my national player of the year. And if he cooks, if he cooks, then it's going to be tough. I don't know if anybody on Duke squad can go point for point with R.J. No, nobody can go point for point with him.

And I'm not sure. I mean, it'll be up to Tyrese Proctor to to defend him, I think, by the way. I agree. I think R.J. Davis is, to me, one of the favorites for sure for national player of the year. But I think they've already given it to Zach Edie of Purdue for because because he's 712.

Josh, who wins and why? To Vashti's point, I do think this is going to be a tight game, a lot closer than some people are making it out to be. The line's only four and a half.

Yeah, it's weird. Duke's kind of flying under the radar a bit. I think Duke's good is better than Carolina's good. Fifteen and two when they're fully healthy this year, Duke. They've won three straight road games, four straight road games, actually. The two losses they had were by five to Arizona and on the road at Arkansas when they broke an attendance record.

And that was in the first month of the year. The problem is Duke's been too inconsistent. Like you don't know. I don't think John Shire knows which Tyrese Proctor he's going to get tomorrow.

Right. If Tyrese Proctor has a big game, I think Duke wins the basketball game. The big matchup is Philipowski in the post against Armando Baycott advantage.

I think Armando and a defensive end. I think he'll have a big rebounding day. Really, the difference of the game is going to be toughness, physical toughness in the post.

Give me Harrison Ingram in a matchup against Mark Mitchell and Armando Baycott against Kyle Philipowski, but also mental toughness, too. Another way where you can knock Duke is they are one in four this year. Part of me now, two and four in games decided by two possessions or fewer this this year. And they caught breaks, of course, at the end of the Clemson game that allowed for them to win a tight game. What was the what was the break they caught at the end of that game? Well, you still needed the ref to make a call. I mean, it was fine. I think it was the correct call.

But still, it was very close in Cameron. And I don't think you get that call at Clemson. I think Georgia Tech caught a break. Sure.

Sure. And so you got Carolina is going to be breathing fire. Carolina is going to be breathing fire after Georgia Tech. They lost this week. I just think they'd be at home and Carolina not having losing at home and Carolina being one of the best free throw shooting teams in America right now. It's going to be the difference if the game is close.

Give me the power deals by seven. All right. I actually think Josh, you're wiling. I could see it. I actually think that Harrison Ingram will have more of the assignment on Philipowski as they take, try to take Baycott away from the basket because if I were Armando Baker, if I were Hubert Davis, I would leave Armando Baker kind of letting Mark Mitchell float on the perimeter. And that that would be my matchup. I would have Harrison Ingram deal with Philipowski away from the goal.

I think he's a more athletic player and can guard in space. I wouldn't put Armando Baker on Philipowski away from the goal because I think you're inviting foul trouble for him. I'm not giving you my answer because it's going to come up and place your bets. Josh, thank you very much. Vashti.

Thank you very much. At keep blitzen at Josh Graham radio. Congratulations to your Orioles for getting back into Major League Baseball. Yes. And that's nice, right?

I am wiling after they sold the team. Yes. And don't forget, the do killer is no longer playing for the Tar Heels. Oh, that guy.

The last few years. They're not what he's not there. Who has that dog in them? I don't know. Morgan wants to get that dog.

Caleb loved to the Panthers next year in the draft. Let's go. Thank you to both of you. Thanks so much. Thank you. All right. That's best. I heard. That's Josh Graham.