It is a Tuesday drive.
Hope your afternoon's off to a good start. It's a massive day in the National Football League. Veterans reporting all across the 32 teams.
And as that's happening, we're learning a lot of big names. The Super Bowl titles that the New England Patriots have, they match that number with players opting out of this season, including a starting tackle. And you'll also have Brandon Bolden, the running back, who's not going to be a part of the mix either. I see former Panthers Starla Touloulet, he's opting out of the year. Marquis Goodwin with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Over the weekend, Laurent Tardif with Kansas City, one of their offensive linemen. So I have a feeling we're going to continue seeing more of this. And it's just another reminder. The pandemic, it's exposed a lot of areas that we've taken for granted. Going to the gym, getting a haircut, sports just being on casually all the time, fans being in the stands. And I feel like we're still taking for granted what players are being asked to do during a really difficult time. Players reporting to training camp, there's a human element of this that can't be forgotten. Many of those players I mentioned, they have very good reasons not to want to worry about football right now.
In Tardif's case, he's helping people in hospitals in Canada. He's an incredibly revered doctor, in addition to being a really good offensive lineman for the Chiefs winning a Super Bowl. But I think this is going to affect almost every team in the NFL. The Panthers, if they get hit hard by this, if they lose even one or two players in key spots, the Panthers season, it's on the brink of getting tanked.
And I'd be surprised if they aren't affected. Just look at a couple of guys on the roster. Russell Okun left tackle, the player they traded for in exchange for Trey Turner. He had a pulmonary embolism last year.
Pretty significant procedure, not something you want to play around with at all. I wouldn't be surprised if he opted out, but you do see some things on social media where he's saying, all right, it's time for us to get back to work. Taylor Moten, he just had a kid, has a newborn child. Many of these players, they're saying, ah, with a new kid in the house, I'm not sure if I really want to bring COVID back into where I live and infect my family, especially with the newborn.
Why chance it? That's a number of the cases with the Patriots. Curtis Samuel.
It was a couple of years ago we learned about the irregular heartbeat. So that's just a few of the guys. If the Panthers lose even one of those players, it would be catastrophic to Carolina's chances of even being competitive this year. Just look at the depth charts for the defensive line and offensive line. The D line, it's the most sobering part of this roster.
Woodrow Hamilton, we've established, not a former president. The backup nose tackle for Carolina. You got seven offensive linemen that who maybe can play in the NFL.
Like, is that even being generous, Robert? Like when you look at the depth chart, seven offensive linemen. Right now, you're going to play Okun at left tackle. Left guard, I think it's Dennis Daley right now. Center Matt Paradis, who wasn't great coming from Denver to the Panthers a year ago. John Miller, the former Louisville Cardinals going to be playing right guard. Not exactly somebody that makes you feel great replacing Trey Turner. And Taylor Moten's at right tackle.
Beyond that, what are we looking at? You're talking about Greg Little, who had concussions, who couldn't stay healthy a year ago, second year tackle. You picked him in the second round, but beyond that, who do you trust? Tyler Larson?
Who Cam Newton nicknamed Bucky Larson? That's not good, man. One injury there and you are in serious trouble.
You might already be in trouble, defensively. I hope Derek Brown's really good, but he didn't get OTAs. The Panthers, they're not allowed to have a padded practice until August 16th. To put that in perspective, today would have been the day. A year ago today, the Panthers had their first padded practice before the 2019 season.
They're not going to get that until August 16th. No OTAs, limited padded practices when that comes, no preseason games, new coaching staff. Those coaches, the coordinators and head coach coming from college, oh boy, it's going to be a tough transition for those rookies. Same thing for Gross Matos out of Penn State and Jeremy Chin and Troy Pride Jr. Guys are going to lean on right out of the gate.
That's going to be really tough. D-line, O-line, those are areas you don't want to be thin in. Those are the areas of the most attrition and it happens to be the softest spot for Carolina. So let's play best case, worst case scenario. Panthers in 2020, best case, worst case scenario.
336-777-1600 on Twitter at sportsubtriad. Best case, nobody ops out, nobody gets hurt in key spots, the team surprises defenses, teams struggle to prepare for Joe Brady and the Panthers' weapons, and they steal a couple of games. I think in the best case circumstance, you're still just talking about six wins.
Worst case scenario, you lose one to two players to opt out. You have a few more injuries. You realize that you're the most unprepared team in the league because of all the reasons I just noted with the coaching staff.
You get exposed by almost every opponent you play and you have one of the worst defenses and one of the worst offensive lines. That's a two and 14 season. Both are possible.
What's more plausible, Robert Walsh? Definitely that two and 19 or two and 14. Whoa, two and 19. Yeah, they made the playoffs somehow and lost all those games, too. We're getting wild. Yeah, I definitely think the two and 14 is more plausible than the six win season.
Which is a pretty, I'll use the word again, sobering place to be. If you're talking about the best case scenario being six wins and that is less plausible than winning two. Rob Brindamore, Carolina Hurricanes head coach, a guest on today's show. We've got Darren Gant and John Alexander to continue talking Panthers football as the Panthers veterans are reporting the training camp today. Really for the next week, they're just going to be getting positive tests. They have to put a few together, a few negative tests, I should say, together in order to get on a practice field together. For the first two weeks of the season, they're going to be testing every day. If the testing gets to a point where there's less than 5% positives on a roster, then it will be every other day that players test positive.
I love this story every single time it comes out. Mike Sandel used to work for ESPN, now he works for The Athletic. He spends a lot of time talking to executives, to coaches, and he got 50 of them together to put together a four-tier quarterback ranking in the NFL. The top tier being the best quarterbacks, you're talking about the Russell Wilsons, Pat Mahomes, Deshaun Watson, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers. That makes up the top five, that's the top tier. The second tier is about eight or nine quarterbacks deep. The third tier, you're talking about players who probably can't win on their own but need a good running game, need a good defense in order to be successful.
That's usually the biggest group. And then you have a fourth tier, which are the worst guys. Robert loves it when coaches speak anonymously on things. We learned that when you had a couple of college coaches, maybe a few NBA scouts trashing Cole Anthony last week. So I pulled a number of quotes from this story. I don't know if they're from executives or coaches, but would you like to hear some of the hot goss about NFL quarterbacks? Let's start with Big Ben Roethlisberger.
This is a quote from the story. I saw him in the tunnel last year and my God, he had that beard going and looked more like one of the offensive linemen. I definitely believe that. You know, he might have to fit there in a pinch. They might just move him to guard or something. They don't call him skinny Ben. He's Big Ben.
Here's another one. I think Ben's partially done. I give Ben right now a low end three and he could easily drop to a four. I don't think the name carries as much weight as it used to. I didn't think he was great once Antonio Brown left.
Can he get back to where he was at one time? That doesn't seem very fair. His name doesn't carry much weight, but his gut does. Antonio Brown, he didn't look great. How many snaps did he play without Antonio Brown? Like a dozen before he got hurt?
That doesn't seem fair. He didn't look good in the half a game he played without AB last year. Okay, here's Kirk Cousins. You don't ever go into a game going, boy, I don't know what we're going to do about this bleeping Cousins.
Doesn't mean he's a bad player, legit starter, but needs some bleep around him. Sounds like how Cousins talk about each other in Alabama. How Kirk Cousins talk about each other.
That's just a bad joke. Cam Newton. I don't think he's Superman anymore. Remember when Kaepernick became vegan, changed his body, and he just wasn't as dynamic of an athlete anymore? Cam was 265 and bigger than everybody. He looks skinny now. Like he's 235 and wants to have ripped abs. And that's his choice.
Is he going to have the power running element? Okay, are we going to fat shame Ben Roethlisberger, then skinny and vegan shame Cam Newton? Like which one is it? I'd like to think it's the same guy. Making fun of Ben for being fat and Cam for being too ripped. Because he probably looks really average. I don't think they're shaming Cam. They're just saying that he's not carrying the same weight he would.
Please. Like you would about like LeGarret Blount. If LeGarret Blount showed up looking ripped and super skinny when he's this powerhouse running back, you would be like, oh, he's not going to be able to carry that same power. I think that's what he was saying and you're just way too offended for Cam. I'm not offended. I just think it's bleeping stupid, man. I do. I really think we're monitoring Cam's weight when we're talking about a foot and a shoulder injury. Like, come on now. Cam is still a really good runner and he hadn't had any history of hurting his foot.
No history of foot injuries. I just think it's a bunch of garbage. I really do. Gardner Minshew, quote, Minshew magic.
They're fooling themselves. He can run around and do a little freaky stuff. Like to know what that is. He can make a play and make you say ooh and ah, but he's gonna get you beat.
Minshew, he's a fourth tier quarterback. But I want to know what some of that freaky stuff is. What rap lyric is that? I think that's a Pitbull song.
That freaky stuff. Pitbull is not a rapper. Just a pop star.
Semantics. Mitchell Trubisky. This is my favorite one, I think. He's right behind Gardner Minshew. I think he can function. Is he great? No. But is he as bad as the media portrays him? No. Oh, I thought you were gonna say yes. Like everything they said. Is he really as bad as they say?
Yes. I think he can function. Like this is the way that a girlfriend defends her deadbeat longtime boyfriend. He can function. Is this like a 12th grade teacher in home ec trying to justify passing a kid? She's like yeah, he can function. You don't understand Mitchell Trubisky like I do.
He's nice to me. Let's go to John in Winston-Salem who has in on a best case worst case scenario for the Carolina Panthers. We'll also pitch that Darren Gantz way in 15 minutes from ProFootballTalk.com.
John, you're on the air. What do you got? Best case, the Panthers make it through the season, end up at least 5-11. Worst case, Christian McCaffrey gets hurt for the year. What's the Panthers record if Christian McCaffrey gets hurt? The best I can do for you is at least 2-14 or 3-13. Alright, there you go.
John in Winston-Salem right there with us here. That 5 or 6 wins is the best case. Worst case, you're looking at some injuries piling up the key players and winning two, possibly three games.
Okay. Pat Mahomes, Christian McCaffrey, Deshaun Watson, Jamal Adams. What do they all have in common? They were all taken in the 2017 NFL Draft. We're going to redraft that three years later next on the drive.
Welcome to the show that cloned the Loch Ness Monster and got her drunk. The Drive with Josh Grab. This offseason has centered on the 2017 NFL Draft when you consider Christian McCaffrey getting record money among running backs. Leonard Fournette's probably going to be looking for something pretty expensive too, but he hasn't gotten that yet. Pat Mahomes, he gets the most expensive deal any quarterback's ever gotten.
And Jamal Adams just got traded from the Jets to the Seattle Seahawks. So it had me thinking, if we could redraft the 2017 draft, just the first 10 picks, what order would you put them in? This is more difficult than you might think because this class was loaded and it's not just the first dozen players, a lot of great players in this draft class.
Let me just introduce you to some of the players that are going to be on the outside looking in, outside of the 10. Juju Smith-Schuster, who was the second round pick. Dalvin Cook, a second round pick.
Tariq Cohen, shouts to A&T. He was taken, I think, in the fourth round. Chris Godwin, a mid-round draft pick. A ton of great players were in this 2017 draft.
None of those guys were in the top 10. So let's go ahead and do this. A redraft of the 2017 draft before we get to Darren Gantt, profootballtalk.com, going to join us in about 10 minutes. And we'll start with who I'd take number one overall. Taking teams out of the equation.
You're starting from scratch. Let's pretend every team's an expansion team. You'd obviously go with Pat Mahone.
This is a duh. Best player in the game and the easiest choice in this entire draft. Dashawn Watson. You're talking about a top five quarterback, according to Mike Sando. I was a little surprised they ranked Watson over Tom Brady, but I think it's pretty cool that Tom Brady, he's being put into the second tier.
They're just not giving it to a guy with that much of a resume. Hey, just because of what you've done in the past, we're going to have you a tier one quarterback until you retire. They see downward trends and they knocked him down to a two. Dashawn Watson, down 16-0 in a playoff game. Gets to win against Buffalo. He did a lot more carrying with poor infrastructure around him than Tom Brady did.
So Dashawn, it's another easy choice. You go with the quarterback at the very top. He is the number two pick. Number three, Mitchell Trubisky.
I'm just kidding. He would be taken exactly 28th or 29th overall. Would he crack your first round, Robert? Not at all.
Not even close. Take a stab at a quarterback just because of the value there. Myles Garrett.
This might surprise you. I'm going Myles Garrett over McCaffrey, over Jamal Adams, over all these other names that I mentioned earlier. I just think defensive end is more valuable than running back wide receiver in corner, which this draft is incredibly deep in. Not a lot of great D ends. Myles Garrett, he's just a perfect combo of pass rusher and brute strength. The kind of guy you want on the ends when everybody is tailoring towards pass heavy offenses.
Number four, I'm going to take McCaffrey here just because he's not the normal running back. You're talking about the receptions. He's had more receptions his first three years than Michael Thomas's first three years in the league. That's crazy.
We haven't seen anything really like that. A thousand rushing yards, a thousand receiving yards. McCaffrey, he is my fourth pick in this redraft of 2017. Number five, Jamal Adams, not your typical safety.
He's a honey badger type. He can roam, he's physical, great instincts. I loved him at LSU and I think he's a top 10 player in the league. Almost put him over Christian McCaffrey, but again, Christian I think is a face of a franchise.
Jamal Adams, not quite that, but as good of a defensive player as you're really going to find. Number six, Marshawn Lattimore. Does he get enough credit in New Orleans, you think? Now, after like a slightly down year last year, all the hype of being like an all pro corner kind of dies down.
But he's not getting enough credit. No, they don't throw the ball a lot his way. He is the definition of a lock down corner. Hard to find at any point in NFL history. Even today, Marshawn just is a really good lock down corner. Probably one of the five best in the NFL today.
He is an all pro caliber player. I remember I was hanging out with the guy who's now the voice of the Pelicans, Todd Grafannini, who's going to be with us on tomorrow's show when this draft was going on. And he said he was going to get in a fistfight at the bar we were at if the Saints didn't draft a defensive player.
Thank goodness they drafted Marshawn Lattimore. Number seven, speaking of the Saints, Alvin Kamara, third round pick. I don't think there's a significant drop off between McCaffrey and Kamara, so I can't really rank him too far lower, too much lower. Kamara, it really was a question. Like after the rookie season, Panther fans were asking, why didn't we see this Kamara guy coming? The second year, McCaffrey slightly better than Kamara. And people were asking, OK, who would you take out of the two?
Now it's no question. It's McCaffrey over Kamara. But I still take him in the top 10 here. I'd probably have him right behind Adams and Lattimore. That's why I have him here at seven. Number eight, Marlon Humphries. Robert, you could speak to him a lot better than I can, but I just love watching athletic corners. And he's that and it's a pass happy sport.
I'm going to value corner more than I would linebacker. I'm a big fan of Marlon Humphries. I mean, he's basically a linebacker. The dude plays a lot of bully ball. He had, I think, three forced fumbles and two of those he's recovered for a touchdown last year. He just excels at man coverage.
Just a great corner. We're redrafted the 2017 NFL draft, the top 10. We got two more selections to go. Number nine, T.J. Watt, Pittsburgh Steelers. He's the best linebacker in the draft. Really strong. But you're just not seeing that many linebackers go high in the draft anymore.
There are a few exceptions to that. You're talking about who's the guy? Miles Jack. You're talking about him out at the Jacksonville Jaguars took a few years ago. You're talking about Luke Kuechly in the last decade. You're talking about Khalil Mack, even though he's not truly a middle linebacker.
I mean, neither is Watt. He's a pass rusher. Yeah, but he's listed as a linebacker by the Steelers there. He's an outside linebacker. He had the most sacks on the team last year. I like T.J. Watt. The position is just a little less valued to me than, let's say, a corner. So I value Humphrey more than I value T.J. Watt.
Number ten, George Kittle. Not many tight ends go in the first round, but in terms of sheer impact, he's a transcendent tight end. I'm a big fan of his.
I think he has great leadership ability, great personality. He can block, catches a ton of passes. It's Gronk, it's Kelsey, it's Kittle among the best tight ends in the sport.
He's right there. I think he's probably going to be a 99 on Madden after the 49ers make the postseason again this year. And there you have it. That's a redraft of the 2017 NFL Draft. I want to transition things back to the Panthers. We were talking about best case and worst case scenarios for Carolina a short while ago. We're going to play out a couple more of those scenarios when Darren Gantt from ProFootballThought.com joins us next. Places, everyone.
Come on, places, please. We're ready. Back to the drive with Josh Graham on Sports Hub Triad. With a ton of really good players opting out of the football season this year, it started to have me think, what is the best case scenario for the Carolina Panthers? What's the worst case scenario? On Twitter, at Sports Hub Triad, if you'd like to have your voice heard on the subject, Darren Gantt is now with us from ProFootballThought.com.
He's on Twitter, at DarrenGantt. I think, Darren, the best case scenario probably is Carolina doesn't have a couple guys opt out. And if guys do opt out, you're not talking about guys up front on the offensive line and defensive lines, already very thin up there. And you're hoping that you catch defenses off guard because they don't know really what tape to evaluate. I'm looking at Joe Brady's offense with pieces that are new as well. Petty Bridgewater, Robbie Anderson, et cetera, et cetera.
Even in that best case, I'm only looking at five or six wins. What do you think the best case is for Carolina Panthers football this year? I mean, they're not going to be very good. And that's because they're basically rebuilding a brand new defense on the fly with a lot of players who we're not sure if they're any good yet or not. The defense is basically brand new. It's Shaq Thompson and Trey Boston and a bunch of guys. And some of those guys might be pretty good.
Brian Burns is pretty good. We think Dan Brown is going to be pretty good. But it's such a jigsaw puzzle right now, and they don't know if they've got all the pieces for that thing. So I just think it's impossible to think they're going to be competitive over the long haul. I think they could be respectable.
As you mentioned, there are some good parts. I mean, Teddy Bridgewater showed in New Orleans that he can be a capable and competent quarterback. And obviously Christian McCaffrey is very good. They've got some good receiving talent around. And I just don't know on the other side of the ball that they're anywhere close to having enough guys to be able to go week in and week out. And maybe if things get weird, I think the fact that no one is having a training camp is normal, and no one gets a preseason may create a perverse kind of advantage from that rule because everybody is just as short for time as he is, and nobody knows exactly what they're trying to do offensively and defensively.
So I guess if you were looking for things like that, that would be the stuff you latch onto. But I just think it's too soon. Now, it's kind of hard for me to get really granular with the football on the field in the fall because I don't know if we're going to get there or how we're going to get there or what it's going to look like when we arrive at that point because, listen, we had such a flurry of guys opting out today, and big-name guys, and a lot of guys on the New England Patriots who happen to play defense. So the face of each team can change in a pretty good hurry between now and early next week when the deadline hits for guys to opt out or not. Last year, the first padded practice the Panthers had was on this date last year, or roughly this date.
The first time they'll have a padded practice, hopefully everything goes well over the next few weeks when it comes to testing, is August the 16th, though preseason as well. You're talking about college coordinators, a college head coach transitioning into the NFL. Is there any team in the league that is less prepared to play football right now than the Carolina Panthers?
I mean, some of the usual suspects down there at the bottom with them. I don't know that Ron Rivera's Washington football team is any more prepared than Matt Rule's Carolina Panthers team, and there's just as many questions up there about what they're going to do. I mean, if you want to get really granular and football-y, who's their left tackle? We're fairly certain Dwayne Haskins is going to be the quarterback, but is he any good?
I don't know. And they've certainly got a bunch of issues that they're all in to deal with up there, and Ron Rivera would certainly love us to talk about nothing but football and not all these other uncomfortable things that are going on up there. But, yeah, I think Washington, the Jaguars, the Bengals, some of the usual suspects down there at the bottom of the draft order are going to be. I mean, look at poor Joe Burrow. I mean, he's walking into a situation, and much like the Panthers, I think there's a reasonable cast of offensive skill talent around Joe Burrow in a normal situation.
This is not a normal situation. Darren Gant with us from profootballtalk.com. I'm just fascinated to see what's going to happen with New England now. I think it's the most compelling football storyline, what Cam can do in that place. It's the most polarizing quarterback joining, arguably, the most hated professional franchise that we have right now in American sports. I still believe Cam will— Or my love, depending on where you live.
Good point. I still believe Cam is going to exceed expectations because I believe expectations are low. Would it be an overreaction, given the news today, all the opt-outs, to write off the Patriots? I'm not writing off a team if Bill Belichick's the coach of it.
I'm just not. I mean, that guy got 11 wins at almost to the playoffs with Matt Castle, a quarterback after Tom Brady blew an ACL. So I will never— I'm tired of being made to look foolish by Bill Belichick or thinking that team's done or any of those kind of things. I mean, again, you've got one of the really unique talents in professional football for the last 25 years with the best coach in football. So nothing they do is necessarily going to surprise me.
Now, do they have the horses to keep up with the Cheats or the Ravens in the FC? Maybe not necessarily. I mean, but again, I keep going back to the fact, I mean, the Patriots don't have a great cast of offensive skill talent around, but look at what Cam drew up to the Super Bowl in 2015. It wasn't nearly as good as Edelman and McKeel, Harry, and Mosinu. I mean, I think he would have loved to have had those guys in 2015. So everything hinges on how healthy he is and if he's going to be able to physically withstand a 16-game season if they get 16 in. But yeah, I'm with you.
I have a hard time thinking this is going to be an abject disaster. I love talking music with you every time you're with us. I went to—I was hanging out with my friend B. Dot, who comes on with us once a week, and they had a music festival, air quotes, on Sunday. Where cars drove in to watch the acts perform. Travis Porter was the biggest name on the No Stress Fest in Winston-Salem. I enjoyed my time with that.
It was very well done. Had me thinking though, Darren, is there an artist you love so much that you'd ride to go to a drive-in concert in order to see them? Oh, there's a long list of artists. I've got a list of people I want to see before I die.
I'm counting three-eighths of Led Zeppelin because I've seen Plant and I've seen Jason Bonham. And if Jimmy Page is playing anywhere in the world and I've got access to tickets, I'm going to do everything I can to acquire one of those tickets and be there. I missed an opportunity to see John Prine, who we lost to COVID-19. He was one of those guys on my list. Chris Kristofferson's on my list. If he plays anywhere anytime soon, I want to be there to see it in any function.
The Avett Brothers are doing a cool event at Charlotte Motor Speedway and I wasn't able to get hands-on tickets for that thing, but I would have gone to see that. Yeah, I think it's weird, but this is a weird time. And I think as much as I miss music, and I'll be honest with you, I don't feel comfortable. I get twitchy when I have to go to Target with my daughter to get stuff for college.
I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not comfortable in that situation. But I miss being in venues and I miss that communal experience of sharing that music with the people creating it and the people enjoying it around me.
Right there with you, man. It was just a really cool feeling to experience live music for the first time in months over the weekend. So if you get an opportunity in a safe setting... Because live music's awesome.
I mean, it really is. And sports are going to be weird this fall without fans in the stands. And I don't anticipate seeing a bunch of people in a football stadium any time soon. But those communal experiences are what bind us together.
I mean, that's where the meaning comes in. So I understand why fans are really jonesing for anything they can get their hands on, because it's going to be a while before I think they're able to gather and tailgate and things like that that really create the memories as much as long touchdown runs or deep passes or anything like that. It's well said. Follow him on Twitter, at DarrenGantt. Read his stuff.
ProFootballTalk.com. We'll talk soon, Darren. Thanks for doing this. Absolutely. See you, Josh.
There you go. That's Darren Gantt. We could be looking at a very... Well, I know we're going to be looking at a really odd football season, but we could be looking at an outlier year in terms of who competes. It's a pretty big deal that the Kansas City Chiefs, which had one of the best offensive lines, loses a starting offensive lineman over the weekend who opted out. The Patriots opting out a number of players. That's a big deal, too, and I wonder where this stops. Starla Touloulet, he opted out.
Really important defensive lineman, former Panther for the Buffalo Bills. We could be looking at an outlier Super Bowl. I mean, with less reps, you're talking about poorer form and poorer conditioning. With poorer form and poorer conditioning, that leads to more injuries. When there are more injuries, there's going to be more randomness. When there's potential, when there's no home field advantage, when there's possible disruptions, you could be looking at, say, 99 NBA season, where they tried to compact so many games as possible after the lockout, where the upstart San Antonio Spurs beat a Knicks team that probably didn't belong in the Finals that year.
It could be something like that, wouldn't it surprise me at all? So Mike Sandow, he surveyed 50 coaches and league execs to tier the quarterbacks, all the starting quarterbacks in the league. I'll tell you a guy who's ranked too high and a guy who's ranked too low next on the drive. Before we go back to the Carolina Panthers, Robert, I got good news and bad news when it comes to Major League Baseball.
What do you want first? Now give me the bad news. The bad news, the Miami Marlins had four more players test positive for COVID the day, bringing their total up to 17. Fifteen players, two coaches, and they're not going to play baseball the rest of the week.
The Washington Nationals were uncomfortable. Going to Miami this weekend, so we won't hear from the Marlins next until next Monday. The Philadelphia Phillies, who had the Marlins in town all last weekend, they're not going to play the rest of the week either according to some reports. The team that was set to play them, the Yankees, that leads to the good news, which is the Yankees have figured out a plan to play the Orioles. Which they're already scheduled to play 10 times this year. Tomorrow it's going to be a doubleheader and they're also going to play in Baltimore on Thursday as well. And to add to the good news that that baseball is going to be getting in, 29 out of the 30 teams do not have a positive test for COVID. That includes the Philadelphia Phillies. So it's only the Marlins. Masahiro Tanaka is going to make his debut, according to Aaron Boone, on this Saturday.
At some point this weekend, I should say. Aaron Boone saying that Tanaka is feeling better after getting knocked in the head by Giancarlo Stanton during intra-league scrimmages or intra-team scrimmages before the season started. Now we're being joined by Jonathan Alexander, Panthers beat reporter for the Charlotte Observer. He was a Tar Heel beat reporter for some time as well with the Raleigh News and Observer. It's good to have you on the show. Congratulations on the new opportunity today, Jonathan. What are you most interested in as the Panthers kind of wait and see who's testing positive?
And also with the Patriots stuff happening, who's going to play this year? I appreciate the kind of words, Josh. And I guess, you know, what I'm most interested in is just what you just said. I mean, you know, with the Patriots news and having six players with, I think, you know, Monday is the last day for players to opt out, there's still a good number of days.
I think I'm most interested in that. You know, I think the fact that six guys, you know, set that precedent in New England, you know, may encourage others who are having concerns to possibly opt out. But so far, you know, we haven't heard much. And so far we haven't heard anything about any players, any rookies or quarterbacks that test positive. So I'm definitely looking forward to that. At least the Panthers know Teddy Bridgewater is in the building.
So that means he had three negative tests. And I'll use Teddy as a segue. He's on Twitter, by the way, at John Alexander or John M. Alexander, if you want to shoot him a follow. Teddy Bridgewater, he interests me because Steve Smith during the offseason called him a right-now quarterback, not a guy who's going to lead you to a Super Bowl. He's not a franchise guy, essentially. I still think it's too soon to say that. He's 27 years old, a former first-round talent. He led Minnesota to the playoffs without a good o-line in front of him about five years ago. But if the Panthers aren't expected to do much of anything in terms of wins and losses, if the ceiling is six or seven wins, I'm not sure if that's the best way to measure success for Teddy. So if you're looking at the best way to judge Teddy Bridgewater, success or failure this season, what do you think the measure is? You know, I think the measure is that the offense can show improvement from last year. I mean, you look at the Panthers' roster, you know, aside from the quarterback, they have a lot of the same weapons that they had last year, specifically with Christian McCaffrey with an MVP-like season, D.J.
Moore, who's only getting better, you've got Curtis Samuel coming back, and you've got the addition of Robbie Anderson. So, you know, I think there's definitely potential there for the Panthers to be better on offense, you know, and if Teddy Bridgewater can help improve that offense, get some points on the board, even if they lose in the defense struggle, I think that's a measure of success. What area, earlier today, you and Elena Goetzenberg, you helped put together a 53-man roster projection going into training camp. What area of the depth chart was most difficult for you to fill in in terms of who makes the roster and who doesn't on the 53-man? I think for me, with figuring out the defensive line and the fact that, you know, the very last part, when Chris Smith and Zach Kerr, but, you know, I think the Panthers, when you look at who's possible, you have a lot of defensive ends that the Panthers have, and they don't have many interior defensive linemen. I think that's something they're going to have to look at and address, and, you know, I think Kerr is a good candidate, somebody to play that role, but they may have to look elsewhere as well.
And also, linebacker, you know, was a tough one as well. You know, with Luke being gone, you know, that's a huge void that they'll have to fill, and Shaq Thompson is really the only guy who has familiarity with the Panthers that's coming back, and Tara Whitehead is going to have to try to replace Luke. It's new Panthers beat reporter Jonathan Alexander with us here on Twitter, at Jon M. Alexander, read his stuff in the pages of the Observer Online at charlotteobserver.com. As I mentioned, you were covering the Tar Heels for quite some time before getting this opportunity in the Queen City. Last week's headline, it was Roy Williams, we learned giving or covering all of the spring sports scholarships for seniors that were returning that were added expenses to what the normal scholarship limit is. Remember the NCAA said, hey, if you're a senior that had your season cut short in a spring sport, you can come back, but the school has to cover those scholarship expenses. Roy said, I'm going to cover it all, Roy and Wanda Williams, and that cost about $600,000. It's an incredible gesture, but it almost seems like everybody who's been around the Tar Heel basketball program, they've been around Roy Williams, they have stories of some of the generosity that Roy has. He's an incredibly kind man, he loves Carolina. You covered the team for a long time, I'm sure some of these stories he wouldn't even want to have out there, but what comes to mind immediately to you when you speak to the generosity of Roy Williams? I guess what comes to mind is Roy had a friend whose, I think, grandson died of brain cancer, and he was pretty struck by that, and he decided to hold a type of golf fundraiser and raise money for research in that category. I think he raised a little more than a million dollars.
I have to go back to the story that we wrote last year. Roy was a guy many people behind the scenes talk well about. He's not a guy who likes to publicly share what he does. A lot of this stuff kind of gets revealed because people like to sing his praises, but if Roy had his way, he wouldn't tell anybody.
He'd just keep doing nice things for people because that just seems to be who he is as a person. Congratulations again, John. It's good to have you on the show, and I hope you stay safe in the Queen City. We'll be catching up sometime soon. Thanks for having me on, Josh.
There you go. It's Donovan Alexander, New Panthers beat reporter, with us here. All right, so if I'm going through the quotes from anonymous coaches and team executives talking about quarterbacks here, in terms of that hot gossip, Robert, which of these quotes do you enjoy the most out of one coach describing Ben Roethlisberger this way? I saw him in the tunnel last season, and my God, he had the beard going and looked more like one of the offensive linemen. Kirk Cousins was described this way, quote, You don't ever go into a game saying, boy, I don't know what we're going to do about this bleeping Cousins. Doesn't mean he's a bad player, legit starter, but he needs some bleep around him. Gardner Minshew being described as, quote, Minshew Magic?
They're fooling themselves. He can run a lot and do some of that freaky stuff and make a play or two that makes you say ooh and ah, but he's going to get you beat. And lastly, Mitch Trubisky, I think he can function. Probably the Mitch Trubisky one. That one's funny.
I also like the Kirk Cousins one. Yeah, because text doesn't really indicate tone, but I can imagine the tone was incredibly condescending. The cursing helps. I don't ever go into a game saying, boy, I don't know what we're going to do about this bleeping Cousins. Yeah, the cussing helps. Even in the second part of that one, like, you know, he needs some bleep around him.
Like, OK, dude, you're cutting a little deep here. Let me double check if that was a coach or a player or a coach or an executive that said that. Because if it's a coach, I'd like to play what coach is shooting off about Kirk Cousins.
That's a fun game to play. Not worried about that bleeping Cousins. It's a defensive coach. Not Ron Rivera.
I can eliminate him. Maybe Vic Fangio? Somebody like that.
Yeah, somebody that would cuss. Because he played him in the NFC North all but one year. Is this like defensive coaches or head coaches that are defensive?
Doesn't say. Yeah, so probably a defensive coordinator. Could be. Or it could be a defensive head coach. Very well could be. Well, then it's going to be Matt Patricia. That's the dude who would drop the most cuss words, I would think. He might actually tell Sando, hey, you got to call me a defensive coach because if you call me a head coach, they're going to immediately go in the division to the one former defensive coordinator that's a head coach in that division. Makes sense to me.
Yeah, because I'm trying to think. You got Nagy. You got LaFleur. He's an offensive guy.
And after getting a team in that division, well, you have Minnesota. Yeah, their coach. I don't think Mike Zimmer is saying that. Maybe. He might be talking about his own guy like that.
He could be. Boy, I don't know what we're going to do about Cousins. Draft Justin Jefferson, I guess. Yeah.
How's that going for them, drafting Justin Jefferson? Dude's on the COVID list, I think. Oh, he's on the COVID list?
Yeah, I sent you that yesterday, but I think you just skimmed over it. So I guess not well. Yeah, not great.
Coming up. Let's quickly move away from that, where it sounds like if somebody knew about the Justin Jefferson news, I was blaming him for getting COVID. I've seen a lot of that with the Marlins today, too. Like, there's a lot of, we don't want to go to Miami and play the Marlins because a handful of players got COVID. Well, the guys who you're going to be playing against don't have COVID. So, I mean, come on now. Anyway, I'll tell you why the Carolina Panthers could see their season go in the tank and quickly with some news this week. Keep it here on the drive.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-05-16 14:42:54 / 2023-05-16 15:01:12 / 18