You Just Got Litt Up (1-8-23)

This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast.

Three internet sensations, guys. Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons, 3 to 7 on WSJS. And we're on a Monday drive. It is WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad, where it is also Black Monday in the NFL. The Atlanta Falcons announcement of Arthur Smith's firing came at 12.01 a.m. Then around 8 a.m., it was Ron Rivera out in Washington. And then a few minutes later, we learned that Panthers GM Scott Fitterer had been let go. That means the Panthers will be hiring a coach at a GM in the same offseason cycle for the first time in nearly 22 years, since 2002.

That year, they hired Marty Hurney and John Fox. But let me start on this with the Panthers. Due to how the last five years have gone, there is this popular sentiment within the Panthers fan base that Carolina is several years away from competing again, maybe three to four years away from doing so. On day one of the offseason, it's important to understand that notion is not true and that if the Panthers play their cards right, they are not that far off from winning.

And it can happen very soon. They're not that far off from winning as it seems right now, because time and time again, we learn rebuilding in that sport in the NFL, it can happen very quickly. Just ask the Indianapolis Colts. They hired a young offensive coach at this time last year, and they went from four wins to more than doubling that, winning nine. And Saturday night at home, they were a win away from winning the AFC South.

Nine times. Gardner Minshew delivers a better ball, or if that running back doesn't drop it, Indy probably is winning a division and hosting a playoff game. But you might be thinking, oh, but Josh, we don't have our top five draft pick this year. We don't have that draft pick.

What are we going to do? Did Indy have their top five draft pick from last year? They took Anthony Richardson and he didn't play this year.

He was hurt after playing in four games. Still were able to win twice as many, more than twice as many as they did a year ago. Oh, but Josh, the Carolina Panthers have a crazy owner in David Tepper, who's more interested in his concerts than winning games.

You know, with concerts. You think the Colts owner, Jim Erce, is any less crazy than David Tepper is? Plus, unlike the Colts, the Panthers are in the easiest division in the NFL, where the Atlanta Falcons just fired their coach today. It's a lot easier path to success in that division than any other division in the NFL. As bad as the offense was, the defense was incredible, and most of these guys are under contract. The two big ones you have to re-sign are Brian Burns and Frankie Louvou. You have a franchise tag to keep one of those guys in place for at least next year. You have a lot of cap space due to the fact you have a quarterback on a rookie deal. They can pay these dudes and convince them to stay around. And Derek Brown just had a record-setting season for a defensive tackle, more tackles than the defensive tackles had in a season in NFL history. You have players to build around. Do you realize that despite all the bad spots the offense put the defense in this year, that the Panthers-D ranked third in the NFL in total defense?

That's a bleeping miracle, man. It'd be wise for the Panthers to figure out a way to bring a Jiro Evaro back. And you can do that because David Tepper, money doesn't matter to him.

You can offer him a lot of money to stick around so he's not having to go to his fourth different home in four years. Maybe the model again is like Indianapolis. Hire the young offensive coach that can turn around your offense with more creativity. It was Shane Steichen for them last year hiring him away from the Eagles.

And what did Indy do? They kept from Frank Reich's staff, fittingly enough, Frank Reich's defensive coordinator in Gus Bradley. And it worked out. So maybe you keep Frank Reich's DC of this year, a Jiro Evaro, and pair him with one of these young offensive guys. And you're the team that turns things around. You will have to be better offensively.

But it's not hopeless on that side of the ball. You know who your quarterback is. When's the last time you were able to say that as a Panther fan?

You're going into the offseason and you know who's going to be under center game one for you. Five years? Is that how long it's been? Going into, okay, four years.

Trying to think, last time that happened. No, it was five years ago, the 2019 season. Cam Newton, you better get it done this year. Ron Rivera's last year in Charlotte. Five years.

Going into 20. Is it going to be Cam? Oh no, they picked up Teddy Bridgewater. We didn't know that day one of the offseason.

Going into the second year. Here comes Sam Darnold. Is it going to be Teddy?

No, it's not. Year after that, here comes Baker Mayfield. And then we're off and running with Frank Reich. And we didn't know at this time a year ago who the Panthers would have at quarterback.

Are you going veteran? They had the ninth overall pick in the draft. Can you get up to number one or number two? Who would they pick if they were picking number one or number two?

Like these were all just hypotheticals. And Bryce, this year, there were 11. In the history of the NFL, Bryce Young was the 25th quarterback taking number one overall.

25th. Bryce, this year, was just the 11th to have more touchdowns than picks. Usually a 3,000-yard season is a definition of a good year. Bryce was only 100 or so yards off of doing that. So it was not as bad as it seemed.

Oh, is he too small? He played in 16 games despite being sacked 62 times. Tied for the sixth most in NFL history.

Sacks that a quarterback took. Here was Chris Tabor after the game. Speaking to what he saw in Bryce's rookie year. I think that when he's in year 12, winning a lot of games and slicing people up a little bit, dicing it around, throwing it around, I said, you'll remember this first year and you'll probably look back and say, you know what?

It stunk at the time, but this really helped me get to where I'm at. So he has a really bright future. You know who your quarterback is.

You didn't know that the last five years. The offensive line doesn't need as many changes as you think it needs. They just need to get healthier and develop guys. Is Iki Iquanu going to be worth the top 10 pick? Maybe not, but can he be good enough that you don't have to look for another left tackle and have that be a revolving door?

I'm not ruling that out. Eight game stretch last year where he didn't give up a sack as a rookie. And this year, three or four times where he graded out the highest graded tackle, according to Pro Football Focus, he was just inconsistent.

Find somebody who can make him more consistent so you're not looking somewhere else. The Panthers started five different guards at left guard, seven at right guard. Just get Brady Christensen healthy and develop him going into his third year.

Still very young. Austin Corbett was the right guard on the Super Bowl team just a few years ago. And you feel pretty good about Bradley Bozeman if the run blocking scheme makes sense, like it did a year ago versus what it was this year under Frank Reich and Thomas Brown and Taylor Moten. Solid at right tackle. It's hard to find a quarterback in alignment, which was the problems Carolina's dealt with the last five years. You feel better about those spots than you have at any other point over the last five years. Security there, you just need to find weapons to surround Bryce with.

And that's not hard to find. Just don't miss like Carolina missed on DJ Chark being a number one wide receiver. Learned that the last couple of games. Just don't miss with those types of decisions.

I got little glasses that blink. Don't miss on Miles Sanders like they missed. Because there are good guys they found, Adam Thielen, Chupa Hubbard has emerged. You know, Jonathan Mingo did good things as a rookie. The right coach and GM can fix this. The Panthers aren't as far off as hopeless as some are setting out to say they are.

As some are saying they are at this moment. On X at WSJS radio if you want in that's where we're streaming video in addition to YouTube and Twitch. Michael Dalton, the executive producer of this show, W.D. remind the people where we as a show will be watching tonight's college football national championship game between Michigan and Washington. Oh, we going to BJ's Brew House. Yes, sir.

730 kick. We'll be there. Come on, let's go. Right off Haynes Mall Boulevard. Already hearing from a ton of listeners saying they're going to be out that way or viewers if you need somewhere to watch the game. Heck, Connor O'Neill.

Our guy who covers the deeps in Blue Devils. He says he's going to be dropping by. So make sure you're there. We'd love to hang out.

It's a reward for the thousand plus subscribers that we got in a short period of time by the end of 2023. So look forward to enjoying that with you guys tonight. Other than Michigan fans, nobody wants to see Big Blue win tonight.

They cheated and Jim Harbaugh, he's far from the most likable coach out there. So Washington, easy to root for. They have a chance to win a title for the Pac-12 in the final year of the league's existence.

Man, how great of a story would that be? It'd be awesome, but it isn't happening. Michigan's going to overwhelm Washington to win the national championship tonight because it's a terrible matchup for the Huskies. When you look at the analytics, what the nerds say, people that look like me with the glasses, they ranked 130th in run defense efficiency. Washington does. Do you know how many FBS teams there are, W.D.? I don't. 131.

Oh, there you go. That's a lot. Not great. They rank 130th. Not a good strategy when you're going up against Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards tonight. Michigan has the secondary to limit Washington's strength. What's their strength? Three NFL caliber receivers.

I know this because I blew up for an award called the Blitnikov. Just saying, great award out there. They have three great receivers. The only receiving corps I'd say is better than Washington's is Ohio State's, with Marvin Harrison Jr., with Ibuka, and they have two other guys that are really good. I don't know if you've been following college football closely, but Michigan handled Ohio State's receiving corps. They have the secondary to hold up there. Michigan's been the best team in college football this year.

They cheated, sure, but that's not the reason they're the best team. They're number one nationally in total defense. And if not for a few special teams blunders against Bama and the Rose Bowl, they win that game by double digits. Think about it. Bama could not block Michigan up front.

If Bama couldn't do it, you think Washington up front's going to be able to? Don't forget that half the games they won this year were without Jim Harbaugh on the sidelines. That's something to overcome. It's not a small thing.

Also there's this. Last week's games, they were classics, but if we've learned anything about the playoff, when you see great games in the playoff, that means the blowout's coming. That means the snoozer is on the way. The last four national championship games have been won by the favorite WD. The last four, and this is the crazy part, they've covered in all four of them too by an average of 12 and a half points over the line.

With that in mind, give me Michigan by two touchdowns, 30 to 17. With the new year, we wanted to do something different with the show and we thought there's a lot going on with Wake Forest. So starting this week with this segment, we're going to be having a Demon Deacon guest on every week throughout 2024, fresh off a big win against Miami.

We thought the first featured Demon Deacon should be the man that we hope to hear a lot from over the next couple of months, and that's Steve Forbes, Wake basketball coach joining us. Coach, after watching cut ups in the win against Miami Saturday, what jumped out off the screen for you? I didn't think we had very good shot selection, but I thought that our shot selection really hurt our defense in transition because they are an elite offensive transition team. So we didn't turn it over much, maybe 10 times, but if you take nine bad shots, that's 19 turnovers in my opinion, that leaves more chances for them to run out. We could guard them in the half court. We did an outstanding job guarding them in the half court. It was transition and offensive rebounds. So those are things that you got to clean up as you move forward if you want to continue to win, especially in this league at this level.

And so probably, that'd be the negative part. That's the coach in me. I thought we played well, I thought we had great fight, great grit, they tried to run away from us a couple of times, tried to extend the lead, we didn't let them. Got the thing to overtime, got down five in overtime, went on an 8-0 run and then won the game. And so I thought that, and then Boopy played outstanding.

He's really playing at a high level and he just really willed us a little bit there when we needed a big buck, he made that big three. I love that you go to the negative part though, saying that that's the coach in me. Is it more difficult or easier to coach a team after a win or after a loss in terms of bringing things to them onto the next game?

It depends on the maturity level. This team, they can handle it. Some teams cannot handle success and so you have to constantly stay on them.

And I'm always on them, but these guys are pretty mature when it comes to if I tell them, we had a film and walked through last night, we watched it all, showed it to them, we'll do it again today and then leave. They're pretty good about trying to fix their mistakes. But the more, I've been on one season, we won 35 in a row when I was at Wichita State. So it takes a special group of people to be able to handle that and continue to improve.

Because what happens a lot of times with winning is it masks your problems and sometimes you're not as good as you think you are, you just found a way to win and then that catches up to you. And so I'm always on guard for things like that because I really believe that teams either get better or get worse each week. And I think Florida State's one example of that is just getting better and sometimes it just takes a little time, sometimes it just takes to win a game and get some confidence.

And so I think it'll be a hard game for us tomorrow. Do you know how mature this group is yet or is that something that reveals itself as the season goes on? I think they're very mature and it starts with Afton and Cameron and Andrew Carr. Those guys are unbelievable people, unbelievable players and take care of the business on and off the court. And to be a leader, you have to be able to lead yourself. And so those guys lead by example, Hunter, all those guys, I mean, listen, I know it doesn't always equate, but we had a team GPA of right around 3-3 at Wake Forge. I mean, that's hard, I mean, this is a really, really good school and those guys worked just as hard off the court as they did on the court.

And when you're doing that, to me, those things kind of carry over. And so they're a mature group, but you never know until you get through some adversity, right? And adversity reveals a lot of things and we're going to see a lot of adversity from now until the end of the season. You mentioned Florida State, that's the game tomorrow. The next home game is Saturday. Great crowds with all these Saturday home games that Wake's having. Virginia is going to be in town, 2 o'clock at the Joel. You once joked that, Steve Forbes with us, by the way, you once joked that due to COVID, that even after your first season at Wake, you would walk around like a fiddle and fish and nobody would recognize you. Now you're the toast to the ACC. Half a dozen people were at the Panthers game asking me about Wake Forest yesterday.

Every national analyst is talking about your program. How noticeable of a difference is the buzz surrounding the program within town versus where things were a couple years ago? I mean, I think that's, I think that's a really good thing in town, you know, and I don't get out a lot right now, Josh, you know, with my wife situation, it's just hard for me. I wish I could, I wish, you know, after the game, I could go out and hang out a little bit, but I just haven't been able to, you know, and so I've just come home and so, you know, but I know that I can feel it in the arena. I can feel the buzz in the arena, in the Joel. And I said that to John Curry, excuse me, after Saturday's game that I could feel the electricity start to come back into this place, you know, and we, I don't know, we have a pretty darn good record at home and, you know, and we have a fun team to watch and this is the one thing I think that makes them like, they're very likable. They're not, they're, you know, it's a team you can easily get behind and, and again, I'll tell you this, I'm sure Tony Bennett would tell you this, Hubert, Kevin, John, listen, come out and enjoy the team for this year because you don't know what it's going to be next year. This is just the way college athletics is. I'm not saying that I like it, hell, I'd like to have them all back and we don't have a senior on the team, but is that realistic?

I don't know, but enjoy it for what it is this year. I said that two years ago with Alondis who put up, by the way, 55 last night in the G League, Jake, Dallas, I said, come on, man, come out and see these guys, you just don't know, you know, and so we got a great home schedule in the league and so, you know, people are going to come and it should be a lot of fun. Wake Forest, that home record, so you don't count the COVID season, I don't blame you for it, your first year and it was disjointed and fans weren't allowed in the building for most of it, 40 and five at home since then, 40 and five, that's the record. You got to have a home court advantage to do any good, I mean, you got to win at home and then you got to go steal road games and so, you know, I think that's something that we've always been able to do is wherever we've been, it's established a home court advantage. I went back and looked, after I left Tennessee, I think I went four years, two years in Northwest Florida, two years at Wichita State, didn't lose a home game, then I think in my five years at East Tennessee State, we lost, I think, 12 and so that's just, you got to do that to be, if you're going to be a factor in your league and then hopefully on the national scale, you know, and so that's a credit to our players and staff and then people, you know, starting to come back and enjoy watching us play. If you, I'll make a baseball analogy because you haven't made one yet, Steve Forbes is with us here, if you win, they will come. Given your love of movies and your love of baseball, I can't believe I've never asked you this question, what does your baseball movie hierarchy look like?

Oh, wow, that's a good question. I love, there's some really good baseball movies, some quirky ones. I like the minor league movies, you know, like the Bull Durham or the, there's, I can't think of the name of it, there's one before that one, it's kind of based on the same thing and I won't get it right. I like the Black Sox scandal movie, 8 Man Out, 8 Man Out, and then I guess you could count Field of Dreams as that, yeah, you know, and that's from my home state, I actually never been there. Is Iowa like heaven?

Of course, yeah, it depends what year, what time of year you're there. That movie has to be the peak for the state of Iowa though, being like a, an earthly replacement for heaven, literally. Well, when I was a kid, we didn't have central air conditioning, so we just had to open the windows in the summertime and there was a hog confinement right up the road from my house when I was a little kid and so when the wind was in the right direction, it didn't smell very good. I remember one time my dad came home and he said, oh, that smells like money.

So at a young age, I found out that money smells like shit and so that's kind of what you get in Iowa, okay, and so it depends when you're there, you know, if it's ripe, but it's a great place to grow up with good people, but I like For the Love of the Game too. I've watched that several times and so there's a lot of good, there's a lot of good baseball. I'm probably missing something off the top of my head, but there's a lot of good baseball movies out there. Moneyball is a good example of the last.

Yeah. It's a good one. W.D., have you seen Eight Men Out? Have you seen, oh, by the way, that drop plays every single time that W.D. hasn't seen a movie that's new during a press conference. It's more interesting than him saying no. Have you seen For the Love of the Game?

Kevin Costner pitching for the Detroit Tigers. We did that one, I think. Oh, no, we did not. Are you sure? No chance. Okay. Well. Okay. Yeah. There you go. So we'll get him right. I like the part when Vince Scully, you know, he's doing the play by play or the, you know, to me that was really neat to hear that when he did that part of it, you know, I like that part. We're less than a couple hours away from kickoff national championship game between Washington and Michigan.

We have an eye on that where you sit in the state of Florida right now. Well, you know, I'm going to watch the game. I love college football. I didn't I didn't make it to the second game on. We were at Boston. I made it through the Alabama or whatever.

What game was that? Michigan. I couldn't make it through the Texas Washington game when I grew up watching the Big Ten.

I actually, you know, went to the games when Jeff Beckler and Woody Hayes were coaching on the sidelines. To the games. Yeah.

And Iowa. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And so I grew up watching, you know, three yards and a cloud of dust. I don't respect what Michigan did. It's one thing to steal signs. Everybody does that. But when you live scout somebody you're not supposed to that's, that's, that's bad. And so, um, you know, we're not allowed to go to Carolina or Duke or NC State instead of the game and watch their bench and, and get their signals. We don't live scout. Nobody does.

That's why we have computers. And so, and I don't really understand college football because like, why don't you just put the thing in their ear and just tell them to play and why you got all those guys standing over there, those stupid shirts on and those, those banners you can't see over. Um, and so I don't respect it. I like their team. I do. I think they're good. I watched the Ohio State Michigan game, I was impressed.

So I'm going to go for Washington and they broke my heart in like 81 or 82 Rose Bowl when Iowa finally made it, they beat us, I was really disappointed, but, um, I think Washington is who I'll be going for. Last thing for you, this segment sponsored by our friends at Roll the Quad. So they have a new beer. They have the Indian IPA. I mean, every one of these beers goes into your NIL fund. So I guess, drink up. Have you had a chance to try it yet?

I haven't. No, I'm drinking. I have my Lewis Lit from Suits. You just got lit up cup.

So I thought it was apropos for Josh Graham today to wear my, bring my Lewis Lit mug. By the way, I taped, my wife taped the Golden Gloves last night, right? So I got home, she went to bed. I got all the way to the, was it the last one with Oprah and the damn thing cut out.

They stopped recording, like, what? So who won? Oppenheimer?

I don't even know who won the movie of the year for the Golden Globes. Oppenheimer is going to clean up, man, cleaning up everything. I mean, you know, I was like, I mean, I was just sitting like, you got to be kidding me. Okay. I got all the way through.

Steve Forbes loves Oppenheimer. Like they read your diary and making that movie. It was good. Long. Ooh, man.

I watched the holdovers after the game with my wife on Saturday. That was a really good movie. Yeah. Good movie.

Yeah. Steve Forbes, we're gonna get your movie review next week, the week after that, the next movie that you watch. So be sure to take notes and let us know what we should be watching. I got a lot of film to watch, so I don't know. That counts as a film.

Steve Forbes. Thank you so much for spending the time. Thank you. Is there any football experience in your life prior you could compare to how hard this has been on you? Obviously, this is a different level. There's not really much I can compare about stuff in my past, good or bad.

You know, it's a different level, different league, and yeah, it presents unique challenges for sure. That was an exchange I had with Bryce Young yesterday. His rookie season closes, 11 touchdowns, 10 interceptions, 2,877 yards, played in 16 of the 17 games, the one game he missed, I'm still convinced he could have played in Seattle in week three, only 123 yards shy from 3,000 yards. It seems because CJ Stroud had perhaps the greatest rookie season we've seen a quarterback have, RG3 would be in that discussion, Cam Newton would be in that discussion, certainly, that Bryce has been slept on here, that Bryce has been pegged as being this terrible quarterback. This is not bad for a quarterback taken number one overall. But I went and looked, Bryce is the 25th quarterback taken number one overall in NFL history. Bryce is just the 11th out of those 25 quarterbacks to have more touchdowns than interceptions in his rookie season.

Like going through some of these quarterbacks, you know, some of the guys who didn't do that WD, Peyton Manning, who had 28 picks his rookie year, that's a record among rookies, Terry Bradshaw, six touchdowns, 24 picks, Troy Aikman, nine touchdowns, 18 picks, oh, Josh, but that's ancient history that you're talking about, Eli Manning, he didn't do it, that's the last 20 years, Matthew Stafford, 13 touchdowns, 20 interceptions, Trevor Lawrence, 12 touchdowns, 17 picks, like all throughout NFL history, this has been a constant that it's hard, it's a hard adjustment to make, especially when you're going to a bad team, number one overall. Bryce, he was the talk of the postgame locker room yesterday, Adam Thielen said this about Bryce. This is the best thing that could have happened to him, in my opinion, just learn how to deal with some adversity, learn a lot of things that you shouldn't do, not as a person, but as a whole organization, and then I think he's shown a lot of times you're what it can be if you put the right people around him, and you cater things to helping his offense score points and winning football games, so I loved playing with him, I told him after the game, it's been a pleasure playing with him and just seeing his growth as a man, as a player, and I hope I get to run it back with him.

Thielen said this is the best thing to happen to Bryce, going back to something that Bryce was just talking about, he has not dealt with this type of failure, this type of adversity in his high school career, in his college career, so he gets to learn, potentially learn from failure in a way he hasn't learned in his career, and again that failure is relative when you mention the numbers that I brought up a short while ago and how unsupported he was. DJ Chark, lastly, I think he played his last snap as a Panther yesterday, I think he did, we've enjoyed him, he's given us some content throughout the year, but the last two games it was put on display why he might be one of the more frustrating receivers in Panthers history and why the Panthers missed having him be the number one guy. In Jacksonville, he dropped in the red zone not one, not two, but three balls in a four play span, all of which inside the five yard line. If he catches any of the three, then the Panthers score points, which they did not do in Jacksonville for a shutout in 21 years. If he doesn't hold the football like a loaf of bread trying to dive into the end zone yesterday then Carolina scores there and maybe even beats the Buccaneers.

Having that score taken off the board, Carolina shut out for the first time in their history in back to back games, first time that's ever happened, the first time a team's done that, not named the Panthers, any other team in 16 years or 15 years, 2008. I wasn't even thinking about Jacksonville yesterday whenever he did that and now that I am, it's like, ooh, that is bad, it's not good. But DJ says he's grown close with Bryce Young through the process. We got really close, man, when you come in here on that Monday or that Tuesday and you didn't have the game that you wanted on Sunday, in the outside world, feel like the walls closing in on you, you really find out who people are and not only for him, but for myself and just having conversations and talking and then being on the field and when the plays do happen, it's a good moment because we both know how much that play meant to the other person and things like that.

So I have tremendous respect for him. People try to say he was too small and he wasn't strong enough, man, he come in every day, he working, he's a hell of a player and gonna have a hell of a career. I will give DJ Chark this, nobody talked longer yesterday than him in the locker room.

He was owning up to all the things that went wrong. JC Horn, he's another one of our guys. Send me that cash out, fam. That's him. And he's in favor of, regardless of what happens with the head coaching search, bringing Ejiro Evaro back as the Panthers' DC after the Panthers finished top three in total defense. How excited would you be if Evaro was able to return as the DC? Super excited. I told him and the DB coaches and the staff just how much they did for me coming in and helping me see the game a different way.

Just helped me out a lot, so it'll be good to get them back. Can you give me an example of a way they- Just how I understand the offense is better, how the NFL works and how different it is from college. You know, first two years I was in and out, and when these guys came in I just got a whole different perspective of how the NFL works and how offense want to attack, so they helped me out a lot. You held a playoff team to nine points today. Even though you didn't win the game, you have to feel pretty good about that.

Yeah. I mean, I'm worse off thinking about postseason. I seen those guys over there dancing, getting ready to go to the playoffs, and that's what I was thinking about.

I wasn't thinking about the statistics or anything. I just wanted a chance to get to that big dance. Does that upset you, or is it envy, wishing you were in their position? I think it's just me being a competitor, you know what I'm saying, wanting to be one of those playoff teams and having a shot at winning the ring. I feel like every guy in this locker room had some bit of anger in them just from that standpoint.

So, yeah. That was J.C. Horn after the Panthers lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a lot of changes. Chris Taber's message to the team after the game is that this locker room is going to look a whole lot different, and we're already seeing some of that. There are reports out there that C.J. Henderson has been let go by the Panthers. He was a healthy scratch yesterday.

You should expect that Terrace Marshall probably isn't going to return to the team, wasn't playing down the stretch. And then he got in there. What did he do? Very D.J. Charke like took a touchdown off the board because he wasn't lined up properly in the first half.

So, yeah. Those two things don't happen. Carolina maybe wins that game against Tampa given how good the defense played in it. What else is going on in the NFL? Scott Fitterer, you know that. He's been let go. Ron Rivera let go.

I love how this is being celebrated. Oh, Washington. Oh, they've tabbed former Warriors GM Bob Myers to help advise their search. Are the Washington commanders a good three-point shooter away from being a good NFL team? Why do I care what Bob Myers thinks about my coaching search in football? Could you imagine if the news was, hey, the Hornets trying to figure things out have found they've got Tom Dundon or they've got Rod Brind'Amour on the case from the Hurricanes to try and figure out our next coach in basketball.

Why is this a good idea? I get it. Josh Harris wants to do things differently.

Think outside the box. Remember David Tepper was that guy five years ago? Oh, yeah. He's just looking at things. He looks at it from a business perspective.

This is Josh Harris doing very NBA stuff. Oh, we get it. You own the Sixers. We understand that. Oh, here's Bob Myers.

Who's going to help me? With it being Black Friday in the NFL, we thought we'd do something different. Did I say Black Friday? Black Monday. I don't know.

I didn't catch what you said on that one. Black Monday in the NFL. Maybe just out of routine I said Black Friday there.

Might have. Today's Monday in case you haven't picked that up yet. With it being Black Monday, we thought we'd do something different with Graham's grades. Usually we grade how NFL teams did over the weekend or ACC teams or whatnot. As of right now, there are probably going to be more added to the list, more openings in the NFL. But as of right now, there are five head coaching vacancies. So we attach letter grades to those five openings right now in Graham's grades. Every week is a test for your favorite sports teams, who passed the test, who dropped the ball. Josh Graham has the answers. Time for Graham's grades.

A through F. The very good, the not so good, the meh of the openings available, starting with the cream of the crop. The L.A. Chargers. This is not a hot take by any means. It's not often you get a chance to work with or a job comes open to coach one of the five or six best quarterbacks in the sport. But that's what you've got and you also get to live in Los Angeles, too.

That's not bad either. Live in SoCal and to coach Justin Herbert and coach in one of the best stadiums in the NFL, too. The L.A. Chargers, as good of a job as you're going to find Jim Harbaugh, probably going to be up for that job. The only job that potentially could become available this cycle that might be better than the L.A. Chargers job is if some of these Andy Reid retirement rumors are true. If that were the case, that's the only job getting a chance to coach Patrick Mahomes. Obviously, that would be better than this Chargers kick.

B, this is where I have Washington. You have a new owner that seems to be a smart guy and that he's owned teams before and hasn't run those teams to the ground. The Devils, the Philadelphia Sixers.

He's going to think a little bit differently, but pour resources into things. Josh Harris. But also, you're getting the number two pick in the draft, which means you're guaranteed to get either Caleb Williams or Drake May with that number two pick.

That means it's not perfect. But in terms of openings out there, I think this is the second best one available. C, the Atlanta Falcons. There's good and bad with this.

Hence is why it's a C. The good. You've got a top 10 pick. The Falcons will be picking eighth. You've got an owner that seems to be one of the better ones in the league in Arthur Blank. Your team was in contention for an NFC South title in week 18 and the job again is coaching in the NFC South, which isn't the most difficult division out there.

The bad is this. You're going to inherit a GM and Terry Fontenot, who's been there the last few years. We have no clue who their future quarterback's going to be. Breaking news, you're not going to get Drake May or Caleb Williams sitting there at number eight. We'll see if the Falcons are a contender to potentially either trade for Justin Fields or do what Carolina did at nine and try to trade up to the number one spot to take a quarterback trade for Chicago's picks. And on top of that, you also have to figure out a lot of vets, what the futures look like for many of them on the team. This is an older team than you might think.

This is where the Carolina Panthers reside. It's not the worst job. Everybody says that it is. Nobody wants to take this job.

It's not true. You know who your quarterback is. That quarterback was seen to be the consensus number one quarterback in the draft last year in Bryce Young, who, contrary to popular belief, did do some good things, just not as many good things as C.J.

Stroud did, who was undoubtedly in a better situation. It looks like that the head coach is probably going to be hired before the GM, which means you'll have say on who that next GM is. You're going to get paid by David Tepper.

You know that. So that's a good thing, and the Carolina Panthers had the number three defense in the NFL this past year in total defense. So if you're an offensive minded guy, this is an attractive job to take because, hey, you might get to keep the Giro Evaro and keep it number three defense, which is not bad when you're trying to rebuild things. The worst job this cycle is the Las Vegas Raiders.

What am I missing here? No idea who their quarterback is. You have an owner that's got a crazy haircut and does crazy things. The John Gruden situation, you let him go and then Rich Passaccio takes you to the playoffs and you don't take the interim tag off of him. Bring in Josh McDaniels. That doesn't go well.

We'll see. This is why this is a good reason why Antonio Pierce should be the guy, because I don't know how attractive your job is, and he did a really good job with it. Even for the mistake you made with Rich Passaccio, take that interim tag off because he made you guys competitive. He shows a lot of good things in Las Vegas, but that doesn't solve the fact that you don't know who your quarterback is long term and you're in a division with that Patrick Mahomes fella, which isn't the best news for you. And you share a division with Justin Herbert too. Not great. Not a great position to be in. So that's Graham's Grades for the five openings currently in the NFL.