Biggest Suprises From Week 1 Panthers Training Camp

Biggest Suprises From Week 1 Panthers Training Camp

Everything. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Fire. [Music] Hey. Hey. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Oh, [Music] heat, heat. Tell me. [Music] [Music] [Music] What up, dog? What up? What up? What up? What up? What’s going on everybody? What up, dude? It’s the first week of training camp in the books. We It don’t feel like it because they’re very uneventful because there’s no fans, there’s no extra clips. I’m here at the crib. So, you know, it don’t really feel like a usual training camp cuz I’m here. You know what I’m saying? Usually, I’m there, but I’m here. You know what I’m saying? I’m usually out at practice, but not anymore. Shut down for two years. Um, we’ve talked about it mostly. my displeasure and your displeasure for it. But we got to roll with the country because stuff still happens. We just don’t know about There could be plenty of other stuff happening. The music still on. There could be plenty of other stuff happening. Yeah, we good. I appreciate it. There could be plenty of other stuff happening. My bad. My bad. We good. We good. We good. I got I got my new podcast soundboard so things work a little different. But I ain’t got my production ear ear things on, man. My bad. We good now? Give me a thumbs up if we good. Give me a thumbs up if we good. Give me a thumbs up if we good. Let me know. I I won’t go anymore until we until I until I get the thumbs up from you guys. I will not give I will not proceed until I get a thumbs up from somebody. Let me know if I’m good. Let me know if I’m good, people. Uh, all right. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. All right. My bad. Again, let me start from the T one. What up, though? What up, though? What up, though? What’s up, everybody? Man, the first week of training camp is officially in the books. Like I said, it feels a little uneventful because one, I’m here. So, it feels very different. This has been probably what, four years straight. I’ve been going up to training camp, right? And like I’m not there. I’m not getting no clips out. I’m not getting that same content I was doing on a daily basis. Y’all know me. I was doing them daily recaps. It just feels different. Yo, it feels different. Two, no fans are there, right? No fans are there. So, we’re only getting what the beat is allowed to put out. We’re only put getting two what the team is deciding to put out, which ain’t a lot. I’m not gonna lie, bro. They’re doing everything in their power to try to really nip the momentum in the bud. It’s it’s it’s unfortunate, man. It It’s It feels like we’ve had a lot of momentum this offseason. Excitement from the fans. It’s been buzzing, but it’s almost like, bro, they’re they’re they’re almost neutering it by not allowing anything. You know what I’m saying? It’s not It’s one thing if they’re like completely controlling the narrative. They’re doing all this new age content. They’re just pumping stuff out on a daily basis. We’re getting all kind of clips and stuff, but we’re not getting anything. We’re starving, yo. As a fan, we starving. Usually we eating good, but it feels like it it it feels like we starving out here. Yo, we’re starving for clips, for content. We want to know how our rookies look. We haven’t seen much from our rookies at all. They barely posted T-Mac. T-Mac was a top 10 pick. We’ve seen him doing individual drills and stuff. The little one hand catching the drill. We haven’t seen any plays in team really like that. There was a small little smidgen of it from their highlights that they released on the channel. Princeley had two sacks in the first day. We haven’t seen that. Nick Gordon apparently is doing well. We haven’t seen that. It it just we starving out here, man. We starving out here. And so, we’re just really not going to have an idea of what’s going to go on until preseason, unfortunately. Unfortunately, we’re not going to really get a full take because even with double joint practices this year, even with double joint, maybe maybe the Browns, maybe they’ll they’ll they’ll their beat writers and their media will start putting out content because like they’re a lot more loose up there in Cleveland. They put out full team reps. I saw a whole drive by Dylan Gabriel today. I saw individual drills by Shore. Like, they put out everything in Cleveland. So, like hopefully Cleveland, the Beat Riders, they they don’t I mean the Panthers media don’t force them to follow the rules and they’ll start doing their thing here. We’ll see. We’ll see how that goes during the joint practice. But right now, we’re starving, bro. We’re starving, y’all. We’re starving, man. Like, I’m very, very anxious and curious about what’s going on. But the show must go on and we must discuss and talk about what has done because the first week is in the books. The first week is in the books, man. And we’re one week closer to that first preseason game. If you just want football in general, we’re close to that as well. But we’re one step closer. One step closer. Full pads go on Monday. Today was an actual legit practice. I think they have a walkth through or a day maybe a day off tomorrow and then there’ll be full pass Monday and so that’s when things are really crank up. But there’s still been things that have happened this week that we must discuss. I got the five biggest surprises in this video from that first week. You know what I’m saying? Five biggest surprises from that first week of camp. In this video today, we’re going to talk about those five things and a couple other uh couple other like little small nuggets and notes at the end. First things first, make sure you guys please give this video a thumbs up. It’s 72 people watching. I appreciate you guys watching on this good Saturday. It’s hot outside. I don’t know if you’re inside, outside, you on the golf course listening, you in the you you you bet you you watching the kids, you on the front porch. I don’t know what you’re doing, but I appreciate you speaking spending the time with me. Give this video a thumbs up. Poor favore. Two, share it out with somebody, man. You know, Panthers fan, share it out with them. If you think they interested, go ahead, share it out. Word of mouth and referral is the biggest way for me to grow. Three, if you’re not subscribed to the channel, I welcome you and invite you to subscribing. Uh, I’m going to be doing this content like this uh throughout training camp. So, I’ll try to do my best with that. Uh, and of course I’ll be doing my typical film breakdown and stuff as we go as well, just to just to help give y’all some give y’all some content to fill the time as well. Uh, shout out to everybody in the chat. What up though? My guy knucklehead K with the super chat. Yes sir. Yes sir. Yes sir. Said what up do long time no rap. Hoping all is well. wanted to say a 10 and six. I mean 10 and seven or 11 and six. Either way is on the horizon. Hit that thumbs up and that bell icon for my dog. Everybody keep pounding. Stay positive. He said I’m driving. So, but y’all got the gist. We did get the gist, bro. We appreciate you though. Appreciate you though. Nicole S, what up though? Ben Watts, what up though? Justin, what up though? Y’all got me right. Appreciate y’all getting me right on the audio. Appreciate y’all getting me right on the audio. Stream Beam Pop, what up though? Wes R, what up though? Eric Blair, what up though? Garren Garren Cheney in the building. What up though? Shane H1, what up though? Rock, what’s good? My guy Nas in the building. What’s up, Nas? What up though? Jerel, what up? J47, what up? I saw Hunter in the chat too. What’s good, brother? All right, let’s go ahead and get into it, man. Y’all, y’all let me know how y’all feeling down in the chat. My guy Doug in the building, too. What is What’s good, brother? What up, though? Y’all let me know how y’all feeling. I got the five biggest surprises from the first week of training camp. Y’all let me know how y’all feel about these as we go. See if you surprised as well. I’m drinking water. I’m not I’m not drinking I’ll drink some wine later, but I ain’t drinking no alcohol currently. Austin, right? What up, Silver Back? What up, though? All right, let’s get let’s get into it. So, the first surprise for me is the defense starting off strong. And why is it surprising? A lot of people may not be surprised. A lot of people may not be surprised because it’s training camp. Typically, defenses start off faster. You know, defense is more of a read and react type of thing. Yes, you have to communicate and be on the same page, but it’s not really a thing where you need timing and rhythm and all that stuff like you do with offense. Offense, you know what I’m saying? You have to you got to get that on. People got to be on the same page. You got to know the proper depth of the routes. You got to get that timing and rhythm. You got to be on one accord. You got to be you got to be up here. You gotta be like this. So, it takes a little bit of time typically in camps, but for me, from where we were last year as a defense, I’m surprised. Two interceptions on the first two days of camp. Two interceptions on the first two days of camp. Very surprising to me. Very surprising to me. I don’t care what you say. I don’t care what you say. Let me let me adjust this real quick. It was kind of off. It was bothering me. I’m sorry. These margins were bothering me. They was bothering me, y’all. Y’all get to witness my creative process on the go. I’mma get back. Right. Screen share. Let’s lock that up. Uh my camera. Let’s unlock that. Let’s make me a little bigger. We’re going to do it. Let’s do it. Right. All right. All right. Let’s do it. All right. But again, let me start from the top. I’m surprised, bro. I’m surprised. Are you surprised? I’m not. I’m surprised because the spot where we started last year, the ground that we started, a new foundation, us having to bring in a bunch of new weapons and new pieces, I’m shocked. I I don’t know what I was expecting, but a guy like Demani Rickerson stepping up, I’m I’m And I’m a Demonic guy, but a guy like him stepping up early on, I can live with that. A lot of people had question marks thinking we should have signed a safety off the jump before camp. They saw Julian Blackman go to the Saints. He’s a OP now. I ain’t going to lie. I wanted him on the team, but he’s an OP now. He’s an OP. So, we we move on from there. A guy like Justin Simmons is still out there, right? He’s a little older. He talking about wanting to go to a contender. It’s probably a game of chicken right now cuz he’s not the guy he used to be, but he definitely has that rapport with our coaching staff. So, he’s out there potentially, but the Panthers want to give every opportunity to the young guys. I’m talking at Lean Ransom. I’m talking Demani Richardson. Give them a chance to show what they can do before we bring in a vet cuz a vet, they’re going to expect to play. They’re going to expect to play. So before before you before you hinder the opportunities of the young guys, let’s see what they got first. In the first week, Demani stepped up, made a play. Haven’t really heard anything for Ransom. I obviously if you don’t make interceptions, we’re not going to hear about you tagging off or making tackles. We don’t we don’t know. And without me being there to see, I can’t give a full opinion on what he’s done. But I just haven’t heard anything. Right. So, I just unless you make a splash play, I I just don’t know. I just don’t know. I haven’t heard anything about anybody getting beat over the top across the middle down over the top. You know what I’m saying? So, like I don’t know. No, nobody’s really putting anybody out in coverage. We haven’t got a lot of tape or clips. So, it’s hard for me to judge, right? But to see Demi making plays being the ball hawk that he is picking up where he left off last training camp, I’m not surprised by that. But I am surprised by the defense overall making plays cuz then you have your guy, your free agent snee, Pat Jones. Pat Jones doing the zone blitz making an interception. Bryce didn’t see him. He making an interception, dropping into coverage. Now, some people may be concerned about Bryce Young throwing two picks on the first two days. I’m not. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I do not care how many interceptions are thrown in this training camp. We need the defense to get right. We’ll figure that offense out later. It’s going to come along. We have too much talent in my opinion for our offense not to figure it out. But this defense, there’s a lot of question marks going into this season. We’re wondering how this stuff is going to put fit together. We’re wondering if Ajurro Eva actually is that guy. We’re wondering if we have enough talent. We had our starting middle linebacker step away from the game. So, we want to see the defense making these plays. Do I I would I love that they got the upper hand. From what we understand, the first two days they won. It was a walk through yesterday, so that don’t count. But today the offense clapped back and won. But for the defense to win the first two days, I’m cool with that. I have no issue whatsoever. You got Pat Jones dropping into coverage, making attack making his uh interceptions. Get in your bag then. Ajiro, get in your bag. If that’s the case, that’s the type of blitzes and stuff we doing. Everybody thought Pat Jones was a run stopper. If you watch my video, the D line, I showed you that he can get after the quarterback. So, watch to check the tape. That’s why I try to put the tape on for everybody so we know, get the full perspective. He’s more than just a run stopper. He can get after the quarterback, too. But apparently, he can drop back into coverage. Surprise, surprise. That’s a surprise for me. But I’m happy to hear that the defense is is doing what they’re supposed to do. Like I said, even if it’s normal for defenses to hit the ground running, I’m happy that it’s actually the case. Normal is good for our defense because last year that defense was abnormal. It was abnormal. So, I’m cool. I’m cool with it. More give me more more turnovers. Force more of them. And it sounds like they got their mind right. It sounds like they trying to they’re trying to figure things out. Everybody’s in like talking. They want to flush the f of the past year. You know what I’m saying? They they they they saying it’s a new year, new us. They going real real New Year’s resolution type mentality, bro. New year, new me. They doing it all, bro. And that’s what we want to see. take it personal and turn the page and let’s get this thing rocking. Right. But y’all let me know. Y’all surprised. Nick Rosa, what up though? Be d be a we don’t need no safety. Helen Keller’s dog. What’s good? Please guys, give this video a thumbs up if you have not. We have a good amount of people starting to trickle in. Man, I appreciate y’all rocking with your boy on this Saturday. Saturday. Next up, the biggest surprise for me is this Icky Auanu contract situation is still a situation. Why am I surprised? Because it’s still a conversation. Something could be done before the year. I thought to me if they since they went ahead and did the fifthear option, they were just punting until the following year. But according to Iky Auanu, of course, he’s letting his agent handle that. But he’s made it known. Icky wants to be around. He said, “A lot of guys say that when they play for a team, it’s home.” But nah, this is home for me. I’m I’m I I born in the shadows of the stadium. I went to school here. I went to NC State. Obviously, that’s not in Charlotte. But then he got drafted by the Panthers. He’s like, “This is home. I want to be here long term.” And we all know Icky Awanu’s struggles are well documented. The ups and downs, the solid rookie year, the not so solid sophomore campaign, and this past year was a bounceback year. We have a lot of money invested between our guards. And in terms of catapit, we have the largest catapit in the NFL. And so where does Icky fit into this equation moneywise? Because I’m kind I’m just trying to figure out where the the tackle market is because Zack Tom, who plays tackle for the Packers, if you’re familiar with your old lineman in the league, he signed a recent deal with an average annual value of $22 million. $22 million. And that made him a top 10 paid tackle. According to the streets, that was an underpayment. And if you like, if you subscribe to Pro Football Focus, his rating is in the 80s. Icky Quano’s rating is not in the 80s. There’s a gap in that level of play, but according to Joe Pson. The he said the starting point would be top 10, top seven money. That’s surprising to me. I don’t I don’t know what the what what they’re where they are bargaining wise, but obviously it seems like they’re committed to Icky, which is fine to me. He’s been serviceable. He’s been serviceable. But do we Am I trying to pay him top 10 tackle money? No. No. Because his fifthear option that he signed under that he’ll be playing in next year is worth $17 million. Now, do you just try to buy low on Icky because you want to get him here for a while, get a contract extension done, you parlay some of that fifth year option because the fifth year option, remember, is 100% guaranteed. $17 million is going to be a cap hit. It’s guaranteed money is what he’s getting. You can create some cap space by turning that money into a bonus, accelerating it to this year, and spreading it out over the extension. Do you extend them three years, four years? But I just don’t see it’s hard for me to see giving Iky Awanu top 10 tackle money. I’m sorry. And I understand that the market is going to go up when Slater is up, when Pane Su gets a bag. You know what I’m saying? But top 10 money is tough for me, man. If he wants that, I’m I I wouldn’t sign it now. I would have to I would have to punt until next off seasonason. Put put another solid year and actually even better year on on film this year and then we can talk top 10 money. I don’t think 17 average annual value is too much. But I don’t think Icky is going for that. If you can get him at 181 19 million per year average annual I’m all for that. I’m all for that. That seems respectable on both sides. Especially to be wanting a contract extension early. You want a contract extension going into your fourth year. If I can get the benefit of being able to buy low, what’s the incentive for the Panthers to do it now? Just cuz Icky is talking about it, his agent has talked about it because we’ve been hearing conversations about Icky having his eye in and in and mind on money for about a year or two. I I think I saw an article maybe about what is it probably probably a a year before last season. He didn’t really say like I want the money. It was more like he wanted to make sure he got right because he knew the third year. Um the third year was the kind of, you know what I’m saying, the money-making year, you know, and so he’s been thinking about the potential and the looming contract decision for a while now. But I I’m surprised to hear Joe Pson talking about top 10 money. Sheesh. Sheesh. But I make him earn it. Make him earn it because Yeah. Come on, Icky. I got to see consistency, bro. I got to see consistency. You’re the best. According to PFF, you’re the highest rated run blocker on the team. We understand what you bring to the table that there. One of the best in the league. Top 10 at your position. Well, top 11, excuse me, at your position in terms of run blocking, but the pass blocking lacks consistency. You were much better last year in terms of recognizing blitzes, passing stuff off, working with Damen Lewis to to handle pressures and blitzes, and I’ll even make a film breakdown on how Icky improved there. But there’s still some technique issues with his hands and his feet that he needs to get down in terms of being challenged on his outside shoulder by speed rushers. Right. And I’m not and I’m not trying to I’m not trying to diminish Icky. I understand I understand that they want to have him as a part of it. I want to understand he’s improved. I definitely and part as part of this rebuild, we’ve hit some of the high importance positions. We we’ve already hit tackle with him. We hit DTackle with uh with Derek. We hit corner with JC. We hit quarterback with Bryce. And then we hit wide receiver. So, we’ve hit a lot of the premium positions. We we uh if we want this thing to turn to what we want it to, we can’t be restarting the clock and buy and get a new offensive tackle. It behooves all of us. It behooves me. It behooves you. It behooves the Panthers. And it behooves Icky for him to work out for us. That way we don’t have to spend premium draft capital on a premium position. We can continue to go best player available like we did this year. we can make smart decisions and be able to double up on day two with edge rushers because we didn’t panic in the first round. So I it it’s in the best interest of everybody involved that Icky Aonu works out. So I want it to work out. I want them to get a deal done. I want him to be that guy. I’m not trying to replace him. And there’s even been people talking about moving him to right tackle. If if he’s not going to work out at left tackle, he’s not going to work out at right. You have to kick him inside. I know you got Damen Lewis and Robert, but if he ain’t going to work out at tackle, you’re going to kick him inside. Period. So, I I think it’s all for nothing for me in terms of IKEA at left tackle. That’s what it is for me. But the Panthers, it it’s tough. And somebody said it, you’re getting beat. I mean, there’s no pads on, so you can only judge them by so much. But apparently you’re getting beat for sacks by Princeley Umellen who is strong at some of your weak points going against speed rushers. That’s been Icky struggles at times in his career and that’s what Princeley is good at. Right. And so it’s going to be an iron sharper iron situation. And of course with no pads on with no pads on it’s going to be easy for guys to run around you. But I I’m challenging Icky to earn that money. If he wants top 10 money, let’s wait on it. Make him earn it and we’ll see what happens after the year. If you can buy low, go ahead and do it. But we’ll see if anything materializes before the year is over with. Said Princeley’s first step is lethal. Did the stream stop? I don’t think so. I’m I look I feel good on my side. I don’t think the stream stopped. I don’t think so. Said, “Drink the Kool-Aid.” I want Icky to show me. So, if I can keep Michael Parsons out of the back field and I said, “Give him the money.” And we gonna find out cuz Miles Garrett coming to town for these joint practices. and then Will Anderson and Denil Hunter for the Houston joint practices. So, we’re going to get a great look at Iky. He can earn he can make himself some money during training camp, right? Icky can make himself some money during the preseason and training camp. Let’s let’s use this as a trial period. Let’s look at him trying to go against speed rushers in practice. How he does in practice in training camp. Let’s see how he does in preseason. Let’s see how he does in joint practice versus Miles Garrett. Let’s see how he does against a a vaunted Texans front. Like I said, Will Anderson, Denil Hunter, perennial sack, guys. You’re going to get opportunity to go against some heavy hitters to prove yourself. So, I would at least wait to see how things shake out during this process. But, if he wants that top set 10 money, he’s going to have to prove it through that process. And I would probably just punt to the end of the season and see how things work out. I don’t know how anybody else feels about Ikyanu’s contract situation, but I think that’s pretty fair personally. So, somebody had to say it. I had to I’m going to say Iggy got to want it more. I think he wants it. He got to get he got to put it together. says the business running emotionally don’t work out. That’s true. Say if I think he ready, he should bet on himself. That ain’t a bad point. That’s not a bad point. Um cuz he’s only going into year four, believe it or not. So like this is rather early getting a deal done, but a lot of times a lot of times uh you can buy low before like you know what I’m When if you buy if you pay him early, you can buy low. If you think he’s the one and you think he’s going to be here long term anyway, you can if you can buy low and they get more money now versus having to wait till later when prices of everything go up cuz you know prices and this inflation and stuff stuff don’t go down no more. You know what I’m saying? So, if the team wants to pay him now and be and can buy low and it because like, hey, I’ll take my bonus in the cash now and get off this rookie contract and get a bigger bag than I am on now. It may not be as much as I could get, but I get that bag now versus this rookie deal. That’s the incentive of paying early. It may seem crazy, but it works out for both sides. Icky gets money now. Icky gets money now instead of getting off that that rookie deal. Like I said, you get that fifth year option, you can flip that into a bonus instead of having to wait till next year to get it. He can get it all now and get that $17 million in his pocket. Buy your family a crib, do all the other good stuff. The Panthers, if they want to do something and buy a low if they think he could outperform and be worth top 10 money, they may be it may be smart for them to go ahead and pay him now. Buy low and you got him for the next three or four years and it is what it is. So that’s the part of negotiation. We got Marty Bird. We got Marty Bird in the front office. Brent Tillis, you know what I’m saying? Writing up these contracts, playing with the money and the salary cap. I trust him and I trust Dan Morgan until I don’t. They haven’t given me any reason not to trust him going forward. So let’s let’s let’s let’s do with that. All right. My next surprise is the Hunter Refro takeover, bro. The Hunter Refro takeover, dog. It’s It’s It’s real, y’all. It’s real. And And I don’t know how surprised anybody should be. I don’t know. I don’t know how surprised the only thing and I told you guys before I said it once and I’ll say it again. The only hookup hiccup for Hunter Refro was if he could get back into game shape. If he could get back to game shape, we know what he brings to the table. Instantly the best route runner on the team. This guy just moves different. It It’s very quirky. He moves a little funky and so it it like how do you even stop what he’s doing? We finally got a taste because the the Panthers and had a lot of these players in witness protection. We finally got a clip today of Hunter Refer the route against Trevor Mori against off coverage. He made him look crazy and all you got to do is shake his hand. All you only thing you can do in that scenario is shake the brother’s hand because that’s that Hunter Renfro route. that pivot route. Gave him that arm over. Swiped his hand. Gave him that arm over. Act like he was going on a slot fade and then B popped that thing out and pivoted outside. Man, listen. Man, listen. Hunter Refro is making these guys uncomfortable. Xavier Legette even said an article came out today talking about Xavier Legette, talking about the work ethic was never really a problem for him. But he even admitted. He was like, “Man, I’m on this judge machine on the regular with Trouba and Tommy Trimble.” Because between T-Mac, Jimmy, Jaylen, uh, Thelen, that room is crowded. And I don’t think Legett uh, is in trouble obviously of making the roster, but in terms of targets, in terms of playing time, Hunter Refro is making it very uncomfortable for guys. He’s making it to the point where he has to make the team. Like even if he doesn’t play special teams, it’s getting to the point that you cannot let Hunter Refro leave the building. Former Pro Bowler, he may not even be that anymore, but he’s definitely not too far off. The way he looked today, that route was nasty. Third and Refro is real, bro. We’ve seen him making fingertip catches. He’s looking everything in. He’s creating separation. Bryce was bragging on him, giving those indicator steps, the releases, the precision route running, making catches when he needs to. Dependability. A guy like Bryce that throws with anticipation. If you can have a great route runner that you know where they’re going to be on the field because they consistently run great routes, they give you keys and triggers and stuff to know when to throw it to them, that goes hand in hand. That’s why him and Thelen mesh so well. But even Hunter Refro is a better route runner than Adam Thiel. A little bit more juice for sure right now at this point. You know what I’m saying? Xavier Legette mentioned that he is getting uncomfortable in that room and Hunter Refro is has a lot of responsibility for that. The dude making plays, bro. The dude making plays said, “Yeah, Mo was on skates, bro.” Look, man, it’s not fair in one ones. And it it’s like I said, it was just I said it before, it’s just a matter of him getting in the shape and he seems to be there. He seems to be there. Like the league really let us get Hunter Refo for free. He’s making $1.3 million. I checked on spot track. He’s getting $50,000 guaranteed. He’s making $1.3 million. He at He took over practice today. The only person I really heard about them tweeting out receiver-wise, making plays is Hunter Refro today. Dalton giving him shots deep. We saw a video clip a couple more uh shots down the sideline. Bro, Hunter Refro. Bro, it you would have you would have thought that he was wide receiver one the way that the live tweets were coming out from the beat writers. That’s what I That’s the vibes you would have got. And we getting this dude for $1.3 million. Like why didn’t they why? I don’t understand, bro. I understand he had the ulcerative chloritis issue, but like it seemed like he was just trying to get back in the league. I’m not understanding why nobody else gave him an opportunity. He had a construction company he was working on. Like he’s making one point. Why? Why didn’t anybody if he didn’t get back to game shape, you let Hunter Refro go? I just don’t understand how the league let us get this guy for free, bro. Come on, man. Come on. I I I if you’re not a believer, I think a lot of I think today’s practice, even though it’s not full pads, even though it’s only what, day three, day four, I think a lot of people are like, “Okay, bro. The way that route looked, that looked like the the the Refro we know.” And that was really the only question like, “Hey, can he get back to the same old Refro?” And I think today answer that question for a lot of people. He’s back, guys. He’s back. He’s a hometown dude. His family’s at practice. Like, man, man. Yeah. He wants to be here. Yeah. He can make $1.3 million with that construction company. Exactly, bro. Like we getting him for a steal right now, bro. Said Twitter told you he was trash. Look, man. The streets was lying. Said David Moore. You got the the dove, the dove and the flowers for David Moore. Look, man, we may we’ve kept seven receivers the past few years, so we may end up keeping him and David Moore. But I’m telling you, bro, there’s some there’s some people loosening their collar, sweating. We getting we got some lumps in some throats. It’s getting a little uncomfortable in that wide receiver room in Carolina. Hunter Refro is shaking trees, brother. He’s shaking trees. He said that pivot that pivot route run Clemson and Natty, right? saying, “I watched Renfro on my high school for four years. His route running is powerful, man.” Man. Yeah. Um, say, “Is it better than you?” I mean, and Jimmy, apparently Jimmy had a great day today, too. Jimmy had a great day, too. says something about his acceleration and change of pace as Yeah, it’s weird because like he changes the tempo. He’ll come off the line of scrimmage and then he sped up like he was about to run him for a go route and then he just broke that thing down and pivoted off and like Mo was gone out the screen, bro. And I know it was vertical. I know it was a vertical like video, but like he completely made Mo disappear. And Mo is a safety and he has experience guarding him from their Raider days. But like Hunter’s going to do that to most safeties that cover him one-on-one. Moy just happened to be the victim that lined up this time. Um T-Mac has been impressive in some drills that they’ve had. Uh answer a few comments real quick. Um, apparently T-Mac, he got clamped by Mike Jackson today and in one-on ones. I obviously we can’t see him, but he got clamped by Mike Jackson today. Cool with me because Mike Jackson was getting his his lunch money taken in the spring and otaas. So glad to see Mike Jackson actually uh stand up for himself and clap back today in one-on- ones. But T-Mac has looked smooth in the routes. Obviously the hands are the hands. Um I would love to hear more about it. We’re just not getting a lot of content from the team. We’re not getting a lot of content from the team. So we’re not really seeing anything, bro. Again, we’re starving. We’re starving. Right. Are there any clips with Renfro matched up with JC? No. Once again, when it comes to HR13, we went to Bo. Shout out to Bo. RIP to Bo. First of all, RIP to Bo. The real The real ones remember Bo, the cow mascot. Did I watch film on Melo Dawson? I’m familiar with a little bit of his game. He just is like not good against the run, but he’s got the the body size, the length. He had a ton of picks. He’s good in off coverage. He’ll be solid. I think I like him as a depth piece because I actually familiar with his name. A lot of the guys we have Bartholomew and all them. I’m not a I’m never heard of these guys since last year, right? I haven’t heard these guys before since last year. Like before that I’m like, who are these guys? These are Jags. But at least Melo Datson, I’ve heard of him. Even if he’s an undrafted free agent, I’ve heard of him. I’ve seen his game. Seen his tape. say if we play well, say goodbye to fans at training. I doubt it. They got to get us back out there. And they spending all this money um on the practice facility and all that stuff. The renderings that I’ve seen, it looks like it’s going to be crazy. We just got to wait two years. It’s nuts. Like, I don’t understand why next year we can’t just punt to Wford for one year. I know they get comfortable. They like being close and being able to go home every night and stuff like this, but like, man, come on. The fans, bro. We everything. We’re everything for them. We starving for success. We’re excited for the first time in a while. We haven’t had a winning season in seven years, but it feels like this year could be the one. And people actually believe it. Like, golly, they doing us a disservice. And they do even more disservice by not giving us enough content. We starving. Starving for content. Yeah. Yeah, I’m worried about the linebacker room, too. I’m worried about the depth more than anything, but I’m worried about the linebacker room as well. But we’re not going to really find out much about them until the pads come on, which is Monday. Monday, Monday, Monday. And again, look, they’re not afraid to make changes. They’re not afraid to make changes. So, if something comes up, I’m not afraid. I’m not worried about them making a move. But again, I think they’re down for giving guys a chance to fail. That’s my That’s what I think. All right. My next surprise, the rookie edge rushers impact. Brother, you see that man? You see this man right here? Right here. You see this man up here? Princely. The prince that was promised the prince and the queen city. Princely um me yelling dog. the streets. The streets saying that he had icky in a in a blender in a blender had sex in the first two practices. Even if it was just t-shirts and draws. Princely princely um me yelling doing his thing, man. Look, I told y’all if you follow me on Twitter, I told y’all. I told y’all he was one of them guys. I even dropped my edge rusher video. And where did I have him ran? I had him a lot I had them ranked a lot higher than most. That first step is deadly. The speed is deadly. Presley getting him in the third round. If he turns into the guy that I think he can, bro, we got us one. Nigerian on Nigerian crime. That’s funny. But apparently both of the rookie edge rushers are doing well. Apparently Nick Scorton on the same play that Princely he ran in the he got that forced that fumble. Apparently Scorton was in the back field as well. Nick Scorton the other edge rusher. It was a meeting in the back field. It was a meeting. There’s a meeting in my backfield, bro. It was a meeting in the backfield. Both of them got there princely. He tried to avoid it, but he knocked the ball out of Bryce’s hands. He said, “Yeah, you heard that’s how I got on radar from my video, bro.” Yes. But that speed don’t show up in these early practices. So, we talking about No, we I I I prefaced it by saying that the pads aren’t on, but again, the flashes are there. I’d rather see flashes than no flashes, right? We rather hear nothing and be crickets and princely not making plays. What do you want? Yeah, we can temper we can temper our expectations, but at the same time, I said it the other day, and this is just me being a big pre-draft fan of Princely. The way things are shaping out, and it may sound a little crazy, Princeley could be our biggest impact rookie with Bryce Young spreading the pill around. T-Mac, who knows what T-Max’s role is going to be. I think he’s going to get a lot of targets, of course, but there’s a lot of bounds defeat scoring. It seems like he’s firmly edge number two behind Pat Jones. We heard that much in the blueprint. But what we heard of DJ Wanom, DJ Wanom is a starter, but they’ve been bringing him along slow. DJ Wanom has never played a full season in his career. DJ Wanom, he had that blood clot issue after the quad surgery last year. So, they’re they’re they’re kind of tempering his reps. Princeley has been in with the starters a lot from according to what I’ve heard from all the beat. And if Prince is going to make impact plays, it’s going to be hard to keep him off the field. So, he’s already going to have the opportunity because the guy that he’s behind is a guy that’s faced some injuries, but if he plays good enough, it’s going to be hard to keep him off the field. And even if he starts out as just a designated pass rusher, so be it. Because we need that juice. Even if you don’t think he’s an every down guy because you’re not you’re not really sure about how he plays the run, fine. fine. But this guy is confident. He’s been putting in work. He was on Twitch and he was defending Icky. He was like, “Everybody’s trying to get on Icky on Twitter about getting beat by a third round pick.” He said, “Iki is a good offensive tackle.” He said, “I’m just like that. I’m a good edge rusher. Can’t too many tackles block me anyway?” Is it cocky? Confident? I don’t know. But we haven’t really had guys on this defense with this much bravado, with this much confident in themselves, with this much hunger in a minute. It’s been a minute. And so I’m not going to try to humble him. I mean, cuz the legal the legal do that if if he’s not ready, if he’s not ready, the legal humble himself. I’m not gonna be here. Oh, you better step up and be that. Nah, I’m I’mma I’m talk that talk then Princeley cuz if he going to get humbled the league will do it. I’m not going to be the one to humble him. So I’m I’m going to feed into it because again if he turns into one of them guys we are in great shape. Great shape. Can we get five, six tackles as a rookie from him off of just speed rushes? Maybe Brian Burns off of just speed rushers. He gave us what? Seven and a half sacks as a rookie. I mean, can we get five? Can we get six from our third round edge? Like, these are the type of things that we need to be able to have because we haven’t had this. We haven’t had draft success over the years. And this is why we’re in the situation we are in. Thanks to Scott Fitter, Matt Rule, Frank Wright, we haven’t like we haven’t had that. And y’all are saying in the chat like you want your edge rushers to be a little cocky. You want def like you want your defenders that’s not like a little bit crazy. That may not may or may not be all the way there. Not saying that’s Presley, but you want them guys that’s like, okay. And so we’re seeing both of these rookie edge rushers going out trying to do their thing. So, we’ll see what happens when the pads get on. Obviously, when they start playing, you can start playing the run a lot more. Linemen have a lot more to punch and grab on to, which is what happens in pass pro. So, I’m excited to see what Princley can be. Again, he has an opportunity to be the biggest impact rookie that we have in this class starting out early because of just pure opportunity. There’s a clear path for him to be on the field a lot because of the guy in DJ Won that he’s behind. I’m ready to see him continue to step up and grow. I’m monitoring him. I’m rooting for him. And again, if he lives up to it, my 33 jersey will be in the mail. My white 33, I’m getting a white 33 jersey. Should we be worried about Icky? Not right now. Not right now. We’ll wait till the pads get on. Again, like I said, Icky is going to have every opportunity to prove himself in this joint practice against Miles Garrett, against Will Anderson and Denil Hunter. He’s going to have every opportunity to prove himself and show that he’s okay. So, he’s going to be under the microscope. I’m not going to be worried about Icky until we see him in action. That’s when I’ll be worried. But real quick, let me get to the super chat real quick because I got knucklehead K dropped another one. Appcate you appreciate [Applause] clap it up. He said, “Speaking of middle linebacker, have you seen to a CV normal film? If anyone competes and learns from each other, we will be okay. Trevan made progress last year, but we definitely need more reps.” And he said, “Yeah, he made 11 and 11 and seven.” I think he made 11 and six. Yeah, I saw uh to a CV. I I had to take my time saying his name. He He’s a hitter, bro. He He can hit. What is his path to? Because you got Ban Martin Scott, the undrafted free agent he’s competing with. Obviously, you got in is it Encouman. You got uh what is it? Sherless. So, there’s a lot of like depth linebackers and special teams undrafted free agent type of guys that are in there that are going to be in that rotation. But, this guy can hit. Can he find a way on special teams? Can he make plays during the gap? They’re be watching them on the tape during preseason, of course, because these are the guys that have that high motor. They play hard. They hit hard. You want to see them fly around and just hit make plays. So, it’s easy guys to root for, right, to make the roster, but we’ll just have to see how things shake out. I’ll start probably doing a prediction uh after the first game. I’ll probably start doing a 53man roster projection video. Um, but look, man, undrafted free agent, man, I I I think we got spoiled a little bit last year. One, because we had a guy like Jaylen Coker who’s like super efficient, and then even Demani Richardson is a guy that’s competing for starting position. Now, that’s rare, especially for us, but it’s rare to get starting caliber contributor level undrafted free agent guys like that that hit the ground running. Can we get lucky again? Maybe. go. I’m not saying we won’t, but I’m just saying I don’t want to like think it’s just like a walk in the park to find like those type of gyms just cuz we did it with Jaylen Coker. So, just try to temper my expectations. My mouth so dry. But knucklehead said, “Hit that like button. Them is free. He said, “This super chat goes specifically to your song references you as today is on your Wednesday live.” There’s a there’s a meeting in my backfield. There’s a meeting in my backfield, brother. Hey, if you if you know, you know. If you know, you know. I appreciate you, bro. Um, you forgetting about Pat Jones. He’s gonna be that. Yeah, but bro, yeah, I mean, like I said, I made that film breakdown on Pat on the Dline, man. Pat is like that inside out rushing. Um, 60 sack season, bro. I need it. I need it. I need a 60 sack season. Pause. I need it. Um Okay. And so, last but not least, the roster churn has started. The biggest surprise for me is the roster churn has started. Omar Amari Barno Amari Barno was released yesterday. Amari Barno was a what class? He was a 2022 rookie class. Remember Amari Barno ran that 43 at the combine as an edge rusher at the combine. He was a edge rusher running 43 438. Wow. Which is a wild time. He was pretty solid on special teams because you have a guy his size running down the field with that type of speed. So he had a pray place but he tore his ACL and then apparently he had another procedure done this offseason to hurt his knee trying to get that knee and so they let him go. It’s a cold game. They brought in JJ Weaver, an undrafted free agent edge rusher out of Kentucky, former teammate of Trevan Wallace. What? See, he was a six-year college player thanks to co and red shirts. But Amari Barno is out of there. And the really the main idea is, man, they’re starting to turn that roster again. MJ Devonshshire, who had an injury designation because of a hamstring, I think it said hamstring. He’s gone. They brought in Melo Datson, the quarterback who was cut by the Raiders, undrafted free agent out of Kansas. Like I said, he had 12 interceptions. This is just another black eye on the Fitterer in rule regime, bro. Another Scott Fitter pick out of the paint. Out of the paint. It’s bro. The Panthers. It bad drafting is what got us into this position. Bad drafting is what got us into this position. That 2022 class Icky, he’s here. Matt Carral gone. Brandon Smith gone. Amari Barno gone. K. Mazize was gone. Came back. He’s still here. Kaylin Barnes gone. Two. We have two players. Two players. Two players from the 2022 draft class. That was just three years ago. That draft class was three years ago. And only two players remain on the roster. Two guys, only two guys are seeing their rookie contract. And like I said, Kay Mazize was cut. He was on another team. He was on the Giants and we brought him back and it’s working out now. But only two guys from the 2022 draft class are still here. This crazy. And it’s looking like we’re only going to extend one. We’ll see where the future of K May is. And it seems like we’re gonna probably get a deal done with Icky. But the kind of the the the indicator of you having a successful draft pick is getting him into a second contract. Even if it’s Ian Thomas and you felt like you if you felt like he was good enough that you wanted to keep him around, getting a second contract in my eyes means that you hit because so many guys either get cut, they don’t see their full rookie deal at all. Like even a guy like Shaq Thompson who had multiple contracts with the same team, that’s success. That doesn’t really happen. A lot of guys, they hit free agency, they end up finding another team. They may be good at other teams, but many times your picks don’t work out. And so getting a second deal is an indicator. But my goodness, two draft picks from a class that was only three years ago is extremely nasty work. And like Brandon said, only two of them on NFL rosters. That’s nasty work. These are guys that aren’t just bouncing around other T. Oh, these guys aren’t they these guys are working 9 to5s. They probably driving CDLs, driving Amazon trucks, working at construction companies. These guys are civilians now, bro. Shout out to Matt Carral still playing, kicking and stuff like that, though he’s not. But a lot of these other guys, where are they? These are three years removed from their them being picked and they’re not even in the league. This is insane. So, it’s just going to take a lot. You have to be able to draft, bro. You have to be able to draft. And I’m hoping we figure this thing out and we’re starting to get in the right direction. But Amari Barno being cut is just another reminder of how bad the past regimes are. So, if hopefully we’ll get this thing going and it obviously lets you know that, hey, I mean, Dan Morgan might have been around for some of these picks, but they’re not afraid to let these guys go. They’re not. If they find somebody else better that can contribute, they’re not afraid. They’re not. And there’s still some other draft classes, obviously, 2023, right? Even that was kind of nasty, too. And it’s only been what? Two years. That was kind of nasty, too. Is in better shape. But Bryce, Mingo, DJ Johnson, Savala, Jamie Robinson, they’re all in the league still, but currently three out of the five. I mean, you’ve already lost two out of the five. Mingo’s in the Cowboys. Jamie, I think he’s still with the Seahawks, right? Maybe. Obviously, Bryce, you thinking he’s your guy now, for sure. We’ll see what the future of DJ Johnson is. And Chandler Zavala, actually, it was looking grim for Chandler Zavala as a rookie, but it seems like a pretty solid depth piece. more. Yeah, there’s more undrafted players in the league than drafted players. That’s kind of the thing uh in terms of just like how rosters are built, but it it’s you have to be able to draft and I I like Dan. Um and I’m hoping we got we’ll be able to hit on some picks going forward because that’s going to be the best way for us to turn this thing around quick. We need draft picks and we need good value picks overachieving where they were drafted. We need a guy like Princeley who’s a third round pick overachieving scoring overachieving, right? We need these undrafted free agents like Jaylen Coker overachieving being a wide receiver three. We need a guy like Demay Richardson turning out to be solid enough to be a starter. They’re cheap. Yeah, every so often you’ll get um you’ll get a Hunter Refro on a 1 something million dollar deal and he’ll overperform for free agency, but you’re not going to spend your way. You’re not going to spend money to get out of a uh out of the trenches, right? That’s just not way the NFL is set up. You have to be able to draft your way out of the hole. And so, we got to start hitting on these picks. We got to, but the roster churn will continue. But it’s just it was a little surprising to me for Mari Barnard to get gone, but not not really because it’s just more of the same of the past. All right. Um, so him and Mor can hit. Yeah, we got some We got some dudes that can hit in the back. then back uh back now. All right, real quick before we try to land it, I got a few quick points. Who will be our defensive coordinator? Our defensive coordinator, I don’t know. It’s going to be probably AO. They don’t they didn’t invested him. He’s in his final year’s deal. I don’t know. I’ll cross that bridge when it happened. said DJ Johnson. Yeah, he had that one highlight we saw him making a play in the run. A a bro clock is right twice a day, right? That what they say. A squirrel eventually gets a nut. Eventually. Um yeah, Ransom here, too. Yeah, they but Jimmy Horn, they said Jimmy Horn is looking lightning quick today. Almost unguardable. They said they look unfair in one-on- ones today. He’s just so fast and quick. And Dave Canales talked about how he only has one speed. He doesn’t even know how to do walk through speeds. He compared him to Devin Tomkins. If you’ve been watching the channel, I talked about him being used in that gadget like Devin Tomkins role. You know that jet motion guy that you put in motion and running that little cheap motion like they do with Tariq Hill where they run him get him and snap the ball while he’s running full speed. Stretch the defense out. get him on the end of round, a bubble screen, a couple wide receiver reverses. Those are that’s an easy way to get Jimmy on the field. Even if you don’t think as a route runner or whatever, like he’s ready to be out there and play through the physicality. Even if you think there’s other guys that are better suited for the slot, you can easily get a package of 15 to 20 plays for Jimmy Horn that you can get them on the field, give him give him three, four, five touches a game and let him work. And again, they did it with Devin Tomkins last year. So, I don’t think that it’s it would be anything complicated to do it for Jimmy. There’s a clear path for Jimmy Horn to get on the field very very quickly. Uh, next thing Derek Brown returned. He missed the first couple days for personal reasons. The personal reasons he had a baby. Baby number four. Another girl. Apparently, he has three girls and one boy. So, congratulations to him. Uh, JC Horn also became a dad for the first time. A girl dad. Shout out to him. Girl dads, you know, I’m part of that fraternity as well. Uh, but apparently he had no restrictions today. Apparently, he was going a lot quicker and smoother than they expected him to be in team. So, that’s a good sign. We’ll see how they play. He hasn’t decided if he wants to play with a knee brace or not yet. He’s played with it in college before is what he said, but it’s going to be up to him mentally if he wants to play with that knee brace. Take it from a guy that played football towards ACL. It’s a mental thing because you feel no restriction. You don’t think about it when you have that knee brace on. But without it is if if if you if you feeling playing a little skittish or sk you know what I’m saying then yeah put the rene brace on that way you don’t have to think about it and keep it rocking till you feel comfortable. Uh JT Sanders talked about his off seasonason as well talked about slimming down from 255 to 238. 17 pounds is a lot of weight to lose. Granted, you don’t have to be heavy to play tight end in the NFL anymore. And if it makes him move quicker, he looks very, very nimble out there running routes. He looks good getting in and out of his breaks. He has a background playing receiver in high school. And so getting a little bit lighter, you’re going to start seeing more of those flashes of that skill set come out from him. The hands are always good. He has very, very large hands. He’s a pinnable there. He sounds like he’s matured a lot. He put in the work this offseason. He talked about being a leader in his press conference today. I’m excited. A lot of these guys get it. That’s the good thing about some of these guys they’ve drafted. They get it. They want to put in the work. We hear about a rookie edge rushers staying up doing all these drills in the hotel during mini camp. Last year, JT uh Jonathan Brooks, Sha Smith Wade, they stayed up, had rookie um like study sessions. They even kind of talked about doing their routine today. Hey, they’re on a panel for the rookies this year telling them about the work they have to put in. So, the leadership, the work ethic, man, it feels like we got the right type of guys, man. Obviously, optimism is at an all-time high, but you feel good about the direction and you feel a bit good about the prospects of this year. We have a lot of guys that they they understand the opportunity in front of them and they want to make something happen, right? But in terms of the center competition, K May and Austin Corbett will alternate each day as this thing goes on. Um, I’m not really sure how far it’ll go in. I’m sure they’ll probably go through preseason or roster cuts at least before we make a decision on who’s the starting center. We’ll see who’s out with the first group, but Austin took day one reps. Obviously, again, we’ll see what happens during preseason, but we talked about it the the needs at linebacker or any other position. If we want to talk about a player for player trade like we did last year, whoever loses the center competition could possibly be a valuable trade piece because we know both guys have starting experience and play pretty well. So, whoever loses is a starting caliber offensive lineman. Offensive line is a very scarce resource. We have depth behind them. Brady Christensen can play center. Apparently, they’ve been cross trainining Chandler Zavala at center. So we can move off of either K Mazize or Austin Corbett and get a little bit of value in return if we feel like linebacker is a big need. It’s going to be our most valuable trade piece. Why not? Ideally, you want Oline depth, but you got to do what you got to do if we feeling skeptical of our linebackers. So that’s just another thing to note. All right. But I’m hoping that next week we get a lot more action with full pads, a lot of splashes. Yeah, the Lions could potentially need a center. I don’t know if any issues have come out of it, but I think their center retired, so they could be on the radar um in terms of some a team needing a center. So, we’ll see how things progress. Um, but again, yeah, that was funny. That princely and scoring video saying good night was funny. We got some characters, bro. We got some characters on this team. But all right, guys. I got to get up off here. It’s been an hour and 15. Uh, y’all make sure y’all stay up. I’ll be back with y’all working on a film breakdown still. Um, Monday is when they’re back on the field with full pads, so it probably won’t be a stream. It probably just be a video recapping um of course and then uh Wednesday live stream on I’m back on um no Wednesday live stream is no what’s Wednesday’s date? Wednesday is the 30th. So I’ll be live streaming on the channel Wednesday. Fam uh Fanfest is next week. I’ll talk to y’all again before FanFest. I’m at FanFest. I’m trying to do something fun there in terms of just talking to y’all. Um I want to do some street interviews. So, holla at a player if you let me know if you’re going to be at FanFest. Let me know if you’re gonna be at FanFest. Um, number Caitlin Super Chat, you got one in before I left. He got one in before I got off. He said, “Hey, Dunk, one more question. Am I doing film breakdowns this year? The best at it. I’ll be learning how to watch film from you.” Appreciate you, by the way, homie. Um, yes, I will be doing film breakdowns. I’m going to start doing since like training camp is like the basic back to the basic stuff. I’m gonna start doing um like breaking down the system, right? Like what did like what like what are we trying to do on defense? What are like some what what did our run game look like last year? What did our red zone offense look like last year? What like why was he because we were pretty good in the red zone, believe it or not. But like breaking down like the technique of why we do this on defense and like the three four and like you know what I’m saying? Because it’s a little bit I think there’s a little bit of nuances that people don’t really understand all the way. So, I want to try to break that down, get back to the basics. Of course, we can’t get content like we can like I normally do with training camp. So, I have a little bit more time obviously. So, I’ll try to do something like that. Um like that there. You said you at FanFest, too. We got Bro, we got to meet. We got to meet. Got to meet big dog. We’ll talk again. We’ll talk again before FanFest. Um I’ll be streaming Wednesday and I got videos coming before Wednesday, but I’ll probably stream Wednesday like my normal weekly live streams on Wednesday. But I’ll holl at y’all. I love y’all. Y’all keep y’all heads up. We’re gonna get some more content eventually out of these guys. Hopefully, maybe. Prayerfully. All right. Nicole gonna be there, too. Gotta got to meet. We got to meet. If you’re gonna be there, we got to meet. We’ll talk about a little bit more next stream. Get some details.

The Carolina Panthers finally hit the field for the first week of training camp. Thanksfully there were no big injuries of note, but there were a few unexpecting things that occured.

Tune in as we recap what went down and what’s to come.

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