It’s that time, Chris. We’re about to see the Panthers play someone else. Yeah. It’s about damn time. We’re gonna talk about it. Let’s get this sucker started. Get dialed in Panthers fans. Here comes an in-depth look at your team. Exclusive interviews, locker room insight. Let’s huddle up for Panther’s Playbook. Here are your hosts, Dennis Cox and Chris Lee. Welcome back to another episode of Panther’s Playbook. That’s Chris Lee, Dennis Cox here with you. By the way, uh, we recorded, by the time this episode drops, we’re one day away from Panthers preseason game number one. Let us know in the comments. What are you looking forward most to seeing in preseason game number one? And Chris, uh, we’ll get a little bit into joint practices in the preseason game and the unofficial depth chart here for the Carolina Panthers, but it’s nice to see that coming out of the joint practice on Wednesday with the Cleveland Browns, I, I love the fact. That they weren’t perfect. A lot of people want perfection right from the beginning of the season, but I have to remind fans of this. We still have yet to play one preseason game. If you’re in mid-season form at this point, that means you’re not gonna get any better. Like you want to hit mid-season level, mid-season, not right now because again, you just plateau and everyone else catches up with you. Yeah, and you know what, it’s weird that uh right now I’m in Cleveland, Ohio. I know you went to the wrong place alone in a hotel room in Cleveland, Ohio, um, but yes, um. The, the reports that I saw also had glowing marks for the Panthers, which is good. Like it doesn’t look like uh anything was bad. But yes, there are certain things. I’m glad Ted Roy McMillan had his first drops that we’ve seen of them so far because, you know, I’ve seen the clips, you know, Pat Walter, our colleague, um, shot a nice little clip of Tet doing something, you know, running a little, you know, thing, turns around, didn’t realize the ball’s gonna be there, catches it like this, you know what I’m saying. Uh, video has been out there. I think it’s happened on the 1st or 2nd day of training camp. Um, you know, we’ve talked about all the great stuff with Bryce, all the great stuff with the defense, and you’re right. We see the things that, uh, that the team needs to work, work on, and more, more, uh, importantly, the team themselves and the coaching staff gets a chance to see what the team needs to work on. And I, I love the fact uh that, that is there for them on tape so that they can get better and look better inside of games. Um, and that’s what this preseason is all about. Let’s, let’s work the kinks out. So, when we start week one versus the Jaguars, we don’t look like the how we looked in week one last year against the Saints. I’m hoping And then I’m, I’m hoping the, the thing that comes out of these preseason games and the fact that we’re getting reps and, and Dave Canal did say he would like to get 8 to 12 reps in the preseason games for starters. Somewhere in that like that’s kind of the sweet spot. If it’s one series for the offense. where they go down 8 plays on Thursday or 9 plays and they score a touchdown. Cool, we’re good. But if they go 3 and out, hey, you know, we’re gonna put you guys back out there. The same thing defensively. If you go 3 and out as a starter, and that’s not quite enough reps. Let’s get you maybe a second series out there, Chris. And I’m hoping, I’m hoping that, like you said, That the, the level of play week one in Jacksonville is not like what we saw last year, week one against New Orleans. 100% agree with you because that was terrible. And I think we all saw that as a byproduct of not getting enough reps in the preseason. Yeah. And I think a lot, go ahead. Oh, I was just gonna say, uh, uh, shout out to Dave Canalis because you already see, you know, we, there were times last year we were hard on them and I think for, for good reason. Um, but we never was like, you know, he needs to be fired. I was like, no, no, no, no, he’s a good coach. He’s gonna be fine. I, I love the higher, uh, but you see the little ways that he can change and get better and improve each year because he said, hey, you know what, I did this last year. My guys are not ready the first two weeks of the season. So let me change something and, and do something that you love to see that from coaches. I know that you’ve covered coaches like this. You probably worked for coaches like this. Who knows? Maybe you can give some of that team who are just bullheaded. I, I do what I do. Hey coach, it’s not working. No, I do what I do, and we’re just gonna do that. I’m glad Dave Canalis is not that guy. And so, uh, that’s, I think that’s the main thing. is not only just the improvement on the field, but what’s the improvement on the sidelines? What’s the improvement in the uh game planning uh between the coaches and all that from, uh, from week to week? And I, and I really hope we see that take a step up as well. Because also, this joint practice is not Not just for players on the fields for the coaches as well. They’ll, they’ll get a chance to really assess in a game situation, this guy looks a lot better than in practice. So now I have to figure out what’s going on in those reps in practice or it could be the reverse, you know, like you look really great in practice, you get to the game and oh, what’s going on here? Oh yeah, yeah, there’s always practice all-stars. There always are practice all-stars. Um, something that stood out to me, heroes gym class hero. I love that. Uh, so something that stood out to me from, from reading and everything that happened at joint practice on Wednesday that the run game looks strong, which for the for the Panthers, which doesn’t shock me one bit. And I was thinking about what what’s that? And so did the run defense, and so did the run defense. We’re getting the run defense here in just a second. But Chris, when I was at Panthers fan fest on Saturday and seeing the first team offense out there working, seeing Rico Dowdle and Chuba Hubbard on the field working together, whether it’s on the field together at the same time, but like we saw Cuba Hubbard and Miles Sanders at times last year or just the way those two guys were rotated in. As much attention as we have given the wide receivers this offseason and understandably so, especially with the emergence of Hunter Renfro kind of unexpected, you know, no one really knew what to expect from Hunter Renfro, you know, after missing a year of football and the illness and everything that he was dealing with. So, oh yeah, this is a head coach that says we want to run the ball, we want to be a run team. And seeing the 12 combo of Cuba, Hubbard and Rico Dada together, I was like, Well, yeah, we’re kind of sleeping on this. Like we’re kind of sleeping on this, the fact that they want to be a run-heavy team and the fact that you now have Rico Dad to be that compliment to Cuba Hubbard, much like Jonathan Brooks was drafted to be, I’m excited to see what this run game does this, this season, Chris. I’m, I’m excited to see what it does even on Friday. I, I have a theory on that, and I think it’s because if you could pick. The uh uh a an MVP of last season for the Carolina Panthers on the field, it’s Chuba Hubbard. Oh, easily, because the games they did win. Chuuba Hubbard had a lot to do with it. And so the run game with Chuba Hubbard there and of course, you know, that means uh a good uh run blocking offensive line who all returned and all of their backups returned as well. You know that that means, OK, that’s the one thing we don’t have to worry about, right? We know that it’s very hard to mess up, you know, dropping back and, and hand it off to, uh, a running back. Bry You can do that really well, uh, and we know Chuba Hubbard’s gonna take care of it, and you brought in Rico Dowdo and it’s the same offensive line. OK, that’s covered. I think that’s the mindset of a lot of people. So one of the big things that we’ve been talking about over the last few years is that the Panthers haven’t been as explosive as maybe they. Should be or could be, uh, in a lot of cases. Um, if you remember that 2020 year, even though they only won 5 games, that was, I mean they won a lot of close games that year too. But that was an that was an explosive team. They had some explosive plays. Um, down the field. Um, and I don’t think we’ve seen that in the Panthers since then, but now, we know the run games together. Um, so I think that’s the, uh, that’s the reason why. Um, but again, shout out to the Panthers front office. I don’t know if we talk about this and I’m speaking about not speaking about the running game a lot. We speak about the, the job that, uh, Dan Morgan has done. And two offseasons and one full season, like they haven’t even hit the, the field for the second season of him being a GM yet, and this already feels like the best back to back summers for a Panthers offseason that I’ve seen in a while. Like, when’s the last time they’ve stacked two summers? This well, as far as like, you know, like fully improving certain parts of the team and you can see where the growth is going like typically like you have a jump like oh we got Christian McCaffrey and wow this looks great next year you still don’t do much on the field, you know, it’s, it’s, there’s that. You know, back and forth, uh, that always seems to happen with the Panthers. Um, and so that run game being stout, and we don’t talk about it in that, um, the GM position being stout, we don’t talk about it all because like, They’ve been proven. And maybe by next year, we’re not talking about Bryce Young because, well, he’d be proven. And maybe we’re talking about like, hey, you know, is, uh, you know, do we have another corner or, or the safety or, you know, middle linebacker or something, uh, next year to, to, you know, as the, as the big thing. So going into Friday’s game against Cleveland and the preseason game, you mentioned the run defense. And one of the things that was obviously a Well, probably the worst part about the defense last year is there’s a lot of terrible things was that rush defense. It was, it was, let’s just say it was awful. It’s called what it was. It was, it was awful. And To see how they revamped that defensive front with the additions of Bobby Brown, with the addition of Turk Wharton, drafting Cam Jackson. Obviously, Derrick Brown coming back, Ahaw Robinson coming back into the mix, adding Pat Jones as an outside linebacker, then also adding Princeley Uma Melen and Nick Skorton as outside linebacker. So you really added a whole bunch of different guys to the front of that defense and seeing the reps, even in person. And the, the times they can be able to get to training camp or, or, you know, mini camp or even the, the joint I’m sorry, the, uh, fan fest. Seeing the push of that interior defensive line was like a breath of fresh air. Like it was so like, oh my God, like what is that KK Short out there? Like, you know, like that’s what it felt like. Like that’s, that’s the kind of thing because let’s not forget when the back in the days of Thomas Davis and Luke Kuechly. As the off-ball linebackers just wreaking havoc. Let’s not forget the Star Lotulele and the KK Shorts and those guys that were in front of them, causing havoc up front, eating blockers, allowing those guys to feast on stuff in the open field. And I feel like we’re starting to sense that a little bit again with all the guys that they added and seeing them actually do it against other opponents with some guys that have some all-pro. Spots on the resume like a Joe Pittonio, these guys who literally have been voted all pros, and to see them succeed, at least in joint practice. Yeah, I’m excited for the fact that, oh my gosh, our run defense is actually gonna be pretty, hopefully pretty good this season. Star Lotulele, man, that you just brought it back. I’m name dropping here, Chris. But, but, but for real, like when the Panthers have their best defenses, we, we again, we talk about, you know, Josh Norman and all those guys, but let’s not forget those guys up front either. No, uh, I, I just, uh, when you said that name, you, you kind of forget, um, especially over the last few years, like how good it really was. So when you had a Star Latule and a, and a Kwan short, it didn’t feel like. There were times in the last few years that felt like the Panthers couldn’t get back to that. So you saying that almost felt is like, wow, we, we reached that again. Like, like, it felt like that was so far, that was so far away, so far removed. Um, I, I love what I’ve been, uh, hearing, uh, from, you know, Bobby Brown being there. He, of course, he wasn’t practicing yet, but when the two times, I mean, you were down there, but Bobby Brown, how he’s looked, uh, along with, you know, Esha Robinson having those types of guys next to him, so. You know, he can have an easier time and get more of a break. He doesn’t have to, um, you know, do as many, uh, as many reps, along with uh Derek Brown being there, Turk Warton, I mean, just that collection of guys right there, um, is helping to change the culture, and we’ve heard a lot about what Turk Warton has done. Uh, and how people, you know, rallied around him. Like that guy already feels like he’s one of the leaders on the team, and, you know, he’s not even a start on a depth chart right now, right? We’ll get into that here in a second. Well, we we’ll get to that, but like, um, it’s very cool, uh, at, at the point of where we are, um, and it feels like it’s gonna translate into games like if it looked that well, um, you know, against the Browns, not the Browns aren’t a really good team, right, but, um. You know, if it looks that good against another NFL team, right, then, um, you know that it has a chance to look a lot better during the season, and that’s ultimately what I mean, uh, for a lot of these teams last year, we said this plenty of times. You take away. Some of these missed tackles and, you know, at the line of scrimmage or when guys are, you know, wrapping up guys at at, you know, right there at the line of scrimmage, they’re still carrying them 5 yards down the field. Take away some of those and get some immediate tackles. The Carolina Panthers could have easily won, you know, another 2 games last year. So you, you’re talking about this is a group that could possibly get the Panthers just by themselves if nothing changes in their production. Besides just run stopping, probably 2 more wins. That’s, that’s exciting. I mean, just that in and of itself and just in terms of now you put, uh, opposing the offenses in predictable situations. Yeah, because now it’s not 2nd and 4, you know, after a 6-yard run on 1st down. It’s like, well, then they want 2nd and 4, the playbook’s wide open for an offense, but if I got you at 2nd and 8 or 2nd and 9. OK, now it’s, you know, that, that becomes 3rd and 6th or 3rd and 7. Now it’s a little bit more predictable about what the offense might do. I, I, I’m 100% with with you, Chris. I’m, I’m excited to see what that defensive line can do again, against another NFL team. I’m excited to see what they potentially can become this season. Uh, and speaking of another NFL team, again, we have a Game this Friday, you mentioned the unofficial depth chart. Uh, Turk Warton not listed as a starter. Um, unofficial depth chart, take it all with a grain of salt. I wanna make sure I tell fans this. Take it with a grain of salt. Turk Wortton not being listed as a starting defensive lineman is OK because The defensive line is gonna rotate constantly during the course of the season. It’s gonna rotate depending on the situation. If it’s 3rd and 11, you might get Turk Wharton and Derek Brown out there. If it’s 2nd and 6th, it might be Bobby Brown, E Sean Robinson, and, and Derek Brown in there. So like there’s going to be a constant rotation of guys in there depending on what the personnel and the situation is gonna be. All things you gotta take in mind and keep in mind. I should say, Chris, when it comes to this depth chart, is there anything on the unofficial depth chart that stood out to you that kind of was a little bit glaring maybe? Um, I would say what we just brought up with, uh, Turk Wharton, but you know, I’m not too worried about it, uh. And, and then also I would say, uh, I’m not worried about this either, but Jimmy Horn, Junior, uh they list 3 wide receivers as a starter and he’s not um in the 1st or 2nd for either one. Now, I’m not Too worried about that either. Part of me, and I don’t know if this is something that a front office would do, but is there some gamesmanship in this? Is this like, you know, let me put out this. It’s not quite accurate, but let me see what calls are coming in from other teams. If they feel like, uh, we’re not as high on Jimmy Horn, maybe I could give up this player for him just to see what they do. So maybe the Panthers know what’s available. Like, oh, this, uh, tight end is possibly available. Well, we wanna keep Jimmy Horn. How about this guy? You know, I, I wonder if, if that is a part of it. I’m just speculating here, um, but that’s just something that I was kind of thinking before, but I’m also not too worried about it because I don’t think the Panthers with what he’s already shown he can do, um, um, you know, on the field and the fact that like you don’t want to wave that guy and he ends up in Atlanta, you know what I’m saying? I don’t want that guy going anywhere like, you know, wave people where it’s like, you know. The person in front of you, I don’t want them to go to Atlanta, so I’m sorry. We gotta cut like that’s, you know, if that’s the, if that’s the case, then like, and we don’t really mind you going to Atlanta, then yeah, you can go. But, um, I, I, I still think he makes the team. So I’m not too worried about the fact that he’s not listed as a second team, at least on any of the three wide receiver positions. And let’s keep in mind when it comes to, to him and really just the wide receiver group as a whole, Hunter Renfro is still dealing with a hamstring injury. He’s not gonna play on Friday. So that means more reps, more snaps, more opportunities for Jimmy Horn Junior and Jalen Coker and these other guys. You know that Toby too? What’s that? For like. You earlier in the week when uh you know we found out he had the hamstring or like it was last week, right? It was last week he had the hamstring and we found out that I guess he wasn’t gonna do uh fan fest. In fact, they’re still holding him out tells me he’s making the team. Yeah, I mean, he’s, he’s still dealing with it. Also, um, uh, uh, was, uh, Dave Canalla said last week, if we had a game on this weekend, you know, like a game accountant, he could play. So that, that tells me it’s not, first of all, it’s not that serious. So like, yeah, OK, he might still be dealing with it, but it’s not that serious they’re gonna hold him out and they don’t need to say anything else. He’s making a team. Like they, they’ve seen it, they’ve seen enough already where it’s like, OK, like let’s, you’re hurting, let’s just protect you, you know, you’re, you’re good. Like this is, you’re good, bro, uh, and that he’s done enough already if, if they’re not gonna throw him out there like that. Who are you looking to see play on on Friday? Like who are you looking to see get live snaps against the other team? I will say, I’ll throw a couple of names out there. Offensively, I’m looking to see what Teddero, MacMillan and Xavier Lega can do. As well as tota. I know it’s like you’re name in the offense, Dennis. I get it, but the, the young pass catchers that were, that are gonna get first team reps, Xavierguettes, 2nd gear player, Deta Sanders, 2nd gear player, Xavier, I’m sorry, uh, Tedro McMillian, rookie. I wanna see what those guys do against another team out there live on the field as opposed to just again practicing against each other in in controlled environments. At least offensively, that’s what I wanna see. Um, sticking with offense, uh, and then I guess we can go to defense after that. I agree with you, so I’m just gonna say something else, um. Jimmy Horn, um, I know he caught like a, a touchdown in the joint practice. I wanna see if, uh, what he can do. I’m sorry, uh, in the, in fanest, excuse me, um, caught a couple there. He’s looked pretty good. He’s starting to really, uh, show what he can do. I wanna see how he looks, and I wanna see, um, how Trevor ETN runs. Um, so, he probably is not gonna be able to run behind, um, the, uh, starting offensive line, but like I wanna see. What he can give because the main thing that’s in my head is um if we go 17 games and Chuba Hubbard and Rico Dado are both active and healthy for all 17 games, you know, like just like Dave Canalis is with the rain. Wow, what a gift. What a gift. What a gift. I’m not expecting that to happen. So at some point, ETN is gonna have to, you know, come in and step up because that’s a hard position to stay, you know, healthy for 17 games. So, uh, that, those are my guys on offense to look at. Defensively, it’s the, it’s the rookie pass rushers. I want to see what Nick Skorton and Princeley Umamieli can do. I want to see those guys out there in the field and out there for a lot. I want to see what these young edge young edge rushers can really do out there in an NFL game. At least again, and I understand it’s preseason, but I want to see those guys out there as much as possible. Um, I agree with that again, so I’m gonna choose something else once again, uh, and I’m instantly thinking of, uh, the secondary, specifically, uh, the safeties. Um, shout outs. I met this guy named Jay Richardson today. Uh, he’s a former six-year NFL player. I’m, I’m here in Cleveland NABJ guys, National Association of Black Journalist Convention. Uh, there’s a guy named, um, Jay Richardson who played for Ohio State. He now covers Ohio State, former six-year NFL veteran, had a chance to run into him and meet him today. And so we’re talking about our jobs and all that. And I was like, Ohio State, um, I’m gonna be covering Lathan Ransom. Tell me a little bit about him. He was like, man, I was surprised it took him that long to get drafted. He’s like, that guy does everything on the field and like, like, whatever you need him to do on the field, he can make it happen. But also, for as good of a player he is, he’s a better guy and that’s gonna be better for the locker room. And just hearing that from somebody at Ohio State, an alum covers the team, uh, who, that guy obviously knows the program inside and out. And he was talking, knowing that this guy is gonna run out of eligibility. He was talking like they lost a big piece of the team. It’s like, I’m sad that he had to go. Like, it, it really felt like if he could give that guy a few extra years of eligibility, he’d do it just to have the heart and soul of that defense back. So hearing that made me excited because it’s like, OK, we probably have somebody now that is, um, you know, Uh, a diamond in the rough, um, he was drafted probably way too late, um, but he’s probably somebody we can build on. He said, you covered the Panthers. This guy reminds me of another former Buckeye, Kurt Coleman. Like, I think he can grow into being a Kurt Coleman cop for, uh, for the Carolina Panthers. I was like, what? OK. Well, Chris, if Lathan Ranta could be, uh, Kurt Coleman, 100% here for it. If you got that guy in the 4th round. And also, for example, you drafted Shaw Smith Wade, who’s probably gonna be a starting nickel corner in the 5th round, and David Sanders, a 4th round pick who is probably gonna be your number one tight end. If these guys can play, like in terms of not just your starting because this is the only option we have, but actually your serviceable players. Thank you then props on Dave Canalas and, and Dan Morgan for finding these guys in the middle rounds of the draft and finding that value for sure, Chris. I’m excited. We’re finally gonna see the Panthers play against someone else. I mean, I, I, I, I hope there are mistakes because that means you have room to grow and that’s a good thing. I’m excited for Friday, Chris. I know you are as well. Can’t wait to be down there in Charlotte. One thing that I’ll do want this is on my Christmas list, Bryce Young, I want you to throw a touchdown and turn around and say, Cleveland, this is for you. We’re gonna end on that. We’ll have one, we’ll have an episode for you guys postgame on Friday. And I want Chris to say Cleveland, where are you at? Witness. I go on the street. I start yelling Brayshaw’s name.
