Chris, Sometimes mistakes happen. The Dennis Cox faux pas. That should be the name of this podcast today. Yeah, well, let’s speaking of that mistake, here it is. Dennis Cox, followed by Alex Salo. Award for opening week, so you can customize how you experience the game. Make your choice, the reward will be ready for you to use on your next MLB bet. FanDuel. Alex Zillow. com slashlocal FanDuel.com/local. Dennis, you’re OK, um, winning week. FanDuel, official partner of the MLB 21 and over and present in North Carolina. Uh, is this normal? No, I’ve never, I haven’t heard that bonus and token expiration lip. Um, Brandt, I’ll just go ahead with, uh, my question here. So yeah, Chris, that happened. That happened. Um, first off, hilarious, hilarious. Uh, you didn’t know, you made Alex Zitlow like completely lost right there. He didn’t know what to do. By the way, props to Brandt Tillis for locking back in because he was chuckling like props to Brand Tillis. Secondly, what was your question? Alex actually asked the question. I was gonna ask him about, and that’s the thing. Alex actually asked the question I was gonna ask. I was gonna ask him about Jalen Coker, unrestricted free agency versus restricted free agent, the approach to that contract and so forth. And he gave a general big answer for it. I was like, oh, so Alex actually took my question. Cool, man. Maybe he, maybe he’s the one that did the hot mic on me. Maybe he’s the one that did that. He, you know, versus Alex Zitlow. I think we need to book that. WrestleMania is coming up. Vegas, let’s do this. Maybe for your next Ashe show, we would definitely stand out. Boo. All right, you know what? 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 Panthers Playbook presented by Wake Orthopedics, a WakeMed physician practice. Here are your hosts, Dennis Cox and Chris Lee. Welcome back to another episode of Panthers Playbook. That’s Chris Lee. Dennis Cox here with you. Big shout out to Wake Orthopedics for sponsoring Panthers Playbook. Speaking of, of. Brandt Tillis. He actually met with the media on Tuesday, and he actually did ask some questions or answer questions regarding the roster, the way it’s being built, which by the way, we want you to leave your thoughts in the comment section. Obviously, roast me if you want to. I, I, that’s totally fine. I will 100% roll with it. But second of all, what’s the biggest piece that still needs to be added to this roster? Chris, I want to get your thoughts on that as well, because Brett Tillis talked about building a roster in 3 stages or having 3 stages of roster construction. He called the building phase, the contending phase, and then the sustaining phase. Builder, contender, sustain. He says he feels like this roster is in that transition from build to contend. What’s that big piece next, Chris, that takes him from build to contend in your thoughts? First, let me say this, I was, uh, trying to download that whole thing from you and the Panthers. Unfortunately, for the media who downloads, uh, the, the press conferences, they cut that part out. I thought they’re gonna leave it whole. Uh, so that is something I like, I gotta talk to Rob Paul about because like you, you’re leaving out the best parts. Um, but as far as the Panthers, the answer to the question. Um, yeah, I, I feel like they tried to address a lot of the spots, um, on defense, uh, you know, specifically in the offseason, getting Devin Lloyd, getting Jalen Phillips. If those guys end up panning out, then I think on defense, you probably, um, you probably, I would say need, uh, another inside linebacker. Uh, that is a stud, like gonna make every play, you know, like, how, how amazing would it have been to have Devin Lloyd with Frankie Luvu, right? Like those two just, I think, would have been, you know, tearing up NFL offenses together. So if you got, get a guy like that, that’s a short tackle that can, you can put him in different positions, you can make him cause havoc. The Panthers automatically become one of the best defenses in the NFL. I’ll say at least top 10. And then on all of that, Trevon Wallace benefits from having Devin Lloyd next to him as well. His, his play elevates in year 3 as well. I, I’m, I’m not down on Trevon Wallace. It’s just more so like I’m just going based off of what I’ve seen, um, you know, so, but, uh, on, on offense, um. You know, we still need that home run hitter, and I wouldn’t mind having a couple of home run hitters. I, I don’t mind having, uh, AJ Dillon, uh, as a backup, uh, running back. He’s, he’s gonna be, uh, I think, really good and a, a great addition. He’s gonna, he’s more of that power run style that Dave Canales likes to run. And so I think the run game is definitely gonna be, uh, elevated and sustained. I just still think that there needs to be this, whatever the home run hitter, and I think that you still have that in uh Jimmy Horn Junior. It’s just all in how you use him. Uh, but there, there needs to be that home run threat. And so, I think once the Panthers really get there. And, uh, solidify that and get their offense into the top 10 and get their defense into the top 10 NFL lookout. I mean, the, the offense just needs to get into the middle third of the NFL right now. Let’s be honest, they got to get into the middle third at least. It’s, it’s a long climb to get to the top 10. Yeah, the defense went from the worst in 2024 up until the middle third of the NFL last year like. As a whole, again, some metrics that, you know, depending on what you’re, specifically what you’re looking at. They were top 10 in some categories. They were also still in the bottom of the NFL in some categories as well. But as a whole, they’re still in that middle, like middle of the pack in the NFL. And we saw how much the team improved. Imagine if the offense matches that. And again, also the defense making the improvements with the person. that they have as well. I, to me, it’s still that game-breaker on offense. Who’s that game breaker? I’m talking in terms of speed. Terrell McMillan is a really darn good receiver. He’s Offensive Rookie of the Year in the NFL for a reason, and you hope that you take that nice big giant step from year 1 to year 2 just simply off of development and getting better physically and all that stuff. Who’s that guy that actually works between the hash marks? The middle of the field, that is a threat to the middle of the defense. Because if I got Tedero McMillan on the outside, then yeah, sure, he can run some deep dagger routes and stuff, 1215 yards downfield, where the Carolina Panthers struggled to complete passes in 10 to 19 yards downfield this past season. But who’s that guy in the middle of the field that really threatens a defense? Whether it’s a slot receiver, might be Jimmy Horn Junior, but again, he lacks size, he’s got speed, but he lacks size, or is it a tight end? That can really control the middle of the field and the hash marks. Between the numbers, who can dominate in that space for Carolina? We haven’t seen someone for the Panthers really dominate in that space since Greg Olson. Now it doesn’t have to be a tight end. It could be a slot receiver. And for example, look at what, you know, guys like Julian Edelman did up in, up in, uh, with the New England Patriots. Those guys that can line up close to the line of scrimmage in some way, shape or form, and still dominate. I still think they need that guy. I look at, for example, I, I, the, the place still stands out in my mind when the Panthers play Buffalo, Chris. Khalil Shakir took a pass about 5 yards past the line of scrimmage from Josh Allen, caught the ball at the 50, and in about 4 seconds, he was running across the goal line on a simple just dump off. That’s all it was. Where’s that? That to me, if you have that threat out there on offense. That’s the game changer. That’s what this offense. That’s what this team still needs. I will say a lot of that too, uh, a big part of that is, uh, you know, you of course you need to have the talent, but you also should have the scheming and the play calling for that and the vision for that. And so, um, maybe we’ll get a little bit more of that with Dave Canales kind of letting go of the reins of the offense because, you know, we, we know that people like him. We know that he’s a very well-liked coach. We also can read the room and see that folks don’t necessarily like his play calling, you know, um, former players have talked about it. We’ve caught current players disapproving on camera of the play calling. We Can watch games and be like. Why do we do that in this position in this part of the field at this time of the game? What is this about? Why does this look like the same play over and over again, you know what I’m saying? Like there’s things that we can see. So, um, I’m, I’m hoping that the Panthers also do themselves a favor and see what they truly have in everybody that’s there, and that includes Bryce Young, because I, I think that, you know, for all the All the crap that we’ve given Bryce Young over the last 3 years, and a lot of times deservedly so, let’s not act like oh boy didn’t have bad games. We do know that sometimes he wasn’t put in, in the, in the correct positions, uh, by the head coach. So, hopefully, we don’t see any repeats because for the last 3 years, as we start off the season. Bryce Young has had bad games to begin the season with multiple turnovers. Let’s hope that we don’t see that in 2026. Let’s hope that we don’t have this ramp up after some bad games and all of a sudden it’s like, oh yeah, yeah, he’s, he’s the best thing ever, you know, uh, let’s, let’s have some consistency. Let’s start with that. And a lot of that does come from the coaching staff and, and what positions you put the players that you have in. What’s the biggest weakness right now on this team? What’s the biggest weakness? What’s like the biggest question mark that you have right now going forward on this team? Drafts upcoming. You might still be able to, you know, snag a free agent that might get, you know, could get released after the draft, something along those lines. What’s the biggest weakness? I’m, I’m gonna be, I’m gonna be real. Um, I’m pretty confident in what they’ve done on defense. Of course, like you need depth, but we’re not necessarily talking about depth, um, you know, like they’re, like if Devin Lloyd gets hurt, what do you do? Um, that’s something that really goes through my mind a lot. Uh, but I have some questions about the offensive line. I know, uh, Luke Fortner is there. I think he’s gonna do a, a good job, uh, and I’ll, you know, what’s my man’s name, uh, Rasheed Walker. He’s there to fill in at left tackle. That’s gonna be cool. Um, but I, I have questions as to how it’ll work because we’re used to so much continuity over the last couple of years. And I also have questions about the run game, and it’s not necessarily about the, the, the, uh, ball carriers who are going to be a part of the run game. It’s not about them. Um, you know, it’s somewhat about them. It’s a little bit about them, right, because they’re not great, they’re they’re not, they’re not game breakers, they’re not home run hitters. I think they’re, they’ll be solid, but, uh, I, I do have questions about the run game, and that is something that I hope is addressed, or maybe more carries and, uh, for, you know, Jonathan Brooks and, you know, Trevor AN will help out with that. Yeah, I, I, I have questions about the running game as well for the fact that AJ Dillon is a bruiser. Let’s call it what it is. He’s a big dude. He’s what, 6′ 245 pounds, but he only played 7 games last season, coming off an injury, he didn’t even play in 2024. So to me, it feels like insurance in case Jonathan Brooks’ knee isn’t ready to go. Just, he just can’t go. I obviously have questions about Jonathan Brooks as well. I, Thuba Hubbard had a very much a down season compared to what he did in 2024 as well. So I have questions about that position as well. But my thing, my biggest weakness still on this team is, where’s the speed on offense? Where’s that speed on offense? Again, where’s the guy or guys, not just one guy, but guys that can really take the top off or really truly threaten a defense and go like, man, if I don’t play in good position against that guy, I’m hooked. Whether that’s a back out of the backfield, a, a speedy tight end or wide receiver, it can’t just be, well, Jimmy Horn Junior’s fast. Jalen Coker’s got good speed. Don’t get me wrong, he really does. But again, where’s that game breaking speed as a whole on this team? You can’t be like, well, we have the one guy. Gotta be more than just one guy. Has to be more than that. So that’s, that’s my concern going forward, at least, you know, with the team right now. But I will say this though, Chris, this is my final thought here as we wrap up this episode. Gosh, the draft is in like what, 4 weeks. My, what’s that? It’s coming. Yeah, I know it’s real quickly. I will say this though, is my final thought here. That the Panthers have put themselves in a position where they can truly take best player available. The way that they built this roster up, Dan Morgan, Brandt Tillis, with Dave Canales, their vision, all that they have together, they can really go best player available. They truly can. They can truly have a plan about how they want to go about the draft, and they put themselves in a really good spot as a whole. You know how, I don’t know if you’ve ever been in this position, Dennis, but I love using hot sauce. Sometimes you use hot sauce because it’s from North Carolina. I love Texas Pete for sure. Um, I like some stuff that’s a little bit hotter, but I’ll never stray away from Texas Pete because it is a North Carolina thing. North Carolina Pete. Um, Sometimes you use hot sauce because the food is in. Sometimes you’re using hot sauce because the food is already banging, but that hot sauce is just gonna set it off even more. That’s what I’m hoping that the draft is this year, that these guys are, are the hot sauce, not that we just need them to, to make the meal better. The meal is already seasoned. The meal is already cooked to to perfection. The meal is already really good. And prepared just the right way. That hot sauce is just gonna set it off even more and gonna make you want it even more and more and more over and over again. Yeah, that’s what paprika. Makes that paprika pop. All right, I see what you’re saying. Yeah, I see what you’re saying. Smoked paprika. Exactly, yeah, this isn’t no blind, there’s no bland, you know, stereotypical Karen meal, mm. We cooking here. No, we cook, we cheffing, you know what I’m saying. By the way. By the way, cooking tip, put olive oil in the pan, you’re about to make something, you’re adding pepper to your mix, put pepper in the olive oil as it, as it heats up. Adds even more flavor to it. Boom. Exactly. Seasonings from Dennis Cox. Damn right, I season my food. And I don’t put raisins in potato salad, you know why? Because I don’t eat potato salad. Yeah, they expect you didn’t expect that. Shout out Wake Orthopedics. They just let them know, man. Let them know. Let them know what you do. He’s like, you should see my spice cabinet. You actually should. You actually should. I’m actually, I’m growing my own basil right now. Oh my own basil, grow my own tomatoes, my own peppers. I bet you ain’t got no onion powder. Oh, I got onion powder. I’m actually growing my own onion garlic powder. I’m growing my own garlic too. It’s how I roll. Wake Orthopedics, shout out. Make sure you subscribe, hit that like button. We don’t keep it bland here, people.
