Chris Lea and Dennis Cox go 2-on-1 with Tershawn Wharton
All right, the biggest guy in the middle right here obviously is the football player here. We wanted to be football players, but we couldn’t get as big as Turk Wrton here. Thank you for joining us. Uh, first training camp practice with the Carolina Panthers, and you came in very highly touted with a great career so far in Kansas City, but you come in with kind of like the underdog. You undrafted and everything. How do you feel your career is going so far here and how do you feel being at a place that really wants you. to be a part of this turnaround, I think it’s great, man. Like you said, it’s a blessing of what I did over there with Kansas City, and they gave me a shot, so I always show love to them and now it’s on to the next step and like you said, it’s a chance to come and be something that I want it to be and that’s letting the NFL know who I am, but also become a brother to these guys around me. We got a lot of talent. Around and we’re ready to go do something great. So Bank of America stadium is right there. You came here last year as a member of the Chiefs playing against this team. What were your first impressions of Carolina when you played against them last year? We came in and we watched film. We knew that it was great guys up front. Rob being one of them guys, just knowing upfront that they had a nice old line, and then Bryce cut it on against us, so we came in. We knew that this was going to be a hard game and we almost lost, so it’s a great team and just ready to continue to build upon that. You and Bobby Brown, new guys here of course Kim Jackson is drafted. Derek Brown is going to feel like he’s new because he only played that one game last year. When you look at the defensive line that you’re a part of, like, what are your thoughts with all the big bodies that’s there and The talented guys and what you guys could possibly be for this season. I think we could be a top line in this league, you know, with those guys like you said Bobby, Cam, everybody that we have, you know, as a team is a dominant front, you know we’re going to go out here and push each other every day to make sure we get the best out of everybody and make sure that when we go out there and play Jacksonville that we are ready. How does this system fit you? And how do you fit this system? I played it in college, but I played at the end position, so now we changed a few things and it’s really kind of like I’m doing the same thing, but I can wreak havoc, just knowing what I did in the spring and went back and reviewed it over the summer and did a few things to change my game. I think it fit me very well, I think the coaches believe in me here and I’m just ready to continue. Get going in training camp and show what I can do with this defense. You come from a place that has of course a winning culture that was established before you got there, so you know what that’s like. When you look at here, a place that’s kind of been losing for the last few seasons, but they’re trying to make that next step up. What do you see here that gives fans and the folks in the locker room hope that maybe winning is around the corner? I think every year you start off new, and that’s what we’re here to. To build a culture that makes sure that we are winning, and we take it one step at a time. I learned a few things from my last team that I will always bring here, you know, and that’s being where your feet are, and that’s what we’re doing right now. We take it day by day and make sure that we come out here and compete and push each other to the best of our ability, and I think as you continue to do that a step at a time and making sure that you eliminate distractions that we’ll be able to be where we want to be. What’s that process like in order to eliminate distractions, all the day by day competing with each other? What does that look like for stuff that we don’t see, I just continuing to review with each other, you know, building that brotherhood with each other, you know, if it’s going to get dinner with each other, to sit down with each other, if you’re having hard times at home, you should be able to. with your brothers. Just being able to be an open book to everyone and then going out here every day and pushing each other to the best of their ability, and when something goes wrong that we’re not hanging our heads or talking down on each other, that we push each other up and bring each other up and just leaving last year where it was at was a new year, so training camp. One step and that’s a big step because you’re out here with the offense and the defense and that’s who you compete against. There’s not no other teams right now. It’s just you and yours. So going out there and making sure that we continue to compete and when you get on the field, you know that the offense is going to do what they do and your brother next to you on that defense is going to do his responsibility. said that he felt like Charlotte was a really exciting place. We saw recently Charlotte made a list of cities top 20 most boring cities. What are your thoughts on Charlotte so far since you’ve been here? I know you probably haven’t had a chance to do a lot because you’ve been in that playbook. What are your thoughts on Charlotte? I haven’t done a lot. I got nieces and nephews, so we went out to Carowinds and you know we’ve been to a few food places, so I wouldn’t say it was boring. Where I was just that was pretty boring, so I want to know where they at on the list because this is not like there, but yeah, I love Charlotte, man. I like I was telling him I love the weather. A few things on my social media pops up that I should do and I’m just like, yeah, I ain’t never even did this before, so you know I like it. I agree with you. I don’t know who thought that maybe they just didn’t go to the right places, but you know. Final question for you, how far can this team go? I think we just take it one step at a time and we control our destiny, and we know where we want to be and to host the Lombardi, so that’s where we’re going. You had another question too where does come from? Oh yeah, that does come from a friend. When I was younger and they were sitting there making sandwiches for us and I eat turkey sandwiches, of course. His mom always said I had turkey legs because my legs was big, so they took the EY off and just called me Turk and everybody couldn’t pronounce my first name for some reason. You ever listen to Turk the rapper from the Hot Boys. OK, good. Turk, thank you so much, man. I appreciate you.