REACTION: Carolina Panthers find a substitute for Ickey Ekwonu, restructure Derrick Brown's contract

0:00Sometimes you just want a little boost in something that tastes fun. That's where cotton candy 5 hour energy shots come in. Bringing back that classic nostalgic flavor with a modern twist. Because these cotton candy 5 hour energy shots don't just taste good, they deliver a tasty caffeine kick and a convenient zero sugar energy shot you can take anywhere. It's perfect for anyone with a sweet tooth who doesn't want the sugar gill afterward. Bring on the sweetness of cotton candy 5 hour energy shots available now online at 5varenerg.com or Amazon. That's cotton candy 5 hour energy shots available at 5varenerg.com or Amazon. What's up everybody? This is Ross Jackson, one of the hosts of the Lockdown Podcasts Network and if you haven't heard yet, we started a club and we would love for you to join. It's called the Everydayer Club and one of the things that you get as a member is an ad-free version of the podcast that you're listening to right now. It works with whatever podcast app you already use, same episodes every day, just no ad.

1:02There's also a member's only group chat for fans of your team plus a lot more. You can check it out by tapping the Everydayer Club link in the show notes. You are Lockdown Panthers, your daily Carolina Panthers podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcasts Network, your team every day. Welcome in to another edition of the Lockdown Panthers Podcast, the part of the Lockdown Podcasts Network. I'm your host as always, Julian Council, talking Carolina Panthers with you every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and yes, of course, Friday, your team every day. That's our motto here on the Lockdown Podcasts Network. Thanks for watching the show here on YouTube where I am once again live as we are finally

2:04beginning officially the newly gear here in the NFL and beginning officially of free agency. And you can also listen wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts today's episode of Lockdown Panthers. His brought to you by Fandall Fandall is giving you a way to turn that energy into even bigger potential wins with a college basketball parlay profit boost head to fandall.com to get started. It's day one of the new league here here in the NFL. We've been talking about all the deals, the Panthers have agreed to over the last two days. Now here at 4 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, March 11th, those deals become official. That is as long as everybody is able to pass their physical, the biggest news in the NFL is what happened on Tuesday, Max Crosby. He is no longer going to be a Baltimore even because he fell his physical and the Ravens have reneged on that deal with the Raiders, leaving the Raiders and the player more importantly in not a great position, moving forward into the rest of this free agency peer that has

3:06now officially begun. So the Panthers, while they have a great of terms with Jalen Phillips with Devon Lloyd, with Kenny Pickett with all these other players until they passed their physical, they are not truly Panthers. It's not the only it's happened here before. The shot Brela back in 2018, signed a $3, $24 million deal to come in and be the starter opposite of James Bradbury, but he had a foot injury. That was something he dealt with back when he was in 4th grade, then it popped back up because he got hit by a golf cart while he was on vacation in Dominican. The Panthers were aware of the injury and they knew it was going to take him some time to come back. They got a better look at it and they decided actually we're going to nullify that deal and you're not going to be coming to Carolina. They ended up starting Dante Jackson as a rookie that season in 2018. So it has happened before here. The hope is obviously that Jalen Phillips is good to go. That Devon Lloyd is good to go and everybody else that they have agreed to terms with will be good to go. So those deals will become official once they have had their physical and Adam Schefter

4:08actually put this out there today, letting people know that apparently there is no protocol for teams to evaluate players as far as the physical goes before agreeing to these deals. I have to wait until they get to the newly gear for that to happen. That is kind of an oddity. Apparently, it wasn't until this year where teams could have a conversation with a player, space to face. They would have a video call up to an hour with five different players. That was not a thing until this season. So yeah, not ideal for a lot of teams, but it is not that common where we see what happened with Max Cross. We won't happen to Carolina eight years ago, Peshad Breland. And hopefully that will not be the case this year. But there is a nether important sign that was made on Tuesday had already recorded literally three shows. I was like, I'm not going back and doing a show on Stone 4 site. They'll just cover it today, which we're doing right now. Iki Kwanu when he went down with the rupture, Patel, or tendon in that lost against the Rams back in January, he instantly, not just he, but the left tackle position rather

5:12instantly became the biggest priority on offense and maybe on the roster, knowing that Iki was going to miss a significant amount of time. If not the entirety of this upcoming season here in 2026, based off of the Josh Simmons timeline, nine months of what I'm looking at. So Iki likely, if that's how he's going to follow and everybody's different would be back around mid October, early November, if that is going to be the timeline he's able to follow as far as recovery goes, he's had surgery, everything went well. The Panthers not willing to tell anybody what the timeline is, but they are sure. I'm certain they know when they expect Iki to come back and be able to play for them this upcoming season, if at all. So in the interim, the Panthers have signed Stone 4 site, who is signing a one year deal, worked up to two million dollars. It's a 1.05 million guaranteed 500 K signing bonus. He gets all of that his salary is 1.215 mil and of that salary, 550 K is guaranteed. That's how you get to the 1.05 guaranteed has $15,000 per game active roster bonus, 1.25

6:17million dollar playtime bonus and also some team rankings incentive. So the maximum you can make this year turning into incentives and playtime and all that would be $3.25 million last year, he signed a one year, 1.17 million dollar deal with the Las Vegas Raiders where he started 13 games for Vegas a season ago. And as we talked about Luke Fortner and his time in Jacksonville before being replaced and then traded to the Saints, it wasn't great last season for Stone 4 site. It was good last year for Luke Fortner in Orleans, which is encouraging as I would expect him at this point in time to be the starting center and probably in all likelihood, just based off of the reporting from some of the draft people that this is not a center draft class. It has a top tier guy and there's going to be a run of them from rounds three to five. I don't know if the Panthers want to start a third or a fifth rounder at center this upcoming season. They probably want a guy who's going to be an earnings fifth year who has extensive starting experience in this league to be that guy. So Luke Fortner, likely you're starting center this upcoming season.

7:20And for the time being, go ahead and pencil in Stone 4 site as you're starting left tackle until Ike's ready to go. But his PFF grades last season and again, PFF is just one way to look at it. It's not the gospel, but the grades. They tell a story that Stone 4 site was one of the worst tackles in the NFL last season. And overall grade 55. 2 that was 76 at 89 run blocking 53. 6 78 out of 89 past blocking 56. 1 69 out of 89 tackles. So he was well below average, among starting tackles, qualifying tackles, a season to go allowed 40 pressures and 11 sacks in 465 past block staps had 11 sacks that he gave up for the most among the 89 qualifying tackle. So that's not ideal. He gave up 11 sacks and 13 games that you started a season ago, among tackles that played 600 plus snaps of season ago, that was 58 guys. He ranked 57 out of 58, impression percentage allowed at 9.2%. Now, for context, Ike Kwanu only ranked 50 out of those 58 at 7.9.

8:24Taylor Moten ranked 12 at 4.3. So Ike is better. He's improved. There are still some areas where you need to see him improve even further. He's going to truly be the franchise tackle long term in Carolina, but the Panthers are getting obviously a good bit worse. And we talked about the tackle markets. Don't force it was a name that we brought up. And by the way, speaking of just the 40 pressures that he gave up last year, Ike also gave up 40 pressure. So you look at it. Now, Ike played far more snaps than snow for side played last year in Vegas. They're getting worse. But we talked about some of the options that were potentially out there for Carolina. Don't force it was one of those names. He has ties to this coaching staff because he was a six-round pick of the Seahawks back in 2021 where he spent four years starting 14 games for them when Dave Canalis was there, when Brad Isaac was there, when Pete Pat McPherson was there. A lot of coaches on this staff were all up in Seattle when he was drafted and when he was playing for them. So this is a guy they're familiar with. This is a guy that apparently they like more than Yosh Diamond.

9:27They got two years to look at Yosh as their swing tackle. They got two years CM starting at left tackle and at right tackle. And they apparently are preferring stone for size. So I don't know all the negotiations. Maybe Yosh still comes to Carolina. But at this moment in time, this is the guy that they're going to roll with. And maybe they like it more. Maybe it's going to be cheaper because Yosh already knows the scheme and understands too just how dire the situation is for Carolina to where maybe he had more leverage and they weren't willing to give him whatever he wants. I'm not so sure, but they're going to stone for sight. And yeah, no, this is not an exciting signing as we all know. But again, he's coming in at least at this moment in time on March 11th to be projected to fill in for Ricky. Like with Luke Fortner, I don't think that's going to preclude Carolina next month from drafting a center. And this one, even more so I don't think that you get to 19. And you're sitting there looking at your board and there's a tackle.

10:28I don't think you're not going to take a tackle because stone for sight is on the roster. And if you get a tackle, we've talked about this before. That guy could come in and be your day one starter at left tackle. You at the very least have a plan for a veteran who has started at that spot to be there. But if the rookie comes in, if you do take one at 19 or maybe at 51, if they come in and they're out performing that guy, or if it takes a couple of weeks, once you get into the season, you feel like, all right, let's make a change. You can do that. So I do think that they're going to need that flexibility. I don't know whether they should do it at 19 or 51 or whatever. I think that should take one. But right now, stone for sight, go ahead and just pencil and don't sharp him. You can probably write Luke Fortner and Penn, but as far as stone for sight, that's pencil. As far as in being the starting left tackle heading into this year, as panthers wait to see when it can be quantum, where we're turned from his ruptured propeller tendon. So again, not an exciting signing, but necessary for Carolina has ties to the staff and it's

11:32not like you're spending a ton of money on him to come in and do the job for however many weeks is going to be and hopefully it only be five or six, just maybe half the season coming up this full. Derek Brown. He's not going anywhere. He is obviously a franchise player on this team. And because of that, the panthers felt comfortable restructuring his deal. It opened up some cap space. We'll talk about the implications of that here and also some of the free agents that are now free agents still in Carolina. We'll talk about that here in just moment on locked on panthers. Coach basketball is nonstop big games tight spreads momentum swings every single night from early tip-offs to late night West Coast shootouts. There's always action on the board and now fandal is giving you a way to turn that energy into even bigger potential wins make college basketball parlay profit boost. You can build any college hoops, parlay you want, rivalry games, rank matchups, whatever fits your read. You can mix spreads, totals and player props match how you see the slate playing out. Then you can apply the profit boost and instantly bump up the potential payout.

12:32Go save, go bold and ride with the team you've been following all season long. It's your parlay, your style. Now more upside behind it, head to fandall.com to get started. That's fandall.com. Fandall, play your game. The officials start to the 2026, 2027 NFL new league year is here as the panthers and all the other teams in the league. I had their deals that they've agreed to over the last couple of days become official, barring all the physicals here at four o'clock Eastern time on this Wednesday afternoon. Looking over at one of the deals, panthers did make earlier today that was not related to bringing a new player, but was related to open up some cap space. Was he restructuring of Derek Brown's contract, which he signed two years ago? And this was not a surprising move at all. This is a front office with Dan Morgan and Brantillus that does not want to restructure a ton of deals. We saw that Scott fitter and Sir Mayor Suleiman who were here prior to them. They love doing that and that put the panthers in some precarious situations like with

13:36Taylor Houghton. After he signed that extension, every single offseason thereafter, he had his contract restructured. Now, he'll hear he is the mold of the player that you're willing to do that because he's a long term franchise guy, but it also did not put the panthers in a great situation. Cap wise, last offseason, they did what they still wanted to do and needed to do, which is a positive and that is a credit to Brant and to Dan and everybody else in the front office. But it also led to wondering, would it be the infertimo in Carolina in 2025? Of course, he got an extension, the lower that cap hit and he's back again this season and quite possibly again next year as he's under contract in 2027. So you can do it with guys like that, but Austin Corbett, Tang and ACL and then a month later, not even month like weeks later, restructuring his contract, that doesn't make a lot of sense. It's something that they are trying to avoid, but they did it this time around as they weren't a position where they needed to open up some cap space and they did that by

14:37restructuring their Browns contract converting $16.9 million of this salary into a signing bonus. That's not new money. It's money was already owed, but he's going to get it right now instead of waiting and they're also adding to void years to the end of the deal and the reworking saves $13.5 million. Let's get that deal, open up $13.5 million and then Asian Robinson being cut yesterday, which now becomes official today, that's $24 million cap space, the Panthers have opened up and looking at over the cap.com, if it's, I don't know, I think every deal, no, not every deal has been placed on there just yet. They still have Joe Phillips, Devon Lloyd, Kenny Pickett, Luke Fortner and David Moore pending, but the Panthers currently, when looking at it right now, have $30 million in cap space, obviously that's going to go down here once those deals come through and I'll continue to update you here on Lockdown Panthers when all that is updated. So far, Derek Brown, his cap number for 2026 will now be $10.9 million, where in the next

15:37two seasons in 2027 and 2028, it goes up to $31.3 and $32.3 million and I have told you all, and I'll tell you again right now, just looking at next season, there's a lot of guys with some heavy cap numbers in Carolina, Rob Hunt, JC Horns, Ron Merrig, Taylor Moton, Turk Warton, even Damien Lewis, but Derek Brown, Bryce Chung, once that becomes official with his fifth year option, that's a ton of guys who are going to have some heavy cap numbers. It's going to be some tough decisions to be made once the Panthers get around to next off season. So we'll worry about that in a year, but right now, Derek found opening up $13.5 million as a cap space, getting $16.9 million, that was already Oduham, and terms of a signing bonus today, cap savings, and he's not a guy you're going to want to get rid of, but they decide they want to, as far as doing something pre-June one, there's not really any savings until 2028, where they could cut them and save 17.2 mil while taking on 15.1 of dead money. If they want to do post-June designation, that can actually help them out next year and

16:412028 by saving 23 million and 27, and then 24 million and 28 again, I don't see that being the case. And with the void years in 29 and in 2030, the Panthers now will leave $6.7 million in dead money in 2029, and then 3.3 of dead money in 30 and 2030 rather. So yeah, Derek Brown makes sense, not surprising, move at all the time to Mike K about this earlier this week. So Derek Brown gets his money earlier than he would have gotten it anyways, and Panthers open up $13.5 million cap space looking at it over cap.com, $30.4 million, what they have without the deals for Jalen Phillips, Devon Lloyd, and a few others being accounted at this moment in time. So we'll see how that all works out down the road, looking at the free agents for the Panthers and I'm live. So when we just go ahead and click on a couple of other people's accounts, just see I didn't miss anything since I've been up here live with y'all talking about what's going on with

17:42this team. No, no new updates at this point in time, but that 18 unrestricted for agents, Austin Corbett, Yash Neiman, they still are out there on the open market along with Brady Christians and in Jay Kerhan, Kate Mase, as we know, signed a three year deal with the Lions. David Moore, he's back to Carolina, Rico Dattles, signed a two year deal with the Steelers, DJ Oneham, he's not going to return, but he is still available. Trevor Skipson, the Panthers actually did sign him to a one year deal today. So he's coming back, Christian Roseboone, Chris Barnes, those two inside linebackers are still available, a Caleb Evans and Robert Matt, or Rochelle, rather, are both coming back as they were signed earlier this week, have not seen the Panthers announce a Caleb Evans deal though. That is one of the deals that we talked about over the last two days on Monday and Tuesday that has not officially been announced by the team. I have not gotten any confirmation from the PR staff, usually getting an email about that. So, waiting to see how that plays out, but it sounds like it will be back if it's reported. And I think it was like, tell Pelicero somebody. So that's probably true.

18:42Tomorrow Matt, this is another corner who has not been re-signed at this point in time. Nick Scott, he's still available, Isaiah Simmons coming back, Sam Martin still available, and JJ Chanson is back. Now, Mike Cavez, your old observer, I'll put this out on Twitter the other day, the expectation was the Panthers were going to try to bring back the bulk of their restricted free agents. The Panthers had until 4 o'clock today on Wednesday of the 11th to either tender the player, which would give them until, I think, mid-April to have that guy sign a tender, have another team, sign them to an offer sheet, which Carolina could have decided to match after five day period time. The Panthers have brought back James Mitchell tied in LeBrine Ray, the defensive end, and outside lineback of the edge rusher Thomas Inkum all on just normal deals, all one year deals not on an RFA tender, which was three and a half million dollars. I don't think they want to pay any of those guys three and a half million dollars. Now combine, certainly, but individually, no, you've seen across the league, you've been paying attention. A lot of teams have not been willing to tender their RFA's and the Panthers are one of them.

19:43The only player they have not agreed to a deal with as far as a one year deal or an RFA tender is the linebacker Claude and Sherless. Claude now is an unrestricted reagent and we'll see how that plays out from in Carolina. Maybe as a market elsewhere, you certainly got in a decent amount of snaps last two years filling in as a starter and also on special teams. So I think there's value in having them back here, but right now, he is an unrestricted reagent. So we'll see where he goes if he comes back Carolina at all. And then as far as exclusive rights for agents, that was taken care of a last week, Joe and co-cabresson's main, both of those guys, I can only negotiate with Carolina and we'll be back this season and I think the Panthers are a little bit more concerned about the rest of the roster they have right now and not super concerned at this moment in time and getting deals done for Coker and for Tremaine. I would expect Tremaine probably is going to get league minimum and then Coker, two year of heel would make sense. And I don't think he should sign anything more than that. He's playing well so far. Carolina also shouldn't want to sign him to anything longer than that with the injury issues you've had the first two seasons, but I think he's about to be a stud again this upcoming

20:44fall. I think two years, add that up to the two years he already had to kind of make that standard rookie deal and that will work out. Panthers also would not be in this situation had they not gone out there and claim six players where I think only one of them even stuck around for the entire of the season because when they did that, they then weighed Coker and in Coker lost the third, his whole contract. That was the undratth reading contract he signed. It was a three year deal. That was then null and void once he was cut from the team. Had to bring him back on a new deal. That was only for two years in 2024 and in 2025. So they would not even be in this position had they just kept them on the roster to begin with. But it is what it is at this point in time, I guess. So that's where things stand with some of the free agents who have come back and who are still waiting for a new home, whether in Carolina or elsewhere in the league. We talked about this a week ago, looking at the priority free agents, the secondary priorities and the non essentials. Before you visit some of the thoughts that last week and how things have gone for Carolina

21:47so far as free and see as technically officially begun, but certainly has been going on for the last three days. Now we'll talk about that here in just a moment on locked on Panthers. It's tax time. But for a lot of us, the old way of doing taxes is well, a lot trying to book an appointment. That's not the most convenient sitting in a waiting room with a stack of papers, emailing back and forth and wondering if they really get your situation. But this year, you're getting a major upgrade into a turbo tax now has in person locations nationwide. You can meet face to face with a real tax expert in your documents get uploaded straight to your turbo tax app on the spot. And just like that, you're done. Your turbo tax expert works to get you every dollar you deserve while you get real time notifications as you go about your day. It's the relief of walking in and meeting with a real live person and walking out knowing your taxes are being handled right head to turbo tax.com. Watch local to find a store near you and book your appointment today. The new league here has begun here for the Panthers and the rest of the NFL going back and

22:49looking at some of the priorities we talked about a week ago and how things have played out so far for the Panther. So when looking at top priorities, heading to free and see both on offense and defense, just overall on the roster, left tackle center edge and inside linebacker were the four positions I talked about need to be addressed this week. And I know kind of my rhetoric, rhetoric's changed a little bit when it comes to center, just knowing that maybe just based off of how things have played out with Luke Fortner, the deal he side and how much they've paid their edge rushers, defensive tackles and the other off into line positions. Maybe the Panthers just don't value the center position financially like they value left tackle and guard spots and defensive tackle and edge rusher. And I guess it kind of makes sense, but that's a pretty important spot. You would think that you'd want to invest in, but so far that has not been the case. And I know Mike made this argument the other day when you have two really good stout guards in Damien, Lewis and Rob Hunt. Do you have to have a great player at center, probably not, or maybe not, I don't know.

23:51We'll see how it plays out for the Panthers upcoming season, but left tackle center edge rusher inside Lampacker, those are the four top priorities in my opinion heading into this week. Left tackle, they got Stone for Scythe on a very cheap deal coming off of a year where he was, well, not good at all. And it hasn't been great. I was going back and just trying to find some commentary on him and I found a video and this is not an indictment of him because everybody got ragdolled by Miles Garrett last year, but it was me and Akayem's looking at a video and be like, is that Stone for Scythe without any help going up against Miles Garrett, and it was as he got beat instantly. So the Panthers, do they play the Browns? I think they play the Browns this year, I can't remember. They should not do that. They should have some sort of help have it tied in at the very least chipping, however running back on the side, don't let him lose you games this season. And we know here in Carolina that a left tackle can lose you games. So let's not have another Mike Rimmer situation playing out here with that left tackle position.

24:53And it is unfortunate because as much as I think people, I think rightfully question whether Iki truly is the right guy at left tackle, Iki's been a solid player from he's been healthy up until now. He's missed a couple of games, but it's never been anything serious until what happened back in January. That was a revolving door once Jordan Gross retired went back home to Idaho and came back a completely different man like the Marshall new houses, the Byron Bells, the Matt Caleals, the Mike Rimmer single handedly losing you a super bowl kind of guys, the blind side, the rent the tackle, Russell O'Koon, man, I don't want to watch that again. So hopefully stone foresight is better than that. I doubt it, but hopefully and more importantly, Iki come back healthy. But as we've seen with guys that are coming off of injuries that are significant, it takes a minute. Austin Corvette, I don't think every game to form he had back in 2022 when he was arguably

25:58the best offence lineman on this team. He never was that guy again. Now he was never healthy, but he certainly was never the guy that Carolina went out there and brought over from LA, fresh off a super bowl. Matt Paradis, I don't think the Panthers ever got the best set of Matt Paradis because he came in after breaking a leg, didn't look great, was fine in the next season, then towards ACL. So really was never healthy here. Matt is just the one concern I would have moving forward, Iki, is Kenny ever get back to that guy. And I have advocated for Carolina to go ahead and take care of that because it's modern medicine. He's still young. I would assume he's going to be fine, but you never know. You have no guarantee of that being the case. So we'll see how that evolves and certainly, and we'll have the conversation. I'm getting plenty of questions now about, hey, what do you think about the draft and how things like free agency hadn't even started technically, like these deals hadn't even been. I'm waiting for them to be official and on the books. But man, people are asking me about all that on Monday, the 23rd. So in 12 days time, that will be one month away from the draft. I will give you my initial thoughts on all of that this week and next, going to focus

27:03on the free agency signings that they've made, what the impact is for the team and each position group and all of that, going to focus on all of that for this week and next. And then yeah, we're going to go, I don't think I can say that to the walls when it comes to free agency on the 23rd. So any question you have there will be answered in a couple of weeks time, just be a little patient. Let's focus on here and now, which is the free agency of it all for Carolina. So yeah, I mean, tackle, we'll see how that plays out. But as far as top parties, as I've got out and on a little tangent there, left tackle center edge inside lineback, or the gotstone for site that left tackle and pencil them in. We'll see how that plays out. Luke Fortner, I would expect to likely be the starting center and maybe it's not even likely probably going to be the case, edge rusher. They got Jalen Phillips. That's great. Bringing back Travis Gibson, cool income, cool, but you need Jalen Phillips. So that's awesome for them, Devin Lloyd coming in an inside linebacker was also a need and they had to go out there and take care of it. So you look at the top priorities, they got the best inside linebacker on the market. They got maybe the best edge on the market, especially scheme fit.

28:07Hendrickson was never that Phillips absolutely is that. Yeah, there's injury concerns, understand that, but you got the best edge on the market that fits your scheme. And then center, they weren't going to spend a ton of money as we saw, I mean, they weren't one of the pay cave base, they paid Luke Fortner, well, one year, four and a half million dollars. So not a ton of money at all. I think it's up to four and a half million dollars, based off of incentives, we'll get more under of an understanding of that deal when I look at it later on. I guess maybe it is already on over the cap, which have on my other tab. So let's see if that deal, I think that was one of the deals I said hadn't come through. So that's not come through. I know the details on that just yet, but not spending a premium on left tackle, which is the market. There's not a bunch of great guys and you have a starter who you're paying $7.5 million to this year. So you're not going to be in the market for any of those other dudes anyway. So I think as far as edge inside linebacker getting those guys paying what it took, they did that. And I think that was a great job. Center, solid job for how it appears they value that position, left tackle, it is what

29:09it is, man. It's just I don't I never expected anything great. I thought maybe Yashu, you look at it, think it's probably better than stone foresight, but maybe it's more expensive. Maybe they just prefer stone. I don't know, but that's who the guy is going to be for the time being. Secondary priorities was wide receiver two, quarterback two, nickel corner and slot. They have not gotten the second wide receiver or wide receiver two. Coke or could be that could be a three, they just need a better and I think that's what they should do. You already know how I feel about Excel and I'm really going to talk about that right now. The team act, Jill and Coke or you feel good about those guys would like to have another guy who you know for sure is going to come in and produce. They have not done that as of this moment, QB two, can you pick it cool with it? They got younger at the position. He has talent. He was the first round pick. That was an interesting career at Pitt, where I thought he was like pretty bad than he all of a sudden was just like a dude and a Heisman trophy finalist. And there was the photo that was out there circulating the other day when this deal was agreed upon with Matt rule and pin Matt could do the rock star OC and Scott fitter all

30:13looking. I think it's hand size, which was a big deal. Why you wears two gloves? Another two glove quarterback in Carolina, oh boy. So can you pick it? He's here. Fine. Whatever. He has experience. That's thing drafting someone which they may still do. That guy can't be the backup because he's never playing the league. Can you pick it? Has started in this league. He ain't great. I think he's better than what they had last year and Andy Dalton as that was a jarring performance against the bills, not the broken thumb of all just the fact that he couldn't move and that he's not the best option for the moving for a nickel corner. Have seeing reports. I think mainly from Jeremy Fowler about there being an appetite for Carolina to go out there and get one, but they have not done that yet. So monitor that situation. We will do that here on the show. And then the other one was safety. They could be going late in the ransom. They get certainly a circle back to Nick Scott who did not sign until I believe it was March 22nd. That's about the gest rate. So that's still 11 days from this recording.

31:15So we'll see how that plays out. But they've only checked up one of those boxes of these secondary priorities that I had. And all of those could really be addressed in the draft that wanted to outside of QB2. Why receiver they could get another one maybe at 19, 51 who knows, nickel, they could get one in the draft safety. Same case. Essentials to me were tied in running back offensive guard defensive tackle and corner tied in. They haven't brought in any new tight ends. They brought back James Mitchell, which is fine. He didn't play a ton for them last year was a solid run blocker when he did. So we'll see what his role is going to be if it evolves at all with this upcoming season. So that's not really them adding anybody. It's just retaining an RFA running back. Rico's gone. They have not signed anybody. I think they don't need to just draft the running back late and let them be you're running back for offensive guard. They have not brought anybody back at this point time. I am curious about Christiansen and even Corbett and what their market's going to be moving forward as we're going to now be in the second wave of frequency coming up here throughout

32:19the weekend and in early next week. So maybe one of those guys comes back for another season and then defensive tackle. Brian Rae is coming back, but he was also an RFA restricted free agents and not really an addition and they've moved on from a Sean Robinson. You have Derek Brown. You paid a ton of money for Turk and Bobby Brown last year. You drafted him. Jackson. You have spent money there in little Brian race. He got five guys. They didn't need to do anything there and they have not done anything really. And then that corner and like outside corner, you have Cory Thornton, who I think they like a lot and was impressive from what I saw season ago, Shaw is more of a nickel, which is part of the wide nickel corner is actually in need because I do think they want to get a veteran there. So we'll wait to see again how that plays out as far as outside. It's going to be JC. It's going to be Mike. Any of Cory. They could benefit from having a veteran come in and just be at least a camp body and see how it goes and whether that guy can elevate what they have Thornton.

33:20He was undrafted last year. There's no guarantees on the roster this upcoming season. They should get somebody to push, but it wasn't like they need to go out there and sign a start like when it comes to priority guys left tackle. They needed someone to start center. They needed somebody to start as needed somebody to come in and start inside lineback or need somebody to come in and start secondary priorities. It's like like a wide receiver to be nice to have somebody come in not be the guy but be a contributor. QB2. Obviously you're not going to play. Hopefully, but you need to be better than any Dalton. Nickel. Yeah. Could be nice to have somebody come in and play, but you all set up to guys and Thornton and Shaw that you might feel good about safety would be nice to have somebody come back and play. But you have latent ransom there. Tied in. You don't really need anybody. I would have liked to have seen them got better there, but they have invested in it recently. Running back, you don't need anybody. Offensive guard. You don't really need anybody. You have channels as well as a depth piece in the spinal year of his rookie deal. But yeah, you need other guys obviously, but you didn't need anybody come in and start and not necessarily be the next in line defensive tackle.

34:22You don't need anybody period. And in corner, yeah, you could use somebody to be that backup on the outside. So maybe that would have been more of a secondary priority, but right now, I don't see this being that essential infradency in the draft. Certainly, I would actually like to see them probably addressed that again. We'll talk more about it here in a couple of days about what 12 was at 12 days time. We'll talk more about that. So that is a thought I hadn't had until now. Maybe they should get a corner in the draft to be the heir apparent to Mike Jackson there on the outside. I don't know. But that's going to wrap up this edition of the Lockdown Panthers podcast, part of Lockdown podcast network. Hosted by yours, Julie, Julie and Council again, y'all subscribe and follow the show free on YouTube or wherever listens to your favorite podcast and be sure to follow me, Julie and Council over on Twitter and over on Blue Sky, actually in council, where I will be back with y'all on Friday, answering your weekly Friday mail by questions again, guys. Hit me up. Three, two questions. If you have draft questions, I will take them. I'm writing them down right here on my notes app. So I have written down, I'll get to them at the beginning of the 23rd, but before then,

35:27not going to talk about it. So send me in any question about free agency. We'll go over those on Friday here on the show, but in the meantime, be safe. Be happy. Be whole as always. Keep pounding. And I'll talk to y'all later.