Wes & Walker Hour 1: Panthers Score the Win On SNF Over Lions

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1:23We have these checkpoints. We manufacture for our favorite teams, our favorite players to check off. We have these things that this team needs to accomplish before they truly break out. There's really not a perfect definition. We're not exactly sure how to articulate it. You just know it when you see it. There's just a feeling you get when you watch your team beat a prime time opponent, 32 to 26. There's a feeling you get when your quarterback gets it and he throws for 330 yards and he throws for a couple of tuts and he's connecting with wide receiver one with 190 yards team at go officer. You just know a breakout performance when you see it and I saw it last night, the whole city of Charlotte saw it last night with the Panthers getting the dub on Sunday night football with the whole damn nation watching 32 26 Carolina moves to two and two and we're talking about it today on Wesson Walker Sports Radio.

2:2492 7 W FNZ people already understand the assignment with Darren writing in on the text line Walker, you asked for Bryce Young's introduction to superstar status on national TV. Now you have it. It feels like a people that's the text line W FNZ text line powered by a four double siding in windows, your hometown home improvement experts 704 570 96 10. We're broadcasting live from the uptown studio presented by Harris Cherokee Casino Resort Harris Casino Resort is W FNZ's official casino and sports book partner. Floundie. It's going to be you and me celebrating today, Buck O that's right, baby. No West Bryant will have him on probably one o'clock. I need to get back with him because he unexpectedly had to go to ACC tip off and he'll be gone basically all week. I think we'll probably have him on Thursday, but we only have West for one day this week. So it's you and me. It's a whole bunch of celebrating the painkthers and what they were able to accomplish.

3:25After I'm not going lie, I was exploring Doomsday scenarios Monday last week. I might have dabbled in those areas. I might have put my toes in those waters. I was down bad with all the injuries, man. You lose to the browns. The offense stops. The defense doesn't get enough stops. We're down our top two corners. We have the offensive line injury to our best offensive line. And Damien Lewis, I thought there might be too many significant injuries to overcome. And look, maybe we explore that as the season goes on. It's only one victory, but as Dave can all of said, in the post game celebration speech in the locker room, we celebrate this one, baby. Will you celebrate with me, Floundie? I appreciate you helping me out today. Of course, absolutely excited for this one because this is an extremely significant win. Not that Atlanta wasn't significant, but we have seen that before from Bryce Young,

4:27where he carves up an Atlanta team that isn't necessarily that great. In their case, in that game, didn't have Cooper rush, but in this game, you were facing one of the more dynamic offenses in the league. They can run the ball at an incredibly high level with one of, if not the best running back in all of football. And you've got Jared Goff and a litany of wide receivers that he has had some nice success with. And here's the thing. Wasn't the greatest defensive performance that you're ever going to see from the Panthers. There's a significant injury on that side of the ball now that we have to unfortunately monitor, but at least you're heading into the by week, even still the offensive side of the ball. If you are not excited by what you're seeing on that side of the ball, I don't really know what else you could ask for because Bryce is the big takeaway from this game. And I think he deserves to be team acts sensational in this one as well. Guys, Brad Edzick, this dude knows exactly what he's doing as the play caller.

5:32I have not seen a game plan from him that I have disagreed with. For last year under Dave can Alice, it was very inconsistent where you would have games like the San Francisco game, the Seattle game that left you scratching your head saying, what exactly is the plan here from Dave can Alice? It doesn't seem like he came with the with the right mindset to this game. Last night, the mindset was let Bryce young torch this defense, torch this secondary that is as beat up as just about any in the league. The only one that comes close is your own secondary and from there sort of open up the running game because of the way that you're passing the football. It all worked for a great showing on Sunday night football. And yeah, now I think you're right. I thought you were right the other day. There were times where people probably heard the name Bryce young, even last year's playoff game. A lot of people were probably watching, but they lost that game.

6:33So a lot of people probably forgot. This is the breakout performance. We're now everybody for the rest of the season is going to say I need to tune in and see what Bryce young does nationally. And that's that's a special moment for a dude who we thought at one point during his second year, his time here in Carolina was over. Do you believe that to be true? Let us know again, the text line is powered by affordable sighting in windows, your hometown, home improvement expert. We're going to hear from you all day today. We're celebrating a Panthers victory. We'll be taking your calls at 1245 just to prime you guys for some phone calls. 1245 is when we will welcome your calls before we transition into the campus. Kona, there's going to be plenty of college football conversation a little bit later on, but it is a Panther victory Monday. Let's celebrate by pulling up to the scenes by opening up the doors. We got the bus driver pulling double duty today. Let's get off the damn bus. We look good. Get off the bus. I got something to say. Damn. Kick it.

7:33I can feel it. This is the last time I believe we get to or have to rehash this. This was the Bryce Young breakout performance that we had been questioning over the last couple of years because it was in prime time. The Panthers had not had a Sunday night football game in a decades worth of time. And as soon as they got to play under the bright lights on a Sunday night, Bryce shows you that he is one of the better playing like one of the best quarterbacks in all of the NFL despite being under pressure. The offensive line was not perfect, but Brad Edzick, T-Mac, Chuba and Bryce, everybody came together to execute a game plan to offset some of the pressure that the offensive line was allowing against this Detroit Lions defense over 12 hours ago. It was a beautiful sight to behold what we were able to watch from Bryce Young connect with wide receiver one at least right now and that's no shade to Jaylen Coker. Jaylen Coker was producing at a really high level. I thought it was a worthwhile enough question to explore.

8:36Hey, is Coker going to outproduce T-Mac by the end of this season? I never thought that was going to happen, but it was certainly a fair enough question. And then you see a guy like T-Mac understand exactly where to go. Every single route that he ran to be as QB friendly as possible and Bryce took him up on that offer. Oh, do you want a wide open target every single time? Bryce, let me help you out. Oh, do you want to be able to throw in tight coverage and then I'll dodge cornerbacks that are trying to tackle me as I catch the football? I'll be able to do all of this. That's totally fine. You want me to beat May and coverage? The thing that people are criticizing me for? I'll beat May and coverage for a touchdown over the top. I won't drop a football all season long. Everybody came together last night to put together what was a phenomenal offense performance against what is a terrible Lions defense that has to account for something. We have to acknowledge it. All that matters. But this is exactly what you would want Caroline to do against a banged up secondary that

9:38did get pressure on Bryce last night, but they didn't allow it to get to them in a mental sort of way. You even have the tight ends producing here and there. You had John Mechie step up. You had Bryson Tramain with a big reception down field. Chubba was excellent in this one, but really, Bryce had his breakout game and I think so much of it comes down to what I opened up the show with. How do you feel watching Bryce watching Team Act, watching your favorite team perform? How do you feel? Because it is hard to look at a stat and say, well, he connected on this percentage of deep passes. Well, he had a 450 yard performance like he did against Atlanta. That's the one. What are the moments, man? Do you have a moment for me? And is everybody in the country that loves football watching you accomplish these moments? We got our moment last night. And what I love is that Bryce and Team Act were a part of our moment, the connection on the sideline and it got to have it end of the game scenario.

10:41And things were getting a little dicey. All this praise that we had for Bradditz, it boy, he was flirting with the racing all of it. He was not running the football, not draining some of that time off of the clock. There were a couple of eyebrows that were raised, especially with Detroit getting the football in a situation where they had enough time to march down the field and possibly win this game. I know all of us were a little butt tight watching the last little bit of this ball game. But what helped them milk just a little bit more time off of that clock? That was Bryce Young escaping pressure, getting outside the pocket, having an unbelievable throw down the sideline to Team Act, who makes a play for his quarterback once again. It's only what he's been doing all season long. That catch was absolutely ridiculous. What he looked like was what I think we all looked like out there playing on the black top, playing football during recess. When we do the toe drag drill, like I used to play sideline all the time with my buddies, it's not just enough to be able to catch easily right in the numbers, two hands.

11:42Not man, we need to make this thing impressive. And he's making it in significant moments, gotta have it situations where he's dragging the toe forever. It felt like he was dragging that foot for 30 minutes before he finally caught that football perfectly placed by Bryce. That's the moment. We got it. We got the moment. What's also nice about this, I'm not sure. You get this kind of moment from Bryce in the offense. If there isn't enough of a foundation laid down in the previous three weeks, because if you think about it, let's say Bryce, he goes out there week one and he struggles. Good, been a lot worse, right? Defense allows 59 points to Chicago. Caroline only scores 20. Bryce throws a couple of interceptions, maybe has a whole home game, right? Let's just say he throws for two touchdowns, but also two interceptions. He scores 20 points, he misses a couple times. That's not what happened. They lost, but it wasn't because of Bryce. He was excellent in that game.

12:44Then how about the next time out, they whip up on Atlanta again, and Bryce looks excellent. Cleveland, I didn't think he was great in that one, but we all know that he experienced the most pressure of any quarterback all season long and Jordan love is doing his best to try to have that crown at the end of the season. Bryce was able to make everybody pay for the most part, especially in a, hey, we kind of need this drive and Cleveland, it wasn't a great performance, but then he answered it again with last night. I think he laid enough of a foundation at the start of this season in a contract year for the conditions to be right. Brad Panovich, man, sometimes there are some storm watches, sometimes there are some storm warnings. I feel like we were in a watch territory. The conditions were right to have a breakout game. It's here. We have the ingredients. A tornado could touch down in Charlotte at any moment, but we haven't seen it yet. Brad Panovich, he's telling you there's a warning now. After that one against Detroit, we move on.

13:44We're celebrating a Carolina Panthers victory, flound dog doing a great job helping me out today on the ones and twos and serving as my co-host. Does the Bryce's here narrative actually stick the rest of the way? We got to go over all of the offensive categories that Chuba Hubbard, Teamach and Bryce Jung are all ahead in. Nationally speaking, it's going to be a fun one, folks. Stick around, Western Walker Sports Radio 92 7WFNZ. Many people believe buying a home requires a large down payment and years of saving, but that's not always the case. Across the country, there are programs designed to help first-time home buyers take the next step toward home ownership. Some of these programs offer down payment assistance or grant funding that may help cover part of the upfront cost of purchasing a home. Grants are especially helpful because they generally do not have to be repaid. There are also organizations that provide home buyer education, financial counseling,

14:44and guidance to help individuals understand the home buying process before they begin. The goal is simple. To help more families become informed and prepared for home ownership, if owning a home is something you've been thinking about, start by visiting tools for homeownership.com. This message is brought to you by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling's Paving the Way Forward Initiative. There's a lot of panthers, your favorite team, Channing for Bryce Young to win most viable player of the year award already. Through the first four games, they were giving them MVP chance just like the crowd was

15:47at Bank of America Stadium last night in prime time. We're here to discuss all of it on Western Walker Sports Radio 92 7WFNZ. We got people riding in, a lot of people fired up about that victory. We do have one person that isn't so fired up. I am going to read it because of the response. I'm going to give out future redemption says glazing Bryce for a great game versus a defense who ranks last in yards and points is wild. All I had to say back to him was, well, we about to be wild then. That's it. End of it. Right. We're about to be a wild show on a Monday. And I think had the greatest response to that. Yes. This is not a great defense that you played on the other side. I will say I don't see how you underscore what they are offensively. They are one of the better offensive teams in the league. The stats would prove that to you. Also the team that rolled out there for the Carolina panthers as beat up as any team in the NFL. Like I know there's a lot of injuries going on across the league.

16:49But in terms of the volume of injuries and the significance of injuries to the guys on your roster. I mean, look at the guys even lost last night. You had to finish the game with storm four side then there at right tackle. People got scared. Jalen Phillips gets hurt. What happens? I mean, Pat Jones had a good night. Prince L. U. Man, M. Yellen has to come in late in the game. He gets an important sack like guys. He can't just underscore this and say this is nothing. I'm sorry. It's something. He deserves love. Not above team. Mac or Chuba or Bryce or the offense, but that's a high bar to clear. That's not because Prince. He was bad. He got I think six pressures in this game. That'll do. And a sack on a key moment. That sack, Prince L. had, by the way, he gets chipped by a tight end. And then you know who he gets the sack against the dude that Chris Collinsworth said was the best player on the Detroit Lions roster. And a soul. And that was caused by Pat Jones getting free, pressuring golf. He steps up and he has to evade him.

17:50But Prince L. was able to almost bull rush. Penae Sule push him back into the lap of Jared and he couldn't step up. Complimentary football. Sometimes we use that for an offense of unit scoring after a turnover that the defense creates. That's complimentary football. Sometimes it's just helping your player out. Pat Jones makes a play. Prince L. Finishes it. That was great stuff, man. Lots of past rushing capabilities from Prince L. I would say through the first quarter or so over the season. Bert from Tennessee, he's fired up. He said, being at the game, you could tell we improved at every aspect of this game except the defense. The offense of line was not perfect, but they improved. I think play calling he gets to. He says that was much better to help production and the run game dominated. We got to a spot where the run game started to be much more effective. It was a little like Cleveland, except they stuck with it and they didn't have any penalties to call back some of these big gains like what happened against Atlanta. When they threw the flag on the big 30 yard gain for Chuba where he's able to pick up

18:51some yards on the left side, they threw it immediately. It often indicates holding great. Here's another big run that's coming back. Chuba just can't get right and it's not his fault. I felt like Robin Williams speaking of Matt Damon. It's not your fault. Don't you do that to me Walker. Not you. It's not your fault. It's the offense of Lions fault except the penalty was against Detroit. Hallelujah. He has a big gain and it sticks and it helps care a lot on that drive. Bert from Tennessee, I think he's right that I think the play calling getting the ball out of Bryce's hands quicker, which if you subscribe to next gen stats, they showed a pretty cool graphic and that he was getting rid of the football at the third highest rate of his NFL career to that point. Pretty remarkable. Great game plan. They executed it. They didn't sacrifice big plays. It was something Mike McDaniel did a great job with working with two in Miami. Big plays. Get the football out of your hands quickly. Carolina. We're able they were able to take a little page out of that book.

19:51Was there anybody that worked in Miami? Oh, yeah. Darryl Bevel. Maybe Darryl Bevel was able to help with this excellent addition here. Maybe he deserves a little more credit than what he's been giving working behind the scenes. We move on. Backyard legend says, got to keep it up. Of course, but Bryce is creeping into Joe burrow territory throwing like that behind the line. Here's what I want to say about Joe burrow. There were so many people that would compare Bryce young coming out of the draft to different quarterbacks here and there. There were some I thought that there were a lot of bad comparisons for Bryce. Kyler Murray was one and it only had to do with height. Those guys do not play like the same player. Kyler Murray is like short and compact. He does have a rocket arm. Even if Bryce's arm strength is totally fine. This is not a knock on him. Kyler just has a maniacal arm. He played baseball. This is the same thing with Russell Wilson speaking of Russell Wilson. People discussed Bryce as being a Russell Wilson like player. I don't think that fit either.

20:52I thought that those guys were very different. It's just you do the size thing. Oh, well, he's under six feet. Maybe Bryce can be like that. Hey, Drew breeze. Can we compare you to Drew because you guys are both short? I always thought Joe burrow was the best high ceiling comparison because of the way that they play the game. Bryce probably scrambles and runs a little bit more, but Joe does it too. They like to work behind the line of scrimmage. They can make a bunch of throws with anticipation. They don't have really anything that is physically daunting when you look at them. I think that's true for Joe, even if he is much taller, right? The only physical trait I think Joe has that you might describe as Matt rule alert elite would be the size, the height really specifically for Joe. Other than that, it's the processing. It's the anticipation. It's all upstairs. It's mental. That's what it is for Bryce. I love that text from backyard legend because I think if you are looking for the high end comparison, Joe is probably the guy that you're looking at.

21:53Carolina brings rights in Walker. Finally, we showed up in prime time for game sample. That's my QB pay the man. I like it. We don't have to necessarily consider logic today. Monday is for feelings. Monday is for feelings both bad like last week and good like this week, but Monday is for feelings and speaking of feelings, I want to talk to you about how I feel with my quarterback, garnering all of this national love. And let's start with Chris Collinsworth, who flounder I need to ask you real quickly before we play the sound. You and I both have defended Chris Collinsworth because there are a lot of football fans that don't love him. Did it feel like he didn't like us back last night? He definitely was wanting the lions to complete the comeback. I think he was trying to speak it into existence on that last drive. Look, everyone that was watching that game that had a rooting interest for the Panthers. I mean, even some neutral observers, they thought there was probably a chance that the

22:55lions could drive down the field here. They was scary that they got the football back, which is with as much time as they did, even with no timeouts. But I mean, Chris Collinsworth basically was telling you going into that drive, the Panthers have just lost this game. And then after the drive is over, when they go for plays and come up short of the line to gain, he then tells you I just can't believe it. I can't believe it, Mike. I can't believe they didn't come up with a multiple first downs. I thought they were going to at least have this is what he said, at least three or four first downs on this drive here. So I mean, look, I guess the thing that you would say is that you can't get too angry because we thought that their game plan was basically going to be on that final drive. It's a tack a Caleb Evans as much as possible, but you do have to give credit to Carolina's defense, which, hey, look, they're not great, but I thought Bryce put it perfectly in

23:56the post game. They made stands it when they had to and that might be the type of defense you have to have this and we can get back to the defense. They deserve their own conversation, but even coming back to this Chris stuff, it did feel like that. I mean, I don't think it was so egregious. It wasn't nasty. He wasn't insulting Carolina. He was just really, really surprised and he let you know every chance he could that he was really surprised that Detroit was at marching down the field and scoring in some of these late game scenarios. It was a disaster possession for Detroit. He wasn't wrong about it. He was just so surprised that Carolina was stepping up to the moment. There is some credit that he gave to Bryce. Perhaps it's a backhanded compliment. You get to you get to interpret however you want, but here's Chris Collins worth saying watching Bryce last night was the best he's ever seen that quarterback play football. Between the eight and the seven age, been doing it all night long. I personally have not seen him play this good.

24:58I mean, I know it. The Rams is pretty good last year. Sure was pretty good. There was Rams couple times, but backhanded or appropriate. I would say I would say it's appropriate because I really felt, I mean, he was good in that Rams game, but damn, he was really good last night, man. These throws the way he was layering the football at times, including one throw where he just layered it perfectly while jumping in the air. His feet would not neither foot was on the ground. It was all arm strength for him to layer it perfectly down the field. I believe that one was to team back. That was just sensational. And then you have the one that he's talking about right there, talking to hits him between the eight and the seven. That was a great throw that he made to price and remain. It was just to me for for national people. And this is what Chris Collins worth is judging off of national games because he doesn't get

25:59to lock in on Panther games. That I mean, if the Panthers are playing at one o'clock, more than likely that's not the game that many are choosing to watch. So on a national stage, this was the first time that he's called a game of Bryce Youngs in his career. This was the performance that's going to stick with him. And I think that's right. Rightfully so. Yeah, I think it's more appropriate than it is backhanded. One, you're right. It Chris has a lot of responsibilities on his plate. He's getting prepped for every single game that he's about to call days in advance. They did discuss that last night. How Mike and Chris were in the Queen City. They gave a lot of love to Charlotte. They seem to have a great time in the city, which that was kind of cool to hear those guys go back and forth on it. But I think it was appropriate, even if you think Bryce might have had some better games at land of 450 and a big win. That's a tough one to beat. Just the box score. You would look at that and you would say, how do you beat a franchise record? You didn't get a franchise record last night. You were throwing the team act a lot and team act.

27:01I mean, look, I think both of these guys are probably 1A and 1B. However you want to slice it, they both deserve the most amount of shine today. Both of them were focusing on the quarterback because that's kind of what you do with the signal caller position. But both of these guys deserve all the shine. I'm not mad at it. And I think most people would say that Bryce played his best game of his career because you're right, Flounder, not a lot of national pundits have been watching Bryce like that. But it does lead to some takes like these where you get to hear Scott Van Pelt and Tim Hasselback discuss the turnaround that Bryce has experienced in his career when it looked terrible. Rookie season, first two games of the sophomore campaign and slowly, but surely he's been chipping away at some of those problems and getting better and better. Here was ESPN discussing a little more about it. He's done the rarest of things. A top pick who gets benched, those guys are done where they are anyway. For him to reinvent and become what he's becoming, how has he done it and what's most impressive?

28:07I think it has to just be belief in himself because for every quarterback that was a high round draft pick that it doesn't work, there comes a point where they're just dark days. There's no question about it. So that is first and foremost is he somehow getting benched for Andy Dalton basically being feeling like the organization is moving on. He was able to survive that just internally. And then what they're doing now, Scott I think is great. They've obviously surrounded him with some good players, but they've also leaned into the stuff that he does really well. You know, like tonight, they probably just by my count alone, watching it, eight different times called basically the same exact play, but it's an RPO. And the ball kind of got spit out all different places, sometimes handed off. And it's something that he's incredible at doing. It's something he has a lot of time on task doing from the college level. And I think he has the ability to do it in terms of having quick hands and be able to find windows. And so I think the fact that they've leaned into his strength has also helped him play

29:10at a higher level. I think it's a great point from Tim Hasselback. I also really enjoy hearing Tim discuss some of the things that Bryce does well. What I used to say pretty frequently about Bryce was that my favorite part to his game was escaping the pocket and improvising. And it's still fun, man. It's still up there. I don't know if that's number one from anymore. Watching how consistent he's become throwing over the middle of the field on some of these RPO pullouts and even kind of almost allowing the gravitational pull to pull him left or right and then hit some of these crossers. I mean on the money with some of these funky arm angles getting in between some of these out extended hands from the defensive lineman, which Jared golf couldn't do. By the way, shout out to Bobby Brown, Derek Brown, they kept batting those balls down like it was Minute Bowl and George Merchand on the defensive line. Not Bryce, who is significantly shorter than Jared, finding some of these angles to work with. And that's without Damien Lewis, man. Just with Rob Hunt, who quite frankly has not been good this year much better last night.

30:14I thought we were going to have another bad Rob Hunt performance after an early penalty. Please Rob, stop allowing the officials to bring out the laundry. He stepped up stepped up a little bit more so. So with me, I think my favorite part of Bryce's game now is just the consistent, but man is throws that he has over the middle of the field, which he is working despite being a shorter quarterback. And he's hitting these crossers. I'd you're able to pick up. Yeah, it's not like, Hey, that's a really tough throw, but you hit him on his back shoulder. At least you completed it. That's good enough. It's that they are so on point. These receivers are able to pick up a little bit more yards after the catch, despite that not necessarily being everybody's strong suit a part of the arsenal that you're working with. I Chicago was great Detroit. Those are my two favorite games. Atlanta is probably third Cleveland is last for me. When Cleveland is your worst performance, Flounder, this is the evidence that I'll use to

31:17answer the question I had going into break. Does the narrative stick for Bryce that he's here? Does it stick that he's him? Because Panthers teammates of his have been trying to tell us Chuba got annoyed. Jalen Coker. I thought that was hilarious. Coker is getting so annoyed with media, not because of any real issue that he has with scrubs. He was just trying to tell you a million different times over the last couple of years. Guys, Bryce is him. He's him. You can ask me next week. I'll say that he's him. You can ask me five weeks from now. I'll tell you that he's him. Do you think that he'll be asked those questions anymore after being a little perturbed by those questions? And then everybody getting to see what he was about last night. I think those questions will probably stop. Plenty. I would believe so. And at this point now it starts to turn into the conversation of do you believe that Bryce Young should actually be in the MVP race? What does he do? You know, moving forward that can sort of continue to elevate his game.

32:17But yeah, the questions of is he a france is he the franchise quarterback? Is he exactly what the Carolina Panthers need? I think for now you got to put them on the back burner and look, there's always a scenario where later in the season he starts to struggle in those, those conversations have to come back up again because you're going to have the conversation about paying him. But right now that, that, that question is the answer to that question right now is yes. I think that's a great caveat to put on it. And it's not necessarily because of Bryce. It's because the way that we treat quarterbacks Drake May. Now his teammates have to answer that question all over again, despite him becoming coming votes away from winning MVP, they're having to answer those questions now. Big win over Buffalo for Drake May. Something we'll probably get to as the week goes on. But even still, this is what we do with Cubes. CJ Stroud was him. He was getting all of the fanfare. He was hopping on every single NFL podcast you cared about.

33:18And he was getting all of the short form content on YouTube where he's breaking down plays. And he's kissing babies and he's going to get elected mayor. And now we're trying to figure out if he deserves the next contract, the next big one. This is how we treat Cubes at least for the moment in time that we're currently experiencing. I don't think Jalen Coker or anybody else over there in Carolina is going to be answering those questions as much. Not as much as they were at least the last couple of years, 704 570 96 10. They cat Dan. He's riding in. When did Bryce get his PhD? Because that dude was surgical last night. Pay that man. Lot of contract talk for Bryce. Understandable. Given that he entered a big old contract year. Gustav from Charlotte says, well, we also need to talk about how much we're going to pay him, which is an awesome thing for us to have to deal with. Love that last part. Totally correct. This is why for those that wanted to get out in front of this price on contracts.

34:21I'm actually not even talking to the detractors. I'm talking to the Bryce fans. Even as we've seen him improve and improve and improve and show up in the post season and show up in a few games at the end of the last regular season, he's been here to the first. If you want to call it a quarter of this season, he's been showing up pretty consistently. Even if that's the case, I always thought that this was the right approach from the Panthers front office. If he's worth it, let him go out there and show us that he's consistently worth it. And then we'll pay him a whole bunch of money because it's not really an issue. We need to go figure out if he's a guy or not. And if he is, then we'll pay him $55 million. And what you could do is you could experience the hand ringing and you could say, well, we should have paid him earlier. We could have gotten him out of discount. I don't really care about that. If he shows you that he's your guy, then pay him like he's the guy and let him show it. It's all good.

35:21This was the right approach from the front office. And I've always discussed this as an underdiscuss topic. Do you think Bryce was pining to sign a $40 million a year contract? A $35 million a year contract? Do you think that's something he wanted to do or do you think he and his representatives wanted to go out there and show you, no, I'm actually playing to the level of a number one overall pick and or anything close to it? Just made sense this way. Enjoy the ride. Yeah. He was always, he was always going to bet on himself, man. Like his agent was going to tell him the same thing. Why, why rush into this man? Because you may have a fourth season that is a complete breakout. And then yeah, you're getting paid huge money. And for people that say, well, the panthers should have went ahead and signed him previously. I mean, was everybody all in on Bryce being the guy? Because he did not show what he's shown in this first four games. We have not seen a four game stretch like this from him during his career. Yeah, it doesn't exist.

36:23I don't think so. Not like that. Well, quite literally you're right. Right. There were games where you felt like, okay, there might have been a four game stretch where you felt okay about him. And you said, yeah, he could probably be our franchise quarterback. Probably was the big word in there. Now if you look at this four game sample size and people tell you this is what he's going to be moving forward. You can say that's our franchise quarterback. And so I think neither side was wrong in not coming to the table and getting a deal done. It is going to cost you a little bit more money. But I think you needed Bryce to prove to you that he was ultimately worth investing in as your franchise quarterback. You may cost you a little bit more, but if he's playing at this rate, this is, this is a top 10 quarterback in the league type rate that he's playing out right now. This is one of those shows where I have to be disciplined because I want to talk about so many different tentacles from this storyline, Brad Edzig, Dave Canalis. This canalis, the quarterback whispered after all, we hired him to be how much credit

37:27does he deserve for the improvement of Bryce Young? I don't think we've showered team act with enough praise yet. I Lord have mercy. I was tweeting about it. I love watching team act play. That was fun to see him go for almost 200 yards. We got to take your phone calls though. I gave you a warning at the beginning of the show. This is your time to shine. I don't have less with me except for the campus corner. So I got one more segment before we bring on West. This is where I want you guys. I want the city of Charlotte to be the co-host of Western Walker today. West Walker and the people call in 704 570 96 10. I want to hear from you on a prime time victory Monday. 704 570 96 10. Call in, let the city hear your thoughts on how you're feeling about the Panthers and Bryce Young. I'll give you the number one more time. 704 570 96 10. We listen to your thoughts on the other side of the brain. For many people, renting is a convenient option. It offers flexibility and may require less responsibility for maintenance, but only to home can offer a different set of long term benefits.

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40:34Tell us how you're feeling after a Panther's victory, 704 570 96 10. Some Greensboro dialing in to share his thoughts. Matt, how are you doing this morning, my man? Hey guys, man, yeah, great, great victory Monday. I mean, Bryce, we've seen it easier. He's that guy. He's our franchise quarterback. He's going to get paid a lot of money. But we'll deal with that when it comes around. I just want to shout in the coaching man, the most coordinators. I think that also, y'all, as you go back to the short, you know, the RPOs, the short quick passing game, you know, they took a couple deep shots, but for the most part, I mean, they had to, you know, keep the press shop rise. And then as much as, you know, we've given grief to a Vero, man, after we won, and especially in this game, I mean, they gave up some, you know, big plays in the passing game, but

41:35they really helped give, give, they did not let him be the game rep, that he's been the three, three games of the season. And really, really good job. And Lloyd had a big, big part of that too. Kevin Lloyd, I mean, Sam Morgan, for all of those, I'm forgetting that sign and bringing it in because I think he's been the biggest, you know, miss and peace, this defense. We've been missing that guy. That game changer in the middle for a long time. No, he's been great. Thanks for the phone call. I think you made a couple of good points when to try to rapid fire some of them before we get to the next caller. One, you brought up Jamira Gibbs, bottling up his production. He had his worst game on the young season, only 30 receiving yards. He is a big threat in the passing game. That's less, that's only half of, well, he only had 30 receiving yards against the saints, I will say, but even still the total yards of production from Jamir, that was held to its all time low to this point. 15 carries for Jamir 46 yards. They bottled up Bajan Robinson to. So if you were to say the two best running backs at the Panthers have played and maybe

42:39that exists in the game, Caroline and limited Bajan Robinson's performance and maybe you could blame that on having Cooper rushes the QB. You're not worried about what's happening behind you. Okay, fair enough. You're worried about some of the stuff happening behind you with Jared Goff, the offensive line and the receivers and Jamis and Williams and Amman Ross St. Brown. Sam Laporta got involved quite a bit in this one and they still were able to hold Jamir Gibbs and check the coaching data. Serve a lot of credit. I want to dissect a little of the Darrell Bevel aspect to this offense more so, man, because again, Miami was so good at hitting chunk plays with quick pressure to being their quarterback. I wonder if they kind of tapped into some of that thinking with last night's game plan. We move on. We have Brady up next on Brody Brody apologies Brody dialing in and sharing his thoughts. Brody, we appreciate the fall call man. How are you feeling? What's up, man? How are you? I'm doing well, Brody. What's on your mind? Dude, I think this is a bunch of huge win for the Carolina Panthers.

43:42All week, all we heard about was the Lions defense and how bad they are compared to the Panthers offense. But in order to play in the national football league, you've got to be such a good player. Think of all the division one college players that don't make it to the NFL. I think all this talk about the Lions defense not being up to par or us being riddled with injuries. I think it's a huge win. All the secondary guys that stood up and took their place to win in prime time, man. It was awesome to see the bank packed out last night. You damn right it was. It was awesome. Thanks for the phone call Brody. You can call in to 704-570-9610. I'm with you on the excuses. Look, Detroit bad defense. Okay. I'm not saying that we completely erased that. We need to consider it, but also Bryce destroyed him exactly like he should. I like to tell and remind people this all the time. Good news, everybody. They televised the football game. We get to watch what Bryce is doing out there on the football field.

44:44We don't have to just look at the box score and say, well, Detroit's their defense is lasting the league in EPA. They're lasting the league and receiving guards allowed. We get to watch Bryce cook these fools. And that's what we did last night. Let's go back to the phone lines. NASCAR Brad. It's officially a Monday, folks. He said happy Monday. He's dialing in. NASCAR Brad. We appreciate your phone call. My man, how are you? Hey, what's happening, guys? I think this is my first time calling the Western Walker show. Maybe my second time, but first time long time for you. We get to call in. So I'm glad I had a chance to call in today. I was at the game. It was a lot of fun. I think the defense did a really good job of Ben. Don't break. Holding them to four field goals was huge. I mean, if two of those were touchdowns instead of field goals, it could have been a completely different game. One of the best games I've ever seen Bryce play, honestly. And it was just a lot of fun. I don't know if you guys can look this up, but is that how close was set to the Panthers' record

45:45for one game? We'll get our research department on it. But Smitty, I believe, has the most amount of receiving guards in one game with 201. 201, yes. Hey, it was close, man. And Team Act tied Moose in Mohammed with 192 for second place on the single game receiving record. So yeah, I thought three bills was on the table. I thought it was NASCAR Brad. We appreciate you calling in. Thanks for the phone call, but yeah, I think you're right. It was fun to see, even if there were Lions fans in attendance, we knew that would happen. There were some Lions fans that got a little loud at the very end. But you could hear the Panthers fans. They were excited. I thought it was nice to hear Chris and Mike give a nod to the Panthers fans that were in attendance. And even Mike Tomlin, Maria Taylor, after the game, during post game coverage, they were telling you, this was an awesome environment. I, people had a good time in Charlotte. I want to move on because I want to fit in these last couple callers. We move on to JJ, dialing in. JJ, we appreciate the time. How are you? Hey, man, I'm doing good.

46:45Thank you. I hope you're doing well. I just want to say this is the best show on the whole channel. So thanks for letting me call in. Dude, I just wanted to give some up to tap in the front office. Man, I felt like they really built up the experience, made sure everybody knew it was a blackout. I thought the theme was so fun. All the lights was sick. I just thought they brought out cool people, Charlotte Flare, some cool legends, Thomas Davis. So I just think doing stuff like that will really keep the fans engaged and build like an atmosphere. You know, give us even more home field advantage. Appreciate the kind words, JJ, you can call in anytime. We open up the phone lines. Also, we appreciate everybody just supporting everyone at WFNZ, like JJ, because I do think that like people appreciate the Panthers, there was always a little something missing with the lack of ring of honor to give back to the Panthers fans or kind of have this be a two way street. I think that's something Tepper has always knocked out of the freaking park. It was an easy victory and he's just not only hit a home run

47:45with celebrating Panthers history. I mean, he's hit a grand slam with one installing the ring of honor. Also, making sure that we have some of these Panthers legends that we celebrate, some of the celebrities go out there, hit the keep pounding drum, which I know that's been a tradition for a while. But JJ's dead on about this. It does start from the top. This wasn't an initiative that Tepp did care about. And we've seen this all throughout his tenure as the owner. Last thing before we move on to our last caller. What's cool is that we have current players embracing the history. Team act. I couldn't love this guy anymore, especially after 190 yard performance. But what I really love is when he wears Xavier Lee get T shirts to the game. Like he already did at the beginning of this year when Excel needed a little boost. Team acts like, hey, man, let me wear the shirt. And he just wanted to support a teammate of his. And then you see last night, he pays homage to Steve Smith, looking into the camera and say, if you see this face, that means I scored again.

48:46One of the more iconic sound bites of all time, but he's embracing Smitty. And if you've heard some of the interviews with team act, he embraces Panther's culture a lot. And he loves the NFL. Like guys, he's a real student of the game. I highly encourage everyone to listen to some of these interviews with team act. He knows ball. He talks about Devonte Adams releases. He discusses Larry Fitzgerald with the best hands of all time when he was getting peppered with historical NFL questions. He had answers straight at the top of the dome and informed answers. I know people made a lot of that clip circulating pre draft. Well, I don't really have to watch film because we have film study during the week. I don't need to do that on my own. People got afraid of that. He's a student of the game. And we got more sound acknowledging just how high as IQ is. Rapid fire. I want to fit you in here. Jersey Mike. It's been a while. We appreciate you calling in. Jersey Mike, the floor is yours. How are you? Yeah. Thank you for taking my call, man. How exciting to be on the big show, man.

49:46I let me say this. The problem with Bryce Young is the fans don't want to give him the credit. I thought about Panther fans. He's not big enough is what the fans problem is. No matter what he does, all he did last year to all those come back wins more than any other quarterback, but he's not big enough to play off games. He's not big this year. Four games. Number one quarterback in the NFL. He's not big enough. And the players, coca says he's him, but the fans, let me just say this one last thing about a small quarterback because I'm only five feet five. It's a blessing to be that little. You saw golf was getting passive, bad it down at his big size. But Bryce does not. He hasn't had banished because all his life, he's developed a way to throw

50:47through certain windows and certain areas and angles that bigger guys are just tried to throw over people. He knows how to hit those windows. So I'm telling you, thank God, we got a QB franchise number one quarter back in NFL as small as he is. When you see this face, I just got another touchdown. Thank you very much. That's how you dismount a phone call segment, Jersey Mike. See, it's been a while since he's called in, but that's how you dismount. I we haven't heard from him in years. Like on the text line, I think we've seen him, but we haven't heard him call in in a while. That's how you do it. I don't want to waste any more time, man. That's how you dismount it. I don't have anything to add. Wes Bryant, he joins us on the other side. We dabble in the college football world. We talk about whether your favorite team actually showed up this weekend or whether they were downright terrible, hypothetically speaking for a friend.

51:47We'll get to that coming up next in the campus. Kona. Kona. There you go. Sports rated 927 FM.