Carolina Panthers
What to make of the Panthers' future with the season over
99.9 the Fan's Dennis Cox joins Kacy Hintz to evaluate the Carolina Panthers' season now that it's come to a close.
Welcome back into sports extra for the 15th and final time. This season, we have to wrap up a Carolina Panthers loss. But tonight we have a special guest to help me do that. 99 9 the fans, Dennis Cox, you've seen him on the Panthers playbook. We have here every Sunday. Dennis. Thank you so much for joining us tonight. We appreciate it. Boy, I think your tweet said it best and spoke for every one. The Panthers season could not end fast enough and that goes for Bryce Young's rookie season. Boy, it was rough, but I think people will look at the losses. They might just look at the simple score sheet box sheet stats and say, you know, he's a bust. How would you though? Sum up his rookie season? And is there any sort of, you know, glimmer of hope for him going forward? I think you have to say it's a disappointing season because this was a year we were expecting based off what we were told by the, the front office and everyone from the Panthers organization, hey, we were just a quarterback away. We can compete in the NFC South and it was a disappointment for Bryce because let's be honest, he didn't really play up to the level that we may have expected for a number one overall pick. But the circumstances around him now, he's certain without fault himself, Bryce Young at moments did not play well, but his coach got fired during the season. His offensive line was not very good and the weapons around him also weren't very good either. All those things compounding him not playing well and the situation around him not being very good led to an overall, very disappointing season, not what people would expect for a number one overall pick, especially when the number two overall pick CJ Stroud had a heck of a season and his teams going into the playoffs. Hey, we've seen it though, Peyton Manning, uh, you know, we've seen other, other quarterbacks in their rookie year. It does get worse, you know, than Bryce Young had it, you know, Chris Tabor, you know, had some high praise for him after the game saying, you know, he'll look back on this one day, you know, it'll, it'll stink but he thinks that he is a bright future. But as for the future of interim coach, Chris Tabor, we all but know he will not be the head coach. So Dennis, where does, uh David Tepper start when looking for the next head coach? I actually, I hope he looks inward. I think that's actually where he needs to look, first is actually look inward because he's made a lot of very quick decisions regarding coaching. He's fired three coaches in the six seasons that he's been the owner of this team. Now from reports, he actually did hire an outside consulting firm to help him with this head coaching search. And I think that's actually the step in the right direction, but whomever you bring in has to be all 100% on Bryce Young, they have to be because if that's not the case, that's all gonna fall apart. All the draft picks that have been spent to try and find a starting quarterback for this franchise would have been wasted. But I think David Tepper has to look inward and really actually has to evaluate himself first. But can he do that time? Will tell the other changes that need to be made, man, Bryce Young needs some guys around him if he's going to be successful. What are the biggest moves you think this team needs to make in the off season, offensive line, offensive line, offensive line, offensive line, doesn't matter how good your receivers are, doesn't matter how good your running backs are. If you cannot protect the quarterback, then none of it is worth it. You have to start the offensive line because right now the only actual stable offensive line that you can say on the offensive line is right tackle Taylor Moton, the interior of the offensive line was decimated by injuries at least at the guard positions. And Bradley Bozeman as a center didn't really do too well. And there's questions about former NC state tackle Ike Kwan, who was the sixth overall pick in 2022. A lot of questions about him. If he's capable of being a long term left tackle, maybe he slides into guard. But nonetheless, the offensive line has to be the first thing that's got to be fixed. If you want to fix an offensive line or fix an offense as a whole, you start from the inside out, start with the offensive line, then you can build from the outside really quick, one strong suit of this Panthers team this season for the most part was the defense. Give me one guy, the Panthers can't let go of for next year. You can't let go of, of Brian Burns. You can't let him go. Derek Brown still under contract. So he's definitely gonna stick around. He was the bright spot this season for the Carolina Panthers, but it's Brian Burns because the last two seasons, you have turned down multiple first round draft picks over the last two seasons for Brian Burns. And if you fail to bring him back, then that's just complete negligence on the front office for not accepting first round picks for a guy you ended up not keeping, you have to keep Brian Burns. He plays a premium position as an edge rusher. You have to keep him this off-season. Awesome insight here tonight, Dennis Cox. Thank you so much. Thanks Casey.