00:00Am I watching the real Bryce Young?
00:04I mean, you know, two years ago,
00:08C.J. Stroud was the rookie of the year, Jacob,
00:11and everyone was saying, oh, Carolina made the wrong pick
00:13by going and getting him.
00:15But, I mean, they're going in different directions right now.
00:19And, boy, I'll tell you, Bryce is carrying that team.
00:22Ted McMillan looks like an ace of a draft pick so far.
00:26Are the Panthers real?
00:30I think they are, Dan.
00:32I think that this team is very well coached.
00:34Dave Canales has really brought that offense together over his,
00:37I believe it's his third season there.
00:39And Bryce Young, to your point, is playing tremendous football.
00:42And he looks like the Bryce Young that we saw at Alabama.
00:45You know, his best year is there.
00:47He was a Russell Wilson-style playmaker who could run,
00:51but his number one goal was to push the ball downfield,
00:54throw with great deep accuracy, hit his receivers in stride.
00:57We saw that against the Lions last night.
00:59And I know the Lions secondary is an absolute mess right now,
01:02but Bryce Young was just pinpoint accurate throughout the game.
01:05He read the field so well.
01:07He really didn't have a single bad play that I can recall in that game.
01:10And I think that speaks, one, to his perseverance through his early career struggles,
01:14and, two, to the job Dave Canales has done,
01:17just getting the most out of him as a signal caller.
01:20Every year under Canales' leadership, Young has taken a significant step forward.
01:25Last year, you know, it was – or first season, he wasn't very good, got benched.
01:29After that, got more playing time.
01:31Second year under Canales was really a serviceable starter.
01:34People were looking at him and saying, hey, he's doing the job here.
01:37Will he be an elite starter?
01:38Maybe not.
01:39But, hey, he's doing fine.
01:40And now, this season, we're seeing, hey, he's well above average right now.
01:43He's playing at a very high level.
01:45And if he can keep this up, Panthers are going to be a hard team to beat
01:48with that just balanced offensive attack.
01:51No question about it.
01:53And if you're the Buccaneers, man, you've got to be looking at yourselves going,
01:56wait, we let Liam and Dave Canales walk out of the building
02:00and we're stuck here with Todd Bowles?
02:02Holy cow.
02:03Let me go over to Knuckles Campbell and what's going on with the Lions there.
02:06And you tell me.
02:08I mean, look, we mentioned this before the last time you were on.
02:11You know, when you lose a guy like Aaron Glenn,
02:13and I know Jet fans are going to go, well, he sucks as a kid.
02:16They go, yeah, well, you had him and you also had Ben Johnson
02:19in the building there.
02:20And that football team looked a lot different
02:22when those two guys were your coordinators here.
02:25Is that what they're doing right now?
02:27Because, look, he threw for 400 yards last night, Jared Goff.
02:30But, boy, that defense, it just does not look good enough to stop anybody
02:34and be a true contender this year.
02:36Am I wrong?
02:37I don't think you're wrong.
02:38I think the Lions have shown through this first month of the season
02:41that that defense is their fatal flaw.
02:44They're going to have to overcome that to become any sort of playoff contender.
02:48And I think it's possible.
02:50Look, they are undermanned right now, especially at safety.
02:53I think they're missing, like, their top four guys at the position.
02:56But most importantly, Brian Branch and Kirby Joseph haven't played this year.
03:00And they're so important.
03:01Those are true three-down playmaking safeties back there.
03:04They are so important to the success of that secondary.
03:07They haven't been able to cover anyone at all without those two.
03:10And, listen, the Lions are still 2-2 despite having what has been, frankly,
03:15a tough defense to watch.
03:17So they can win.
03:18They just have to outscore opponents.
03:20So, you know, you have a game like last night against the Panthers.
03:23Jared Goff had a good game statistically.
03:26But if you watched him perform, he was just ever so slightly off.
03:31Nothing major.
03:31He was just missing his receivers high on occasion.
03:34He had a bunch of balls batted at the line of scrimmage.
03:36So that speaks to the problem of if this offense comes up short even once,
03:41you can't trust the defense to get the stop needed to keep them in the game.
03:45Because, look, the Lions still scored, I think, 26 points last night
03:49and could have had more.
03:50They had plenty of red zone opportunities.
03:51But because they couldn't get the stop on defense,
03:54it felt like they were playing from behind for pretty much the entire night.
03:58So until that defense gets shored up,
04:00that's just going to be a massive problem for the Lions.
04:02They can win games, but they will not be a contender
04:05until they prove they can get some semblance of a stop against anyone,
04:09especially through the air.
04:10.
