MAILBAG: Is Ejiro Evero About to UNLEASH an Elite Defense for the Carolina Panthers?

0:00This is the Lockdown Podcast Network celebrating 10 years of your team every day. Hey, Drake May here. As a pro quarterback, I know I can't do it alone. I have to trust my team, and that goes for my money too, which is why I use Betterment, the trusted investing and savings platform. Their automated investing tools always have my back, just like my old line. Over a million people already trust Betterment to build their wealth, so I know I'm in good company. Building yours at Betterment.com or Download the App. Investing involves risk. Performance not guaranteed. Paid client ad. Views may not be representative. See App Store and Google Play reviews. Learn more at Betterment.com slash ambassadors. Today's episode is brought to you by the Dell XPS. I'm Wes Goldberg from Lockdown NBA Daily and Lockdown Heat. So what does it feel like to have a better laptop like the Dell XPS powered by Intel Core? With a premium design that's thin and light, it feels smooth. With a responsive touch screen, it feels fast and precise. And with long lasting battery life, it feels like non-stop energy with a laptop that can

1:01keep up. Built for those who want better, the Dell XPS. Built for you. What am I sure will happen for the Panthers this season? Will this be the year that Jarrow of Arrow's defense becomes one of the NFL's elite units? I want you to ask questions among other listener questions on this weekly Wednesday mail by edition of Lockdown Panthers. You are Lockdown Panthers, your daily Carolina Panthers podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to another edition of Lockdown Panthers podcast. I'm your host as always, Julian Council. And today's episode of Lockdown Panthers is brought to you by Kalshi for a limited time. Download a Kalshi app and use code Lockdown to get $10 when you trade $10 the weekly Wednesday mail bag is back.

2:02Y'all every single Wednesday throughout the entirety of the Panthers regular season. And of course, pingers cross post season. I'm on here every single Wednesday answering your weekly Wednesday mail back questions. All you got to do is at me or DM me over on Twitter at Julian Council or over on Blue Sky at Julian Council. I'm sorry YouTube audience. I do not read the comments looking for mail bag questions. So get a blue sky, get a Twitter account. Acts, if you want to call it that, maybe I'll begin an email and make a Gmail account for those who want to do that. Who don't have social media, which is probably the right way to go about life. I certainly wish I did not have to be on it as much as I am. But I appreciate everybody sending questions for today. So get those questions into me after the games on Sunday. And then I'll answer them here on Wednesday. Get those in by Tuesday around about three, four o'clock PM Eastern time. Let's start off with Danny who I like this question.

3:05It's a little bit like a game that we played yesterday on the show and it gave you my final season record prediction for the panthers saying eight and nine will be their final record at the end of the season here in 2026. But before I did that, I played Rose Bud and Thorne giving you Rose. One good thing I like, Thorne, one bad thing about the panthers and then Bud was just something that intrigued me about Carolina. So Danny is kind of doing that with this question asking, what's your 90 50 20 for this season? He says it works like this. I say three takes one that your 90% sure will happen. One that your 50% sure will happen and one that your 20% sure will happen. He said that he'll start. So he's saying his 90% is that Derek Brown will be the panthers stand out the offensive player and make the pro bowl. Once again, he's also saying first 50 that the panthers defense will be a top 10 unit. Oh, that's me. I said that whoops. He said the team accurately the NFC Saladin told her receiving yards this season. And it is 20 as Bryce Young has benched after it is a start to the season. I already gave away my 50, but let me tell you my 90.

4:07I love this, Danny. Love things like this that make me think and are pretty fun to do. My 90 is that Bryce Young will be the panthers starting quarterback throughout the entirety of the season, barring injury, which means that no Bryce is not going to get bench for Kenny Pickett. And I don't hear very many of you saying that you're saying at least some of you are saying Haynes King will start a game sometime this season. I don't think that's going to happen as long as Bryce is healthy. Now, if Bryce has like a month straight of just pick sixes, fumbles, throwing for 60 yards, then all right, we can have the conversation up potentially binging him in favor of somebody else. But I don't think that Kenny Pickett, sorry. Well, I don't think that Haynes King will be the guy that they go to. And I've already said, I've not been impressed by Kenny Pickett so far from what I saw from him during training camp and then in the limited sample size there in a preseason as well.

5:09Haynes King, we saw him play one game, one in the Hall of Fame game against second and third stringers of the Arizona Cardinals, one of the worst football teams in the NFL a season ago, not to take anything away from Haynes. He did things operationally that I did not think that he could do based off of how they called the offense last year and the prior two seasons down at Georgia Tech when he was with the yellow jackets. I did not expect him to go from a battering gram to someone who could actually operate an NFL offense with efficiency with accuracy the way that he did, which was impressive. And why the Panthers did not feel like they could subject him to waivers and then get him back without there being a massive risk that somebody took him on the roster because he's a quarterback and quarterback, as we all know, is the most important position in all of team sports here in North America. And also the most overvalued position because of your offensive line sucks, you have no running backs. You have a terrible defense. It's like, doesn't really matter your quarterback is you got to have a complete team around you see the Seattle Seahawks who just won a Super Bowl with Sam Darnold back seven months

6:12ago, which right there exhibit a, but I think Bryce will be the quarterback throughout the entirety season, barring an injury. So now Haynes King, I do not think is going to be someone who takes over Bryce Chung at any point because of Bryce Chung's performance this year. My 50 is at the Panthers defense will be a top 10 unit. Look at it. I've talked about this before. Derek Brown, all pro caliber player, pro, well, caliber player at defensive tackle, the most important player on this Panthers defensive. He's healthy. They have a chance to be very good because behind him, the cleanup, any sort of messes that are made by the guys not named Derek Brown at defensive tackle is Bobby O'Kara, and more importantly, Devon Lloyd and all pro from a season ago. And on the edges is now Jalen Phillips and Prince Lee and Pat Jones will be aided by the fact that Jalen Phillips is in this edging room behind those guys. JC Horan Mike Jackson, the most underrated cornerback duo in the NFL. JC's been a pro board back back seasons, but Mike Jack, unless your PF or one of them

7:14a court each one's I can't tell which one is which. We don't all look alike, but they do look alike because they are identical twins. But one of them is hyping up my jack, at least they did it last year to the playoffs. That's awesome. And in that safety, you have continuity, which are my Eric. You also have Nick Scottback, Nathan Ransom is a key Wheatley, both of those guys look good. This preseason as young developmental players in that secondary who could be starting this time next year. That could be a top 10 unit. There's really no excuses for a Jero Verreaux. What's up about that moment? Hopefully, and then my 20 is that the Panthers will find a third reliable playmaker on offense. As I told you yesterday in a big reason why I'm going with eight and nine, it's not just the schedule. It's I don't know what to expect from this Panthers offense on a week to week basis. Hell, even down the down series, the series basis price could be great one week, could be terrible one week, be mid one week. The run game could be top 10 for the first out of the season, bottom five for the second after the season. T Mac could be great and healthy throughout the year. Jalen Coker could get banged up and not play for a couple of weeks and then Excel is dropping

8:17balls, not lining up, but correctly stepping out of bounds. You mean, weren't you? You're just a gadget guy. John Betchee is not going to provide anything. I don't think. And yeah, Bryson remains there as well, least performing tight in rooms since 2020. Offensive line has no depth right now to speak of. I just have a lot of concerns about the offense defensively. I think they're going to be pretty good offensive. They could be very good, but I'm just not confident to say that. I'm not confident that a third reliable playmaker emerges. It could be Chuba. He could get back to what he showed back in 2024 or 2025 is the beginning of the end for Chuba Hubbard as a reliable running back in the national football league. Maybe John at the Brooks, fix it out. Maybe Excel does or somebody else behind Excel. Why, we see, maybe it's tied in finally emerges. I'm only 20% sure that happened. So I'm not the most confident, but I appreciate the game here, Danny. So appreciate you there. And maybe I'll steal this next year when previewing the Panthers. Let's go to a M football. Again, let me know what your actual name is. So I can say it on the show.

9:18This person asks, do you think a Jero Verro with new pieces like Jalen Phillips and Devon Lloyd can finally become the defensive mastermind we thought we were getting when we hired him in 2023? Now we, I didn't hire him. You didn't hire him. David Tepper hired him after interviewing him for the head coaching job saying, actually, no, I don't want you to be my head coach. Do you want to stay here to be the DC? And he did it. And also he goes on to say after the defense went from 32nd until the defense 2024 to 12th in 2025. Do you think he could put together an elite defense and potentially get hired as a head coach somewhere else in the next one to two years? Now I wrote down the defensive improvements. I had them going from 32nd to total defense, which is the amount of yards they gave up to 16th. Let's throw out total defense. Who cares? How about how many yards they gave up? Scoring defense. We can focus on that. They went from 32nd to 15th, giving up 31.4 to 22.4. 31.4, by the way, was the worst in history of the national football league. So that's a big jump. Yards for play. They went from 32nd to 20th. All those are nice, but I'm not really interested in the basics that what do the advance

10:21that say? What says they went from dead last to 22nd and expected points per play? They went from dead last to 16th in success rate, which is basically saying, are you keeping your opponents offences off schedule? They went from dead last to 22nd in DVOA. This went from the worst defense and the history of the national football league. It was still about bottom third, bottom half of the league, but better, but still not a top half of the NFL when looking at the advance stats in EPA per play success rate in DVOA. With that being said, what I said earlier to you, when doing my 9050, 20, my 50 is that this can be a top 10 and will be actually a top 10 unit this upcoming season because of the talent that they have at the fence of tackle of Derek Brown, at lineback or if Devon Lloyd and now Bobby O'Caracate, even Tyrone Dodson on the practice squad, what they have at edge rusher with Jalen Phillips, someone who offensive coordinators have to actually account for it. They weren't accounting for Jove Young, they weren't accounting for Pat Jones, DJ one of

11:24them or anybody else that care on it throughout their last two seasons. They have to do that now when we saw on a small sample size and Buffalo. Oh man, Princely looks pretty good. Why is that? Oh, yeah, it's year two. He has experience, but Devon Lloyd, no. Well, yes, Devon Lloyd's out there, but Jalen Phillips, he's out there too. So yeah, I do think that this will be the year that they finally become a top rate defense that they can become a top 12 top 10 defense this season. Well, that may come a defensive mastermind all of a sudden. Probably not. It just sounds like you would have the personnel to finally utilize his scheme. And if he was a mastermind, I would think that he would do more with less, which certainly hasn't really been the case. I guess the last year was the case in a little bit of a way. Bullsey, he's a defensive coach. To be honest, he's half of his black. It's hard for us to get these jobs in NFL. I'm not trying to make it a race thing, but like we looked around the league, we see the players, we see who are the head coaches, who aren't the head coaches.

12:28I know he talked to andscape about this recently. I didn't read everything in that. I would hope a lot of owners are looking for that young offensive mastermind, that genius tie up. They're not really looking for defensive coaches. And we just know how the hiring cycle has been in the NFL for minority coaches. We have one here in Carolina and Dave Canales. There are others across the league, but not that many, especially when looking at just the workforce. Now, of course, there's plenty of players of other ethnicities and races and all that. I'm not really trying to make that, but I'm just calling a spade a spade, guys. I think we can all chill. You don't hear me talk politically or anything like that. I don't really want to wait in those waters. I just want to talk full, but we all have eyes. We can see what the demographics are of the head coaches in the national football league and how it may be difficult. Just based off really what a Jero is not done as a DC or in Carolina. It's all the sudden get those jobs. He's interviewed plenty of time. So hopefully for him, it does happen. And hopefully for Carol how it happens as well, because that would mean that you had a really successful defensive coordinator to turn things around here this season and next

13:31season. And then he goes on and get the head coaching job. And I guess that comes up a draft pick as well, which to me is just really weird that the NFL is like, Hey, thanks for hiring a black guy. Here's the third round pick. Like what? But let's take a quick pause. Come back now. Answer more of your weekly Wednesday mail back questions right here on Locked On Panthers. Up for today's episode comes from Quail Spell Q U O the business phone system built. So you never miss a call for businesses. Every call can be an opportunity in missing one can mean missing a customer. Quail brings calls, texts and voice mail together in one place. So teams can see the full conversation. Respond quickly and stay organized. It can also be set up in minutes on any device. Keep an existing number and add teammates as the business grows. Quail helps businesses stay reachable and professional without being complex. And with an optional AI agent for after hours calls, businesses can answer questions and book appointments, even when the team is offline as a business gets busier, it becomes harder to keep up with every call, text and voice mail. I'd want a system that keeps all that organized and makes it easier for the team to respond instead of letting potential customers fall through the cracks.

14:33Money is on the line. Always say hello of quote, try quote for free. Plus get 20% off your first six months when you go to quote.com such locked on in F L. That's q U O dot com such locked on in F L. Welcome to your most rewarding NFL season ever only on Fando how rewarding are we talking more rewarding than a touchdown with time expiring more rewarding than an 18 point comeback, maybe even more rewarding than an oliaman catching a touchdown more rewarding than the panthers finally hoisting Lamberti trophy. There I say I don't know, but this season, Fando was making the excitement go beyond what happens on the field with the all new Fando rewards club featuring exclusive offers, surprises and more every week. Check out the Fando app to see what's waiting for you. There's nothing like a game winning play when everything comes down to the final seconds. That feeling is what makes football so much fun and Fando was adding another layer of excitement rewards and surprises throughout the season. The panthers right now looking over at Fando sports book are to an point underdogs at home

15:33week one in Chicago. What is going on? Fando get that right. But make this your most rewarding season ever with Fando visit fando.com to get started. Back back here on locked on panthers answering your weekly Wednesday mail back questions at me DM me over on Twitter and blue sky to get those questions and maybe I will begin a me an email page. Okay. Back here on a locked on panthers answering your weekly Wednesday mail back questions at me or DM me over on Twitter and blue sky following the game on Sunday to get your questions in for next week's edition of the weekly Wednesday mail back here on locked on panthers. Now over to Jack who said, I want to pick your brand on where you feel like Bryce Jung is at after this off season. I feel like this is a make or break year for him and will determine which direction the panthers go next off season. But I haven't heard much about him. I guess no news can be good news. Sometimes what I feel like there hasn't been any chatter specifically about where Bryce is with his development as of late. Um, yeah.

16:34Look, man. Honestly, what needs to be said at this point in time based off of the preseason where we barely saw a Bryce play and based off of training camp, which of course none of y'all could attend unless you were in Jacksonville for that one practice that was open for the joint practice with the Jags. Like there wasn't much to really take away from that either. Like I just, I looked at him. He looked fine, but it doesn't really matter until you go out there and play because I thought two years ago, I thought Bryce looked pretty good. Anyone out and played terribly. I thought last year, Bryce looked pretty good. Anyone out and played terribly does not really matter what he does in a preseason, what he doesn't training camp. What is he going to do once the game matters on Sunday against Chicago? Like that's why I don't think I don't think there's much chatter. And also every time we've asked the panthers about an extension, they've either like recently Brant Tillis not answered the question at all or said that they're just not there yet and they picked up the fifth year option, which is I'm going to pay him $25.9 million next

17:35year, which is why at least to me and to Carolina financially, not a maker breaks season for Bryce. Now, I asked a person of the athletic about this on Monday, whether he thought they were headed in that direction. He thinks that they're likely going to come to an extension and that's not him reporting just his feel on the situation. And based off of how Carolina's gone about things with their brown, with JC Horn, would have done with Ikea Kwanu had he not gotten injured back in January. It's been fifth year option. Play that fourth year extension. Fifth year option, play that fourth year extension. That's what they've done. So if Bryce goes out there and has the same kind of season had last year, but more consistency, better numbers has caught on a right back in the playoffs or the playoff picture. These probably going to get that extension. I'm curious how much it would be and how long it would be. As you look at Baker Mayfield, I think Baker has a right to be pretty ticked off about the bucks, not wanting to give him more link to that contract extension that he's looking for for Bryce.

18:37I'd be kind of wanting to give him like a Sam Darnell type of deal right now. I just need to see more man. And that's just kind of where I'm at. We've seen the numbers. We've gone over it. Last year looking at just advanced numbers. He was 28th in the paper drop back. He was 23rd and success rate. Those are not numbers that make me want to see Carolina give him $50 million per year. And I'm guessing you're probably right on board with me with that. But here's the kicker. Second in the NFL of game winning drives of seven. You know, led the league bonix. How high are y'all on bonix? I'm guessing not that high and I'm not trying to say that bonix is bad. I'm trying to say Bryce is bad. But that can be a stat that is not all that revealing. How is he clutch? I suppose more clutch than Teddy Bridgewater, but is that saying much at all? I don't think so. You look at since the end of the league back in 2023. He has 12 game winning drives ahead of my homes and Allen who both have 10. But we know who my homes in Alomar. My homes going to Hall of Fame. First ballot. Josh Allen made join them there. He continues to play the way he's played and do something more in the playoffs get through several win-wann.

19:37He's probably going to get in. But you look at it. Great. Those guys are great players. They playing great teams. Why is it that Carolina is always having to come back? Because Bryce, as a starter, I believe the Panthers have what? 14 wins with him. If I'm looking at this correctly, 14 wins. And of those 14, 12 have been game winning drives. I mean, am I getting that correctly? Because I'm right now talking out loud. I wrote down these notes. I'm like, wait, hold on, hold on, hold on. That can't be true, right? That can't be what it's been the last couple of years. But maybe it is just based off of it. Yeah, they have 14 wins. Holy crap. That is insane. But they have 14 wins. And of those 14, 12 are on game winning drives. Why is that every single time the Panthers win a game of Bryce showing starting, it's a game winning drive because they're not doing anything in the first quarter that they're behind all the time. Have to come back. Maybe that's what it is. And when you like to play ahead more often than you don't. So that's the thing. I think about it that that's some little nuance context and he's be added in that situation. But we have seen in a second after these years, Bryce looked like a top 10 quarterback.

20:38Like you did from week 13 to 18 last year. He was a ninth highest graded quarterback, cornered PFF, eighth with passing grade. He tied ninth of big time throws. Nine of them had two turnover worthy plays. He was 10th best passer rating, 10th best EPA for dropback, top 10 quarterback. Second half of the season, two years in a row. But what about the rest? What about in September? What about in October? Can you be better to start off the season? Can you show that week to week consistency? Like those are the things I want to see. So until we see it, what needs to be said about Bryce Young? Like that's the question that I have for you. Jack and anyone else out there who asks me about Bryce Young. All right. Let's take one more quick pause to come back and answer the rest of your weekly wins they mail by questions right here on Locked on Panthers. Before the season even kicks off, everyone's making predictions who wins a division, who makes the playoffs, who's lifting the trophy at seasons end on CalShi America's number one prediction market platform. You can trade those predictions in a live market with a Panthers qualify for the playoffs this season right now. Carolin is trading at 27%, meaning a $100 trade, but pay out $352.36 if they clinch a playoff

21:41spot on CalShi. Your trading in peers in a live market, meaning there's no house and as a probability changes, you can buy in and out of your position, trade the draft pick the game and more on CalShi. Download the CalShi app and use code lock down to get $10 when you trade $10 KAL, S H I CalShi trade on anything 18 over only restrictions, eligibility requirements apply, event contract trading, who else risk may not be suitable for all investors. CalShi products are not available in all jurisdictions, prices, values, and available markets may differ from those mentioned from information. See CalShi.com slash regulatory. Three more questions we're going to answer here on this weekly Wednesday mail bag edition of locked on Panthers tomorrow is cross over Thursday going to chat with Lauren Cox of locked on bears excited for that conversation. Also, if you're all living in the Chicago area, I'm going to be on the score on Friday night. That was pretty cool. Getting an email about that, asking me to come on that show, get a couple of texts and emails throughout the season for people asking me to come on to radio shows, but the score is one of the top sports radio stations ever. So pretty cool.

22:41I get invite to go on that show and market number three. So excited about that on Friday evening 625 local time there in Chicago. If you guys are up there to listen to the show, so please do a chuck. He asked post roster cut down. What do you think Dan and Dave mean by saying we are a developmental organization? He puts in quotes. It just seems like so many of the players we draft don't pan out or get developed like channels of all this possibly JTC and etc. And we have a hard time keeping talent not trying to be negative. It just seems we struggled with developing our own leading us to spend so much on free agents. It curious to know what your thoughts are in development organization. Yeah. Well, you look and I brought this up about 24 or 24 class. I guess we're going to talk about again right now. You look at free agency recent times. They failed with linebacker development. So they had to go out and spend money on Bobbi O'Carrikay and Devon Lloyd. They had to go out and bring in Dylan Pholps as well. Because they moved off of Brian Burns. They're not just there yet with Nick Scorton and princely. So no problem there, I would say because I think those guys, especially Scorton are on

23:43the right direction with Carolina at that position. You look at off into line didn't develop off into line. But interior wise, it's been a big money on Bobbi and on Turk safety. Same kind of case with you look at a guy like Tyron Merrick. So they've been willing to spend, but you don't want to build your roster based off of free agent signing. It's not like they're going on signing like 12 guys. They're expecting them to come in and be big time players for them. They haven't had the kind of budget to do that. And I don't think they would want to do that anyways. But you look at the guys you mentioned, Zavales from past regime, yes, Dan was here, but let's throw that away as far as looking at the current regime here in Carolina that being Dan and Dave and Brent trepid Wallace. Clearly amiss no longer here. JT Sanders appears to be a mess and you look at the 2024 draft class as a whole. That was the first draft class that Dan and Dave and Brent had. They weren't like Dan was around. He knew some of these scouts. I'm sure he's moved on from some asked to go you see when a new general man, Drate takes over. He just takes a whatever scouting that they have from 2023. He took that information and took it to 2024 made the draft picks.

24:44And then we saw looking at 2025. Team act looks pretty good. Next court and looks pretty good. Prinsley still waiting on that. Trevor HN. I'm going to bet that probably doesn't work out. Just based off the information that we have now, Ethan Ranson looks pretty good. Cam Jackson, TBD and then Jimmy Horn Jr. Head in the right direction. So right now the hit rate looks pretty good for 2025 at this moment in time. But you have to wait and see what 2026 looks like and just how they develop. I guess the real question you're asking is who has really gotten better since Dan and in particular, Dave and his staff have been here. I'd say Mike Jackson's been a nice developmental player for them and who's really been really good. So that's maybe one, but he did come in late. Bryce Chung has obviously improved when he was in 2023. There's been a lot of bumps in the road, but he's improved and they've done a really good job of chilling coax. So those are at least three I can name off the top of my head that I wrote down when putting together my notes. There's not a ton, which I think is kind of the concern that you have when you look at their first draft class and the fact that Trevin's gone, that JT feels like he's in his last days in Carolina.

25:45Jonathan Brooks has not really been healthy enough to develop, but he's not done anything yet. Excel is certainly not developed to this point in time. He would be one if he figures it out this season and you got to wait for the other guys to also step up. I understand your question there. They got to do better drafting. They got to do better at developing. I still feel like it's little early because as I tell you all, after three years of a draft class, that's when I go back and really grade them and we haven't even gotten through three seasons of 2024, although not looking great. 2025 off to a good start, 2026, TBD. Ricky, asking your Dave Canouse, who are the inactive for game day for you? So Carolina with 53 men on the roster will have five guys in active. No, Haynes King will not count towards those five inactive. As he will be the emergency third quarterbacks, let the five and five of their guys. Based on the last season, they had six guys who were active on game day. Sorry. They had five wide receivers who were active on game day. Obviously, T Mac, Excel, Coke, or will be up there.

26:45Jimmy Horn with Nocher, HN is clear their return at this point in time and then Bryson Tremay and I think is very important for them, special teams wise. I think John Metchie ends up being the guy who's inactive at wider receiver. At least week one, I would say Jackson Coach would also be inactive at linebacker, which would mean only three linebackers, which I kind of went back and forth on, but I would think he'd be inactive. Darren Waller, I would guess he would be as he still has practiced a little bit more, but hasn't played a full game yet. And the fact that JT Sanders has special teams value, I don't foresee Waller having that right now. I don't foresee him being ahead of Tommy Trimble or Mitch 11s and certainly not ahead of Felipe Franks in terms of special teams. So I think special teams would be the reason why Waller would be inactive at least week one. And in Sam Hack, I would say be inactive as they would need to have four tackles. So Albert Reese would be up there along with Stone for sight, of course, behind Rashid Walker and Marlborough Freeling. And I think Aaron Hall would be the other inactive at the fence of line. That's what I guess will happen. At least if they don't have any guys elevated. I could see Jake Huron being elevated, possibly Chandler's a ball of being elevated, maybe

27:50even like a Tyrone Dotson, other players being elevated from the practice squad for week one, just because they want to have maybe a little bit more experience going into that game than they have currently on the 53. Those are all possibilities. I didn't really want to go through all those. Maybe I'll ask Dave about that on Wednesday. But yeah, it's thoughts there. Find a question from Daniel asking, what are your thoughts about the whole Milton Williams situation from last year? I know your argument was you cannot pay him more than Derek Brown, but looking at the detackled market and how the recent contracts look, it would have been a really cheap deal, especially looking at the impact patch zones, Bobby Brown and Turk had. I think looking back, Milton was again an impact player for the Pats and the Panthers got zero impact from either of those guys that they signed instead. Yeah, look, I like the way that they pivoted going to get Pat Jones knowing they need another edge rusher. And this is prior to them drafting, of course, princely and drafting. Nick Scorton. I liked the fact that they pivoted to Bobby Brown and they pivoted to Turkworton got two guys. They needed some more depth there. They needed more help outside of just Derek Brown, of course, Aishan Robinson. So I liked it on its face as far as just like what they were doing and practice like

28:54the process. I like the process. A lot of times of how Kihon has gone about things. Just the execution has not always been the best as we have all seen. So I get it. Milton, $26 million per year. I'm trying to pull up his contract here. Right now looking at tier defensive lineman. So as far as average annual value, where's he at? He's at 26. So it's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. It's eighth best tied which were in Davis. I mean, Derek Brown, you look at him. Nine, 10, 11, 12. He's got the 12th highest contract at defensive tackle. And that's because he signed that deal two years ago. So yeah, I mean, there really is soon you're signed. That's how things, the market goes up. The cap keeps going up. I totally understand what you're saying. It would have been nice to have Milton Williams. You look at just the way that he graded out of court and PFF last year. He was 44th, which was behind A. Sean Robinson at 42nd. A wooden being great to have Derek Brown, A. Sean Robinson and Milton Williams together last season. He was ahead of Bobby. He was 80th and well ahead of Turcus 127. So I get it from that perspective.

29:54I mean, my thought on the deal is that deal is not done until it's done. And that's really what Brant Tillis told us last year when we asked him about that. So obviously hindsight's 2020. And even probably back then, the Panthers would have been better off with them instead of the trio that they signed. And of course, certainly right now you would think that way. And Milton Williams had never even played like 50% of the snaps in the season, played 60 last year, missed five games as well. Then the regular season, which is less time than Turk mist, but still time missed. Yeah, I would rather have Milton Williams on a roster if I was Carolina. Certainly. And even observing this team, I think that they would be better off with him than the guys that they signed, but they didn't sign them because the deal was never done. And that's just the way it is. So my thought is that deal is not a deal until well, it's done. Carolina, I'm sure it's learned from that. They will, they, and we saw with Devon Lloyd, we saw with Jalen Phillips to high price guys. This offseason, back back in free, and see they didn't mess around with those two guys. So they probably learned their lesson from the Milton Williams negotiation to make sure

30:55that guys are going to be highly coveted. They get that deal done as soon as possible. Find a right number. And that's done. There's no reporting about it being done. And it's not done that it actually is. And that's also the agent. That's the thing about it. Adam Schefter and these insiders are really no more than puppets that the agents use. And maybe even some teams, some people within that organization, like you can tell where some of these things are coming from. Like an agent's telling Schefter, oh, hey, this is deals about to be done. Schefter's putting out there and the agent's playing him because he's being able to use that as leverage. So that teams like New England will give Milton Williams more money. Like that's, that's how it went out. But let's go wrap up this edition of the Lockdown Patriots podcast, part of Lockdown Patriots podcast network host by yours, Julie. Julie and council again, y'all subscribe, follow the show for free over on YouTube or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast, make sure to follow me. Julie and council about Twitter and Blue Sky at Julie and council. We're again next Wednesday. I'm back with weekly Wednesday mail back every single Wednesday throughout the entire day of the regular season and the playoffs. Of course, and it means I'll be safe. Be happy to be whole as always keep pounding and tomorrow.

31:57Cross over Thursday is back Lauren Cox of Lockdown Bears will join me here on the show. As you break down the week one match between your care on a panthers and the Chicago Bears. Hey NFL fans, I'm Brian Peacock and that is Matt Williamson hosts of the NFL six pack part of the Lockdown podcast network. Your team every day NFL six pack brings you the latest NFL news and analysis and breaks down all of the weekly action. A six pack of takes daily on the playoff pushed in the 2025 season or if your teams in draft mode, yeah, we'll hit that too. All right here every day on the Lockdown podcast network, the NFL six pack subscribe on YouTube or everywhere you get your podcasts.