Brian Answers: July 4th edition for America mailbag

Kicking off your July 4th holiday with another round of questions from CSR comments!

Happy 4th of July, Panthers fans! May your fireworks fly with little incident, your sparklers light up like a child receiving a touchdown ball from Cam Newton, and your bellies full. Today, I’m answering your questions from the 3rd edition of “Brian Asks”, your weekly Panthers mailbag for everyone!

WanderingGnome: Speaking of training camp, do you miss seeing the giant peach butt water tower on the drive down to Spartanburg?

Fun fact, I’ve never gotten the chance to make the trip down to Spartanburg, but I imagine a lot of people associate the tower with heat. And lots of it.

schrodingersblackcat: If you could resurrect a single former Panther (at the top of his game) to give this current team the best shot at making the playoffs this year, who would it be?

You mentioned Cam being an option, but I think based on the current state of the roster let’s not make it easy with a QB. My mind went to Luke Kuechly, just because every part of the defense functions better with a guy like him on the field. So I would say gimme a prime Julius Peppers, suddenly the pass rush doesn’t seem so bad, you might even be able to call it a strength.

Or, of course, safety Colin Jones, who took snaps as a safety, cornerback, and runningback at times throughout his career. Can’t wear too many hats on a roster like this!

AJPantherFan: Inquiring minds want to know: why does @SirPurr X account still say I’M THAT BEAR???

It was funny for a week but Robby/Robbie/Chosen has changed teams as many times as he’s changed his name since then.

Honestly that may have been the last time the Panthers went viral for good reason instead of bad. But that also may have been our first look at Robby’s slow decent into madness as well.

egon petri: This might sound flippant, but it’s a serious concern. How do we evaluate our new OL’s pass protection (and our overall passing game) when we’re so short of outside pass rushers? I’m especially afraid of Icky looking great in pre-season and thinking he’s gotten everything fixed, only to come crashing down to earth when the games count.

I’m not as concerned about the snaps against their own guys as I am seeing a few cohesive drives in the preseason at least from the pass protection standpoint. New OLs always have their growing pains once the real stuff starts, but there’s a diverse enough skillset between guys like Clowney and faster pass rush specialists like Amare Barno to get a decent amount of diverse snaps for the offensive line. And as far as your Icky point, I would place that on the coaching staff to prevent a repeat of 2023 from happening as far as his focus and processes.

KeepPounding88: How come the NFL still won’t let me customize a Panthers shirt with Stroud’s name? Asking for a friend trying to escape reality.

Technically Stroud’s legal name has a suffix of “IV” so you might be able to get away with that if you so choose. I wouldn’t recommend it though.

bolsky: Would you take the over or under on 6 wins?

Really tough to answer having not seen a ton of action just yet. I think I have to go with under for now, though I think a competent coaching staff combined with staying at least slightly more healthy on the offensive line last year could have gotten the team to 4 wins, so who really knows.

TXPanther: I’ll set the over-under at 2.5. How many UDFAs will make the final 53?

I’m not sure if any will to be honest. The Panthers do have some gaps in the secondary, but even some of the guys on the team (Dicaprio Bootle and D’Shawn Jamison come to mind) had what I thought were solid seasons considering their draft stock and should factor into that equation. I’ll go with under since there’s always a surprise or two.

kimbersdad: Id like to know if the new Offensive coordinator is going to be any good. If the defense is 20th or better this season then Evero has earned a head coaching job somewhere, there is very little talent on the defensive side of the ball imo.

Well Brad Idzik is a direct disciple of Dave Canales, basically his right hand man for the last several seasons in Seattle and Tampa Bay. I’m not entirely sure how we’ll be able to attribute success to him though with Dave Canales calling the plays and shaping the system around him. I think year one, simply fixing that dumpster fire from last season and putting out some decent scoring games will be enough to be considered a win for them both. I think if he’s still here two to three seasons down the line and Canales starts to give him more rope with playcalling, then we’ll have a better grasp on who exactly he is and what his value is as a coach. Year one, I’m not sure we’ll know for sure aside from another miserable offensive season for Bryce Young and the offense.

That’s all folks! Join us next week for another edition of the CSR Panthers mailbag!