Latest / Mac & Bone Podcast / Mac & Bone Show - Mike Kaye Interview

Transcript

Mac & Bone Show - Mike Kaye Interview · Mac & Bone Podcast

• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Sports Radio ninety two seven wfn Z Old Sports Enter Saxophone.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: We gotta congratulate. We have to congratulate our next guest man.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: We're playing the music for him. We are very excited
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: for him. He is an amazing reporter and a great dude.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: And Mike k is the new NFL Nation reporter for
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: ESPN covering the Carolina Panthers, so he doesn't have to move.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: He gets to stay in the great city of Charlotte.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: But now you can read his stuff and he already
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: had a notes column up yesterday at ESPN dot com.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: And we welcome Mike Ka on the show right now
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: to talk to some Panthers. Mike, congratulations, man, I know
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: everybody at FNZ and heck, I know everybody all over
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Charlotte's happy for you.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Man.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: Thanks, I really appreciate you guys were among the Sorry
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: I'm with the cold. So if I sound terrible, I'm sorry.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: Not a great ESPN debut, ESPN radio debut, I guess
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: you know, you guys really embraced me when I got here,
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: and so I I don't lose sight of that. And
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: you guys, I mean, this station has raised my profile
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: to over the last four years, and so I'm really
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: appreciative that we're talking now and I had this gig,
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: and I promise you things aren't going to change. Like
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: we're still going to do in depth stuff, whether it's
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: on social media, video online. Like you said, we've got
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: a notebook going on. It's like a running notebook, which
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: I think is a pretty cool idea. And so you're
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: still going to get the same content that you can
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: expect from me, except maybe not as verbose.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: You would love that mine.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: I heard when you negotiated that they said, we need,
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: we need the notebook. It's it's a package deal. It's
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: you and the notebook. Is that true?
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: I mean that was there were discussions. The notebook was
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: brought up at one point and I was like, you know,
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: I can't there's this guy bone. I can't let him down.
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: It's it's become, you know, part of his routine. Like
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: if I don't do the training camp, like what are
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: we gonna do? And you know, this is the house
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: of the Mouse. You gotta you know, you gotta entertain.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: I want to ask you about this, uh this scrap
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: yesterday and practice, Mike, what were you able to see
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: because it does seem like different reporters kind of have
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: you know they're not. It seems like there's some uncertainty
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: about who hit Jonathan Brooks. We do know that Bryce
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: and Mike jack were yapping back and forth. We know
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: that it was Nick Scott and Mike Jack and Bryce
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: that got together afterwards. So what did you see? And
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: then secondly, am I right or wrong to as a
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: fan of the Panthers to kind of like so many
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: angles of this, Like I like, so I like Bryce
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: standing up, I like these defensive guys being like, what
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: do you think about all of this?
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: So I didn't see any hit on Brooks. I was
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: on a team's chat while it was happening, admitted transparently.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: But what I did see when I looked up was
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: Luke Fortner and Mike Jackson getting tangled and basically a
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: belly to belly suplex to the ground. Some other guys
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: got in the fray and so forth. I fell down.
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: But I want to like emphasize this like kind of
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: was done in the span of about twelve to fifteen seconds.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: This was not like an all out brawl. This was
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: not Cam versus Josh Norman. This was like, yeah, they
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: brawled and they went back to their corners. Nobody was
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: punished for it, at least immediately. I'm not trying to
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: downplay it, but like I I think this is something
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: similar that happened earlier on in camp, where we saw
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: Mike Jackson and Bobby, we saw Cuba and Bobby Brown
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: get into it. We've seen Luke Fortner get into it
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: with guys like Luke Fortner is like Bruce Banner. He's
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: an incredibly nice, kind of somewhat self proclaimed nerdy, and
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: then when you see him on the field and somebody
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: tries to get at one of his guys, he just
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: goes off. And so look, I think fights can be good,
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: and they can prompt elevation of camaraderie and of competitiveness.
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: But I mean, I wouldn't blow this one out of proportion.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: I think a conversation was needed because this has happened
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: multiple times and they're about to get into joint practices
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: next week. But for the most part, it seems like
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: the internal leaders handle theirs, and I think that is
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: if you're going to take anything away from this, that
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: is probably the most important things.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Now, Bruce Better's the Hulk, I believe Yeah, we forgot
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: last segment to give Luke Fortner credit for being the bodyguard.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Like Mike said, this is something he's done before.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: I like that too, Mike, your time here coincides with
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: with Bryce's time here. I believe Bryce going into the
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: year four when we see things like yesterday and the
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: leadership from Bryce, how much more of a leader are
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: we seeing Bryce become of this operation?
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: Well? I think he is extremely comfortable in that role now.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: I think it was tough when you had Andy Dalton
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: as the backup quarterback because he was this veteran who
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: I mean, Bryce was in like middle school when he started,
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: So it was just it was a situation where I
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: think they needed to let him be the voice of
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: the quarterback room before he could be the true voice
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: of the team. And he's become that. He has become
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: a very good leader. I mean he's always been a leader,
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: but he is really taking the ball by the horns
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: as the leader. I think he is unafraid to speak up.
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: I think he has the respect of his teammates. They
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: see how hard he works, they see how engaged he is,
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: and I think that's great. But again, I think his
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: success as a leader is going to be partially determined
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: by his success on the field, and if they can
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: get off to a quick start, he will have everybody believing.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: We're talking with Mike k You can now read his
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: stuff covering the Panthers, still covering the Cats, but doing
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: it for ESPN at ESPN dot com. Mike. One other
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: thing about Bryce. We saw the highlight clip a lot
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: of y'all shared yesterday of that past the team ac
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: pretty good coverage by Mike Jack, but Bryce just dropped
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: it right in there. And there's been so many clips
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: like this in practice. You've been there at every practice
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: and we have not like, how good does he look
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: to you? Is it noticeably better than past camps? And
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: do you then should we make a leap and feel
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: like that definitely transfers over to the regular season or
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: should we chill with that a little bit.
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: I think he has been as in control and as
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: efficient as he's been during his NFL career. From a
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: training camp perspective, He's hitting guys with multiple highlight plays
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: every single day. His best practices are great, his bad
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: practices or whatever, you know what I mean. There's no
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: like nuclear practice session. And I think that's a step up.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: He tends to get the ball out. He's being aggressive,
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: he's trying things.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: To me.
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: An efficient practice for a quarterback in training camp is
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: they're getting in a lot of plays and everybody is
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: getting a piece of the pie in the receiving game,
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: and he is spreading the ball around very well. Jalen
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: Koker looks great, he Mac looks great. But he's also
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: elevating guys like Mitchell Evans and Tommy Tremble and Xavier
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: Leaguett and Jessim Reid when he gets rolled, when he
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: rolls with the ones like John Matchi there, he is
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: doing a very good job of elevating his teammates in practice. Now,
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: as far as the second part of your question, I've
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: seen quarterbacks struggle mightily in training camp and have great seasons.
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: I've seen quarterbacks have great training camps and have terrible seasons.
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: So I think you kind of have to take it
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: with a grain of salt. I think it's very encouraging,
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: but encouraging is what it is. Mike.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: I know you wrote about this as well. How troubling
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: is the linebacker position outside of Devin Lloyd Right now?
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: Canali said yesterday, we've now got Trevid Wallace competing with
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: Cheryl Wist are they Are they gonna be okay or
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: have to go outside and find another winebacker at some point.
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: So I'm glad you brought this up because to me,
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: this was the story of yesterday. They open up, but
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: training can't battle with the two year established homegrown starter
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: because not because of injury, right. I mean this is
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: they are seeing something either cherylis is elevating the defense
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: when he plays, or Trevin Wallace just simply isn't. And
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: I think this is an opportunity over the next two
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: weeks to see if they need to go outside and
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: get somebody next to Devin Lloyd. You don't invest too
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: invested in Devin Lloyd and Jalen Phillips just to have
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: middling talent next to them, like they've invested a lot
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: of money. You know, you need the warranty of somebody
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: who can be very good because if Lloyd goes down,
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: you need somebody who can step into that role and
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: play well. Claude and Cheryliss has been a dark horse
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: since he got here. The front office has loved him
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: since he got here. He is a guy who can
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: communicate well. He tackles well, he's good on special teams.
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: Every time he gets playing time. E j or a
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: jarro ever essentially praises him for communication. Yesterday you could
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: see how animated he was calling the defense. Like I think,
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: if you're not gonna have Devin Lloyd, where the green dot,
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: that's where cherrylists can kind of find his footing. And
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: I think it is a legit competition. It's why I
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: asked Dave canal as, hey is this on the line basically,
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: and he was like, yep, without stuttering. But look, if
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: either one of these guys falters in Buffalo or against
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: the Jaguars and joint practice and preseason, then you have
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: to kind of start to look for veterans outside of
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: the norm. You have to really scour the waiver wire
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: because again, Devin Lloyd was such an investment. Now the
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: good news is if they don't go outside of that,
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: they're going to play probably a lot of dime with
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: Marrek essentially being that extra linebacker or a nickel, him
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: being the nickel big nickel. So they have the talent
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: in the secondary to make up for the shortcomings of
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: the second linebacker position. It's where like injury could factor
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: in that I would be somewhat concerned.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is concerning. I would have thought I would
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: have hoped right when Trevin was drafted by this one.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: I know he's had injuries, but by this point, his
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: third camp, he would be locked in, nailed down, all right.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Mike King wrote about that in his Notes column, which
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: you could check out at ESPA ESPN dot com. Mike,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: we're happy for you man, Thanks so much, and we'll
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: see you soon. Thanks for coming on, Thanks for having
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: me