Tepper's Uncertain Choices Spark Carolina Panthers' Draft Drama
Transcript
00:00 [MUSIC]
00:02 I was setting you up to talk about David Tepper, the Carolina Panthers owner.
00:06 I heard what you said despite you not seeing me.
00:10 I would like to offer my own two cents here on the conversation as well.
00:15 Because after firing Frank Reich on Monday, also letting go of quarterbacks
00:19 coach Josh McCowan, assistant head coach and running back coach Deuce Staley.
00:24 David Tepper spoke at the podium yesterday and
00:26 talked about being a man of extreme patience in other areas of his life.
00:32 Despite firing three head coaches now, since he took over the organization in
00:36 2018, the second consecutive year he has fired a head coach
00:40 midway through a National Football League regular season.
00:44 But Donnie, what stood out to me more about what Tepper said yesterday,
00:47 was the process that Carolina used to select Bryce Young.
00:51 And initially, Carolina believing they would be a part of a three team deal,
00:56 unprecedented, by the way, to trade up to number two.
00:59 After the Bears traded with the Texans, who were so infatuated with Bryce Young,
01:03 they moved up to number one overall to guarantee that spot from two to one.
01:08 And the Bears from two would trade with the Panthers at nine, and so on and so
01:12 forth, and then they would move up there to take CJ Stroup.
01:17 But once they were able to get the number one overall pick in the trade
01:20 with Chicago, it was all in on Bryce Young.
01:24 And he talked about, Donnie, a potential veto process.
01:27 If he did not agree with any decision in that room, but
01:30 he said that whatever the outcome was, he gave his full support.
01:35 It sounded like a bunch of hogwash to me, DRS.
01:38 And if that's the decision making process they use for
01:41 those significant decisions of their first overall draft pick,
01:46 things are a little bit shaky in Carolina.
01:48 >> Yes, they certainly are, because you know who the loser is all the way?
01:52 Forget about the fans, the general manager, the coaches that got fired.
01:55 It's probably Bryce Young feeling like, well, did you want me or not?
01:58 And you didn't surround me with the best, and
02:00 there was arguments internally about who we should actually take.
02:03 And I'm the owner, I could have vetoed everything, but I didn't.
02:06 I just let it play out, and now we're happy with our quarterback Bryce Young.
02:08 It's kind of wild the way it actually played that way,
02:11 because there have been circumstances where teams have made trade multiple times.
02:14 I continue to bring up 2016.
02:16 The Rams went up to number one to get Jared Goff.
02:18 They knew it was gonna be Jared Goff.
02:19 The minute that happened, the Eagles traded up to number two,
02:22 because they were gonna get Carson Wentz.
02:23 Now on the front, before the draft happened,
02:25 Howie Roseman's going like, yeah, we like both of these quarterbacks.
02:28 No, no, no, no.
02:29 You didn't trade the one and didn't trade the two, because you didn't have an idea
02:31 of who's actually going to be the number two quarterback and
02:33 the number one quarterback overall.
02:35 Usually organizations have that game plan.
02:37 And the one thing that I always remember is, driving down the expressway to
02:40 the Metro Atlantic College basketball tournament in March,
02:42 this trade actually went down.
02:44 So the initial thought when Kevin and I met up to watch the game was,
02:47 they know exactly who they're going to take.
02:48 And then we saw at the FanDuel Sportsbook,
02:51 the odds shifting drastically throughout that period of, they made the trade.
02:55 It's gonna be one guy.
02:56 A week later, it's another guy.
02:57 A week later, it's another, and three to four days before the draft, hey,
03:00 it looks like they said you're on CJ Stroud.
03:02 Then it turned out it was gonna be Bryce Young.
03:04 Just a wild roller coaster all the way through.
03:06 And you know who the biggest loser is?
03:07 Yeah, the Carolina Panthers right now.
03:09 [MUSIC]