Hey, Dave. How are you doing?
Hey, Steve. How are you doing?
Good. Hey, listen. When you drafted Bryce, you said he's a guy that can bring multiple Super Bowls here to Carolina. Do you still feel that way? And if so, why?
You know what? I think he has a lot of talent, and with the right weapons in the right situation, yeah.
Well, hold on. Scott Fowler.
Dave, thank you for doing this. We haven't gotten to speak to you much lately. Has that been a purposeful stepping back for you, or are you just as involved and we just don't hear—
You were for two hours in my office. That was a long time to talk, anybody to talk to you. I said I wasn't stepping back. I was stepping into you.
You're right. You're right. Of answering questions publicly and on the record.
Oh, okay. Yeah. No, I mean I'm willing to do it anytime. Scott, you can come by and I'll tell you stuff on the record.
So my take—you talked about Bryce becoming a point guard when you did discuss those Super Bowls and said that you didn't need to surround him with a lot of stuff. How do you feel with him being contract extension eligible?
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't surround him with a lot of stuff?
You didn't need to invest as much into the receiving core.
No, I never said that. That's wrong. Okay, I never said that. How do you become a point guard without players around you? That makes no sense. Try again.
Okay. That you could boost the talent around him because of his point guard distribution skills. Do you not remember this?
I said he's a point guard and he can distribute the ball around, but he needs people to distribute around. That's why what you're saying makes no sense.
Okay. With that said, from what you've seen and how he has played around the weapons that you've given him, how do you feel about him during his first extension-eligible season?
Being his first success this year or last year?
This year is his first year.
Well, listen, he exhibited that last year sometimes, and I think he'll exhibit it more. You know, we'll see how the health of the offensive line is, and if he has time, he'll do it.
Dave, have you guys offered him an extension? And if so, how did those preliminary talks go?
You know, that's a question for Dan Morgan. You know, if you need his number, I'll give it to you. You want to bring him over here, go grab him. You may talk to him.
Well, what would prompt you guys to offer him an extension?
I'm not saying we have or we haven't either. You should talk to Dan. Look, success is success, and you know it when you see it.
One question per person. Just trying to be better to everybody.
Well, that's a follow-up.
We're not doing follow-ups. Go. Bash time.
Hi. When you came, you said you wanted to build sustained excellence. What do you like right now about the direction that this team is headed?
Well, look, I think that if you look at the team—listen, last year's team, you know, I kind of said that we're not a playoff team, but we could get in the playoffs. I think we're more of a playoff team this year than we were last year coming into it. When you have winning records in the preseason, it kind of plays into your depth. So I think Dan's done a good job, and the guys have done a good job building the depth on the team. You know, I think the pieces are there and we have everything we need.
Does it feel like you are on pace for whatever timeline you had for Dave and Dan and bringing them in? And it feels like from the outside there are some additional expectations on this team. How do you handle the expectations that are sort of on this team?
Well, I mean, I know all the expectations you guys write about. I can see what the odds are that we have seven and a half wins a season. Those are the expectations, and the expectations are based on last year, right? So if we improve on some of those things last year—for instance, we can't have all come-from-behind wins in the NFL, and that's one of the reasons. So we get fast starts this year, fast starts the game, we're going to win.
We just got asked about the trajectory, and are you on the path that you envisioned? What hurdles are in the way for you to get to the goal that you want to have for this franchise?
Listen, we are on the path. There's always hurdles in the path. You'd like to be totally healthy and have all your starting players. Those are always hurdles. Now the hurdles you have, they're there, so you've got to make up for them, as different people have said, like Scott Fowler after the Texas practice. You know what your issues are and you have to deal with them, right? So those are hurdles, but like I said, all the pieces are here and hopefully they come together. I'm a believer.
