Welcome back. Panthers fans are no doubt disappointed after the home opening loss of the New Orleans Saints 20 to 17 at Bank of America Stadium. We're kicking off a segment this morning with 99 9, the fans, Tim Donnelly, talking Panthers football. Tim, great to have you on the program this morning. Listen, let's start with Bryce Young. He got off to a slow start. There were some drops along the way. I saw those. What's your eye test telling you about how he's settling into this offense? A great job starting with Bryce Young because their whole season starts with Bryce Young this year. And, and the thing that stuck out to me is maybe we overestimated his pro readiness compared to some of the other prospects in the draft. Bryce Young's kind of advantage was he was plug and play. You could put him in and he would have the mental side of the game all the way down and it turns out there's going to be some growing pains. I don't hold him against, I don't hold that against him too much because he's a rookie in the NFL. And that's difficult. But I think our kind of lofty dreams of him sitting in there and looking like a veteran, may have been a little too much and keeping in mind at the same time, one of the top defenses in the league, right. So how do you assess the play calling last night? Lack of playmakers. DJ Moore is not there. Of course, we just mentioned the rookie QB. Well, first of all, also 22 of their starting guards are out and, you know, II I said on my show in 99 9, the fan that a defense like the saints are gonna, you know, those two, young, young guards they don't wear, they don't wear jersey numbers, they wear targets, right? So they were going to be attacking them and, and, and putting a bull's eye on them trying to get to Bryce Young, uh, which may have limited the play calling a little bit because you, you don't necessarily trust those young guys as much as you would a veteran. Um, but, but I'm still, it's a little vanilla for me, for me. All preseason. They were, they were meeting Frank, right? The head coach, their offensive coordinator, uh, Thomas, they were all, oh, we're hiding things. It's vanilla. We haven't opened up the playbook. It's vanilla, don't worry, it's vanilla. Then the regular season started and I'm going like, I, I haven't seen the Rocky road yet, right? Where's, where's my cookie and something that, that's, that's not as Vanilla and, and it just still looks a little basic for me. Yeah, let's go to the other side of the ball. Uh, the defense played well, four sags. They kept the pressure on Derek Carr. Uh, Shaq Thompson is out with that ankle injury. How tough of a loss is that for the Panthers moving forward? It's a leadership issue. It is what it is right when you, that, that off ball linebacker, which I think that the Panthers, it's one of their positions of strength when you mix in Frankie Luu who had a big game Hill, but Shaq Thompson is the mouthpiece. Right when, when the Brian Burns contract negotiations are going on, he's the one during the preseason that felt comfortable telling the media, hey, as long as he's here by Wednesday of week one practicing in full, we're good that that's, that's going to be missed and I did notice like, right when he got hurt that next drive, I was, I was hoping the offense could have stayed out there for 10 plays so the defense could all get together and just figure out how is this, this role change going to happen? I think they're going, they're going to Miss Shaq Thompson if he's out for an extended time. Of course, the Panthers heading to Seattle next Sunday right now. Seattle is favored by about five points. I think I saw the odds when they peaked in about five minutes ago. What tweaks can coach Wright make for the Panthers. They even have a chance against Seattle. Creativity is the number one thing the first time or the next time they surprise, the defense will be the first time I've seen the defense surprise playing against them. You know, a play action could be used a bit more to me, this is an exciting part for an offensive coordinator or for Frank Reich, who's an offensive head coach where normally you're trying to be a little bit more conservative, protect, wins, protect good performances. Now, there's kind of nothing to lose. You're zero and two. Everyone else in your division is two and zero. You know, go to the back of your playbook, pick the play that, that's maybe you were too afraid to call when you had more on the line and let it loose. I want to see Bryce Young taking shots down field, you know, DJ Moore is gone. DJ. Shark was back in the lineup last night, so maybe a different DJ playing a similar role. I think, I think creativity offensively is the number one thing that they need to work on. Like you said, the defense isn't playing that bad. You can catch the drive with Tim Dunn weekday afternoons from 3 to 6 and 99 9. The fan, of course, you can listen to the Drive podcast as well. Tim, great to have you on the program. Look forward to talking about Panthers football with you in the coming weeks. Thank you for having me and.