Speaker 1: He's trying to figure out who his coaches and yeah,
Speaker 1: where the practice field is and my locker is where.
Speaker 1: You know, he's still in that phase of becoming a
Speaker 1: Carolina Panther. So trying to say that you know, they
Speaker 1: know what the roles are for all these guys is
Speaker 1: kind of crazy to think about. Right now, it's time
Speaker 1: for the Happy half Hour with your friends Kristen Balboni,
Speaker 1: Will Brian and Darren Ghant. That's right, it's that time
Speaker 1: of the week. Kristo Balboni here with Augusta Stone and
Speaker 1: Darren Gant. Guys, what's up? Happy end of preseason? Happy
Speaker 1: almost regular season. It's great to see you both. Good
Speaker 1: to see you. We're so close at September December one.
Speaker 1: It is September one. Somebody asked me this morning in
Speaker 1: the office if I knew what today was, and I said,
Speaker 1: what do you mean? Do I know what today is? Thursday?
Speaker 1: And he said, no, what it's the anniversary of And
Speaker 1: I said, mm hmmm. And he's like apple Chian State
Speaker 1: beat Michigan on September one. And my response was today's
Speaker 1: September one. I'm impressed that you know it was Thursday.
Speaker 1: I gotta be honest, I'm still not My days are
Speaker 1: still not right from the preseason. Yeah, it's when you
Speaker 1: go through that schedule and you get on football coach
Speaker 1: time and Monday's a Wednesday, and you know, and so forth,
Speaker 1: that it gets a little confusing. But we're here. We
Speaker 1: made it. We have we've made it. And not only
Speaker 1: are we on football coach time, we were on front
Speaker 1: office time. And Scott Fitter has been busier than ever.
Speaker 1: And that's saying something because we know this man likes
Speaker 1: to wheel and deal. He has done plenty of that.
Speaker 1: We've had some trades happen. We've had the roster cut
Speaker 1: down to what some might say is the final fifty three,
Speaker 1: but we know it here at the Panthers is the
Speaker 1: initial fifty three because we know that it will change
Speaker 1: much more over the coming weeks. But I would love
Speaker 1: to get just your initial thoughts on the roster cuts,
Speaker 1: starting with you, Darren Well. One of the most amazing
Speaker 1: things to me to consider from where they've been and
Speaker 1: where they are now is the sentence the Panthers traded
Speaker 1: an extra offensive lineman because they had too many. Can
Speaker 1: you roll that around in your head for a minute.
Speaker 1: What is the what is the time point that that
Speaker 1: would have sounded ridiculous six months ago, eight months ago. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it was insane. Last year. We were talking
Speaker 1: about fourteen lineups in seventeen weeks, bringing guys in off
Speaker 1: the street who were playing on Sundays. It was just alarming.
Speaker 1: And to have a surplus that you could send Dennis
Speaker 1: Daily to Tennessee for basically a fifth round pick. Uh,
Speaker 1: Dennis in a seven for a five um and he
Speaker 1: was drafted in the sixth round three years ago, so
Speaker 1: it was basically a free three year rental on Dennis,
Speaker 1: who was a serviceable player. I mean, Dennis was, Um,
Speaker 1: he had done some things. I mean, he has value
Speaker 1: for somebody in the NFL, but he just got caught
Speaker 1: in a numbers game here where he probably wasn't going
Speaker 1: to make the roster, at least in its current incarnation,
Speaker 1: because they're going along at a couple of position. So
Speaker 1: nine was the number of offensive linemen they were going
Speaker 1: to keep. If they'd have kept in it had probably
Speaker 1: been Dennis. But um, Yeah, it's just alarming to me
Speaker 1: to think that they are at the stage after bringing
Speaker 1: in Ichy, after drafting Cade Mays, after Um going out
Speaker 1: and signing Corbett and Bozeman that all of a sudden
Speaker 1: they have too many offensive linemen. Yeah, not a bad
Speaker 1: position to be in Augusta doesn't even know those days.
Speaker 1: This was the before Augusta time. They were dark times.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they were Yeah, it was a mess every now
Speaker 1: and then. But yeah, that to me was kind of
Speaker 1: the move, even though it wasn't the biggest move of
Speaker 1: the week. It's like the thing that signals how far
Speaker 1: they've come as a roster and putting this thing together.
Speaker 1: I mean, last year that offensive line was a liability.
Speaker 1: I think it's fair to say that, and that's probably charitable,
Speaker 1: and now all of a sudden, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: go so far as to say the strength of the roster,
Speaker 1: but it is not a place where you're like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, they've got to do something about the Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: because there are so many other blanks that they're still
Speaker 1: working on. So, Darren, you said that was not maybe
Speaker 1: the biggest move of the week, So I would love
Speaker 1: to know in you guys mind, what was the biggest
Speaker 1: move of the week. The biggest move of the week, Augustin.
Speaker 1: You think it's Levisco Chanel. I think it's a he's
Speaker 1: a very well put together receiver. I think it was
Speaker 1: interesting how many wide receivers they kept, you know, and
Speaker 1: that's something we've talked about. But it's depending on where
Speaker 1: where do they see Andre Roberts, you know what I mean. Like,
Speaker 1: obviously he's more of a return guy. He's being counted
Speaker 1: in the numbers at least in our articles, you know,
Speaker 1: seven wide receivers. But in theory, you know, you bring
Speaker 1: in Chanel and then you think, at least I thought,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people thought, you know, okay,
Speaker 1: so what's going to happen here, like attrition wise to
Speaker 1: the receiver room, And there wasn't a ton you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, there was like the people we thought, but
Speaker 1: they kept Shy Smith and or Schard Higgins both. They
Speaker 1: kept Andre Roberts and Chanel at least on the initial
Speaker 1: fifty three. Yeah, and once now that they're down to
Speaker 1: fifty three, the next thing that's going to come up
Speaker 1: is who's on that game day forty six and trying
Speaker 1: to figure out inactives that receiver room is gonna be
Speaker 1: really interesting. Tune in the Panthers dot com at eleven
Speaker 1: thirty am on September eleventh, because at first in active
Speaker 1: list of the year will be curious because they can't
Speaker 1: keep all six of I mean Andre will be up
Speaker 1: to return. I mean you almost have to consider him.
Speaker 1: It says wide receiver on the roster, but he's down
Speaker 1: here with j J and Hecker uh and the specialist
Speaker 1: in their little category. But on on game day, you know,
Speaker 1: between shy terrorists, Higgins, Um, Robbie, Leviska DJ you can't
Speaker 1: keep all six of those guys up on game day.
Speaker 1: And where it becomes a little complicated is with a
Speaker 1: guy like Brandon Silstra no longer here. None of those
Speaker 1: guys are really known as special teams players or people
Speaker 1: we even think would contribute a lot on special teams
Speaker 1: at least for right now. For the past two years,
Speaker 1: has been that person you are describing. Yeah, he's been
Speaker 1: that guy. And there's no more Brandon on this roster.
Speaker 1: And and we'll miss Brandon. He was a great human
Speaker 1: being in addition to a very good special teams player
Speaker 1: and the best backup kicker in the NFL. Um But
Speaker 1: at the same time, trying to figure out how all
Speaker 1: those guys fit is going to be an evolving thing.
Speaker 1: And they talked about that yesterday with channel coming in.
Speaker 1: You know, they see all these different roles for him
Speaker 1: and he could do a little of this and a
Speaker 1: little of that and a little of this. He's walking
Speaker 1: around meeting people, He's trying to figure out who his
Speaker 1: coaches and where the practice field is and my locker
Speaker 1: is where? And how do I get there? Do I
Speaker 1: need a key? You know, he's still in that phase
Speaker 1: of becoming a Carolina panther. So trying to say that,
Speaker 1: you know, they know what the roles are for all
Speaker 1: these guys is kind of crazy to think about right now.
Speaker 1: Is it a good problem to have that you have
Speaker 1: all these different configurations that unfortunately you're going to have
Speaker 1: to leave at least somebody out on game day or
Speaker 1: do you wish you had it more set, more guys
Speaker 1: that can do more things, Darren? You know, I think
Speaker 1: it does. There is a question to be asked about,
Speaker 1: you know, if they show up in this personnel all
Speaker 1: the time and do this, is that a sign? But
Speaker 1: I think that a couple of those guys, I mean right,
Speaker 1: and I think a couple of those guys, especially DJ
Speaker 1: and Chenault, because they can do so many different things,
Speaker 1: and Robbie can play multiple positions. People People see Robbie
Speaker 1: is just a straight lane speed guy. But Robbie caught
Speaker 1: a lot of balls across the middle two years ago,
Speaker 1: so I'm in a lot of different situations. He's not
Speaker 1: afraid to go across the middle. He's got some toughness
Speaker 1: about him in that regard. And now I say little
Speaker 1: and in the Chanuld experience is just when you see
Speaker 1: him out there next to Robbie, it's like, whoa, those
Speaker 1: two are different. Um, because Robbie's legs are about as
Speaker 1: big around as my pin and channel. It's got these
Speaker 1: big tree trunk leg But um, anyway, I mean having
Speaker 1: a couple of guys who can do different things. At
Speaker 1: least at the top of that, I think Shy is
Speaker 1: still trying to figure out where he fits in tears,
Speaker 1: still trying to figure out and and they talk about
Speaker 1: those guys being able to learn how to do multiple things,
Speaker 1: but I don't think any of them are are there
Speaker 1: quite yet? Still young guys yea, yeah, still with plenty
Speaker 1: to learn and improve on, no doubt about it, although
Speaker 1: they have great potential. I also want to talk about
Speaker 1: what I think is incredibly significant move, which is that
Speaker 1: the Panthers have their kicker, Eddie Piniero. At least it
Speaker 1: seems that way right they have they have signed a kicker. Um. Certainly,
Speaker 1: just awful, awful news about Zane Gonzalis and his groin injury.
Speaker 1: I was standing very close when it happened. It's just
Speaker 1: something you just never ever want to see. Zane just
Speaker 1: incredible guy. Really provided stability for the Panthers at that position,
Speaker 1: and um, it's not the Panthers have also you talked
Speaker 1: about the offensive line struggles over the last two years
Speaker 1: until Panthers were able to find Zane Gonzalez. Um, that
Speaker 1: position was one where there wasn't a lot of stabilities.
Speaker 1: So so Augusta is also not able to remember the
Speaker 1: dark times at kicker. You know, the Joey Slag experiment,
Speaker 1: the Ryan Santo so era which gave us a great
Speaker 1: name if nothing else. Mustache, fantastic mustache. Um, I'm not
Speaker 1: sure what I was more impressed with his mustache or
Speaker 1: discussion alts three trunk legs. Um at any rate, I
Speaker 1: digress Um, that's what we're here for. Yeah, but they
Speaker 1: they had finally sorted that thing out and saying, you know,
Speaker 1: not just provided stability he was hitting all his kicks.
Speaker 1: He had made seven team straight field goals prior to
Speaker 1: that Buffalo game. Last year, NFC Special Teams Player of
Speaker 1: the Week several times. And when you when you find
Speaker 1: that stability and somebody's playing really well, and then you
Speaker 1: have to get back into the revolving door and bringing
Speaker 1: guys in. And you know, even even though Panero is
Speaker 1: a guy for right now, I would be surprised if
Speaker 1: they don't continue to work out kickers and just keep
Speaker 1: the list up and and see what's out there in
Speaker 1: case he's not the answer to that position. But yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll see. He's at least got some background with Chris Taber.
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to talking to him a little bit
Speaker 1: about that when we catch him later on. But he's um.
Speaker 1: You know, when you're looking for kickers in the first
Speaker 1: week of September, that's kind of the spot you're in. Okay,
Speaker 1: So this has been your first time where you come from,
Speaker 1: you come from the college world. This has been your
Speaker 1: first time when it comes to um cuts, which is
Speaker 1: an emotional process for a lot of guys. It's um
Speaker 1: your head spinning around a little bit. So what have
Speaker 1: you made of this whole process in order to get
Speaker 1: the roster down to the initial fifty three. I was
Speaker 1: I will say, like, even though you know you're prepared
Speaker 1: for like the emotions of everything and everyone tells you
Speaker 1: you know it is, there is a mood. I think
Speaker 1: that's that's the biggest thing, you know, And even in
Speaker 1: the days leading up to it, there's like almost attention.
Speaker 1: I think the jan mood is one of those things
Speaker 1: that's very different again from covering college where it's like
Speaker 1: that level of intensity. It's where I've heard it's so
Speaker 1: many times this week and it's so true. It's like
Speaker 1: you realized this this is a business, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, And that's it's you know, it's football and
Speaker 1: it's fun and it's passionate and everyone loves it. But
Speaker 1: I mean even talking with the coaches and the players,
Speaker 1: it's like you see, you know, hey, that was my
Speaker 1: buddy and now you know he's heading to Seattle or
Speaker 1: you know this this this Channault story, you know, whenever
Speaker 1: he came up, Darren wrote it so well, but um,
Speaker 1: you know he drove up with his mom five hours
Speaker 1: from Jacksonville in his electric car, and it's like you
Speaker 1: think about five hours, but turned into what eight We
Speaker 1: had to charge the electric car, which was incredible. Yeah,
Speaker 1: apparently no superchargers along the corridor through South Carolina. But
Speaker 1: you just, I don't know, you just realized, like, there's
Speaker 1: these are these are people's lives. I think that's the
Speaker 1: biggest thing. And it's in their lives are being uprooted
Speaker 1: and changed, changed and shifted and all these different things.
Speaker 1: Um and you know, you know that you read it
Speaker 1: on paper, but to see it play out, you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's been fascinating. And I try not to get,
Speaker 1: you know, my heart into it too much. I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is just the way it is. It'll be fine.
Speaker 1: But oh, learning from Darren a little bit. No, I'm
Speaker 1: just kidding. Darn darn portrays himself as a tough guy,
Speaker 1: but he's a softy inside. I know it. Don't let
Speaker 1: him tell you different. Don't tell anybody got imaged uphold,
Speaker 1: But no, it is. It is bizarre. And when you
Speaker 1: when you are in the building, when you're around these
Speaker 1: people on cut day and you see somebody getting on
Speaker 1: an elevator or you see somebody going downstairs to grab somebody,
Speaker 1: it's like you cringe because you know, what's coming, and
Speaker 1: you just you know, you try to keep your eyes
Speaker 1: down sort of avoid eye contact a lot of times
Speaker 1: on a day like that because it's awful. And I
Speaker 1: mean for every even the undrafted rookies. These guys always
Speaker 1: dream to get into the NFL. And if it's somebody
Speaker 1: who no one imagined ever had a shot to make it,
Speaker 1: they thought they had a shot to make it. So um,
Speaker 1: it's always a tough day. And that's we talked about
Speaker 1: the fifty three, but eight d sixty four dudes became
Speaker 1: unemployed all at once the other day, like yikes. But
Speaker 1: the flip side of that that is because the business
Speaker 1: does go on. There's also an excitement among the coaches
Speaker 1: and the personnel staff because it's like, okay, you've got
Speaker 1: your fifty three. This is what we were building towards.
Speaker 1: Now we know what it looks like. Now it's a
Speaker 1: little more tangible. Now it's real, and you know, you
Speaker 1: start looking at the way that things put together now
Speaker 1: and it is far from a finished product because, like
Speaker 1: we said, seven wide receivers, six defensive tackles at the moment,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's probably not the way they're going to
Speaker 1: go into the leveland game. Uh, we'll see how that goes.
Speaker 1: But they're short onlinebackers, only five linebackers, and that kind
Speaker 1: of you know, going back to zel Strick kind of
Speaker 1: leaves you a little thin on the punt team because
Speaker 1: Brandon was such a core special team are on all
Speaker 1: four of them, and now you've got to figure out, Okay,
Speaker 1: what do you do with that? Because Frankie Luvu's regular
Speaker 1: on the punt team, Frankie Luver is probably not gonna
Speaker 1: be running down every punt while starting at linebacker and
Speaker 1: playing a bigger role this year. So there's a lot
Speaker 1: of moving parts and it's gonna be curious to see
Speaker 1: how those things shakes out in the next couple of days. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Talking to Baker during the preseason game, I said, what
Speaker 1: are you most looking forward to in the next two
Speaker 1: weeks and he said, you know, as hard as it is,
Speaker 1: knowing that some of the guys here at the time
Speaker 1: are not going to be with us having that initial
Speaker 1: fifty three and just being able to start putting the
Speaker 1: plan together, being able to start really getting comfortable, um
Speaker 1: with who my guys are on that offense, is it
Speaker 1: a really really exciting time, right This is it's now,
Speaker 1: we're now, we're preparing for the things that matter. So
Speaker 1: so I cannot wait to see that. So I'd love
Speaker 1: to know Darren from you and you know, Augusta, this
Speaker 1: will be your first time going through it as well.
Speaker 1: Can you tell everybody what is what's the coaching staff,
Speaker 1: what's it gonna be doing the next couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: Like what starts now that you have your initial fifty
Speaker 1: three and then also front office besides linebackers, what are
Speaker 1: they focused in on? Yeah, I think for the coaching staff,
Speaker 1: I think Matt used the phrase it's a weird week
Speaker 1: because they're not completely getting into Cleveland game plan. They're
Speaker 1: doing a little bit of that stuff. The coaches are
Speaker 1: working on a lot of game plan stuff behind the scenes,
Speaker 1: but on the practice field they're using Wednesday Thursday is
Speaker 1: just kind of teaching tools. It's a day to polish
Speaker 1: up their own stuff. They did some extended team periods yesterday,
Speaker 1: did a lot of work on two minutes and situational stuff.
Speaker 1: Um and I think they tried to use it as
Speaker 1: almost bonus practices because when they finish up Thursday afternoon
Speaker 1: or this afternoon, Yes it's Thursday, Um, I already forgotten.
Speaker 1: You said it very clearly earlier today, this Thursday, September,
Speaker 1: absolutely Thursday, and it will be all day to day.
Speaker 1: When you said Wednesday and Thursday practice, I could have
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, today's Tuesday, right to practice. But
Speaker 1: they they've tried to hold off on installing a lot
Speaker 1: of game plan and stuff like that. They'll get that
Speaker 1: next week after the players get a weekend off because Friday, Saturday,
Speaker 1: Sunday off days for the guys and for us, and
Speaker 1: and really the last until week thirteen, when the bye
Speaker 1: hits it. You know, that's gonna be our next three
Speaker 1: day weekend. We don't have to be in this building
Speaker 1: and look at football and deal with football, although it
Speaker 1: will still be dealing the way Darren is holding his
Speaker 1: temples right now thinking about that, Joe, how many weeks
Speaker 1: to thirteen minutes? Zero is thirteen? That's right? Um yeah,
Speaker 1: but anyway, it's um that's the coaching staff personnel is
Speaker 1: going to still be polishing this thing. And and I
Speaker 1: was talking to uh, some folks down near this morning,
Speaker 1: and it's still moving and and they're still trying to
Speaker 1: figure out how to get this guy, this guy, this guy,
Speaker 1: you know, what do you do here here here at
Speaker 1: this position. You know, there's a lot of stuff happening
Speaker 1: and and it will continue to They've got to practice squad.
Speaker 1: You know, you want to talk about uh Laviska's travels,
Speaker 1: jacobieson the new quarterback who's coming in on the practice squad.
Speaker 1: H I Gustin knows a little something about him. He
Speaker 1: went to Georgia for like two minutes. He's probably going
Speaker 1: to be a little bleary eyed because he just got
Speaker 1: cut by Seattle and I think he was in on
Speaker 1: a red eye. Aren't we all bleary eyed? So no,
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to take away from Jacobson's trouble. That
Speaker 1: is a that is a long flight. Yeah, that's a
Speaker 1: long flight. So he's gonna probably catch a nap somewhere
Speaker 1: in the stadium before practice today. We're gonna walk past
Speaker 1: him out of the podcast studio just with a pillow. Yeah,
Speaker 1: be laid out in the hall, hiding in the press box. Um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, he's here, new quarterback on the practice squad,
Speaker 1: should be out on the practice field today. So there's
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff going on and just it's almost
Speaker 1: like you set that board and then you look at
Speaker 1: it and say, yeah, we need one of those, We
Speaker 1: need a little bit more of this, and they were
Speaker 1: just trying and Scott's whole thing throughout was keep the
Speaker 1: best fifty three and there were guys. Again, they've got
Speaker 1: six defensive tackles on the roster. But you know, it
Speaker 1: sounds weird, but they really like markwa McCall, the undrafted
Speaker 1: rookie from Kentucky. They like what Phil Hoskins has done.
Speaker 1: They have seen the promise of Davey on Nixon and
Speaker 1: and what he can do. And he's another guy who
Speaker 1: can do different things. I mean, he can probably play
Speaker 1: defensive end honestly, um because of his length, but he
Speaker 1: is you know, they've got a bunch of individual guys
Speaker 1: that they wanted to keep, and so you keep the
Speaker 1: ones you want and then figure out how to put
Speaker 1: the pieces together. And that's sort of where they are
Speaker 1: this week. I wonder, if you're a fan and you
Speaker 1: are not following this as much as we all are,
Speaker 1: how confident should the fans be feeling about this roster,
Speaker 1: knowing of course that it is going to change before
Speaker 1: we get to Week one with Cleveland, before we get
Speaker 1: to Sunday, September eleven and then even after that as well.
Speaker 1: Um and Augusta, I know that you can't compare it
Speaker 1: to the last couple of years that that Darren and
Speaker 1: I have been here, but I would say, for me,
Speaker 1: I think you feel pretty confident as a Panthers fan
Speaker 1: from everything that I've seen in the building. It is
Speaker 1: a very different UM team, and it was constructed very differently,
Speaker 1: and there are opportunities available because of the draft, because
Speaker 1: of certain trades. This feels like a team that is
Speaker 1: way deeper than it's been the last two years. And
Speaker 1: as both Matt ruland Scott Fitter have said, we're you know,
Speaker 1: we had to cut guys, which has not been the case.
Speaker 1: You know, we've been looking around at the fifty three
Speaker 1: man cuts UM in the past two years. So you're
Speaker 1: in a position, like you said, where you can can
Speaker 1: trade at Dennis Daily, where someone like Justin Burris, who
Speaker 1: has been a starter the last couple of years, is
Speaker 1: now on the practice squad. I'm feeling optimistic, Augusta, how
Speaker 1: do you think the fans should be feeling? I feel
Speaker 1: like I think you explained it so well, especially with
Speaker 1: like I think the decisions before cut day. You know, trading,
Speaker 1: Dennis daily, getting lebiscussion all here, and then like you mentioned,
Speaker 1: you know, uh, justin Burris to practice squad all that,
Speaker 1: even though he was a starter. I think there is
Speaker 1: a sense of optimism in the willingness to make moves
Speaker 1: like that, you know what I mean, like to be
Speaker 1: to be willing to Okay, we're gonna try this. And
Speaker 1: it's not you know, scorched earth or anything. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like they're they're like they're but they're exciting moves,
Speaker 1: and there their reasons to be like okay, you know,
Speaker 1: like like like Darren said, you know, they're looking at
Speaker 1: the board right now there, they know kind of what
Speaker 1: they're looking for. They're not settling for things, you know,
Speaker 1: just because oh we need to do it by now,
Speaker 1: you know. And I think there's a level of patients
Speaker 1: and also a level of quick movements with movement, all
Speaker 1: of that together I think is a reason for optimism.
Speaker 1: And they have a good start right now, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean there's like different pieces obviously that are going
Speaker 1: to change, but there's a solid basis here. I think
Speaker 1: there's a lot of reasons to be optimistic really beautifully.
Speaker 1: But I can tell you're a writer in the way
Speaker 1: that you said that, that was just really, really beautifully eloquent, Darren.
Speaker 1: One thing that we haven't actually talked about when we're
Speaker 1: talking about all the moves and and all the questions
Speaker 1: is quarterbacks. So a couple of weeks ago when we
Speaker 1: did this podcast, we had four quarterbacks in that room.
Speaker 1: Now there are two healthy quarterbacks in that room, Baker
Speaker 1: Mayfield and p J. Walker. Of course Matt corral with
Speaker 1: the list. Frank injury a couple of weeks ago in
Speaker 1: the preseason game against the Patriots, and then Sam Donald
Speaker 1: the high unkle sprain in um the third preseason game
Speaker 1: against the Bills. The other nights. Are we worried about that? Is? Uh?
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's it's not ideal for your backup
Speaker 1: quarterback to be missing the first month of the season,
Speaker 1: but it's better than your starting quarterback. So on the
Speaker 1: scale of things to freak out about, you know, it's bad,
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong. And and Sam, you know, say
Speaker 1: whatever you want about Sam, he's handled this situation well
Speaker 1: and with grace, and he's actually played really well. And
Speaker 1: and if you saw practice the way we did the
Speaker 1: days after the decision, you you understand why people want
Speaker 1: to have Sam Donald on the roster and want him
Speaker 1: in the locker room. Sam can make throws and Sam
Speaker 1: can make play, so, um, it's gonna be an adjustment.
Speaker 1: I mean, p J is a guy who PJ has
Speaker 1: seen some stuff man in his career. He he was
Speaker 1: basically he knew on a tlee that he was probably
Speaker 1: gonna be on the outside of looking in of this
Speaker 1: roster because they trade for Baker, they draft Mat Corral
Speaker 1: and he's looking at the numbers saying, well, you know,
Speaker 1: they're probably not gonna keep four. So um, I think
Speaker 1: PJ had some awareness. But PJ was also with the
Speaker 1: Colts when Andrew Luck retired at the end of training camp,
Speaker 1: so weird situations are nothing new for p J Walker.
Speaker 1: And you know, I think when you go out, um,
Speaker 1: people talk about quarterbacks a lot because their quarterbacks. But
Speaker 1: PJ having been around here, he's had the five months
Speaker 1: with Ben McAdoo whatever, So you know, I think when
Speaker 1: you start thinking about who your backup might be, a
Speaker 1: lot of people would be tempted to go out and
Speaker 1: bring in a guy from outside. But then you're training
Speaker 1: someone on the fly, and could you go out and
Speaker 1: find some vet, I guess, but you're not gonna find
Speaker 1: anybody on the street immediately who's going to be more
Speaker 1: helped you today than p. J. Walker is. It's a
Speaker 1: great point, great point, and uh, you know we've already
Speaker 1: got to bring leviscussion up to speed. Baker Mayfield did
Speaker 1: just get here two weeks before training camps, so everyone
Speaker 1: is is still learning. But I think that's just such
Speaker 1: a great point, Darren Um And uh, I think you know,
Speaker 1: hopefully Baker Mayfield stays healthy, with no reason to believe
Speaker 1: that he won't. And as as you said, Darren, the
Speaker 1: initial assessment with Sam was sixty eight weeks and now
Speaker 1: they're thinking it's more four to six weeks. And that
Speaker 1: was from after the preseason games, and so the news
Speaker 1: was better than maybe they anticipated. And if you saw
Speaker 1: him go down and be carded off in that game
Speaker 1: against Buffalo, which was just a nightmare third quarter by
Speaker 1: the way, Zane and Sam having a bang bang just
Speaker 1: like that, it was reasonable to wonder if it was
Speaker 1: going to be longer than that. But fortunately for Sam
Speaker 1: it's it's not as bad. Matt said that yesterday. You know,
Speaker 1: we we were afraid it was gonna be six day,
Speaker 1: we get in there and look around, maybe it's gonna
Speaker 1: be four to six now, so that's good news. Um.
Speaker 1: But and you're happy for Sam. He's he's still Sam.
Speaker 1: He's walking around in his boot, he's on the by,
Speaker 1: you know, just being Sam. I mean that's the thing
Speaker 1: that I respect about the guys. How steady he is.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's in a you know, nobody enjoys being injured.
Speaker 1: But Sam's not showing any visible signs of you know,
Speaker 1: distress or anything like that. He's still good to good
Speaker 1: guy to have around. I was just thinking, I mean,
Speaker 1: if you didn't see the boot, if you just saw
Speaker 1: him from like the torso up, you wouldn't think there's
Speaker 1: anything wrong. Like he just walks in. He's in a
Speaker 1: great mood. I was. I was just when when Darren
Speaker 1: was talking about quarterbacks, I mean, think about personalities, especially
Speaker 1: you think about Sam and PJ. I mean, these are
Speaker 1: just two guys that are just they're very steady people.
Speaker 1: PJ when we talked with him, I talked to them
Speaker 1: in the locker room after the game, just gracious, just
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, you know, he I asked him,
Speaker 1: I was like, you see half the quarterback room get hurt.
Speaker 1: You know, what are your emotions And he was like, man,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, it's it's awful to see, but
Speaker 1: you know, I'm here and this is my job, and
Speaker 1: like I mean, just be able. Like like Darren said,
Speaker 1: you know, he saw the riding on the wall, you know,
Speaker 1: with Matt Krow coming in, with Baker Mayfield coming in,
Speaker 1: but he still stayed steady. And now he's back up
Speaker 1: week one probably you know what I mean, Like you
Speaker 1: have you create, you have these personalities in this room,
Speaker 1: creating this atmosphere of like good senses and good vibe.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I just it's it's a good vibes.
Speaker 1: They're they're good people. I think that's good. I think
Speaker 1: you both said it really well throughout this episode, and
Speaker 1: I would bet producer Matt will make it the title
Speaker 1: of this episode, reasons for optimism. It feels like the
Speaker 1: theme of this week, even though we don't know what
Speaker 1: day it is. We don't know if it's Thursday, if
Speaker 1: it's Tuesday, you know, and we're not even on the field.
Speaker 1: But I think there are a lot of reasons for optimism.
Speaker 1: So I appreciate both of you guys coming in and
Speaker 1: sharing that with the fans. This has been a lot
Speaker 1: of fun and we'll see everybody next week on the
Speaker 1: Happy Half Hour podcast.