Speaker 1: This week on a Happy half Hour.
Speaker 2: The way this thing's set up, seeing them double up
Speaker 2: on pass rushers, seeing them double up on defensive tackles
Speaker 2: makes a lot of sense because that's where the biggest
Speaker 2: need is. I mean, even Dave Canalis said it yesterday.
Speaker 2: Stopping the run is the priority. Two hundred rushing yards
Speaker 2: a game allowed over the last nine games.
Speaker 3: That's the cow.
Speaker 1: It's time for the Happy Half Hour, presented by Southern Star,
Speaker 1: an official bourbon of the Carolina Panthers. Here are your hosts,
Speaker 1: Darren Gant and Cassidy Hill.
Speaker 2: Hello, friends, and welcome to a very special edition of
Speaker 2: the Happy Half Hour. Very special because we are, of course,
Speaker 2: at Combine in Indianapolis. Love indian Love Indianapolis. It's just
Speaker 2: like Charlotte, except with worse weather and better basketball. Other
Speaker 2: than that, everything about this place is awesome and we
Speaker 2: love it here.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's so much fun. It's what do people call it?
Speaker 3: NFL spring break?
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 3: That makes it sound a little more debauchery than it
Speaker 3: really is.
Speaker 2: Although there's some debauching going on out there in them streets.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what happens.
Speaker 2: And hateful gossip take over after midnight and uh, didn't someone.
Speaker 3: Get on to you yesterday for being self rightous?
Speaker 2: Yeah, condescending and self righteous because I didn't poison my mind, body,
Speaker 2: in spirit the way some of y'all did. Uh Not?
Speaker 3: I always having Bible study. I don't know what you're
Speaker 3: talking about.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's uh, there's there's a lot of Bible study
Speaker 2: going on here this week. No, it is in all seriousness.
Speaker 2: This is the NFL's trade show. This is where everybody
Speaker 2: comes together. It's a convention. All the coaches, all the scouts,
Speaker 2: and all the players in this year's draft class are
Speaker 2: here right now. So it's a big old intelligence gathering operation.
Speaker 2: It's a big old, you know, festival of all things football.
Speaker 2: The on field workouts get all the attention later in
Speaker 2: the week. That's the better television as an inventory. But
Speaker 2: really the important stuff that happens here is the medical
Speaker 2: profiles that the players go through, and the meetings with teams.
Speaker 3: Between and between the meetings with teams for the prospects.
Speaker 3: I mean, you've got a free agency window opening here soon,
Speaker 3: and you've got teams figuring out their own free agency.
Speaker 3: This is kind of I mean, to quote Hamilton, this
Speaker 3: is the room where it happened pretty much all week,
Speaker 3: no doubt. A lot of what happens in the next
Speaker 3: Each football year is decided kind of in Indianapolis each year.
Speaker 2: And I will ride out at the top of this
Speaker 2: podcast address one of my pet peeves in life. Oh
Speaker 2: can't wait for when the players are up on podiums.
Speaker 2: They're on podiums, but behind electrons. Remember, but they are
Speaker 2: on a parium. They are on a podium. A podium
Speaker 2: is a thing you are upon. Electron is a thing
Speaker 2: you are behind. That's the easiest way to remember it.
Speaker 2: But when the players are up on the podiums, people
Speaker 2: will ask them. The reporters from all over the place
Speaker 2: are here, and reporters will say, have you met with
Speaker 2: the Lions today? Have you met with the Buccaneers today?
Speaker 2: If you're a first round prospect, you meet with everybody, right,
Speaker 2: So the process of elimination that occurs, Well, you had
Speaker 2: an informal meeting with the packers, but not a formal
Speaker 2: media What does it mean? It doesn't mean anything, and
Speaker 2: stop asking that question, reporters. My God and.
Speaker 3: Darren Dant's school of journalism.
Speaker 2: There is a saint among us, justin Rogers of the
Speaker 2: Detroit News is walking around this morning wearing a sweatshirt
Speaker 2: that says, have you talked to Team I cover? That's hilarious,
Speaker 2: It's amazing. I documented it on the Twitter earlier today.
Speaker 2: He is a god of journalism today and I salute him.
Speaker 2: But I mean it is silly because here's the secret.
Speaker 2: You know who, The Carolina Panthers are going to talk
Speaker 2: to a whole bunch of defensive players. That's who, because
Speaker 2: that's what they need the most. Because that's what Dan
Speaker 2: Morgan said they needed the most yesterday.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, he wasn't shy about it. He didn't
Speaker 3: dance away from it. He said, you know, I think
Speaker 3: it's pretty obvious the defensive side of the ball is
Speaker 3: where we're gonna have to put a lot of our
Speaker 3: folks right in both free agency and the draft. And
Speaker 3: you know that was kind of the offense at this
Speaker 3: point last year. We saw them fill the holes. We
Speaker 3: saw the step that was taken by focusing on those areas,
Speaker 3: especially the offensive line. And you know, Dan said, you're
Speaker 3: gonna have to still win this league in the in
Speaker 3: the trenches, like on the lines, and the same way
Speaker 3: they addressed the offensive line that last year. That's what
Speaker 3: they're going to do the front seven this year. Luckily
Speaker 3: for them, this draft plays right into their hands. Sure,
Speaker 3: one of the deeper front seven classes I can remember
Speaker 3: in a.
Speaker 2: While, it really is. And when there's a lot of
Speaker 2: pass rushers and when there's a lot of interior defensive linemen,
Speaker 2: you know, that's going to get their attention through it.
Speaker 2: And I think there's a decent chance, you know, without
Speaker 2: getting too deep into draft strategy, that they're going to
Speaker 2: take a couple of them. You know, we'll see free
Speaker 2: agency is going to inform that, you know, once that
Speaker 2: starts in two weeks from today, I guess, yeah, two
Speaker 2: weeks from today. Free agency begins in earnest, you know,
Speaker 2: and even two days prior to that the negotiation period
Speaker 2: where we'll kind of know without knowing, that'll inform some
Speaker 2: of the draft plans. But the way this thing's set up,
Speaker 2: seeing them double up on pass rushers, seeing them double
Speaker 2: up on defensive tackles makes a lot of sense because
Speaker 2: that's where the biggest need is. I mean, even Dave
Speaker 2: Canalis said it yesterday, stopping the run is the priority. Well, yeah,
Speaker 2: you averaged two hundred yards a game, two hundred rushing
Speaker 2: yards a game allowed over the last nine games, and
Speaker 2: over two hundred rushing yards allowed in each of the
Speaker 2: last six. So yeah, of course that's a problem, and
Speaker 2: it's got to stop.
Speaker 3: The addressed I'm sorry. You've got to be able to
Speaker 3: stop the run to even rush the passer anyway. Yeah,
Speaker 3: those two things go hand in hand, their part and
Speaker 3: parcel together. Yep, you can't do one, You're not gonna
Speaker 3: for sure not going to be able to do the second.
Speaker 3: And that's why it's so vital to find these guys
Speaker 3: that can kind of shuffle around. I mean, you look
Speaker 3: at a guy like Jalen Walker, who can He's technically
Speaker 3: listed as a linebacker. I don't know what he is.
Speaker 3: I don't think he knows what he is either, But
Speaker 3: you've got you find guys like that that can kind
Speaker 3: of move around. I mean, you're not gonna put Jaalen
Speaker 3: Walker with a hand in the ground as a defensive
Speaker 3: tackle position, but you've got guys that can move around
Speaker 3: that front seven and that can help you both stop
Speaker 3: the run and rush the pass or because you've got
Speaker 3: to be able to do both of those things to win.
Speaker 3: I mean, the Eagles were a perfect blueprint for that
Speaker 3: this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love the way to hancel. Like I didn't
Speaker 2: need to see the Eagles in the Super Bowl to
Speaker 2: know that we needed to do this. So yeah, as
Speaker 2: it pretends to Jalen Walker and his not being you know,
Speaker 2: well defined, because we've seen a recent example of a
Speaker 2: similar type of player. I mean it's kind of Frankie Luvu.
Speaker 2: And Frankie was the high energy guy who brought it
Speaker 2: from wherever he happened to be. He's standing up, he's
Speaker 2: coming off the edge, He's doing a lot of different things.
Speaker 2: You know, I think Walker's got a little bit of
Speaker 2: that in him. But we'll have time to get into
Speaker 2: the particulars of all these guys over the next month
Speaker 2: and a half, two months, you know, as we go
Speaker 2: through this process. But we were just walking that room
Speaker 2: this morning where they were doing interviews, and it's left
Speaker 2: and right, and you know, here's Michael Williams, Here's you know,
Speaker 2: here's James Peers from Charlotte's Chambers High you know a state.
Speaker 2: Stay tuned to Panthers dot com to read more about
Speaker 2: James later on today. A lot of them, Abdul Carter,
Speaker 2: all of them, Mike Green, it's an incredibly deep class,
Speaker 2: you know, and the chances of coming out of the
Speaker 2: eighth pick with one of them are decent. You know,
Speaker 2: we don't know who it's going to be, or that
Speaker 2: they're absolutely going to use a first round pick on
Speaker 2: that particular position. It just makes a lot of sense
Speaker 2: considering their need and wear this draft stacks.
Speaker 3: Up, and you can also, I don't want to get
Speaker 3: too deep into this because I don't want people to
Speaker 3: think this is what's going to happen. It's just something.
Speaker 3: Do you still consider they've got enough draft capital enter
Speaker 3: in a right spot and knowing the positions they need
Speaker 3: with the deep class to possibly still move around, no doubt.
Speaker 3: And we saw last year Dan Morgan is happy to
Speaker 3: move around if he feels like he's going to get
Speaker 3: a better deal. And so when you're sitting there at
Speaker 3: number and you're looking at how deep this past Rusher
Speaker 3: class is, Dan said on Tuesday that he had not
Speaker 3: necessarily had any conversations yet about giving up that spot,
Speaker 3: but I wouldn't be surprised if those conversations happened.
Speaker 2: And I feel like I should raise my hand and
Speaker 2: say the opinions of the Happy Half do not reflect
Speaker 2: those of Perasti only and do not reflect the opinions
Speaker 2: of Dan Morgan, Brandt Tillis or the rest of the
Speaker 2: Carolina Panthers front office. This is just us talking. But
Speaker 2: the other thing that makes you think they might do that,
Speaker 2: they have done that. I mean, if you look back
Speaker 2: to last year's draft and moving you know, out of
Speaker 2: thirty nine to get the second round pick this year,
Speaker 2: back then moving back up to take Jonathan Brooks. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's just they've shown that they're willing to go up
Speaker 2: and down the board, So I think it's reasonable to
Speaker 2: expect that could happen again this year when they're sitting
Speaker 2: there with nine total picks, eight in the first five rounds.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that's a good spot to be in.
Speaker 3: You can kind of choose your own destiny, like choose
Speaker 3: your own ending. Do you ever play those games growing
Speaker 3: up a little bit?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Like the book Aquaria. It was actually a little
Speaker 2: paperback book and you would flip from page forty eight
Speaker 2: to one sixty two. Yeah, you don't. Why did you
Speaker 2: go behind that door? It was a terrible idea at
Speaker 2: any rate. Now, we we spent a lot of yesterday
Speaker 2: with Dave Canalis and Dan Morgan and he obviously, as
Speaker 2: we said, Dan talked a lot about the defense. The
Speaker 2: other thing that stood out to me is how casually
Speaker 2: Dan talks about the offensive line and keeping it the
Speaker 2: way he has it right now. I mean, he just
Speaker 2: very casually said, yeah, we want to bring back Austin
Speaker 2: Corbett and k Mays to play center. And that was
Speaker 2: kind of an open question, you know, going into these
Speaker 2: last two weeks prior to free agency, but he very
Speaker 2: casually said, yeah, we want to keep both those guys.
Speaker 2: The question about Taylor Moten and his thirty one million
Speaker 2: dollar cap number came up, and he's like, yeah, we're good,
Speaker 2: we can handle that number. We want Taylor to be here.
Speaker 2: Somebody asked him about Ikey Akwanu and what do you
Speaker 2: do contractually with him? Knowing he's they've got to make
Speaker 2: a decision on a fifty year option. He said, we're
Speaker 2: going to try to extended before we get to that point,
Speaker 2: and it's just like very casually, very matter of fact,
Speaker 2: and that's just how Dan Morgan talks. But they know
Speaker 2: they've found something in that offensive line. It became part
Speaker 2: of the personality of the team last year enabled Bryce
Speaker 2: to flourish in the second half of the season, and
Speaker 2: they're going to make sure they hang on to that.
Speaker 2: They're going to make sure that strength stays strong.
Speaker 3: And you know, I guess this is the case with
Speaker 3: every position, every unit, but you really see it with
Speaker 3: the offensive line is how much that unit is predicated
Speaker 3: on chemistry. And if you don't have a left tackle
Speaker 3: and a left guard that know how the other moves,
Speaker 3: that's what leaves holes wide open to call sacks. Ye,
Speaker 3: and you've got a unit that knows each other, and
Speaker 3: that knows each other well enough that you know if
Speaker 3: someone gets hurt or someone else has to go in,
Speaker 3: they're still fine, right, and you don't break that up
Speaker 3: because that's I mean, again to Dan's point, that's where
Speaker 3: you can win or lose a game.
Speaker 2: No now, and it takes more than five of them.
Speaker 2: And that's why you know, he kind of mentioned Austin
Speaker 2: and Kate as a unit almost because Austin started first
Speaker 2: five games before he tears his bicips. Caid comes in,
Speaker 2: you know, brings him back off the Giants practice squad
Speaker 2: because there wasn't room for Cad Mays. And in September,
Speaker 2: that's how deep the Carolina Panthers offensive line was when's
Speaker 2: the last time we said that, right? And he ends
Speaker 2: up Caid ends up starting the last eight games of
Speaker 2: the year. So they've got a bunch of people who
Speaker 2: can play a lot of roles. Chandlers of Allahs stepped
Speaker 2: in and started a couple of games on both sides
Speaker 2: last year when guys were missing, So they've got a
Speaker 2: good group of people. Brady Christiansen's a free agent. I
Speaker 2: think the anticipation is Brady's gonna go look around and
Speaker 2: somebody's probably gonna find him starting caliber money to be
Speaker 2: a starting caliber player. I mean, he was sort of
Speaker 2: that sixth man last year. He's got great versatility. He
Speaker 2: could play left tackle, he started at guard before and
Speaker 2: was playing a decent center for a couple of weeks
Speaker 2: there in between, until you know, somebody else got hurt
Speaker 2: and he had to win. Icky got hurt, he had
Speaker 2: to kick back out the left tackle. So I think
Speaker 2: Brady might have played his way out of Charlotte in
Speaker 2: some senses, but they've talked about being open to bringing
Speaker 2: him back. That one's going to be when the market dictates,
Speaker 2: but it's gonna be a few of those. Yeah, there's
Speaker 2: gonna be a couple of those. So yeah, speaking of guys,
Speaker 2: Dan was amazingly.
Speaker 3: Awfully open about Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean he he all but said, yeah, Johnny Hecker
Speaker 2: loved to have you back, kicker. Eddie's going to test
Speaker 2: the market and we're actively looking for a kicker, So
Speaker 2: I think you can kind of read between the lines
Speaker 2: on that one pretty easily. But you know, if there's
Speaker 2: going to be a new kicker in here and Johnny
Speaker 2: is back, then that new kicker comes in with the
Speaker 2: benefit of a veteran long snapper and JJ Janssen. Perhaps
Speaker 2: you saw cart Talk.
Speaker 3: I did. I saw and it was a nice little
Speaker 3: crossover episode with Ask the Old Guy. The highly anticipated
Speaker 3: cart Talk episode was how I Saw It Work.
Speaker 2: Yeah, highly anticipated couse we've been talking about doing this
Speaker 2: for two years and we just got around to it.
Speaker 2: But it was cool and uh, but having JJ and
Speaker 2: Johnny will be a good security zone for any new
Speaker 2: kicker who walks in, because not having to worry about
Speaker 2: to snap the hold makes his job easier. All he's
Speaker 2: got to do is kick JJ.
Speaker 3: And Johnny also just sounds like a great buddy cop movie.
Speaker 2: And that well it really is. Yeah, I mean they
Speaker 2: really are. They went in depth, and we we alluded
Speaker 2: to this on cart talk the other day, but I
Speaker 2: wrote about a thousand words section of a mail bag
Speaker 2: a couple of years ago about their process for determining
Speaker 2: coin flip decisions. And they would go out ninety minutes
Speaker 2: before kickoff and flip a snack waffle that they eat
Speaker 2: for energy before the game. That their brand has not
Speaker 2: paid us for this plug, so I will not describe
Speaker 2: it any further, but they would flip the snack waffle.
Speaker 2: If it landed tails, they would call tales. And they
Speaker 2: won six in a row that way.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it was pretty impressive. But I said it
Speaker 2: was like a Paul Harvey bit the rest of the story. Yeah,
Speaker 2: is that a reference? You understand?
Speaker 3: And that's the rest you do?
Speaker 2: Good for you, hey, an old person reference that Castiy gets.
Speaker 2: I'm feeling better about this already. But yeah, they went
Speaker 2: through the whole thing. And you know, you wrote a
Speaker 2: story too about the anticipation a lot of people have
Speaker 2: about Wide Receiver being high on the shopping list this year.
Speaker 2: But Dave Canalis said, maybe not right.
Speaker 3: I mean, they're not necessarily in a position where it
Speaker 3: has to be. It's one of those where if there's
Speaker 3: a guy there that's great and you've got maybe some
Speaker 3: of your other stuff taken care of, then yeah, you
Speaker 3: I don't know if that's their first priority. It sounds
Speaker 3: like defense is going to be that first priority, no doubt.
Speaker 3: I mean again, if you're sitting there at eight and
Speaker 3: you've got a guy like I think it's the McMillan
Speaker 3: kid or maybe, but they don't have to have one.
Speaker 3: And I think people see that the Deontay Johnson trade
Speaker 3: as oh well, now there's a hole open for a
Speaker 3: number one receiver. And that's because you look at you know,
Speaker 3: Loget kind of went through some of those rookie growing pains.
Speaker 3: That's just part of it. Whatever happened his rookie year
Speaker 3: is only going to make him better his second year.
Speaker 3: You have a return of Adam Theling, which is huge.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: I think Dan called him old reliable yesterday, which I
Speaker 3: really want on a T shirt. I want it to
Speaker 3: look like a Yellowstone Old Faithful like poster, like an
Speaker 3: old travel poster, but instead of a park ranger, it's
Speaker 3: Adam Thielen.
Speaker 2: That's yeah, somebody, it would have to be a park
Speaker 2: ranger with a ball cap on backwards and a cup
Speaker 2: of coffee and maybe no shoes on. That's how Adam
Speaker 2: wanders around the stadium allent.
Speaker 3: But having feeling back that's huge. You know, Like I said,
Speaker 3: you're gonna see a lot of these guys kind of
Speaker 3: take a step forward. You got something for nothing out
Speaker 3: of Jayalen Cocher and you know, so that kind of
Speaker 3: takes care of a lot of stuff too. It's one
Speaker 3: of those again, you never want to turn down a
Speaker 3: dynamic wide receiver and Dan basically said that on Tuesday
Speaker 3: as well. You know, if there's a guy in free
Speaker 3: agency or a guy in the draft that we really
Speaker 3: like and it's available, then we're never going to say
Speaker 3: no to that. But it's not Yeah, you know, like
Speaker 3: you said, it's not the highest number on the show.
Speaker 2: Yeah, those elite wide receivers that are out there going
Speaker 2: for twenty five and thirty million bucks a year, I
Speaker 2: don't think that's the market they're shopping in.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Now, And this is also not a wide receiver
Speaker 3: year necessarily in the draft. You know, this is not
Speaker 3: one of those years where you're getting a Justin Jefferson
Speaker 3: and Jamar Chase and guys like that coming out, so
Speaker 3: you can afford to kind of say, Okay, that's going
Speaker 3: to be on the back burner of our priority right now.
Speaker 2: One of the interesting things to me about that whole
Speaker 2: position is we've come full circle because when Bryce Young
Speaker 2: was drafted, one of the talking points was, this guy's
Speaker 2: such a good distributor, he's so smart with the ball.
Speaker 2: He doesn't demand elite wide receiver talent around him, even
Speaker 2: though he had it at Alabama to be successful. And
Speaker 2: you know, at the end of the twenty twenty three season,
Speaker 2: a lot of people thought, well, yay does yeah, and
Speaker 2: so they trade for Deontae Johnson, and that looked okay
Speaker 2: for a minute in training camp, then not so much
Speaker 2: to beginning the regular season. Then Bryce gets benched and
Speaker 2: then by the time Bryce gets back in, Deontay's gone
Speaker 2: and he's out there throwing to and I say this
Speaker 2: with respect, Okay, all of these guys are professionals, but
Speaker 2: he's throwing to old Adam Thieling. He's throwing to old
Speaker 2: David Moore, who was a seventh round pick and at
Speaker 2: one point was the only drafted player they had on
Speaker 2: the field at that position. He's throwing to an undrafted
Speaker 2: rookie in Jalen Coker, and he's throwing to Xavier League
Speaker 2: in and out of the lineup with some injuries coming
Speaker 2: down the second half of the season. So Bryce was
Speaker 2: fulfilling that prophecy from twenty twenty three of he don't
Speaker 2: have to have that grade of guys to make an
Speaker 2: offense work. Now, will it help? And at some point
Speaker 2: in the evolution of an offense, would it be great
Speaker 2: to have one of those guys? Sure? I think specifically
Speaker 2: they need somebody who can run. They need somebody who
Speaker 2: can get down the field a little bit. You know.
Speaker 2: Ted Ginn was the example during the twenty ten Panthers
Speaker 2: teams of just straight line speed, go get it, fetch
Speaker 2: and sometimes Ted caught it. Sometimes he did and when
Speaker 2: he did it was a big play. And having somebody
Speaker 2: with that kind of straight line speed is absolutely in need.
Speaker 2: But I don't think you've got to spend thirty million
Speaker 2: bucks to get that kind of player.
Speaker 3: Right And you don't necessarily need it right now either,
Speaker 3: because I mean, as Bryce continues to evolve and kind
Speaker 3: of show what he can do, defenses are going to
Speaker 3: start playing him differently. I mean, did he face a
Speaker 3: two high safety look at any point this year really
Speaker 3: not consistently. That's gonna change over the next year or two,
Speaker 3: and that's when that need becomes a little bit more prevalent.
Speaker 3: But right now, what you need is a pass rusher.
Speaker 3: And so it's like, do you spend your pass rusher
Speaker 3: money on a wide receiver that's not your biggest need,
Speaker 3: right I don't think that's smart football.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you need a pass rusher. You need a Derek
Speaker 2: Brown size somebody to go with the Derek Brown size,
Speaker 2: somebody who's rehabit and working out back.
Speaker 3: At the stadium right now as we speak, so moving around,
Speaker 3: not on a scooter anymore, exactly.
Speaker 2: You know, I loved when dance Somebody asked Dan yesterday
Speaker 2: about Derek. He's like, how's he look He looks like,
Speaker 2: that's how Derek Brown looks. He looks big, breaking news.
Speaker 2: But anyway, it's, uh, it's gonna be interesting.
Speaker 3: I was gonna say, I always know the days that
Speaker 3: dB is in, which is a lot, yeah, all working
Speaker 3: out right now because he has a big alburn tag
Speaker 3: and he has a big truck and he parks right
Speaker 3: there in the front and I'm like, I guess when
Speaker 3: you're Derek Brown. You can kind of go where you want,
Speaker 3: no doubt, both in life and on the football field.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And and like I said, they need to find
Speaker 2: him some friends, and I think they're going to So
Speaker 2: we will be here. You and I are going to
Speaker 2: be here the rest of the week. And I think
Speaker 2: our technical crew back here behind the cameras and behind
Speaker 2: the board. They're leaving in like five minutes, so I
Speaker 2: think they've got a plane to catch in a half hour.
Speaker 2: So they were good at it.
Speaker 3: He said, this has to be the happy half hour.
Speaker 2: Not a happy hour like the one we did with
Speaker 2: JJ Janssen when we're at Senior Bowl. But so we're
Speaker 2: going to get out of here. You and I will
Speaker 2: be here the rest of the week. Stay tuned to
Speaker 2: Panthers dot com for all the latest from the combine,
Speaker 2: and we'll see you when we get home.