WEBVTT - Happy Half Hour Episode 20: A Short Week 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.920 Hi, this is Dewey Jenkins. Most people think my first 0:00:04.000 --> 0:00:07.720 name is Morris, but it's not. It's Dewey. Mr Morris 0:00:07.800 --> 0:00:09.760 was the name of the man I bought the company 0:00:09.840 --> 0:00:12.680 from back when I was young. I'd like to take 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:15.440 a few moments to say how proud we are to 0:00:15.520 --> 0:00:19.120 be Panthers sponsors. When I told the team at Morris Jenkins, 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:21.439 you would have thought I was sending them on a 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:25.040 free trip to Hawaii. We're here for the Panthers, and 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:37.560 we're here for you too, whenever you need us. It's 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:42.200 time for the Happy Half Hour with your friends Kristin Balboni, 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:50.920 Miles Simmons, and Will Bryan. That's right, it's that time 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:54.280 of the week, Happy Half Hour podcast presented by Morris Jenkins. 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:57.040 And Mr Jenkins told me the Panthers make him proud 0:00:57.120 --> 0:01:00.000 and he's honored to support the team. When you're plumbing 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:02.120 or air conditioning is acting up, you call Morris Jenkins 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:05.880 or visit Morrise Jenkins dot com. So smooth, Mile Simmons 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:08.920 dot com. There at the end, like I always say, 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:11.160 when Mr Jenkins tells me something, I've got to tell 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:15.280 the people. That's right. Uh, it's good to see you guys, um, 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:18.440 everything has been a little crazy so far this week. 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:21.000 We gotta you know, we had the Sunday game against 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:23.760 New Orleans, a little bit of a heartbreaker there for 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:27.120 the Panthers. Yeah, you know, it's it's a shame that 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:29.759 it came down to a sixty five yard field goal 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:33.200 at the end, because, as Joey Sly put it, he 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:35.840 thought he had it. And when you think you have 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:39.280 it and it's that long and it's a record, it's 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:41.240 a little bit disappointing when it comes up a little 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:44.319 bit short. But I think, as everybody talked about in 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:47.039 the aftermath of that game, the sack on third down 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:49.240 really was the problem because when you take an eight 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:51.600 yard loss and then you see the length that Joey 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:53.560 slide was able to get on that kick, it's like, 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:56.520 oh man, that thing was really really close. And if 0:01:56.520 --> 0:01:58.080 you don't take that sack and you don't lose so 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:00.160 many yards, you probably tie that game up there at 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:03.160 the end. I mean, and as as others said, you 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:06.880 need to get some stops before that. You shouldn't have 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:09.320 had to come down to that when your offense is 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:12.200 playing that well throughout the course of the game, and 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:16.400 you know, the defense allows twelve third down conversions twelve 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:18.880 of fourteen. Well, we gotta we gotta make sure we 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:21.400 put it like that, because that's the way you gotta 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:22.880 you gotta put it like that. And then you gotta 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:25.720 say the percentage eighty six percent or eighty seven or 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:32.840 eighty five point seven point six, say the percentage. And 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:36.799 then you just named four percentages. I know that was 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:39.640 a bad moment of broadcasting. None of those percentages were good. 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:42.640 So no, no, not anytime it's like a above eighty percent, 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:45.120 I mean, above fifty is unideal. But when you get 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:46.960 to that much, it was like, oh my goodness. Yeah, 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:50.360 it was just a really bad, bad, bad, no good game, 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:54.080 the terrible, horrible, no good, really bad day for the 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:56.560 defense on third down. Let's talk about that. Since we're 0:02:56.600 --> 0:02:59.640 here already, we gotta get to Christian McCaffrey stuff. Of 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:01.640 course that's what everyone wants to know about. But let's 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:06.919 put this loss against New Orleans to bed. How do 0:03:07.080 --> 0:03:10.040 you come back from from those third down numbers, which 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:13.959 will I believe we're historically bad? Yeah, we're worst, worst 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:18.680 in a game. How do you focus on that this 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:22.280 week on a short week and show improvement for this 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:25.240 Thursday game against Atlanta. Well, I think the first thing 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:27.960 you have to do, and all defensive players say this, 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:30.280 is you have to be better on first and second down. 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:34.160 You can't allow Atlanta to get into these third and 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:39.760 short opportunities because look, Todd Gurley is he's not performing 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:43.440 at the same level that he did in when first 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:44.920 he was Offensive Player of the Year and then the 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:47.280 next year he led the league in touchdowns. But he 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:49.680 has still shown that when he's gotten the when he's 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:52.160 given the opportunity, he can get you a few yards. 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:56.680 Right in that game that the the Panthers played against 0:03:56.720 --> 0:03:59.520 the Falcons a few weeks ago, it's not like Todd 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:02.200 Gurley was a slouch. He had over a hundred yards 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:05.120 for the first time since the playoff game in season 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:09.280 so yes, exactly, definitely not a slouch. No, and he's 0:04:09.280 --> 0:04:11.040 only had a hundred and ten yards in the two 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:14.560 games since. So again, this is not and and Julio 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:17.279 Jones will be playing in this game exactly. So when 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:20.320 you give Atlanta options and they've got a veteran quarterback 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:22.280 in Matt Ryan who knows how to read things and 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:25.599 pick apart z own coverage, then you're gonna put yourself 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:28.200 in a bad position. So it's about making sure that 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:31.160 you are stout on first and second down. But even so, 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:33.760 when you get into these third medium situations, sometimes you 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:35.279 just got to make a play. And I think that's 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:38.560 something that we haven't seen the Panthers do enough. Yeah, 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:41.920 it really you know, as you said, it's about making 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:45.119 a run up the middle. Be one yard and not five, 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:48.560 you know, I I think it looks like there's contact 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:50.520 that's happening. People are meeting him at the line, and 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:53.080 then it was like and then camera or you know, 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:56.200 LaTavia Murray gets another one to three or four yards, 0:04:56.680 --> 0:05:00.360 pulling people falling forward, breaking you know, the first shoulder tackle. 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:03.880 You have to get guys down at first contact when 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:06.800 you know what's coming. You know they're gonna run at you, 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:08.760 they're gonna do a zone read, they're gonna go up 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:11.200 the middle, and you've got to stop people because there's 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:14.799 a big difference between second and nine and second and five. 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:17.560 There really is. And then of course there's a huge 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:19.560 difference between thirty and one, third and one and third 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:22.360 and seven. But you know, at the same time, this 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:25.040 is a defense that gave up what that huge third 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:29.680 and fourteen two Camara on a screen pass, Like my goodness. 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:31.839 I mean, they've they've got to be able to make 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:34.400 tackles in the open field. And because of the way 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:36.400 that you know, they're kind of scheming things a lot, 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:39.640 it's about coming up to a play and making tackles 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:42.240 moving forward. You know, they're putting things in front of them. 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:44.880 They've got to make plays if they're going to do that. Yeah, 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:48.680 I mean, and it's a lot to focus on and 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:51.680 fix in this short week. And then you look at 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:52.880 you know, you get you get a little bit of 0:05:52.920 --> 0:05:55.840 a break after this Thursday game against the Falcons, but 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:59.920 then you gotta do with the Chief's offense. So one 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:02.200 aim at a time, and we can't look too far ahead. 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:04.480 I'm just saying, that's it. This is an issue, as 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:09.560 you said, historic historically, um bad third down defense. Uh, 0:06:09.640 --> 0:06:12.720 this is an issue that's that's gotta get fixed. I mean, 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:15.640 think about this. It was just the second time in 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:19.760 Panthers history that they didn't force a punt. New Orleans 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:22.680 never punted. Did you see That's gross? It's gross. It 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:25.480 is they didn't punts. You know, it's not It's not 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:27.080 the kind of thing that you want to hear. I mean, look, 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:30.800 right now, the Panthers are thirty first in third down defense, 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:32.880 which is hard to believe that a team is worse. 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:36.320 Who's who's worse the Tennessee Titans, and they're giving up 0:06:36.440 --> 0:06:39.560 I think around six, if not quite right at six 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:43.120 the last time I look. So that's it's it's a 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:46.120 little bit weird because the Titans have been so good, um, 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:48.000 and they didn't have the best game against the Steelers, 0:06:48.040 --> 0:06:49.800 but then they all also almost tied that thing up 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:51.680 at the end there um last week. But right now, 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:54.920 the Panthers giving up fifty six of third down so 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:57.159 that's got to come down. It's just frankly, it's got 0:06:57.160 --> 0:06:59.880 to come down. We'll see if if they can make 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:03.839 that happened on Thursday night against the Falcons under the lights. Um. 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:06.760 On the offensive side. Of course, the thing that everyone 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:10.880 is talking about, Panthers, fans, fantasy owners, you name it 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:15.240 is that Christian McCaffrey was designated to return on Tuesday. Now, 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:17.760 what that means does not necessarily mean that he's going 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:20.480 to be playing in this game, but it is significant 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:23.760 in his return to getting back on the field. Yeah, 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:27.480 it is, because right now as you get designated to return, 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:30.520 that means it starts your twenty one day practice window. 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:33.840 At the end of that twenty one days, you have to, uh, 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:37.440 you have to choose between whether a player is activated 0:07:37.760 --> 0:07:39.640 or then good remains on I are for the rest 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:42.400 of the season. Now, it doesn't necessarily take twenty one 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:46.720 days to be clear for somebody to be activated once 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:49.520 they are designated to return. So basically, at any point 0:07:49.520 --> 0:07:52.200 over the next twenty one days and now twenty days 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:55.960 is since that started yesterday, Christian McCaffrey can be activated 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:59.239 to the fifty three man roster. Now will that happen 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:04.520 this week? I don't know, especially because at this point 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:07.600 he's he's been on the field for practice. We don't 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:10.480 necessarily know how much he's done for practice. And I 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:12.800 think if you're talking about a player of his caliber, 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:14.720 does he want to be on the field. I'm sure 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:17.800 he does. But at the same time, you probably want 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:20.200 him to get a full week of practice in before 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:22.880 you get him back there on the field. So it 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:25.440 will be certainly interesting to see over the next twenty 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:29.160 four you know, twenty six eight is hours however long 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:32.520 it is before kickoff tomorrow night. Um whether or not 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:35.680 the Panthers decide to activate him. But at this point, 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:37.920 I'm not sure that that's something that's going to happen. 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:40.360 And just so I'm clear on this, Um, and I 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:41.720 had to ask you this every day, but just so 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:44.080 we put it out there for everyone who's listening. He 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:48.800 can be activated whenever. Yes, yeah, pretty much right before 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:52.160 the game. He gosh, And I really should probably know 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:53.360 the why. I'm sorry. I don't mean to put you 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:56.200 on the spot. It's just all everything's so different this year, 0:08:56.280 --> 0:08:58.560 and I just I'm curious of like, Okay, when if 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:00.880 you're a Panthers fan or or you know, a fantasy 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:03.240 owner or whatever, when do you say, like, Okay, he's 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:06.520 definitely not playing, because to me, the signs say that 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:08.480 as of right now, doesn't look like he's going to 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:11.439 play for all of the reasons that you just said, Myles, Um, 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:13.760 I mean, Miles, would he have to be Would that 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:16.920 have to be a transaction submitted by five pm Thursday 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:21.559 to go from a reserve list to an active roster? Probably? So, yeah, 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:22.960 I mean wouldn't it. I mean it would have to 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:25.640 come out on the Yeah, usually it would be. It 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:28.280 would usually be the day before a game, like usually 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:31.480 that would happen on a Saturday at the latest. Now 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:35.120 it's Thursday night football, So I'm not sure if that 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:38.439 means it can happen on earlier on Thursday or not. 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:41.640 It might be I think it can happen earlier on Thursday. 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:44.680 Um so, but yeah, that's that's a good point though, 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:47.559 regardless of what the timeline is with Thursday, there is 0:09:47.600 --> 0:09:50.800 another step that has to happen so that you know, fans, 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:52.760 I think it's important. I think a lot of people 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:54.600 are seeing him back and practice and side like all right, 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:57.320 it's happening. Um. But it's just good to know that 0:09:57.320 --> 0:09:59.959 there's another step to look for if if you want 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:01.400 know if he's gonna play or not. Yeah, I mean 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:05.920 I would imagine you're gonna know before tomorrow night. It's 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:08.199 not going to be like, oh yeah he oh is 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:11.640 he coming out there? Well you gotta have I mean, 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:16.760 it's ninety minutes before the games for active, so we 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:19.880 will probably know if he's gonna play. We're gonna know Thursday, 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:22.280 probably morning afternoon, if he's going to be activated to 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:25.280 the roster. We will definitely know when the game kicks 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:27.319 off if he will be playing or not. Yes, make 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:30.560 sure to follow Miles Simmons on Twitter Panthers dot com 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:33.760 for all your latest updates. I like that. And you know, 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:36.280 while we're at it, UM It's the Happy Half Hour 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:39.080 podcast presented by Morris Jenkins. Well and Mr Jenkins told 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:41.480 me Chris and that he loves football and he looks 0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:43.920 forward to this show all week. When you're plumbing, her 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:46.400 conditioning is acting up, you call Morris Jenkins or visit 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:50.360 Morris Jenkins dot com. Whenever Christian McCaffrey comes back. The 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:53.959 question has been how will that play with Mike Davis 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:57.000 and Matt Rule. Got asked that question the other day 0:10:57.120 --> 0:10:59.280 and he said, yeah, I think we use them both. 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:02.559 He said, it has proven that that he deserves to 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:05.880 have a place in this offense. Um and and that's 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:07.720 what it will be. Now we don't know how that 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:10.280 will take shape, but I've I've heard that conversation happen 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:12.760 a lot, and I just think, what a great problem 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:15.360 for Joe Brady to have in my opinion, But I've 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:17.160 heard people say like, oh my gosh, how is this 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:20.439 gonna work. I think they're going to figure it out. Yeah, 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:24.520 It's interesting because different offensive coordinators and different offensive minds 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:28.199 have different philosophies on the way they like to use 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:32.480 personnel groupings. And from what I've noticed here, Joe Brady 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:35.079 likes to be multiple and I think when you have 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:37.800 the skill sets of the guys that they have, you 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:41.959 can use more than one running back, because it's uh 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:44.680 sometimes when coaches talk about it, it's like, Okay, who 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:46.800 do you take off the field? The Rams are a 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:49.320 good example of this because they in the past they've 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:52.160 had three really good wide receivers when they've used what's 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:55.480 called eleven personnel with three wide receivers, one running back, 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:59.439 one tight end. Okay, so that's like what they do, 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:01.960 and they've used a little bit more too tight end sets. 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:03.560 But when you do that, it's like, okay, who do 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:06.439 you take off the field? And so here I think 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:10.480 it's a little bit different in that they rotate through 0:12:10.520 --> 0:12:14.640 guys a lot, you know, so it's not just been Okay, 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:17.720 Robbie Anderson, d J. Moore, Curtis Samuel are on the 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:20.000 field every play. Ian Thomas is going to be on 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:23.400 the field, you know. Whatever. They've rotated through their guys, 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:25.440 and so they were even doing that a little bit 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:28.480 with Christian McCaffrey. Mike Davis would get a series here 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:31.079 and there in those first couple of games, and there 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:33.160 were a couple of times I believe we're Mike Davis 0:12:33.200 --> 0:12:35.480 and Christian McCaffrey were on the field at the same time. 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:37.960 And the great thing about McCaffrey is you don't just 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:40.040 have to put him in the backfield. You know, you 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:42.240 can split him out wide and use him in the slot. 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:45.319 You can do a lot of different things. So that 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:49.200 I think is gonna be the fun way of seeing 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:52.360 how Joe Brady puts together the puzzle because there are 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:55.520 a lot of possibilities because he's got a lot of 0:12:55.559 --> 0:12:57.800 different weapons that have a lot of different skill sets. 0:12:58.160 --> 0:12:59.920 I do. I think it's gonna be more about touches 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:03.400 than about snaps because Miles, Well, you're right, Mike Davis 0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:05.400 did come in a little bit in those first four games. 0:13:05.520 --> 0:13:09.240 McCaffrey only miss four snaps before he was hurt. Four 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:13.280 snaps in two games, I guess a game and three quarters. 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:16.480 So it's one of those things. Everyone they talked about 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:18.960 it at nauseum last year before you guys got here. 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:22.480 It's it's great to talk about, but until you're out there, 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:25.320 like I will believe Christian McCaffrey comes off the field 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:27.880 when I see it, you know, because it just it 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:31.000 doesn't happen. He gets out there, and when he's healthy, 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:34.080 it's really really hard to take him off the field 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:36.520 for any given amount of time. Well, and that's that's 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:38.679 what I mean by saying that he if you want 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:41.040 to put Mike Davis on the field with Christian McCaffrey, 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:44.080 then he's got the McCaffrey's got the versatile skill set 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:47.520 to go out wide and maybe you know, you are 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:51.079 limiting the amount of hits that he takes because he 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:53.480 then goes outside and he's not just running between the 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:55.960 tackles and then you know, getting a little bit dinged up. 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:59.160 So that's that's Curtis Samuel too. He's got the first 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:01.480 tile skill set to go in the backfield. But you 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:04.440 also see what he can do on third downs when 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:06.800 he is split out wide or he's in the slot 0:14:06.840 --> 0:14:09.160 and he just knows how to uncover and Teddy Bridgewater 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:11.079 knows how to find him. So that's what I mean 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:13.320 that it's the good problem to have. You don't necessarily 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:15.719 have to take Christian McCaffrey off the field. To put 0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:18.400 somebody else on it and then see what kind of 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:20.520 skill sets and what kind of matchups you can get. 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:24.680 And one thing I just really like about the Mike 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:28.880 Davis Christian McCaffrey dynamic is they are each other's biggest fan. 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:30.880 It feels like to me, you know, Mike Davis tweeted 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:33.520 the other day, I'm not gonna lie, it's great to 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:36.200 have Smack back out here in practice. Um. And it's 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:39.680 just that kind of camaraderie between the two of them, 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:42.320 UM that I really like, you know, game plan aside. 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:45.320 When Christian McCaffrey comes back, I know that no one 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:47.280 wants him back out there more than Mike Davis on 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:50.520 that team. And genuinely, like, they really do support each 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:52.640 other and all they do. They're they're good friends. They 0:14:52.720 --> 0:14:55.360 joke with each other. Was talking to Mike not too 0:14:55.360 --> 0:14:57.480 long ago, and we're talking about who's the best at 0:14:57.480 --> 0:14:58.720 all the games that they kind of have in the 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:00.600 locker room and stuff, and he was like, Christians so 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:02.560 good at ping pong. He was like, there's nothing that 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:05.640 he's bad at. And he's texting him about it, and 0:15:05.680 --> 0:15:08.000 you know, I just I really like their relationship and 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:10.920 I'm excited to hopefully see some some creative things when 0:15:10.920 --> 0:15:14.400 they're both healthy. Yeah. Yeah, it's fun when guys support 0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:16.520 each other like that. I mean you see things like that. 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:19.840 You see Curtis Samuel talking about in his little press 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:23.440 conference yesterday, how his face. Somebody asked him about, what's 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:25.560 your favorite play that you've had so far this year? 0:15:25.560 --> 0:15:27.200 And he's like, well, you know, I like making my 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:30.760 teammates smile, So I'd say it was on d J. 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:33.120 Moore's really long touchdown in Atlanta. I got a couple 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:34.960 of blocks down field form and he got into the 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:37.840 end zone and score. Yeah. That's nice to hear, you know, nice, 0:15:38.080 --> 0:15:41.920 nice little teammates support absolutely all Right, Well I should 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:45.440 have asked you this last week, Um, but I didn't. 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:48.760 But okay, we got Atlanta coming up on Thursday, and 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:51.440 then the Panthers were just in New Orleans. Now, when 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:54.360 the Panthers went down to Atlanta, you went on a 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:58.240 m I would call it a rant about how much 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.320 you dislike Atlanta. Ales and I were both going down 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:04.560 and you said that essentially there was no way that 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:06.720 you would ever be caught dead in Atlanta. Is this 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:09.480 is how if I'm paraphrasing, I think that that's really 0:16:09.480 --> 0:16:11.760 what it felt like. Um, I didn't ask you that, Like, 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:19.920 how do you feel about New Orleans? Yeah, that's it. No, 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:22.720 New Orleans is fun. It's New Orleans. I've had some 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:25.400 great times in New Orleans. I mean, that's what I 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:28.360 would say about Atlanta, though you know, I've had some 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:33.600 bad times in Atlanta anyway. But as much as there 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:36.400 are so many reasons, and you know, I think, you know, 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:39.000 Sean Payton can be such a like can play that 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:42.440 he'll in like the wrestling sort of way, you know, 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:45.880 And but I mean watching him and watching the things 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:49.720 he said about Teddy Bridgewater, you know it, watching those 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:52.600 relationships of like Drew Brees and those guys before and 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:55.400 after the game, like, it's really hard to feel the same. 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:58.920 I mean. And obviously this is a particular small circumstances. 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:03.280 This isn't a generation stional rivalry feeling. But it just 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:06.760 it didn't feel I think, particularly for this game, you 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:09.359 felt a lot of camaraderie with them because of those 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:14.720 relationships and in a larger sense the Superdome. While there's 0:17:14.760 --> 0:17:16.840 been some tough losses, you know, the playoff loss in 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:20.040 seventeen that came down obviously, this one, it just hasn't 0:17:20.080 --> 0:17:22.959 felt like the House of Horrors that Atlanta has felt like. 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:26.400 And I also think I don't know how fans feel 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:30.200 about this. I like seeing that camaraderie that you mentioned 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:33.160 um before and after the game with Drew brees And 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:36.480 and Teddy and Joe Brady and Sean Payton. I mean 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:39.040 they were they were mixing it up, everyone was smiling. 0:17:39.119 --> 0:17:41.640 Was great to see um each other. I liked when 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:44.760 Teddy ran out of Bounce and went over to the bench. 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:46.240 I was you can tell he's just tired. He was like, 0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:48.240 i'mnna sit down for a second and talked to Taysom 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:51.720 Hill and Drew brees Um. Because I also feel like, 0:17:51.920 --> 0:17:55.480 especially on the offensive side, it felt like, all right, 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:58.359 like these are two kind of worthy opponents that know 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:00.760 each other. Well, you're gonna show what you have. You know, 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:02.879 you're gonna show what you've been holding on too, and 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:04.360 then we're gonna show what we've got. And I thought 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:07.280 it actually made it better. You know, I know some 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:10.040 fans don't like that kind of Um, we're gonna chat 0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:12.120 right before the game and smile, and then we're gonna 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:15.280 hug afterwards, and but I thought it kind of felt like, um, 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:18.800 with those offensive minds and those quarterbacks kind of like alright, 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:20.960 like you know, we're the opponent here, let's see what 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:22.639 you got and I'll show you what you know, what 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:25.160 I've been holding on to specifically for this matchup. Yeah, 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:30.160 it's funny. Fans sometimes I think, uh take those kinds 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:32.200 of deals the wrong way. Like you're talking about like, oh, 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:35.440 I want to see them talking before the game. Well, 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:37.560 that's I mean, that's what it's. You're allowed to feel 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:40.040 that way. Yeah, and I get it. There's a part 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:41.600 of me that gets it, even though I just use 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:45.639 my I'm making fun of fans voice. Um. However, I 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:47.119 think that at the same time, you get to realize 0:18:47.160 --> 0:18:49.639 like sometimes these guys are professionals, right, Like just because 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:52.040 you say hello to somebody before the game doesn't mean 0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:53.480 that you're not going to go out and try to 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:55.680 kick their butt, you know, Like that's the way, that's 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:58.320 why these things work. So I don't know. I I 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:00.800 I too. I like seeing the camaraderie. Thought the Teddy 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:03.680 going to the the bench area of New Orleans that 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:06.680 was kind of fun, you know, Teddy and uh Sean Payton. 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:08.520 They kind of got into a little bit on the 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:11.040 sideline being like, hey, your team just got a penalty, 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:13.160 and it's like, well, well your team got a penalty too, 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:15.720 So that kind of stuff that that's fun. It shows 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:19.359 that these guys are competitors, but they're also human beings, 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:21.640 and sometimes I think we might forget that they are 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:25.080 human beings. It's easy to forget that sometimes. All right, 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:27.359 let's take a quick break and then we're gonna be 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:30.280 back with Will's Out of the Week. Hi, this is 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:34.280 Dewey Jenkins. Most people think my first name is Morris, 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:37.400 but it's not. It's Dewey. Mr Morris was the name 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:39.760 of the man I bought the company from back when 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:42.680 I was young. I'd like to take a few moments 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:46.120