Speaker 1: This week on a Happy half Hour.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of bs in the world of professional football.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of negativity, in case you haven't noticed,
Speaker 2: surrounding professional football. But when you get to the Hall
Speaker 2: of Fame, it's only the good stuff that everybody likes
Speaker 2: and none of the bad stuff that everybody hates.
Speaker 1: Touchdown, cow wha, It's time for the Happy Half Hour,
Speaker 1: presented by Southern Star, an official bourbon of the Carolina Panthers.
Speaker 1: Here are your hosts, Darren Gant and Cassidy Hill.
Speaker 2: Hello, friends, and welcome to a jam packed edition of
Speaker 2: the Happy Half Hour, presented to you by Southern Star
Speaker 2: and official bourbon partner of the Carolinas. Celebrate the spirit
Speaker 2: of the Carolina Little Southern Star, and we've got plenty
Speaker 2: to celebrate. Man, what a week since we last left you.
Speaker 2: You've been to Clemson, I've been to Canton.
Speaker 3: We have been all around this world, and by that
Speaker 3: we mean from anywhere Ohio to South Carolina.
Speaker 2: Right, we're about to get on airplanes and go to
Speaker 2: suburban Providence, Rhode Island. Yeah, you know, Foxboro, Massachusetts is
Speaker 2: kind of a made up place. I mean Foxboro in
Speaker 2: and of itself, so a charming little village, but not
Speaker 2: a place you would go unless you were going to
Speaker 2: a football game necessarily. But yeah, a lot of stuff
Speaker 2: going on, and it's kind of hard. I know we
Speaker 2: talked about this in the last podcast, but we've reached
Speaker 2: that time of year when I have lost all concept
Speaker 2: of time. I don't know what day of the week
Speaker 2: it is. I don't know what time of day.
Speaker 3: Someone said to me today something about, oh, today is Tuesday, Yes, Tuesday,
Speaker 3: and I went, no, it's not. And then I sat
Speaker 3: there and thought about it for a second and I
Speaker 3: was like, wait, on Sunday, Monday, it is Tuesday.
Speaker 2: I'll be how about that.
Speaker 3: So is Foxboro on the Paul Revere Tour.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I'm not sure that it's on. There's
Speaker 2: a dunkin Donuts.
Speaker 3: There, of course there is. I would expect nothing less.
Speaker 2: We're going to struggle to find Krispy Kreme, an official
Speaker 2: doughnut partner of the Carolina Panthers, while we were there.
Speaker 2: But there's a dunk. You can't swing a dead cat
Speaker 2: without hitting a duncan in that town. So uh. Anyway,
Speaker 2: before we get to where we're going, we should probably
Speaker 2: cover where we've been.
Speaker 3: Yeah, great life lesson.
Speaker 2: I know, right, we should we should take a look
Speaker 2: back to inform the future. Uh, and let's start with Clemson.
Speaker 2: I mean you you were down there the other night
Speaker 2: for a fan fist practice, and you know, shoot the
Speaker 2: nostalgia straight into your veins. There's Dom Caper's, It's Clemson.
Speaker 2: It's nineteen ninety five all over again. We found out
Speaker 2: last week. You were alive in nineteen ninety five, but
Speaker 2: only barely so I was barely alive.
Speaker 3: That would have been the year I started kindergarten, the
Speaker 3: fall of nineteen ninety five, and that.
Speaker 2: Was a year I started covering the Carolina Panthers. This
Speaker 2: is the part of the where feels old.
Speaker 3: The birth of the Panthers, the birth Cassidy's career in school.
Speaker 3: All good things happened in nineteen ninety five.
Speaker 2: It's been an education since then. I'll tell you that
Speaker 2: it has. But what was the lag down there? I
Speaker 2: mean that was kind of They had had a padded
Speaker 2: practice before that, But after seeing that one, I mean,
Speaker 2: was there could you pick up a vibe off what
Speaker 2: was going on down there?
Speaker 3: First of all, it was my first trip to Clemson.
Speaker 2: Was a lot of fun, Yeah, how'd that go for you? Everything?
Speaker 3: There was a blanket of humidity that settled over the
Speaker 3: entire stadium. That was fun. But I was trying to
Speaker 3: convince different people to touch the rock and run down
Speaker 3: the hill. Dave Canalis said that he thought about it
Speaker 3: and then he went and walked down the hill and
Speaker 3: he was like, Yeah, this is way too steep. I'm
Speaker 3: not running down this. You could just see somebody tearing
Speaker 3: their acl Yeah, let's not.
Speaker 2: Get hurt running down the hill. Dave, that's a good call.
Speaker 3: It was essentially a mock scrimmage. The plan was to
Speaker 3: hold a little bit of a practice and then go
Speaker 3: into a scrimmage. They really just kind of ended up
Speaker 3: doing warm ups and then jumped straight into the scrimmage.
Speaker 3: The story of the first half was Jadavian Clowney. He
Speaker 3: was everywhere at multiple sacks. He kind of just exerted
Speaker 3: his dominance and reminded every one of who he can
Speaker 3: be and also gave a little bit of breathing room
Speaker 3: to what this past rushing unit can be because there's
Speaker 3: been some uncertainty. There is still the question of depth
Speaker 3: behind him. But if the bulk of this responsibility does
Speaker 3: land on Jadavian Clowney's shoulders. He reminded everyone that he
Speaker 3: is capable of handling it, and so that was nice
Speaker 3: to see, just to kind of see how much of
Speaker 3: a game wrecker he can be. It made it tough
Speaker 3: going for the offense though, something that Dave canalis I
Speaker 3: timed it. It took him fourteen seconds into his press
Speaker 3: conference after that mock scrimmage to address the offensive woes
Speaker 3: from the first half and then into the second half,
Speaker 3: and a lot of that, again had to do with Clowney.
Speaker 3: There were also a lot of pre snap penalties, false stars,
Speaker 3: delay of games. I mean, granted, Darren, this was the
Speaker 3: first like game like structure that they had really been in.
Speaker 3: You would rather work these things out in a mock
Speaker 3: scrimmage on August first than you would and free at
Speaker 3: the end of September. But they were still things that
Speaker 3: I think it put a big glaring issue up on
Speaker 3: the board for them to work on this week. And
Speaker 3: so we've seen a lot, a lot, a lot of
Speaker 3: times this week where there might have been a slight
Speaker 3: delay a game in practice, and normally in a practice
Speaker 3: you might just let it go to keep the play moving.
Speaker 3: Canalysis stopped it every time and made them rehuddle and
Speaker 3: start again. So I think that's been a huge emphasis.
Speaker 3: In the second half, we saw both Bryce Young and
Speaker 3: Jack Plumber kind of get things moving a little bit easier.
Speaker 3: Some of that had to do with the fact that
Speaker 3: Jenevin Clowney was no longer on the field, but move
Speaker 3: things a little bit easier. Bryce to Deontae just seems
Speaker 3: to get a little bit stronger every day. Bryce to
Speaker 3: feeling Adam Thielen tried to do a gritty Actually he
Speaker 3: didn't try, he did it, but you know, it's always
Speaker 3: a little weird to see Adam thelen versus Justice Everson
Speaker 3: doing that. Some good play from a couple of the
Speaker 3: tight ends that had to step up with injuries like
Speaker 3: Felipe Franks, and then you know, like the running back
Speaker 3: Mike Boone. We've seen some of these guys that are
Speaker 3: going to be fighting for these final roster spots and
Speaker 3: maybe these practice squad spots really kind of take advantage
Speaker 3: the past few days. Overall, good trip to Clipson, my
Speaker 3: first time being out there, good bit of fans that
Speaker 3: ended up filtering in. You know, it was raining when
Speaker 3: we first got there, so it made it hard for
Speaker 3: people to get in, but as they got in, it
Speaker 3: was a lot of fun. The best part may have
Speaker 3: been JC Horn walking out in a South Carolina gamecock.
Speaker 2: Shirt, which was petty, and I respected it.
Speaker 3: You can respect the pettiness. And he said he specifically
Speaker 3: called the equipment manager out South Carolina as soon as
Speaker 3: this clips in practice was announced and said, I need
Speaker 3: some new stuff. And he made sure to walk out
Speaker 3: in that shirt so that every Clipson fan and Dabosweeney
Speaker 3: who was on and could.
Speaker 2: See it, absolutely love that. Now there's one thing I
Speaker 2: was disappointed about, and I've got a bone to pick
Speaker 2: with you. We haven't really gotten into this. Oh God,
Speaker 2: but I sent you to Clemson with one direction and
Speaker 2: you failed me for the very first time in your
Speaker 2: career here at Panthers dot com. Listen, you were given
Speaker 2: explicit instructions. You have to take a picture of the
Speaker 2: peachoid as you go down eighty five on the bus
Speaker 2: and tweet it out. It's not training camp.
Speaker 3: If you don't got into my head, I could not
Speaker 3: have told you when we passed that peach It's not
Speaker 3: like I saw it too late and didn't get my
Speaker 3: phone out. I never saw it one time.
Speaker 2: You know, Ron Rivera would call that a missed opportunity, Cassie,
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 3: I'll just have to drive back down there, Matt.
Speaker 2: Can we get a soundboard here where we've just got
Speaker 2: the voice of Ron Rivera saying missed opportunity, where if
Speaker 2: I wave and give you the high sign, we can
Speaker 2: just have that. I think that would be a lot.
Speaker 3: Of fun or a bunch of people going boom.
Speaker 2: We could do it with well, we could do it
Speaker 2: with many of the coaches in Panthers history. I'd like
Speaker 2: a Dom Caper's where he says sense of urgency. I
Speaker 2: would like a John Fox it is what it is,
Speaker 2: And for now, I'll take a Ron Rivera missed opportunity
Speaker 2: and we'll just leave it at that. And I think
Speaker 2: I think that could become a lot of fun and
Speaker 2: could become topical as we developed this podcast further. But yeah,
Speaker 2: you had one.
Speaker 3: Job do the sound effects, even if they're at my expense, you.
Speaker 2: Had one job. I'm sorry, I don't know what to
Speaker 2: tell you. It's uh, it's my life the same. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the good news for you and your punishment probably would
Speaker 2: have been more severe, except I was in the happiest
Speaker 2: place on earth. Somebody, somebody asked, how how'd cast he
Speaker 2: end up in Clemson, and you got Can't Ohio, I said,
Speaker 2: I picked first, right. There is no people, this is
Speaker 2: a funny thing. I enjoy the Pro Football Hall of
Speaker 2: Fame a great deal. I love the city of Can't, Ohio,
Speaker 2: and so many people when I spec ho else my
Speaker 2: love for my second home. I'm currently researching real estate
Speaker 2: investment possibilities in Canton, Ohio. But people keep looking at me.
Speaker 3: Investment if you're just gonna use it for yourself.
Speaker 2: Right, People keep looking at me like I'm kidding, Like
Speaker 2: is he being serious or is this snarky Darren right now?
Speaker 2: And I'm like, no, Canton is the happiest place on earth.
Speaker 2: The only good things happen in football. And I am
Speaker 2: sincere about this because when you are there for the
Speaker 2: Pro Football Hall of Fame, you know there's a lot
Speaker 2: of bs in the world of professional football. There's a
Speaker 2: lot of negativity in case you haven't noticed, surrounding professional football.
Speaker 2: But when you get to the Hall of Fame, it's
Speaker 2: only the good stuff that everybody likes and none of
Speaker 2: the bad stuff that everybody hates. Nobody's charting practice snaps
Speaker 2: being dropped, nobody's talking about your GMS an idiot for
Speaker 2: passing on this guy in the fourth round. It's like,
Speaker 2: hey man, there's Julius Pepper's getting a hug from me
Speaker 2: and Joe Green, and that's pretty cool and that's kind
Speaker 2: of the week for me. I mean, obviously I enjoy this,
Speaker 2: and we enjoyed bringing you guys a lot, and there's
Speaker 2: more to come on Panthers dot Com. We got some
Speaker 2: cool video elements and a whole lot of pictures. We
Speaker 2: were basically firing the entire time. We were there for
Speaker 2: four days, and that's part of the reason we've got Yeah,
Speaker 2: there's a lot to capture because there was constantly something
Speaker 2: going on. From him walking out on the field Thursday
Speaker 2: night during the Hall of Fame game, you know, hugging
Speaker 2: up on DJ Moore, his one time teammate who's now
Speaker 2: with the Bears, was a cool little moment. Friday, I
Speaker 2: mean Friday, Julius goes to the team picture. We had
Speaker 2: him micd up for that. It's super cool. Orlando Pace
Speaker 2: comes rolling up late and people are like, yeah, come
Speaker 2: on and on, and you just hear Pip in the backgroundling,
Speaker 2: and you could tell he was just enjoying himself so much.
Speaker 2: It's not just me who loves the Canton experience, but
Speaker 2: everything from that to the gold jack at dinner, seeing
Speaker 2: Julius chose min Joe Green to put the jacket on him,
Speaker 2: and it was kind of it was kind of a
Speaker 2: theme throughout the weekend that here is this utterly modern
Speaker 2: football player, this freakish athlete, who can do things other
Speaker 2: football players could never do in a way that they
Speaker 2: can't even consider, and the old dudes have a respect
Speaker 2: for him. One of the cool moments for me was
Speaker 2: talking to Dave Robinson, who you've spent time in Green Bay.
Speaker 2: That name's probably itched in your memory. I mean, it's
Speaker 2: probably on walls in Green Bay. Dave Robinson, outside linebacker
Speaker 2: on the great Packers defenses of the sixties, you know,
Speaker 2: played in Super Bowl One, won three championships with the Packers,
Speaker 2: lined up to some cat named Raid Ninchke. So he
Speaker 2: kind of knows about the football and whether it was good.
Speaker 2: And I was talking to Dave Robinson and he said, listen, man,
Speaker 2: not all of these young guys could play when I play.
Speaker 2: That one could, and he pointed to Julius. He said,
Speaker 2: Julius Peppers absolutely could. And to me, that's like almost
Speaker 2: the summation of the whole week was all the legends
Speaker 2: of football recognizing Julius was a different sort of cat
Speaker 2: and now one of them, and then again seeing him
Speaker 2: kind of come to the acceptance of, yes, this is
Speaker 2: the place I belong, Yes this is the place I
Speaker 2: will now reside forever. And it was pretty cool to
Speaker 2: bring it all home seeing his speech. I mean, Julius
Speaker 2: gave one of the better Hall of Fame speeches I've
Speaker 2: seen personally, and I think a lot of people have
Speaker 2: seen in a long time. And as you know from
Speaker 2: Readingpanthers dot Com, Julius writes his own material, which made
Speaker 2: it that much more impressive to see him pull that off.
Speaker 2: But about nineteen minutes, the very best part to me
Speaker 2: was about the last minute of that speech, after he
Speaker 2: thanked everybody, you know, all his old friends, all his
Speaker 2: old coaches, all that you know, all the people he
Speaker 2: talked about throughout the course of the speech. He kind
Speaker 2: of brought it home in a way that wasn't about football,
Speaker 2: And you know, it was pretty cool to hear it
Speaker 2: in Julius's own words.
Speaker 4: Now I'm going to close with what being a Hall
Speaker 4: of Famer means to me. It's not about how many
Speaker 4: touchdowns you scored or how many Super Bowl rings you have,
Speaker 4: even though those things are nice. It really comes down
Speaker 4: to who you are, to your core and what's in
Speaker 4: your heart. Are you resilient, do you stand tall in
Speaker 4: the face of adversity when things get tough or do
Speaker 4: you quit? Do you acknowledge other people's contributions to your
Speaker 4: success or do you make it all about you. Being
Speaker 4: a Hall of Famer is one of my crown and achievements,
Speaker 4: but it extends far beyond pro football. It extends to
Speaker 4: my family, and it extends to my daily life. Everyone
Speaker 4: can't play in the NFL, and everyone can't have a
Speaker 4: bus here and can but everyone can be a Hall
Speaker 4: of Famer in your own life. Be a Hall of Fame,
Speaker 4: d a hall of Fame student, teacher, spouse, coworker, friend,
Speaker 4: whatever it is, Whatever it is that you do, do
Speaker 4: it with respect, integrity, passion, resilience, dedication, and gratitude. That
Speaker 4: alone will make you a Hall of Fame person, and
Speaker 4: you two can have a legacy that lives on forever.
Speaker 4: Thank you and God.
Speaker 2: Bless and I mean when you hear that, you're just
Speaker 2: left with the thought, hey, this guy gets it. Be
Speaker 2: he might be better at riding than I am. But
Speaker 2: I mean there was a genuine appreciation of the moment,
Speaker 2: and I think Julius rose to it as he did
Speaker 2: so many other times through his career. But yeah, you
Speaker 2: can't get me to say enough good things about the
Speaker 2: city of Can't, Ohio. They even have a bow Jangles
Speaker 2: now right off everhard Road. They're bow Berry Biscuits in Can't, Ohio,
Speaker 2: the birthplace of professional football, are in the shape of
Speaker 2: little delicious footballs.
Speaker 3: That's like all of your favorite things together.
Speaker 2: I got both j Angles, I got the Hall of Fame,
Speaker 2: I got Canton, Ohio, I got Panthers dot Com and
Speaker 2: our crew with me alongside. It was just you couldn't
Speaker 2: beat the smile off my face for about four days there.
Speaker 2: I mean, we put in a lot of time, but
Speaker 2: we do it for you are readers and listeners.
Speaker 3: You said something, no, go ahead, you said something about
Speaker 3: getting there and realizing for the guys, realizing this is
Speaker 3: where they're gonna be, this is where they're gonna be
Speaker 3: enshrine forever now and justifiably so. When Julius was first
Speaker 3: announced that he would be in the Hall and y'all
Speaker 3: were in Vegas for that announcement, you talked about how
Speaker 3: he kind of was almost like wide eyed, like, am
Speaker 3: I really a part of this group? Did you feel
Speaker 3: like it had sunk in by the time he got
Speaker 3: to camp.
Speaker 2: It's he was coming to that realization. Yeah, that was
Speaker 2: the cool moment in Vegas when he looked at me
Speaker 2: and he said, because the night before the announcement, he's
Speaker 2: checking into the hotel and Barry Sanders is in front
Speaker 2: of him in line, and Julia says, I'm sitting here
Speaker 2: looking at Barry Sanders like the same now, you know,
Speaker 2: And it just he was giddy about it, and and
Speaker 2: it was hard for him to wrap his mind around it.
Speaker 2: But again, seeing the reaction of other people to Julius,
Speaker 2: seeing his reaction to it all, it was a super
Speaker 2: cool weekend. He had a party. We've got some shots
Speaker 2: of that coming on Panthers dot com. A lot of
Speaker 2: old coaches and teammates and friends were there for him.
Speaker 2: I mean, Julius got to see you know, former UNC
Speaker 2: basketball legend and assistant coach Phil Ford, and he was like,
Speaker 2: wasn't expecting to see Phil Ford walking into the door.
Speaker 2: We got to say, Michael Jordan, No, Michael shows up.
Speaker 2: Michael was at the ceremony. He got a hug from
Speaker 2: Julius as you saw in her socials. But you know,
Speaker 2: you kind of look around that party and hey, over
Speaker 2: there's Luke Keigley hugging up on Julius. And Luke didn't
Speaker 2: want to stand next to Julius.
Speaker 3: He told us that yesterday he said, I have to
Speaker 3: make sure to stand like six feet away like force perception,
Speaker 3: because I look like a child next to Julius.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's Luke Keighley who's saying that ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 2: not a small person. It sat like Steve Smith said
Speaker 2: that Steve used to always laugh because they were eighty
Speaker 2: nine and ninety. He said, when we'd be in team pictures,
Speaker 2: I'd be like up on my tippy toes trying to
Speaker 2: get even close to where he was. But it's like,
Speaker 2: you look at that party over there, as John Fox,
Speaker 2: what's Marty Hernie doing here? You know, there's Hannibal Navies
Speaker 2: was at the party. And for David Langton, who's on
Speaker 2: the other side of the room, and some of the
Speaker 2: old heads. You'll remember that one. But it was a
Speaker 2: great blend. I mean, Kevin Dine only a lot of
Speaker 2: a lot of his old teammates and friends from across
Speaker 2: the eras were there. Stephen was here the other night
Speaker 2: for I don't I don't recall if Steve.
Speaker 3: Was there someone in the crowd that I thought was him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there was a lot of people. Steve Wilkes was there,
Speaker 2: former Panthers interim coach and friend of the programme, Steve Wilkes.
Speaker 2: It was good to catch up with him. He saw
Speaker 2: the long hair and he said, nice hair there, and
Speaker 2: I said, I'm taking it back to my boon roots Steve,
Speaker 2: and Steve, being an Appalachian state man, appreciated that. He said,
Speaker 2: you're going out to put the birkenstocks back on too.
Speaker 2: We can make that happen too.
Speaker 3: Here will come the Sam Elliott character from Parks and
Speaker 3: rec So.
Speaker 2: So anyway, great weekend, and again we enjoyed bringing it
Speaker 2: all to you. Hopefully it wasn't too much for you.
Speaker 2: Hopefully you didn't get tired of Julius Peppers, because frankly,
Speaker 2: I think I could talk about him and write about
Speaker 2: him all day Long. He's just that big of a
Speaker 2: personality and big of a character in this franchise's history,
Speaker 2: so it was appropriate that he goes in as the
Speaker 2: first drafted as a Panther member of the Pro Football
Speaker 2: Hall of Fame. So on to worldly matters. I walked
Speaker 2: back into practice Monday, and I was like, how are
Speaker 2: you going to send him back to the farm when
Speaker 2: they've seen the bright lights of Canton.
Speaker 3: But here we are, Oh Jangles like just shines across campon.
Speaker 2: I know, right, but we are back to work now
Speaker 2: and we're about to get on those airplanes and go
Speaker 2: see a preseason game. And what a preseason game it
Speaker 2: promises to be. Dave Canalis told us today that we
Speaker 2: will not see Bryce Young and likely you know, I
Speaker 2: think they're going to be smart about playing a lot
Speaker 2: of the starters here in this first game. But with
Speaker 2: no Bryce Young and Andy Dalton kind of dinged up
Speaker 2: on the sidelines, that means Jack Palmer, ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 2: Jack Plumber, the undrafted rookie from Louisville via Purdue in California,
Speaker 2: is going to be likely starting. I mean, Jake Lwton's here,
Speaker 2: but he just rolled up on Sunday or Monday. What
Speaker 2: day is it, can't remember. Yeah, he got here Monday.
Speaker 2: He'll play probably a little bit later in the game.
Speaker 2: But this is going to be a lot of work
Speaker 2: for Jack Plumber. If you're a local fan here in
Speaker 2: the Charlotte market, you may have seen him in his
Speaker 2: last college game, which was the ACC championship game at
Speaker 2: Bank of America Stadium. That one didn't turn out too
Speaker 2: well for him, But Dave Canalis was actually pretty enthused
Speaker 2: about Jack Plumber and what he's seen from the rookie
Speaker 2: so far.
Speaker 5: The guy's a hard worker. I've learned that he's very
Speaker 5: detailed in what he does. I feel like he's been
Speaker 5: really sharp, you know, with the the different changes that
Speaker 5: happen at the line. Really just like the mechanisms, the
Speaker 5: cadences and all that stuff. I think he's been sharp there.
Speaker 5: He's a great athlete, you know, he can. He's got
Speaker 5: a big arm and he's showcased that a couple of times,
Speaker 5: you know, and love his mobility, and he's got a
Speaker 5: really cool demeanor about him. So I really like the guy.
Speaker 5: I'm excited for Jack for this opportunity. A lot of
Speaker 5: times you kind of get those those the late quarter work,
Speaker 5: you know, and he gets to kind of go out
Speaker 5: there and you know, really, you know, for Jack this
Speaker 5: is like, you know, you don't realize it, but the
Speaker 5: guys that if they don't make your team, it's like
Speaker 5: it's almost a year later till they get actual live
Speaker 5: game experience. And this is going to be so valuable
Speaker 5: for him for his career, you know.
Speaker 2: In development, Dave Canalis thinks that Jack Plumber, despite a
Speaker 2: utter lack of experience at the NFL level, he's an
Speaker 2: undrafted rookie after all. He said, he thinks he knows
Speaker 2: enough about what's going on here, and he's shown enough
Speaker 2: in camp to give them a decent evaluation of the
Speaker 2: other ten guys on the field at the same time.
Speaker 2: And that's important because you can have opinions one way
Speaker 2: or another or whether Bryce should be playing, and certainly
Speaker 2: there are plenty of opinions, but I think regardless, this
Speaker 2: is an evaluation tool and they're looking at you know,
Speaker 2: Jonathan Mingo and Terrace Marshall and David Moore and a
Speaker 2: whole bunch of other receivers, and so Jack Plummer's ability
Speaker 2: to get the ball to them is going to be
Speaker 2: paramount to being able to get a good read on
Speaker 2: those guys.
Speaker 3: Would you rather have someone who knows the scheme like
Speaker 3: Plumber or someone who has a little more NFL experience
Speaker 3: like Jake Gluten when you're trying to evaluate the.
Speaker 2: Other ten, well, I think when you're talking about two days,
Speaker 2: notice it's probably jack by default at that point. But
Speaker 2: you know, Luton's been around, and he was in Seattle
Speaker 2: with Canalis from in it also, so in addition to
Speaker 2: some of his cameos here, you may remember Jake Luton
Speaker 2: from his stint as Andy Dalton's backup in Seattle last year.
Speaker 3: On Cassidy Fact. Yeah, I covered Jake Luten's first NFL start.
Speaker 3: He started for the Jacksonville Jaguars when Gardner Minshew broke
Speaker 3: his thumb. They lost the game. But Jake Luton had
Speaker 3: a heck of a game. That's right, it's COVID year.
Speaker 3: I think he scored like three touchdowns.
Speaker 2: Oh boy, right, what tell me what else you remember
Speaker 2: about that game? Let's test your memory here.
Speaker 3: He ran in a touchdown in the front left corner.
Speaker 3: I want to say he threw a touchdown maybe to
Speaker 3: DJ Chark, but I could be making up that part of.
Speaker 2: It possible possible DJ Hark.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they lost the game, but it was a pretty
Speaker 3: close game. It was enough that going into the next week,
Speaker 3: Gardner Minshew had to quote unquote win back the job.
Speaker 3: Now he won it back pretty easily, but it was
Speaker 3: it was not a bad performance for Jake Luten to
Speaker 3: get thrown in there on you know, a couple of
Speaker 3: days notice for his first NFL start. I'm trying to
Speaker 3: remember who they were playing. Maybe the Texans.
Speaker 2: Could be, could be the one you have pulled up now.
Speaker 2: The one thing I know, and I was just looking
Speaker 2: to fact check myself, that was, in fact Jake Luton
Speaker 2: last year in Seattle as Andy Dalton's backup. I was
Speaker 2: scared for a moment that I had conflated him again
Speaker 2: with Jacob Eson, who made a cameo here two years
Speaker 2: ago against the Rams as as PJ Walker's backup. I
Speaker 2: believe that day. So it was, yeah, we've seen some
Speaker 2: things here, you and I, even though you've been here
Speaker 2: a very short amount of time.
Speaker 3: But for as big as the NFL is, it's a
Speaker 3: very small world.
Speaker 2: No doubt about that. So it's you know, it's preseason
Speaker 2: and we'll make the most of it, and we'll come
Speaker 2: out with winners and losers. I'm sure everybody makes snap
Speaker 2: decisions based on a quarter of the first preseason game
Speaker 2: when the starters may not necessarily be playing. But we'll
Speaker 2: have a chance to get to all that coming around
Speaker 2: the bend. We'll get back next week. Next week is
Speaker 2: another big one. After this preseason game, they'll come back
Speaker 2: here and work by themselves for a couple of days
Speaker 2: and then the Jets roll into town. Joint practices are
Speaker 2: kind of the new wave of the NFL. People actually
Speaker 2: probably prefer them the preseason games.
Speaker 3: I was about to say, you can get a little
Speaker 3: more out of it because you can control it a
Speaker 3: little bit better, and like you're going to learn more
Speaker 3: about Bryce against another defense and that joint practice than
Speaker 3: you will in the preseason.
Speaker 2: Game, right, I mean, And it's it's as live of
Speaker 2: a rep as you can get while leaving a red
Speaker 2: jersey on your quarterback, right, And that's important because coaches
Speaker 2: want to see that full speed stuff without their quarterback
Speaker 2: being in peril. So I think that'll be good defense. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it really is, and it'll be a good indication you know,
Speaker 2: last year, as you look at last year in the
Speaker 2: rearview mirror, and I try not to do that all
Speaker 2: that att but at that joint practice against the Jets,
Speaker 2: you realize, oh, the Jets are pretty good on defense.
Speaker 2: They got a lot of dudes up front, and and
Speaker 2: as the Panthers started getting dinged up on the offensive line,
Speaker 2: you realized, Okay, this could be an issue, and that
Speaker 2: became a theme over the course of the year. But
Speaker 2: the Jets are the kind of defense that can rush
Speaker 2: anybody's quarterback. Even teams with good lines are going to
Speaker 2: struggle to match up all the pass rushers the Jets
Speaker 2: can throw at you. So I think it's gonna be
Speaker 2: an interesting test for a reconfigured line. I mean, we've
Speaker 2: made a lot of that so far this year in
Speaker 2: terms of the run game, because I mean, obviously, when
Speaker 2: you look at Robert Hunt and you look at Damian Lewis,
Speaker 2: those guys are built to be run blockers and stay
Speaker 2: out on the front foot and lean on people rather
Speaker 2: than drop into a pass rush posture necessarily. But it's
Speaker 2: it's gonna be a good test. It's always interesting when
Speaker 2: you get to see other people. But I think when
Speaker 2: Aaron Rodgers and the Jets roll in here, next week.
Speaker 2: Mostly we're going to be like are we in a
Speaker 2: time war? Pier Because a year ago, the same time
Speaker 2: they come to Spartan Bird for a day of practice,
Speaker 2: Rogers was about to lead the Jets to the players
Speaker 2: Super Bowl, kys Young was about to lead a resurgent
Speaker 2: Carolina Panthers team is the number one overall pick and
Speaker 2: neither one of them worked out that way. Aaron played
Speaker 2: about what was it snaps last year?
Speaker 3: So like seventy eight seconds, we.
Speaker 2: Wish nothing but good health to Aaron and the rest
Speaker 2: of the players on the field.
Speaker 3: I see, and not to sound like yeh football officionado,
Speaker 3: I want to see this offensive line versus that defensive
Speaker 3: line because a lot of pieces have been put into
Speaker 3: this offensive line this offseason. Now let's see them all
Speaker 3: together against a very very very good Jets defensive line.
Speaker 3: You know who faces off against Quinn Williams. What does
Speaker 3: that one on one look like? How much time does
Speaker 3: Bryce have to throw the ball because they're gonna be
Speaker 3: They're gonna be Russian, and they're gonna be Russian. That's
Speaker 3: a very good front seven. This may be the best
Speaker 3: tests that we see of this Panthers offensive line and
Speaker 3: Bryce's timing until week.
Speaker 2: One, Yeah, because there's no guarantee, and that was one
Speaker 2: of the themes. I mean, Canalys has said, you like
Speaker 2: the idea of getting some live action. That's why, you know,
Speaker 2: in addition to the joint practice, they try to go
Speaker 2: ones versus ones when they're doing live move the ball now,
Speaker 2: I mean that's still a thud period. They're not tackling
Speaker 2: to the ground necessarily, but it's contact and it's and
Speaker 2: it's a little bit physical. But they try to put
Speaker 2: Bryce in those competitive situations, whether it's a preseason game
Speaker 2: or not. And coaches are always going to like to
Speaker 2: control what they can control, and you know you can
Speaker 2: do that by not playing guys in unpredictable situations. Preseason
Speaker 2: games make me nervous anyway, because you got anytime your
Speaker 2: starters are out there with guys who are competing to
Speaker 2: make the fifty second and fifty third spot on a roster,
Speaker 2: those guys can get a little reckless sometimes because they're
Speaker 2: trying to make a name for themselves. So I watched
Speaker 2: I understand the temptation and leave Bryce on the shelf.
Speaker 3: I watched the Packers starting tight end tear his acl
Speaker 3: in a preseason game last year. Yeah, it changes a
Speaker 3: lot of plans.
Speaker 2: It's a bad deal sometimes for a lot of people.
Speaker 2: But anyway, so we'll get to that next week. We
Speaker 2: will recap all the delights of suburban Providence, Rhode Island.
Speaker 2: Will there be clam rolls? I don't know it's Baltimore. No,
Speaker 2: that's crabcakes.
Speaker 3: No, that's I thought it was something roll like a
Speaker 3: lobster roll.
Speaker 2: A lobster roll. That's a New England. That's main. If
Speaker 2: we keep talking about New England delicacies of the sea,
Speaker 2: Kyle toot is magically gonna appear our former video guy
Speaker 2: and scold us on getting this stuff wrong.
Speaker 3: But what I bet we can find out when we
Speaker 3: get to Providence.
Speaker 2: Probably so I think we can. But until then, friends.
Speaker 3: Wait, wait, wait, wait, before we wake this up. I
Speaker 3: did want to say because.
Speaker 2: I looked it up, all right.
Speaker 3: I just I like to have moments when I can
Speaker 3: prove that I am smart and know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2: We all deserve that affirmation.
Speaker 3: Jake Luton's first start was in fact against the Houston Texans.
Speaker 3: It was in fact a close game. Jaguars lost twenty
Speaker 3: five to twenty. Jake Gluten did, in fact score three touchdowns.
Speaker 3: The first one was to DJ Shark, a seventy three
Speaker 3: yard pass to DJ Shark If I remember correctly, it
Speaker 3: was the opening play from scrimmage. Yeah, fourteen oh eight
Speaker 3: into the game.
Speaker 2: So mind mind like a steel trap. I respect it.
Speaker 3: And then he did run in a touchdown, a thirteen
Speaker 3: yard touchdown run. This bump to the front left corner
Speaker 3: of the end zone. Two point conversion failed, that would
Speaker 3: have tied the game.
Speaker 2: This bump to Cassidy for nailing that one.
Speaker 3: Hey, listen, when you're in big history making moments like
Speaker 3: Jake Gluten's first start, you don't just forget that.
Speaker 2: No question, we've invoked in this Happy Half Hour, Dabo Swinny,
Speaker 2: Hannibal Navies, and Jacob Eason. So I think we've about
Speaker 2: covered that. That'll take care of us for this episode
Speaker 2: of The Happy Half Hour.