Speaker 1: This week on a happy half hour. That's ultimately what
Speaker 1: the trade came down to. I mean, is it worth
Speaker 1: flipping a fifth round pick to buy yourself a fifth
Speaker 1: year of contract? And given the way wide receiver contracts
Speaker 1: are exploding, that fifty year option just gives them a
Speaker 1: little more cost sir.
Speaker 2: What's doll cow?
Speaker 1: It's time for the Happy half Hour with your friends.
Speaker 1: Darren Ghant and Cassidy Hill. All right, friends, welcome to Monday.
Speaker 1: Question Mark, I think it's Monday. This is the Happy
Speaker 1: half Hour. It's Darren, there's Cassidy. Cassidy Monday, right.
Speaker 2: You could tell me it is a new day of
Speaker 2: the week that just got made up and passed into
Speaker 2: law last week. And if it happened last week, I'd
Speaker 2: believe you.
Speaker 1: Happy Fred's Day everyone. We're just making stuff up as
Speaker 1: we go along because we've lost all concept of time.
Speaker 1: That's what happens when you spend a beautiful weekend in Charlotte,
Speaker 1: North Carolina, in a windowless room covering an NFL draft.
Speaker 1: So but we we do it for the people, and
Speaker 1: we are happy to do it and as excited as
Speaker 1: people are about what happened this weekend. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: those efforts were justified because I got to tell you,
Speaker 1: we were out there at a mini camp last week
Speaker 1: and we saw grass and we saw football people and
Speaker 1: football things, and then we went indoors and that football
Speaker 1: team came out different. It is. It is a big
Speaker 1: weekend in terms of the Carolina Panthers, not only for
Speaker 1: the stuff that happened for the immediate but for down
Speaker 1: the line. And we can get to it all in
Speaker 1: a second, but the big news is for a team
Speaker 1: that walked into a weekend without a first round pick
Speaker 1: and without a whole lot of expectation. All of a
Speaker 1: sudden stuff started happening. I mean Thursday night, right before midnight,
Speaker 1: Dan Morgan gets on the phone, makes the deal with
Speaker 1: his old boss Bean, and all of a sudden, the
Speaker 1: Carolina Panthers have a first round pick again.
Speaker 2: Right. I think the announcers even said, hey, let's welcome
Speaker 2: to Carolina Panthers to the first round. When when we
Speaker 2: got on the elevator Friday night, I believe it was
Speaker 2: I asked Dan Morgan. I was like, did you trade
Speaker 2: baseball cards a lot as a kid? Like was that
Speaker 2: your thing? And he like took it literally and he
Speaker 2: was like, I don't think I really ever collected baseball cards.
Speaker 2: I was like, not the point, Yeah, but yeah he was.
Speaker 2: He was a wheeling and dealing man this weekend.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Dan was definitely locked in. That's the one thing.
Speaker 1: And we're gonna take you behind the scenes into that
Speaker 1: draft room, you know, as the weeks and months go
Speaker 1: by here at Panthers dot Com with our video department
Speaker 1: and stuff we do on the website. But the one
Speaker 1: thing I can tell you for sure is that stuff
Speaker 1: was happening, and it was happening fast, and to not
Speaker 1: only to move into the first round. I mean, Xavier leg.
Speaker 2: It, league leget leg it Yeah two ease.
Speaker 1: Hold on to it like it's got to ease, he said,
Speaker 1: So we will do our best to say it that way.
Speaker 1: League it not Leget. I mean, everybody kind of made
Speaker 1: fun of the commissioner Thursday night because the way he
Speaker 1: said it, And then it turns out Roger made actually
Speaker 1: gotten one right.
Speaker 2: He was the only one that got it right.
Speaker 1: The rest of us been doing it wrong. But Xavier
Speaker 1: didn't seem to mind the fact that everybody's been mispronouncing
Speaker 1: his name for four years, because he's happy to be
Speaker 1: here and it's kind of cool. It's a really neat
Speaker 1: story to see a kid from all in South Carolina
Speaker 1: played and starred at the University of South Carolina last year,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden gets to play for the de
Speaker 1: facto hometown team and it's you could tell he's excited,
Speaker 1: but they are excited to get to him because I
Speaker 1: think there was a general sense that the Panthers wanted
Speaker 1: add it wide receiver. But when you're stuck at thirty
Speaker 1: three and thirty nine, you never know what's going to
Speaker 1: be available to you. But they clearly got to a
Speaker 1: point on Thursday night where it's like, all right, let's
Speaker 1: stop messing around, let's go get the guy we want.
Speaker 1: He was clearly the guy they wanted, and there.
Speaker 2: Was a slight run on receivers there in the first
Speaker 2: round two, albeit a deep class. But Darren, do you
Speaker 2: want to spend a minute too and kind of explain
Speaker 2: why that fifth round option was such an intriguing idea
Speaker 2: to get him on Thursday night as well?
Speaker 1: And that's ultimately what the trade came down to. I mean,
Speaker 1: is it worth flipping a fifth round pick to buy
Speaker 1: yourself a fifth year of contract? And given the way
Speaker 1: wide receiver contracts are exploding. I mean the best ones
Speaker 1: have gone from Remember how quaint it was two years
Speaker 1: ago when DJ Moore got like an eighteen million dollar
Speaker 1: a year contract.
Speaker 2: Eight that's a bargain.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's a bargain now and the guys
Speaker 1: like DJ Moore are now making twenty five million in
Speaker 1: plus and and my god, when Justin Jefferson makes what
Speaker 1: he's fixing to make right from the vikings, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's going to blow your mind. So the idea that
Speaker 1: you can lock in, you know, Xavier, we'll go there
Speaker 1: while we get used to say and league it until
Speaker 1: it Xavier turns into the player they expect him to
Speaker 1: be or hope he's going to be. It's probably not
Speaker 1: getting too far down that road. But that fifth year
Speaker 1: option just gives them a little more cost certainty. And
Speaker 1: we've talked about it a lot this offseason. So much
Speaker 1: of what they've done has been with flexibility in mind.
Speaker 1: When you look at receivers who were under contract for
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, it was just feeling a mingo last
Speaker 1: year's second round pick, so they obviously needed to kind
Speaker 1: of address things for the future and being able to
Speaker 1: turn a fifth round pick into what they hope is
Speaker 1: an extra year of contract for a starting wide receiver.
Speaker 1: Seems like a pretty good bit of business. So that
Speaker 1: made them more than willing to go up and do that.
Speaker 1: I suspect that there were places a little higher than
Speaker 1: thirty two that they made the effort. I think in
Speaker 1: the tail end of that first round there were efforts
Speaker 1: made to kind of make calls and say, hey, what
Speaker 1: do you think about or what do you do if
Speaker 1: and a lot of those people wanted to take their
Speaker 1: own picks instead of trade. So they finally got to
Speaker 1: that point at thirty two where a to make sure
Speaker 1: Buffalo didn't just sit tight and take them theirselves, but
Speaker 1: b to buy that fifth year. Dan went ahead and
Speaker 1: flipped that fifth round pick.
Speaker 2: That sort of forward thinking for the contract. You know
Speaker 2: what that sounds like to me? What's out Brenton Tillis.
Speaker 1: Brant clearly has thoughts about the future of this team,
Speaker 1: and I think the way they've structured all these contracts.
Speaker 1: I mean, again, a lot of these guys who signed
Speaker 1: this offseason are on one and two year deals so
Speaker 1: that you can get through a year of Dave Canalis
Speaker 1: and see what works and see what all this stuff
Speaker 1: looks like, and then you can assess whether that's part
Speaker 1: of the future or short term fix to get you
Speaker 1: to whatever the next thing might be. I mean, they've
Speaker 1: talked about having options and flexibility for a long time,
Speaker 1: but I think everything they've done this offseason feels like
Speaker 1: they're looking at twenty five and twenty six more than
Speaker 1: twenty four, which you know, again makes sense. I mean,
Speaker 1: you don't want to sell out this year, and obviously
Speaker 1: they're trying to compete, and when you look around the
Speaker 1: NFC South, I still say, there's no reason think you
Speaker 1: can't be competitive in this division, right But you know,
Speaker 1: at the same time, the greater goal is what's happening
Speaker 1: in twenty five twenty six and creating a stable foundation
Speaker 1: for the future.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's exactly what they brought a guy like
Speaker 2: brand Tillis in for. I mean, this is the guy
Speaker 2: that the moment Patrick Mahomes was drafted started thinking about
Speaker 2: his second contract and planning ahead and making sure the
Speaker 2: Chiefs were in a good place from the moment he
Speaker 2: was drafted for whenever they would have to sign him
Speaker 2: to a second contract, because he knew it was going
Speaker 2: to reset the market then and I think at one
Speaker 2: point this weekend, and I'm I'm probably going to use
Speaker 2: the wrong word, but I think Dan Morgan use the
Speaker 2: word brilliant to describe Tillis, And so I imagine just
Speaker 2: having him in the room kind of running those numbers
Speaker 2: in his head faster than I could ever do with
Speaker 2: a calculator in a big whiteboard, is helping them go, Okay, yes,
Speaker 2: this guy here versus this guy there, this is the
Speaker 2: value of this, This is the value of that. You know,
Speaker 2: moving into the first round to grab Xavier is gonna
Speaker 2: save us more money in three years than it would,
Speaker 2: you know, this week. And that's kind of what we're
Speaker 2: thinking about. And so I imagine having somebody's mind like that
Speaker 2: in the room, as Dan Morgan said, was brilliant, and
Speaker 2: it really kind of helped them out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because realistically, I mean, when you get on the
Speaker 1: back side of it and look at what Buffalo did,
Speaker 1: I mean, they liked Keon Coleman. So if they would
Speaker 1: have stuck at thirty two, they'd have probably taken him there.
Speaker 1: You think they would have, but you can't guarantee they
Speaker 1: weren't gonna take Xavier, and so then you could have
Speaker 1: got him at thirty three and had four years worth
Speaker 1: of contract. Okay, cool, and you don't have to give
Speaker 1: up that fifth but they moved around enough to it
Speaker 1: was hard to track. At a certain point, those things
Speaker 1: were flying. And again, I can't wait to bring you
Speaker 1: a little more of what happened inside that room, because
Speaker 1: it was fascinating to be able to witness, because stuff's
Speaker 1: as as soon as they then make the move trade
Speaker 1: thirty three to get into the first round, then you
Speaker 1: walk in to Friday night and you're sitting with thirty
Speaker 1: nine and fifty two, and they immediately started trying to
Speaker 1: figure out, Okay, what comes next? What comes next? How
Speaker 1: are we going to do this? And when you then
Speaker 1: or when you move from thirty nine to fifty two,
Speaker 1: the thought was immediately how do we get back up?
Speaker 1: And once they you know, once they were able to
Speaker 1: make the deal with the Rams, which was maybe low
Speaker 1: key the best piece of business they did all weekend
Speaker 1: because in going from thirty nine to fifty two, they
Speaker 1: picked up an extra fifth round pick which covers the
Speaker 1: cost of trading with Buffalo and that second round or
Speaker 1: next year and having given next year's two to the
Speaker 1: Bears to finish up the pick, the deal for Bryce
Speaker 1: last year, you were sitting there with a big hole
Speaker 1: in next year's draft, and I can I can sincerely
Speaker 1: say they they were pleasantly surprised to get an offer
Speaker 1: like that because they had been talking to the Rams
Speaker 1: about other versions of that and when it got to
Speaker 1: the point of, oh, you're willing to throw in next
Speaker 1: year's too, Oh now we're now we're talking, and I
Speaker 1: think at that point they were happy to drop back
Speaker 1: a little bit. Anytime you get past the first day
Speaker 1: of the draft, you start looking at bands of players
Speaker 1: rather than specific guys. I feel like Xavier was a
Speaker 1: guy they had kind of zoomed in on, and it's like,
Speaker 1: we want this one right here. That was kind of
Speaker 1: the apple of their eye. But when you get into
Speaker 1: the second and third days of the drafts, you're thinking
Speaker 1: about bands of guys, so it's this guy or this guy,
Speaker 1: or this guy or this guy. But Jonathan Brooks was
Speaker 1: definitely in that band, right And I think they were
Speaker 1: afraid and rightfully so that somewhere between thirty nine and
Speaker 1: fifty two, somebody was going to make a move up
Speaker 1: and go get the best running back in this year's class.
Speaker 2: And of course, everybody thinks that they got the best
Speaker 2: running back, but Jonathan Brooks really is one of the
Speaker 2: most promising and productive, Like he has shown the production,
Speaker 2: but he still has so much promise because he has
Speaker 2: so much left in the tank, so to speak. I mean,
Speaker 2: this is a guy that spent his first two years
Speaker 2: running behind Bjeon Robinson. When you run behind b jon Robinson,
Speaker 2: you're not asked to do a whole whole lot. And
Speaker 2: then you know, his third year he comes out and
Speaker 2: he has a great year and obviously is Texas is
Speaker 2: leading Russier. And so this is somebody that I looked
Speaker 2: at his numbers. He had two hundred and thirty eight
Speaker 2: snaps over his three year career at Texas. Chuba Hubbard
Speaker 2: had two hundred and thirty eight carries last year. I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: two hundred and thirty eight carries, no snaps. Two hundred
Speaker 2: and thirty eight carries last year, yep. And so I
Speaker 2: don't think this necessarily, this draft pick necessarily means someone's
Speaker 2: immediately out the door. I know that's an easy assumption
Speaker 2: to make, but based on everything Dave Canalis has said,
Speaker 2: is you know, I want to use multiple, multiple backs
Speaker 2: in my offense. I mean we're not even talking about
Speaker 2: a two back system. There might be times three backs
Speaker 2: are on the field, and so if you can kind
Speaker 2: of marry them all together and give you give yourself
Speaker 2: a stable of backs. Yeah, I know. It's the thinking
Speaker 2: is you've got to have a lead workhorse for a
Speaker 2: team to be successful in the running game, because you
Speaker 2: need them to kind of build it up. But I
Speaker 2: think when you've got such a violent position that is
Speaker 2: becoming devalued, it really is whether you want to believe
Speaker 2: it or not, it gives yourself a little bit more options,
Speaker 2: more playing cards in the playbook. When you've got three,
Speaker 2: four capable capable backs. I mean, this is a team
Speaker 2: that could carry four on their roster, and so adding
Speaker 2: Jonathan Brooks is going to certainly make that more interesting
Speaker 2: to kind of see what they do with that unit.
Speaker 1: This is all yeah, And by the way, Cassidy with
Speaker 1: a K, and Darren with one R and an I
Speaker 1: would you like to point out that it's Jonathan with
Speaker 1: an Oh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that got me the first time.
Speaker 1: Unconventional spelling alert Jonathan. We want to make sure he
Speaker 1: feels at home here, so we're gonna spell his name
Speaker 1: right as often as we possibly can. But that's Jonathan
Speaker 1: with an oh for those of you scoring at home
Speaker 1: or even if you're alone while you're listening to this podcast,
Speaker 1: But why would you be, Because people who listen to
Speaker 1: The Happy Half Hour always amongst the most popular and
Speaker 1: charming people. They know he's going to be an interesting piece.
Speaker 1: Because again, if there is some degree of question about him,
Speaker 1: he's coming off in acl suffered in November. The plan
Speaker 1: is that he's gonna be ready for training camp. And
Speaker 1: again there's no need to rush. If if you were
Speaker 1: walking into a situation where you didn't have people you
Speaker 1: trusted a little bit, that's one thing. But Cuba Hubbard
Speaker 1: I have come around one hundred and eighty degrees on Tuba.
Speaker 1: I mean he walked into He walked into this place
Speaker 1: as kind of a home run hitter from Oklahoma State.
Speaker 1: We saw him make big runs. Cuba has turned himself
Speaker 1: into a grinder. He was a home home run hitter
Speaker 1: who could take it forty yards in Kyleage and you
Speaker 1: saw that top end track speed, and he wasn't much
Speaker 1: of a pass catcher. Through the sheer force of will
Speaker 1: and hard work, Cuba Hubbard has become a competent pass
Speaker 1: catcher right and confident in his own ability to do it.
Speaker 1: And he's done it in the way that you have
Speaker 1: to respect, by repetition, by continuing to work on it.
Speaker 1: I mean, two hours before every game, he's out there
Speaker 1: on the field on the jugs machine catching balls. He's
Speaker 1: out there with Tommy Tremble after every practice catching balls, and.
Speaker 2: Even in April. Yeah, you know, we have to kind
Speaker 2: of the way we walk to our office takes us
Speaker 2: by an area where the guys are working. And nine
Speaker 2: times out of ten, if you hear the drug machine going,
Speaker 2: is Cuba.
Speaker 1: Cuba's on the other end of it. So he is.
Speaker 1: Cuba has turned himself into someone you can trust in
Speaker 1: a situation like that. Brooks, you know, though, is just
Speaker 1: one of those unique talents. I mean again, ten games,
Speaker 1: eleven hundred yards, ten touchdowns rushing last year, you know,
Speaker 1: pretty good average, pretty good average, and at six point
Speaker 1: one yards per carry. Yeah, as it turns out, this
Speaker 1: guy's pretty good at it. So I think that's gonna
Speaker 1: be interesting. The other one that kind of jumps out
Speaker 1: at me for this weekend, and we'll have chance over
Speaker 1: the spring to you talk more about all these guys individually.
Speaker 1: But the other one that sort of jumps off the
Speaker 1: page at me is Jatavian Sanders. I mean they they
Speaker 1: slept on it Friday night from minute, and I think
Speaker 1: after Thursday and Friday, everybody needed to sleep on it
Speaker 1: for a minute. And when you walked in here Saturday morning,
Speaker 1: it didn't take long to realize they kind of knew.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, if there were, you know, there might have
Speaker 1: been opportunities to trade one oh one, they weren't interested
Speaker 1: in them because I think as they slept on it
Speaker 1: and looked back at the board and thought, we can
Speaker 1: get a guy, we can get a pass catcher like this,
Speaker 1: you know. And that's the thing about Sanders is he
Speaker 1: is a tight end, unlike the kind they have. He
Speaker 1: is the pure pass kitch tight end that this offense
Speaker 1: has been looking for for a long time, been kind
Speaker 1: of making do with. Well, Tommy's good at this part,
Speaker 1: and Ian's a really good blocker, and Sullivan's got a
Speaker 1: lot of potential as and you know, you keep looking
Speaker 1: at all these individual parts. Sanders is the kind of
Speaker 1: body and the kind of athlete that they hadn't had
Speaker 1: a position a long long time.
Speaker 2: Six hundred plus receiving yards last year at Texas, in fact,
Speaker 2: six hundred plus the last two years at Texas. And granted,
Speaker 2: I know it's a big twelve defense, but I mean
Speaker 2: these are still impressive, impressive, consistent numbers to continue to
Speaker 2: put those up. He said, he's part of what he
Speaker 2: considers a new age of tight ends. He said, you
Speaker 2: saw it started with guys like Kittle and Kelsey and Hawkinson,
Speaker 2: and he said, but now this is what a tight
Speaker 2: end should be able to do. And I consider myself
Speaker 2: one of those. Compared himself to Brock Buoyers, which you know,
Speaker 2: Brock is a very very special talent, but he's you
Speaker 2: know jt Is he goes by is, he's got the size,
Speaker 2: he's got the hands, he's got the production to kind
Speaker 2: of prove he knows what he's doing. It completely changes
Speaker 2: their tight end passing game by bringing him in. Yeah,
Speaker 2: this is the guy that can play day one.
Speaker 1: Ten and one eighth inch hands. He could palm a
Speaker 1: pumpkin lady.
Speaker 2: His nickname is man Hands.
Speaker 1: Man Hands, which is not a name I would give someone,
Speaker 1: but he walked in here with it and self applied
Speaker 1: that Moniker, So I am not gonna argue with him.
Speaker 2: He seems proud of it, so we'll give it to him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd say so, but uh and in some or
Speaker 1: go ahead, Darrey, No, I was gonna say. The rest
Speaker 1: of the weekend is kind of was kind of spent
Speaker 1: filling in some blanks on defense. I mean, we looked
Speaker 1: at all the moves they made in free agency, from
Speaker 1: Ayshawn Robinson in the front to Josie Jewel at linebacker,
Speaker 1: Dan Jackson at corner, remade that safety room by bringing
Speaker 1: in Jordan Fuller, Nick Scott, and the rest of this
Speaker 1: draft was about filling in blanks around those guys y
Speaker 1: eight and competition and creating depth again, wait for it
Speaker 1: for the future. I mean, there's not really a job
Speaker 1: available for Trevin Wallace immediately, but Trevin Wallace looks like
Speaker 1: a guy who's going to play a bunch of football
Speaker 1: for this team in twenty five, twenty six, twenty seven,
Speaker 1: same thing. Shaw Smith Wade at cornerbacks. He's a smaller guy,
Speaker 1: and he's scrappy, and he gets after it. Scrappy. He's
Speaker 1: never been attached to a tall person, has it. A
Speaker 1: tall person has never been described as.
Speaker 2: Scrap Crappy means that you're short and willing to fight
Speaker 2: if you're backed into a corner. Yeah, he is scrappy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think whether it's Michael Barrett at linebacker,
Speaker 1: Jen and Crumdy at defensive tackle, they added guys who
Speaker 1: don't necessarily have starting jobs right now, but it's they
Speaker 1: are guys at positions where you could see him looking
Speaker 1: for upgrades. You could see him looking to improve the
Speaker 1: depth across the bottom third of this roster, and I
Speaker 1: think that's going to be important as they build this
Speaker 1: thing for years to come.
Speaker 2: Trevor Wallace particular, clearly is someone that I'm excited to
Speaker 2: see get in pads when we get to that point
Speaker 2: in training camp. See what happens when he hits somebody,
Speaker 2: because he's somebody that Darren just watching his tape. He
Speaker 2: doesn't tackle, He plows into the ground.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he kind of runs through people.
Speaker 2: And that to me sounds like a dog dawg dog. Yeah,
Speaker 2: exactly kind of what they were looking for at that
Speaker 2: linebacker position. But like you said, someone that's gonna be
Speaker 2: more for the future than anything. Also, this weekend, when
Speaker 2: you look at what they needed after free agency, there
Speaker 2: were very few glaring coals and the glaring holes that
Speaker 2: were there. They addressed one of the holes that I
Speaker 2: saw a lot of people on Twitter say, well, why
Speaker 2: wasn't this field was center? And it was because it
Speaker 2: already was. And it's not just Austin Corporate getting Austin
Speaker 2: Corbett getting moved to center. It's also Brady Christian's Christiansen gosh,
Speaker 2: I cannot talk this morning.
Speaker 1: That's because it's Fred's day. It is.
Speaker 2: You very watch parks in Direct where they have Head's Day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: But Brady has also been taking snaps at center, something
Speaker 2: that Dan Morgan you know, kind of revealed this weekend
Speaker 2: when asked about the center position. And so they feel
Speaker 2: like the depth is there. They can cross train some
Speaker 2: more of these guys as they come in. They can
Speaker 2: you know, maybe cross train a couple of these udfas
Speaker 2: and so between Austin between Brady, they feel like that
Speaker 2: position no longer had a glaring coal either, which is
Speaker 2: why they didn't reach for it in this draft.
Speaker 1: Sure, and that's the thing had all the you know, again,
Speaker 1: there's a million ways to twist it around and look
Speaker 1: at it. I mean, if if all the receivers had
Speaker 1: been gone and eight receivers were gone in the first
Speaker 1: twenty five picks, and the Bucks don't take Graham Barton
Speaker 1: with it. I don't know. I mean, it's impossible to
Speaker 1: know any of that kind of stuff in hindsight. But
Speaker 1: you know, Austin Corbett is not just some guy. It's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we don't have anybody. You go stand there. I thought
Speaker 1: it was kind of cool last week when they go
Speaker 1: out on the field for a volunteer MENTI camp. And again,
Speaker 1: that was about six weeks ago, right, No, it was
Speaker 1: last Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Austin was telling me, he's like,
Speaker 1: people been making me a center for ten years. My
Speaker 1: college coach told me. And his college coach was a
Speaker 1: young gentleman named Brian Pollion. If that name sounds familiar
Speaker 1: to you, he's the son of original Panthers general manager
Speaker 1: and Hall of Famer Bill Pollion. I remember Brian hanging
Speaker 1: around here. I don't even think Brian had a job.
Speaker 1: He was just kind of hanging around his dad's workplace
Speaker 1: when he was in his twenties here during the first
Speaker 1: couple of years of the organization. But Brian coached Austin
Speaker 1: at Nevada, and he looked at him, and he said, listen,
Speaker 1: you're my left tackle because you're my best offensive lineman.
Speaker 1: You are not a left tackle in the NFL because
Speaker 1: you're six foot four, your arms aren't particularly freaky long,
Speaker 1: you know. And he looked at me. He said, son,
Speaker 1: if you want to play in the NFL a long time,
Speaker 1: learn how to snap. And so Austin has learned how
Speaker 1: to snap. He was the emergency backup centering Cleveland from
Speaker 1: the day he was drafted thirty third overall in twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: played there in pre seasons in eighteen and nineteen. And
Speaker 1: it's not as if you're taking a linebacker and asking
Speaker 1: him to play tight end. These jobs aren't so vastly
Speaker 1: different that it's inconceivable that somebody can do both. I mean,
Speaker 1: guards are typically across trained, even in an emergency fashion,
Speaker 1: to play center if they need to during a game.
Speaker 1: Austin has snapped before. It's not like this is a
Speaker 1: new skill set that it's impossible that he could have.
Speaker 1: So he feels pretty good about that. And I've always thought,
Speaker 1: I mean, from the day Brady Christiansen walked into this building,
Speaker 1: it's like that could be a center one of these days. Again,
Speaker 1: same deal. He played to have tackle at BYU and
Speaker 1: was pretty good at it. But he's not prototypical length.
Speaker 1: I mean, he doesn't have big thirty four inch arms
Speaker 1: or anything like that. But I as smart as he is,
Speaker 1: as aware as he is, and as good as he
Speaker 1: is at communicating, I think here's a pretty good chance
Speaker 1: Brady Christensen could be a good center down the line.
Speaker 1: Austin always jokes, I mean that communication element of it
Speaker 1: is key, because he's the guy who's got to talk
Speaker 1: to Bryce, he's got to identify protections, he's got to
Speaker 1: talk to Hunt and Damian Lewis on either side of
Speaker 1: him and make sure everybody's on the same page. And
Speaker 1: Austin's kind of glib about it. He's, yeah, I talk
Speaker 1: too much. I was gonna end up with center anyway.
Speaker 1: But it's because he's good at communicating and Bryce. Bryce
Speaker 1: told an interesting story last week about how last year,
Speaker 1: during their protection meetings, even after Austin was on injured reserve,
Speaker 1: he's like before he came back and after he went
Speaker 1: on injured reserve again, Austin took more detailed notes. He
Speaker 1: offered more feedback than just about anybody in those meetings.
Speaker 1: And Bryce basically said, I trust this guy implicitly because
Speaker 1: he knows everything in such meticulous detail already.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's what you've got to be able to
Speaker 2: do to It's like the middle linebacker of the defense,
Speaker 2: quarterback of the offensive line. Basically, you're in charge of
Speaker 2: getting everybody in place.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so yeah, all right, he can do it.
Speaker 1: And again, we've got months and months of off season
Speaker 1: ahead of us. We'll get into a lot more of
Speaker 1: the what comes next and who these guys are and
Speaker 1: the behind the scenes portion of it. But for now,
Speaker 1: we're gonna we're gonna hit one last thing. I know.
Speaker 1: Yesterday for me, yesterday was a big nap day. I
Speaker 1: do not get the opportunity to take many naps, But
Speaker 1: after getting back from church and thinking about going for
Speaker 1: a run, I got about a block and it's like, nope,
Speaker 1: we're going back to the house and I went couch
Speaker 1: nap during NBA playoffs for about two and a half
Speaker 1: three hours. That was a pretty good.
Speaker 2: Nap that Sunday afternoon after church, Like, while of game's
Speaker 2: on in the background, nap. Nothing beats that.
Speaker 1: Well. I was gonna say, yeah, I was going to
Speaker 1: give you the first pick in the nap draft and
Speaker 1: offer you your opportunity at any any at any nap
Speaker 1: of them all a.
Speaker 2: Sunday afternoon nap, like after after you've gone to church,
Speaker 2: after you've had a big lunch, and then you come home.
Speaker 2: It's really clutch when it's like golf on TV. If
Speaker 2: you don't have golf, NBA is a little too loud,
Speaker 2: I'll take a game. But you know, if golf's not on,
Speaker 2: something like the nineteen ninety nine cult classic The Mummy
Speaker 2: that gets shown a lot on like Sci Fi Channel,
Speaker 2: something like that on in the background, or then you know,
Speaker 2: like one of those like Tuesday afternoon, you've had a
Speaker 2: long day, you come in and you turn on like
Speaker 2: the Braves game. That's a good nap, especially if it's
Speaker 2: raining outside.
Speaker 1: You know, what's a sneaky good nap that I will
Speaker 1: use my second pick in this nap draft on what
Speaker 1: the work nap.
Speaker 2: The work now day from the spot last week I
Speaker 2: found I was going to sell them out where it's at.
Speaker 1: I found a secret nap lounge here inside a Bank
Speaker 1: of America stadium, and Friday afternoon, about from about five
Speaker 1: to about five twenty I stole twenty minutes, which got
Speaker 1: me through the rest of Friday. And Lord only knows
Speaker 1: what would have happened if I didn't get it.
Speaker 2: But the safety of everyone in this building, we needed
Speaker 2: him to take an out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it would It would have gotten ugly in a
Speaker 1: hurry because those were long days.
Speaker 2: Friday was a fever dream.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they all do kind of run together and jamming.
Speaker 1: That mini campaign last week definitely did it.
Speaker 2: So, Yeah, I got a little bit of break before
Speaker 2: the rookie minuting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, secret work nap is my first pick, second overall.
Speaker 1: What's your next best NAP in the NAP Draft?
Speaker 2: Well, I'll use the rainy afternoon with a baseball game on,
Speaker 2: because I'd already alluded to that one.
Speaker 1: That's my second one, all right, My second round pick
Speaker 1: in the NAP draft is one of my favorites. Car nap,
Speaker 1: Like back in the days when my kids were playing
Speaker 1: kids sports and stuff, and you take them to practice.
Speaker 1: If you find that warm afternoon where you can sort
Speaker 1: of crack the windows, get some fresh air in there,
Speaker 1: sit in the passenger seat, kick it back, uh huh.
Speaker 1: Passive solar through the windshield. Yeah, twenty minutes in the
Speaker 1: car while your kids are practicing soccer or softball. That
Speaker 1: that was a pretty good nap, right there.
Speaker 2: A nap in the car is also good, like while
Speaker 2: the car's driving.
Speaker 1: As long as someone else.
Speaker 2: Is driving, someone else is driving. I've only done that once.
Speaker 1: We believe in safety first.
Speaker 2: Here people once while driving. I have one more question
Speaker 2: that's not to do with nuns, but I want to
Speaker 2: pose it to the listening audience. Although you, as a
Speaker 2: native Charlotte Tan, yeah.
Speaker 1: Not Charlotte. Charlotte's whole different category.
Speaker 2: You're Charlottean, You as a native Charlottean, might be able
Speaker 2: to actually answer for me. I've thought about this every
Speaker 2: morning when I drive into work, and I never remember
Speaker 2: to ask, why do we call the section of Charlotte
Speaker 2: that is very clearly downtown. There's even a sign that
Speaker 2: points to it when you turn off my road to
Speaker 2: get on the Interstate that says downtown this way. Why
Speaker 2: do we call that uptown?
Speaker 1: Oh, you have opened a can of worms. This is
Speaker 1: one of my pet peeves.
Speaker 2: That is it's also not even up. I would consider
Speaker 2: up to be like north West.
Speaker 1: It's the answer, my dear is marketing, and that is
Speaker 1: I've got hours and hours worth of material about this.
Speaker 1: This was many many moons ago here in our beloved
Speaker 1: Queen City. The city fathers and mothers believed we've always
Speaker 1: had a little bit of an inferiority complex. There was
Speaker 1: always that fear of being confused with Charleston or Charlottesville,
Speaker 1: back before we had NBA basketball and professional sports in
Speaker 1: this town. So at some point somebody had the genius
Speaker 1: idea that we would call it uptown and that sounded
Speaker 1: cooler and more sophisticated. So our friends at Center City Partners,
Speaker 1: whom we love many moons ago, came up with the idea,
Speaker 1: along with some local politicians, that we were just going
Speaker 1: to lively call it up down and assume everybody would
Speaker 1: go along with it. Kind of. I'm in a little
Speaker 1: bit of an anti establishment type in case you haven't noticed,
Speaker 1: I will still refer to it as downtown casually, and
Speaker 1: usually there's somebody in this city that is ready to
Speaker 1: shout me down. But we will get into.
Speaker 2: More Charlotte jarn and I are going to go talk
Speaker 2: about that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're gonna do that. Dave Canalis still doesn't know
Speaker 1: the difference between Queen's Road, Queens Road West, and Queen's
Speaker 1: Road extension much less when it turns into sel one.
Speaker 2: That's not a knock against them. You know.
Speaker 1: He hasn't figured out the difference between Fairview and rama yet,
Speaker 1: but he will learn all of that stuff, so will Cassidy,
Speaker 1: and we will bring you all the leaders here on
Speaker 1: the Happy half hour.
Speaker 2: Thank you guys.