Speaker 1: This week on a Happy Half Hour.
Speaker 2: We've seen five wins around this place recently and often,
Speaker 2: and this is a completely different feeling because Rice is
Speaker 2: the same guy every day and now that he's continued
Speaker 2: to be the same guy over and over through the
Speaker 2: bad and the good, that creates a confidence in all
Speaker 2: the cats around him. What's the cow?
Speaker 1: It's time for the Happy Half Hour, presented by Southern Star,
Speaker 1: an official bourbon of the Carolina Panthers. Here are your hosts,
Speaker 1: Darren Gant and Cassidy Hill.
Speaker 2: Hello, friends, and welcome to a new Year's edition of
Speaker 2: the Happy Halflower was that that was a New Year's
Speaker 2: Eve horn? A little?
Speaker 3: That sounded like a deranged rooster.
Speaker 2: I don't know. It could be. We'll get into the
Speaker 2: chicken discussion later. Do that all day long.
Speaker 4: We don't have three hours, But right now we've got
Speaker 4: a happy football team to talk about on the Happy
Speaker 4: Half Hour, which presented as always by our friends at
Speaker 4: Southern Star, an official bourbon partner of the Carolina Panthers,
Speaker 4: celebrate the Spirit of the Carolinas.
Speaker 3: Spirit of the Carolinas feels pretty good right now.
Speaker 2: Maybe we should raise a glass to the twenty twenty
Speaker 2: four Carolina Panthers Salute in salute in honor of the
Speaker 2: happiest five and twelve football team I've ever been around
Speaker 2: in my entire life. It is kind of wild. And
Speaker 2: this story is going to appear in the next edition
Speaker 2: of the Ask the Old Guy Mailbag. We got a
Speaker 2: big year in wrap up editions, very special edition coming
Speaker 2: at soon on Panthers dot com. But I was out
Speaker 2: buying socks the other day and this was before. This
Speaker 2: was before Bryce turned into a stone cold killer in it. Okay,
Speaker 2: this is before our quarterback turned into Steph Curry. The
Speaker 2: guy behind the counter at the local independent merchant where
Speaker 2: I like to buy my socks says he recognized me,
Speaker 2: he knew me, and we started talking about the team
Speaker 2: twenty he was like, he was like, I'm really digging
Speaker 2: what's going on here. This is good. And that was it.
Speaker 2: Four and twelve on the heels of a forty eight
Speaker 2: fourteen loss, and people are still pretty happy about this thing.
Speaker 2: And it's because in part of what we saw last
Speaker 2: Sunday in Atlanta, because this team is pointed in a
Speaker 2: direction that's kind of hard to arget.
Speaker 3: So much to pick through what you just said, But
Speaker 3: let me start with the most important. You buy your
Speaker 3: socks from an independent retailer. Do not look at you.
Speaker 3: You're such a great little small business guy.
Speaker 2: I like to sport local independent business. And you know,
Speaker 2: maybe one day they'll sponsor me and get the full
Speaker 2: plug on the Happy Half Hour presented by our friends
Speaker 2: at Southern Star, an official bourbon partner of the Carolina
Speaker 2: Panthers Carolinas.
Speaker 3: I get all of my socks from Santa. They show
Speaker 3: up at my stocking that year and they get me
Speaker 3: through the next year. I don't know where they come from.
Speaker 2: This local independent merchant. I said. You know, when I
Speaker 2: was a kid, I used to get annoyed at getting
Speaker 2: socks for Christmas, And now all I wants good socks
Speaker 2: and nobody's.
Speaker 3: Coming forward to it. That's the only time I get
Speaker 3: socks every year.
Speaker 2: Got to be at any rate to your.
Speaker 3: Point, the happiest five and twelve team, And we saw
Speaker 3: a lot of if you said at the beginning of
Speaker 3: the year, these are the things we need to see
Speaker 3: from this team this year to feel like they are
Speaker 3: moving in the right direction. I feel like they hit
Speaker 3: pretty much all of them, at least on the offensive
Speaker 3: side of the ball. And you saw Bryce take a
Speaker 3: massive step forward. I mean, think about Bryce in week
Speaker 3: two versus Bryce in Week eighteen. Those are two different people.
Speaker 3: Someone made a comment the other day on a podcast.
Speaker 3: I don't think it would ever happen, but it's an
Speaker 3: interesting little discussion. Is comeback player of the year. Should
Speaker 3: it be a guy who was always good and then
Speaker 3: got hurt and then returned to being good or a
Speaker 3: guy that we saw come back in the span of
Speaker 3: one season. And he said, if it's somebody that truly
Speaker 3: came back from from you know, not being good and
Speaker 3: then made himself good, he said, you could almost make
Speaker 3: an argument that Bryce Young should when't comeback player of
Speaker 3: the year. I don't think that ever happens, but it's
Speaker 3: an interesting discussion.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's an interesting point. One of my internet friends,
Speaker 2: klu Haywood out in Arizona, sent me a similar message
Speaker 2: the other day. He said, can you win comeback player
Speaker 2: of the year from coming back from what happened the
Speaker 2: beginning of the season? And I was like, you know, hey,
Speaker 2: who says no? Because it's a different guy. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: mean the guy we saw week one week two compared
Speaker 2: to that guy we saw a Sunday, right I don't
Speaker 2: even know that it's the same person. There's just such
Speaker 2: an incredible difference in the play on the field and
Speaker 2: all the other stuff comes with it. I mean the
Speaker 2: posing they hidden, that pose while the ball still in
Speaker 2: the air, that was that was baller. And I mean
Speaker 2: Tommy said after the game, he looks to me, he said,
Speaker 2: that's what ball do. And there were some other guys
Speaker 2: who had some more colorful ways of saying the fact
Speaker 2: that they believe Bryce is that guy now. And nobody
Speaker 2: was saying that in September, and that was only because
Speaker 2: Bryce had played to a level to open the door
Speaker 2: to all those questions. But what we've seen in these
Speaker 2: last ten weeks, the last ten games his passer rating
Speaker 2: combined is over one hundred. The first twenty games he
Speaker 2: appeared in, which goes up to the Andy Dalton car wreck,
Speaker 2: his passer rating was like seventy one. Just again, are
Speaker 2: we playing the same sport? Did somebody explain the rules
Speaker 2: of football to him in a way that he understood
Speaker 2: somewhere between week six and seven. I don't know, But
Speaker 2: all the credit in the world of Bryce for being
Speaker 2: able to turn that ship around and really change the
Speaker 2: entire conversation about him. Yea, you know, he went from
Speaker 2: a guy being a cautionary tale for first round picks
Speaker 2: to a guy who's like, well, yeah, they took him
Speaker 2: first overall.
Speaker 3: Yeah. You know what I wonder could be part of
Speaker 3: it too, besides what Rod Wave might would have said
Speaker 3: to him, is we talked so much this week, and
Speaker 3: so many guys in the locker room talked this week
Speaker 3: about how consistent Dave Canalis has been all year, and
Speaker 3: JJ Jansen made the comment he said, when you have
Speaker 3: a coach that comes in every day like that, it
Speaker 3: calms us down as players to know he's not reactionary.
Speaker 3: And I know somebody's gonna come back with the argument, well,
Speaker 3: benching Bryce was reactionary. No, it wasn't. It was a
Speaker 3: long process, I would imagine to kind of get to that,
Speaker 3: to get to that decision to bench Bryce. And I
Speaker 3: think when you have a guy that's always looking over
Speaker 3: his shoulder, it can create a lot of ups and downs.
Speaker 3: But when your coach is letting you know, day in
Speaker 3: and day out, we're gonna keep doing the same thing.
Speaker 3: Even if you are benched, you're gonna keep doing the
Speaker 3: same thing every day, it levels you out. Like JJ said,
Speaker 3: it kind of calms you down. It levels your breathing.
Speaker 3: It's like, Okay, no matter what, I'm gonna go out
Speaker 3: here and i'm gonna do this drill. I'm gonna do
Speaker 3: this drill. I'm gonna do this drill. If I go
Speaker 3: into a game and I have a bad drive, I'm
Speaker 3: still gonna go out there there. You know, there's and
Speaker 3: he's done that with other players too. You know, Cuba
Speaker 3: has a fumble, Juba gets the ball again on the
Speaker 3: next drive. Things like that. Like that, it's been Okay,
Speaker 3: we're gonna do the same thing again, and we're not
Speaker 3: going to get emotional in a bad way just because
Speaker 3: something happened. And that can calm you down to go, Okay,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go out there the next drive and we're
Speaker 3: gonna do it again.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And I think it helps too that that's just
Speaker 2: kind of Bryce's asthetic anyway. Right, He's mister be the
Speaker 2: same guy. Every day, He shows up early, he does
Speaker 2: all the things. He does it with that kind of
Speaker 2: blank expression on his face sometimes where he doesn't give
Speaker 2: away what he may be thinking because he's so deep
Speaker 2: in thought about what he's trying to do. But you know,
Speaker 2: that's just kind of his deal. Anyway. We've seen a
Speaker 2: little more of that outward personality type stuff, but that
Speaker 2: stuff's always been there. You know, We've got clips from
Speaker 2: last year that never saw the light of day of
Speaker 2: postgame win celebrations. There wasn't but two of them, so
Speaker 2: it ain't hard to find. But we've got clips where
Speaker 2: you see those glimpses of Bryce even then, where you
Speaker 2: can tell he's asserting himself and being that guy. There's
Speaker 2: a lot harder last year when you're two and fifteen
Speaker 2: and again five and twelve, not great, Bob, But we've
Speaker 2: seen five. We've seen five wins around this place recently
Speaker 2: and often, and this is a completely different feeling because
Speaker 2: Bryce is the same guy every day and now that
Speaker 2: he's continued to be the same guy over and over
Speaker 2: through the bad and the good, that creates a confidence
Speaker 2: in all the cats around him. I mean, this is
Speaker 2: still you know, we're going to talk a lot about
Speaker 2: off season plans and need some priorities. This just in
Speaker 2: most of the work's going to be done on defense.
Speaker 2: You don't break an NFL record for points allowed in
Speaker 2: the season, you don't finish second all time in total
Speaker 2: yards allowed. Thanks Saints for being you know, ahead of
Speaker 2: them on that chart. You're not third all time in
Speaker 2: rushing yards allowed without making big changes on that side
Speaker 2: of the ball in terms of personnel. And they're gonna
Speaker 2: there's still work to be done on offense. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's it's worth remembering. Bryce put up bl blah blah
Speaker 2: forty four points in a game in which he didn't
Speaker 2: have Chewba Hubbard. He didn't have that one a receiver
Speaker 2: they traded for him to be his lead dog all
Speaker 2: off season. He did it in the second half without
Speaker 2: the first round pick that they took for him to
Speaker 2: be a more productive quarterback. He's out there doing it
Speaker 2: with Tommy Trimble and David Moore and Adam Thielen and
Speaker 2: Jalen Cocher and Dan Chasenna. That's not normal, gang. What
Speaker 2: Bryce has.
Speaker 3: Does it remind you at all? And this I'm reaching
Speaker 3: it this point, but whatever, let's play this game. Does
Speaker 3: it remind you of all of what Cam did with
Speaker 3: his cast of characters.
Speaker 2: A little bit? He had that ability to elevate and
Speaker 2: you know, Bryce did run for two touchdowns the other day.
Speaker 2: Nobody's comparing him to Cam Newton don't do that to us.
Speaker 2: But Bryce does have the ability to get out, move around,
Speaker 2: make some plays with his feet. I don't think that's
Speaker 2: ever going to be a feature of his game the
Speaker 2: way it was with Cam, but he's got that mobility
Speaker 2: that makes things happen. But they both do have that
Speaker 2: ability to elevate the cast around them. Yeah, and again,
Speaker 2: nothing against any of those guys. They're out there busting
Speaker 2: their tails. They're taking advantage of their opportunities, doing the
Speaker 2: things coaches tell you to do. They just weren't highly
Speaker 2: drafted all of them. So I think that's probably a
Speaker 2: good sign because there will come a point when they'll
Speaker 2: put more talent around Bryce. There will come a point
Speaker 2: when Chuba Hubbard's back there behind him again. You know, again,
Speaker 2: you're doing it without Chewba, You're doing it without your
Speaker 2: star arding center from the beginning of the season. You're
Speaker 2: doing it without Rob Hunt right, probably your your best
Speaker 2: offensive lineman who is the second alternate to the Pro Bowl.
Speaker 2: And you're doing it without all those targets that we
Speaker 2: talked about. So, you know, credit to Bryce for doing that.
Speaker 2: But it was it was a heck of a game
Speaker 2: that was I have always said over the course of
Speaker 2: this season. Somebody asked me during an interview the other
Speaker 2: day about when was the moment you knew he had
Speaker 2: turned it around, and that Cardinals game when Kaiser White
Speaker 2: drills him in the chest while he's delivering that ball
Speaker 2: downfield to Tommy Tremble. That was always kind of that
Speaker 2: past that. It was like, okay, yep, there that one
Speaker 2: right there, that's when we knew. That passed to Tommy
Speaker 2: Tremble in the back of the end zone where he
Speaker 2: just so casually turns said, you.
Speaker 3: Flick at the wrist, nailed it.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's like me sometimes when I tell a
Speaker 2: funny joke, my wife laughs at me because she was like,
Speaker 2: you're looking for more of an audience. You want more
Speaker 2: people to laugh, And so I just walk around the
Speaker 2: house Hans raised. You've been a great audience. Thank you
Speaker 2: so much.
Speaker 3: You know what was another one that was just like
Speaker 3: wow and in the moment, okay, let me back up
Speaker 3: the throw to Miles for the touchdown. First of all,
Speaker 3: huge credit to Miles for getting free on mat out
Speaker 3: of two defenders and getting free so that you know,
Speaker 3: Bryce was able to kind of hit him. He didn't
Speaker 3: it wasn't in front of him, but it didn't need
Speaker 3: to be because Miles had so much room. So it
Speaker 3: was a perfect marriage between the two of them. Where
Speaker 3: the press box sits in Atlanta, we were kind of
Speaker 3: at an angle. I was watching Miles live and I
Speaker 3: saw him get free, and it's like, oh, if Bryce
Speaker 3: gets it there, he's got him.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I was watching Miles, went back and watched the
Speaker 3: tape and the clip of all of our great videographers
Speaker 3: at different parts of the field. That was a hard
Speaker 3: throw that he made look so incredibly easy. He just
Speaker 3: floated it. He floated a thirty three yard rainbow right
Speaker 3: into a bucket, and that was just a really, really
Speaker 3: impressive throw from that part of the field. So yeah,
Speaker 3: the whole game.
Speaker 2: That throw is very similar to the one very first
Speaker 2: play of the game in Tampa the other week where
Speaker 2: he threw it to Adam Thield. We're in that press box.
Speaker 2: It was coming straight to us and it was like, oh, wow,
Speaker 2: he just put that in a bucket, didn't Yeah that,
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, he's had a number of those
Speaker 2: those big time throws. That's and that's huge for this team.
Speaker 3: He leads pff are, He's second in PFF's Big Time
Speaker 3: Throws behind Joe Burrow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, those tight window throws that big time quarterbacks make,
Speaker 2: he's making and that just allows That was the other
Speaker 2: theme on clean out Day the other day. There were
Speaker 2: so many guys saying different versions of it. But you
Speaker 2: can build now. I think the very biggest thing that's
Speaker 2: happening for the Carolina Panthers this offseason is they're going
Speaker 2: to go head coach, gm quarterback the same three guys
Speaker 2: in those three jobs two years in a row for
Speaker 2: the first time since two thousand.
Speaker 3: That's crazy.
Speaker 2: It just doesn't even make any sense. And to not
Speaker 2: even have to go through everything that's behind us. Everybody
Speaker 2: who's listening to this podcast is well aware of the
Speaker 2: last couple of years of Panthers history. But to think
Speaker 2: you're going back to Cam Newton, Ron Rivera, Marty Hernie
Speaker 2: the last time they were able to build something year
Speaker 2: after year, and that's the key you can build. I mean,
Speaker 2: Dave said it the other day. We've now got all
Speaker 2: this stuff that we know Bryce is good at. We
Speaker 2: start there rather than going into a year where you're
Speaker 2: trying to figure out what Bryce is good at and
Speaker 2: work to that point we now start at the two
Speaker 2: hundred level and you can add to it from there.
Speaker 2: So it's going to be interesting to see what he
Speaker 2: looks like next season because everything he showed us over
Speaker 2: the last ten games is an evidence of, well, yeah,
Speaker 2: they drafted him first overall.
Speaker 3: The GM, head coach, quarterback thing. Back to that for
Speaker 3: just a minute again, Our friend of the program, J. J.
Speaker 3: Jenson made a great point on Monday, the People's Lungs,
Speaker 3: the People's lungsnapper that not only has it been a
Speaker 3: while since that's happened here, he said, you know, guys,
Speaker 3: that's rare in the NFL to have all three of
Speaker 3: those positions on the all together and on the same timeline.
Speaker 3: The timeline part of it is really kind of I mean,
Speaker 3: Chicago Bears can't get those three on the same page
Speaker 3: to save their lives. And it's rare to have a GM,
Speaker 3: a head coach, and a quarterback who, for all intentsive purposes,
Speaker 3: this was a Mulligan rookie year and to have them
Speaker 3: on the same timeline. So you're not it's not a
Speaker 3: GM that's looking at one part of the roster and
Speaker 3: a head coach that's been there for you know, six
Speaker 3: or seven years, So it's like I've got to win
Speaker 3: this year to keep my job, and then a rookie quarterback.
Speaker 3: You've got all three in the same timeline, moving the
Speaker 3: same direction and with the same vision. And as JJ said,
Speaker 3: he said, you've got to take advantage of this window.
Speaker 3: That's not to say it's a small window. Some people say, well,
Speaker 3: this is our championship window and it's one year or two.
Speaker 3: It can be a larger window, but it is a
Speaker 3: window when you've got three of the most important positions
Speaker 3: in the building on the same page, the same timeline,
Speaker 3: moving in the same direction, and so it makes it exciting.
Speaker 2: No doubt. There's also, I mean there's also the small
Speaker 2: matter of with all the work that was done offensively
Speaker 2: last year bringing in Robin Damien to playguard, you know,
Speaker 2: there is a question about who's going to play center
Speaker 2: next year. Austin Corbett, Brady Christians and kve May's all
Speaker 2: some degree of free agents. So they've got to find
Speaker 2: somebody to put in that spot. But you feel like,
Speaker 2: because Ikya Kwani say, it couldn't be one of them, right,
Speaker 2: I mean, they any of the group of them could
Speaker 2: resign and be that guy. But you know you've got
Speaker 2: Ikiakwanu on one side, Robin Damien at card Taylor Moten
Speaker 2: looks like. I mean, I've got all the respect in
Speaker 2: the world for Taylor Moton because I see what he
Speaker 2: looks like on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and then I see
Speaker 2: what he looks like on Sunday. That quick on Thursday,
Speaker 2: that guy looks like he's my age. On Sunday, he
Speaker 2: looks like one of the best right tackles in the NFL,
Speaker 2: because that's what he is. I mean, Taylor played at
Speaker 2: an exceedingly high level. I think I saw I was
Speaker 2: looking at some PFF stuff the other day, and I
Speaker 2: believe he might have been the highest graded Panthers player
Speaker 2: on offense over the course of the season. He just
Speaker 2: he's so consistent and so steady. And again, you're kind
Speaker 2: of coming in new to this. You've covered the Carolina
Speaker 2: Panthers for about three hundred and seventy five days now.
Speaker 2: Having that kind of stability on the offensive line with
Speaker 2: the quarterback, that was one of the shames of the
Speaker 2: Cam career. Cam had some elite talent in the middle
Speaker 2: around him in Ryan Khalil, Trey Turner, some different guys
Speaker 2: Andrew Norwell, but he never had the tackle talent that
Speaker 2: is on this team right now. And so it was
Speaker 2: always a question about who's it going to be, Is
Speaker 2: at Byron Bell, Is at Matt Khalil who you know.
Speaker 2: We could go down the list and it ain't a
Speaker 2: great list. But their stability around Bryce in the middle.
Speaker 2: He knows Tuba Hubbard's gonna be here for the next
Speaker 2: four years. He knows Robin Damien are here for the
Speaker 2: long term. Dan Morgan says the other day, Icky's a
Speaker 2: guy you want to build around. You know, he's a
Speaker 2: guy we want to keep around here long term. And
Speaker 2: I take Dan at his word, but that's I mean,
Speaker 2: they're starting at a different place offensively than any of
Speaker 2: us could have imagined in Week one, and especially after
Speaker 2: Week one, right, just the idea of what we thought
Speaker 2: this offense might be, and then what it looked like
Speaker 2: in New Orleans against the Saints. To be hanging forty
Speaker 2: four on anybody, to be three and one in overtime
Speaker 2: to that's.
Speaker 3: An impressive statute.
Speaker 2: You know. I mean, these guys have done some work
Speaker 2: on that side of the ball. Now it's time to
Speaker 2: do some work on the other side.
Speaker 3: And it cracks me up when I like scroll through
Speaker 3: social media and I do the wrong thing and I
Speaker 3: read the comments and you see the.
Speaker 2: Comments. Never ever read the comments.
Speaker 3: It's like a it's just it's a compulsion and you
Speaker 3: open them up and people are like, all Bryce needs
Speaker 3: now is a good offensive line. It's like, my brother,
Speaker 3: we're in week eighteen. Have you not watched a game yet? Yeah,
Speaker 3: trust me, that ain't the problem.
Speaker 2: Nope, that is.
Speaker 3: And not to say there's problems, but you know what
Speaker 3: I mean, Like, that's that's a positive. Ye, it's his
Speaker 3: offensive line. And can they do that on defense this year?
Speaker 3: They've got options.
Speaker 2: That's that's the goal. And Dan flat out said it
Speaker 2: when they said they were retaining Gero Everro as defensive coordinator.
Speaker 2: He said, my job is to get him better players.
Speaker 2: My job is to put better people around him. Here's
Speaker 2: the good news. You know what Carolina Panthers need in
Speaker 2: this season. They needed him a big goal, three hundred
Speaker 2: and forty pound defensive end who gets about one hundred
Speaker 2: tackles a year and goes to Pro Bowls. So another
Speaker 2: Oh so Derek Brown? Oh yeah, yeah, they get a
Speaker 2: Derek Brown back next year wouldn't be.
Speaker 3: Nice to have a Derek Brown just walk into the building.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they do. So getting Derek back on the field
Speaker 2: like having another top ten pick. It really is. Because
Speaker 2: he talked the other day, you know, in the locker
Speaker 2: room as everybody was cleaning out, and says, you know,
Speaker 2: he's feeling pretty good about being back on the field,
Speaker 2: back on you know, running on grass and OTAs and
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff, and getting him back out. I mean, again,
Speaker 2: the run defense was not great this year, and it
Speaker 2: was not great in large part because Derek went out
Speaker 2: in Week one, didn't come back. Shaq Thompson, your signal
Speaker 2: caller went out Week four and didn't come back, and
Speaker 2: that just kind of created that spin cycle of trying
Speaker 2: to patch things on the fly, and it was not good.
Speaker 2: So Dan's gonna spend his off season scouting looking at
Speaker 2: defensive guys, looking at guys like he knows what looks like.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: I was about to say, if you want somebody picking
Speaker 3: out some dogs on defense, you would want Dan Morgan
Speaker 3: to be the one doing it.
Speaker 2: There was a moment this this season when I was
Speaker 2: talking to Dan. My computer was sitting there in front
Speaker 2: of me, and there was a picture on my screen
Speaker 2: of Dan and Chris Jenkins and Brinson Buckner and Julius
Speaker 2: Peppers and Mark Fields, and I said, hey, you know,
Speaker 2: you know, Dan, you go get you four or five
Speaker 2: of them this offseason. Everything's gonna be okay. And that's
Speaker 2: his job right now to go find dudes to shore
Speaker 2: up that side of the ball. And you know again,
Speaker 2: Dan has built up a little trust in that area.
Speaker 3: So where did Chris Jenkins sun land last year?
Speaker 2: I do not know where Chris Jenkins Junior ended up.
Speaker 2: He was the second round big or so. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean that's the thing. They if you could find
Speaker 2: you another Chris Jenkins to park, I have.
Speaker 3: To say you they got to go get Christian Kinson.
Speaker 3: But it just made me think of it.
Speaker 2: But to go up there and park a big body
Speaker 2: next to Ashan who had really quietly one of the
Speaker 2: best seasons of anybody around here this year. I think
Speaker 2: he was seven and a half sacks unless they took
Speaker 2: that one away. Played a bunch of snaps. All those
Speaker 2: dudes played a bunch of snaps. Xavier Woods played over
Speaker 2: twelve hundred snaps of defense.
Speaker 3: One of only two defensive players to play one hundred
Speaker 3: percent of his team.
Speaker 2: Snaps, which you read about on Panther Stocks.
Speaker 3: That's exactly where I read about it.
Speaker 2: There you go.
Speaker 3: So ASHN Robinson I think played more third down snaps
Speaker 3: this year than he has in his entire career.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's uh, he had heck of a season and
Speaker 2: again it's it's gonna be lost to the sands of time.
Speaker 2: But you know, there are some things I think you
Speaker 2: can build from on that defensive side of the ball.
Speaker 2: JC Horn going too the Pro Bowl. We heard about
Speaker 2: that last week and he totally deserves that. He's that
Speaker 2: kind of player when he's available, and he was available
Speaker 2: this year played he was again, he was probably top
Speaker 2: twenty five in the league and defensive snaps played despite
Speaker 2: missing two games at the end of the year. So
Speaker 2: it's there's some stuff to work with, but there's more
Speaker 2: work to be done. But you know what, it's off season.
Speaker 2: It is we got we got a chance to bring
Speaker 2: There's still a little work. We're still tying up some
Speaker 2: of the loose ends, getting the last of the wrap
Speaker 2: up stuff done in the next couple of days here
Speaker 2: at Panthers dot Com. But there's gonna come a point,
Speaker 2: maybe this weekend when the blizzard rolls in when we
Speaker 2: get a chance to just stop and breathe for a second.
Speaker 2: Here's my question to you, faced with your first good
Speaker 2: Charlotte blizzard. Would you rather or would you prefer to
Speaker 2: be watching playoff football or be watching non football?
Speaker 3: That's a very interesting question. I actually won't be here
Speaker 3: this weekend. I have a wedding. Maybe you do, that's true.
Speaker 3: I did actually get a text message about two minutes
Speaker 3: ago that said inclement weather could affect my upcoming flight,
Speaker 3: So we'll see. I may be here. I actually prefer
Speaker 3: this time of year to still go with the playoff
Speaker 3: football during a blizzard. That's that's kind of you know.
Speaker 3: You get enough stuff to make, like a chili and
Speaker 3: some cookies or something, and settle in very quickly. I
Speaker 3: will turn to my off season viewing schedule when there's
Speaker 3: no more football and there's no more holidays, so there's
Speaker 3: no like Hallmark Christmas movies or anything like that. I
Speaker 3: turned to what I call like them, like the I
Speaker 3: don't know the best way to say this, that we're
Speaker 3: not gonna get in trouble, like a shoot them up
Speaker 3: show or movie, like you know, I want something like
Speaker 3: I want some sort of like spy thriller. I want
Speaker 3: to watch some like a building blow up, Like I
Speaker 3: want to like watch people run through the streets of Washington, DC,
Speaker 3: like way too fast and you know, not calls destruction
Speaker 3: while they're going like you would think they would in
Speaker 3: normal life. Yeah, I like to watch something like that. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it just turns my mind off. And I'll do about
Speaker 3: two months of that and then I'll flip and start
Speaker 3: getting ready for the draft.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I gotta do it my uh and and again
Speaker 2: that could be coming this weekend with the winter blast
Speaker 2: twenty five. I should have been a local news weather guy,
Speaker 2: but Brad Pavich is so good at the job already.
Speaker 2: Well look at the weather, but it ain't great. But
Speaker 2: it's a perfect weekend to stay inside watch a little
Speaker 2: playoff football if that's your deal. I got a feeling
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do my postseason tradition, which is to sit
Speaker 2: on my couch and watch The Big Lebowski. That's always
Speaker 2: That's always that moment when I sit on my couch,
Speaker 2: dead eyed and just watch The Big Lebowski for the
Speaker 2: for two hours, maybe with or without a white Russian
Speaker 2: one never knows. But when that happens. It's like, Okay,
Speaker 2: Darren's in off season mode now, yeah, and I just
Speaker 2: you need a little bit of that. We all need
Speaker 2: a chance to recharge because again, for the first time,
Speaker 2: not that anybody cares about us, but for the first
Speaker 2: time in five years around here, we're not going into
Speaker 2: an off season where January is chewed up with coaching search,
Speaker 2: GM search. What are you going to do at quarterback?
Speaker 2: And that's going to allow us to come back fresher.
Speaker 2: It's gonna allow it them players to come back fresher
Speaker 2: and and every law. Yeah, yep, everything's everything's coming up
Speaker 2: us at the moment. So we got that going. We
Speaker 2: got a couple of Panthers Legends is finalists in Hall
Speaker 2: of Fame voting, which is coming up soon. So there's
Speaker 2: good news all around. Potentially things are things are trending
Speaker 2: in a positive direction at the moment. And isn't that
Speaker 2: really all you want?
Speaker 3: That's all you can a year, So it's all you
Speaker 3: can with that.
Speaker 2: Will we wish you all a merry blizzard. Don't forget
Speaker 2: go to the store, get your bread, get your milk,
Speaker 2: get your eggs, get your white Russians or egg nog
Speaker 2: or whatever you please to get you through this long weekend.
Speaker 2: Enjoy it. Enjoy the first weekend of playoffs. We will
Speaker 2: see you on the other side, on the happy half
Speaker 2: hour