Speaker 1: This week on The Happy Half Hour. Part of the
Speaker 1: reason you make this move is okay, you didn't hire
Speaker 1: Frank Reich and Jim Calwill and Josh McCown and Thomas
Speaker 1: Brown and Seawan Jefferson and Dow Staley. You run a
Speaker 1: pedestrian offense. Your goal was to modernize and catch up
Speaker 1: to the NFL in terms of offense. Tutto, It's time
Speaker 1: for the Happy Half Hour with your friends. Kristin Balboni,
Speaker 1: Augusta Stone, and Darren Gannon. Welcome to a special emergency edition.
Speaker 1: I guess emergency makes it sound bad, but this is
Speaker 1: a great time to be having a special edition of
Speaker 1: the Happy Half Hour podcast with your friends Kristen and Darren.
Speaker 1: Augusta is out on special assignment at Pro Days. Even
Speaker 1: though augusta fan favorite, can't be here, we decided to
Speaker 1: get in the podcast booth to discuss some of the
Speaker 1: news that has been happening in the Panthers world. Darren
Speaker 1: what news news? Someone should Yeah, Darren got some things
Speaker 1: to update you on. So as every NFL fan, certainly
Speaker 1: every Panthers fan knows. Friday afternoon, the Panthers, let's say,
Speaker 1: according to reports and probably the safest way to say it,
Speaker 1: according to many, many, many reports, which will become official
Speaker 1: in about twenty six hours at four o'clock on Wednesday. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the Panthers entered into a huge blockbuster trade with the Bears,
Speaker 1: which resulted in them trading up to the number one
Speaker 1: overall pick in the draft. And just to explain for
Speaker 1: everyone who has questions or maybe you say, okay, why
Speaker 1: does some of this news look different on Panthers dot
Speaker 1: com or why are you guys saying according to reports?
Speaker 1: As Darren just said, the official new league year starts
Speaker 1: Wednesday at four pm. It is right now Tuesday afternoon,
Speaker 1: so at least in this building, right as Panthers employees,
Speaker 1: we will be saying according to reports until the new
Speaker 1: league gear starts, which is when these deals are allowed
Speaker 1: to go through and be official. Yeah, I think we've
Speaker 1: now said it enough times to give ourselves blanket immunity.
Speaker 1: We're okay. From this point we can just speak about
Speaker 1: it as if it is one blanket according to reports
Speaker 1: for the entire podcast. I like it. Yeah, that covers
Speaker 1: us from that. So yeah, big move and number one
Speaker 1: pick in the draft hadn't had that in a while
Speaker 1: since oh twenty eleven can seem to remember that that
Speaker 1: was a thing back then, and this one took a
Speaker 1: little I mean, they earned that number one pick in
Speaker 1: the organic way, which wasn't necessarily fun for anybody in
Speaker 1: two thousands one way to say they earned it in
Speaker 1: the organic way. Oh, this one was a little bit
Speaker 1: harder to come by, and the price was steep. I mean,
Speaker 1: to go the ninth pick in the draft, the sixty
Speaker 1: first pick in this year's draft, which was one of
Speaker 1: the twos you got from the Christian McCaffrey trade from
Speaker 1: San Francisco, and then next year's one and a twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five second rounder plus Dj Moore. And that's the
Speaker 1: part that I think Scott everybody feeling some sort of
Speaker 1: way about it, and I think it would probably be
Speaker 1: celebrated even more. I mean, it's an incredible thing to
Speaker 1: be in position to take whatever quarterback you want. But
Speaker 1: because Dj was included in it, I think that's giving
Speaker 1: some people pause. But you know, honestly, when you look
Speaker 1: at what the market rate was to go from nine
Speaker 1: to one, and it's not just trading up for the
Speaker 1: first pick. You had to convince the Bears, you know,
Speaker 1: who ostensibly had opportunities to go to four to seven,
Speaker 1: to different places in the draft. You had to convince
Speaker 1: them to make it worth taking your deal as opposed
Speaker 1: to someone else's. And that's why DJ became a thing.
Speaker 1: I mean, effectively, the Bears aren't interested in doing this
Speaker 1: if the Panthers don't throw DJ more into the mix,
Speaker 1: because they've got a young quarterback of their own in
Speaker 1: justin fields and they want to see if he's good
Speaker 1: at football, and so the best way to do that
Speaker 1: is given up oportunity with someone we know is a
Speaker 1: top shelf wide receiver as DJ is m and again
Speaker 1: not to throw in another according to reports, when you
Speaker 1: said that we had the one blanket statement, but it
Speaker 1: does seem like, uh, you kind of just alluded to
Speaker 1: it that for the Bears, DJ Moore was almost a
Speaker 1: non negotiable that was certainly not initially part of something
Speaker 1: the Panthers wanted to do, nor did anyone certainly in
Speaker 1: this building want to see him leave. He is such
Speaker 1: a part of the fabric of this team and has
Speaker 1: been since twenty eighteen. But that was part of it.
Speaker 1: And it's a it's a steep price to pay to
Speaker 1: go up to number one overall, and it's the cost
Speaker 1: of doing business. I mean, we've talked about it around
Speaker 1: here for the last couple of years. And it's interesting
Speaker 1: that in bringing in Frank Wright to be a head coach,
Speaker 1: part of the reason he was available and part of
Speaker 1: the reason he's here and not in his previous place
Speaker 1: is a couple of teams who couldn't get off that
Speaker 1: wheel of veterans and just constantly churning and looking for
Speaker 1: that next guy in line. And you could tell both
Speaker 1: the Colts and the Carolina Panthers the last four or
Speaker 1: five years have been desperately searching for an answer. And
Speaker 1: everybody kind of knew the best way to get off
Speaker 1: that we always to draft one. And when you end
Speaker 1: up picking ninth in the draft, then you look around
Speaker 1: and start doing the math and start looking at the
Speaker 1: map ahead of you, and it's like, oh, no, Houston,
Speaker 1: they're gonna want one. The Colts at four they're gonna
Speaker 1: want one, The Raiders at seven they'll probably want one.
Speaker 1: The Falcons, God only knows what they're doing at eight.
Speaker 1: And there was an uncertainty, so you knew that sitting
Speaker 1: at nine, you were either going to take the third
Speaker 1: or fourth quarterback on the board, whoever that may turn
Speaker 1: out to be, or not get one at all. And
Speaker 1: that wasn't a place anybody had to be. So you
Speaker 1: swallow hard, you make the move. And is that why
Speaker 1: you mentioned the Texans because we had heard some things, Well,
Speaker 1: they might look to trade up to three, they might
Speaker 1: look to get up a couple of places, but you
Speaker 1: think it just had to be number one. Well, I
Speaker 1: mean that gives you the control over the process more
Speaker 1: than anything else. And there have been some allusions to, oh,
Speaker 1: maybe they would trade back. And I think if you
Speaker 1: go through this process and if you find out that
Speaker 1: Houston it has their heart set on X, then maybe
Speaker 1: you bluff the Texans out of something. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, we'll see. And I think one of the
Speaker 1: things that's interesting to me as a reporter, standing back
Speaker 1: and knowing certain things and watching the ecosystem play itself out,
Speaker 1: you hear reports in every single direction. I've read stuff
Speaker 1: already today that all the Panthers secretly love filling the
Speaker 1: blank or this, and we've pretty much covered the top
Speaker 1: four over the last couple of months. We've now seen
Speaker 1: reports that I have seen reports for all four of
Speaker 1: the right that who you would say were the top
Speaker 1: four quarterbacks? Absolutely, yeah, you've seen. Oh the Panthers love
Speaker 1: Bryce Young, Oh they love c. J. Straut. Oh they
Speaker 1: love Anthony Richardson. Really. Oh no, actually it's will love us.
Speaker 1: And right now they're still The one thing, as I
Speaker 1: take my momentary journalism soapbox dietribe, the one thing that
Speaker 1: too many people are afraid to say out loud is
Speaker 1: I don't know what they're doing yet. And there's a
Speaker 1: reason that that's probably the best answer right now, because
Speaker 1: I don't think they know what they want to do
Speaker 1: right now. And that's why you know they're gonna go
Speaker 1: out over the next couple of weeks and see all
Speaker 1: these guys. They're gonna sit with them, They're gonna eat
Speaker 1: dinner with them. They will probably come here for visits.
Speaker 1: They get teams get to bring in thirty guys for
Speaker 1: individual visits before the draft. I would anticipate all four
Speaker 1: of those guys probably show up here for a meal
Speaker 1: at some point. And so I think the next couple
Speaker 1: of weeks are going to be big, because when they
Speaker 1: get out on that pro day circuit, those things clomp up.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be Ohio State on Wednesday, Alabama Thursday, Kentucky
Speaker 1: on Friday, and then Florida the following Thursday, and your
Speaker 1: hardworking Panthers dot Com staff will be there at all
Speaker 1: of those sites to bring you the latest Thursday tuned.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think they're absolutely still investigating and still
Speaker 1: trying to figure out who they like and what they
Speaker 1: want to do. And it's a great point. It's it's
Speaker 1: hard to put that nuance into a tweet, let's say,
Speaker 1: and I don't think that anyone on the face of it,
Speaker 1: if you're a Panthers fan, without any context, you don't
Speaker 1: want to hear Darren Gan say I don't think they
Speaker 1: know what they're going to do yet. But it's a
Speaker 1: great point. We have almost a month left to the draft,
Speaker 1: So why would you not take every available opportunity when
Speaker 1: you were in the driver's seat to make sure that
Speaker 1: when you make that number one overall pick, you are
Speaker 1: absolutely certain you use all of this time, you use
Speaker 1: every resource available to make sure that you feel one
Speaker 1: hundred percent confident in that person. Right, and even if
Speaker 1: you might know set we don't know, we don't know,
Speaker 1: but you might, you know, feel seventy five percent convicted
Speaker 1: eighty five percent, ninety five percent convicted about a certain person.
Speaker 1: Why do you have to know one hundred percent right
Speaker 1: this second and you've got a month and you are
Speaker 1: in the driver's seat. Yeah, And I think if you
Speaker 1: look at it from a different perspective, Christen, this is
Speaker 1: kind of an extension of the entire offseason. I mean,
Speaker 1: what was the criticism of the process that led to
Speaker 1: the previous head coach being here? It went too fast.
Speaker 1: They fell for one guy in a hurry. When they
Speaker 1: were looking for a guy to fill that role. They
Speaker 1: interviewed nine guys as head coaching candidates. They picked one,
Speaker 1: and then they were interviewing three, four or five, six,
Speaker 1: seven guys for each of the jobs underneath him. I mean,
Speaker 1: this was an exhaustive search. So I think what you
Speaker 1: could say is they have learned the benefit of being thorough.
Speaker 1: They have learned how to, you know, go through a
Speaker 1: process in a more mature way to really investigate, to
Speaker 1: really analyze this thing deeply, to make sure you're making
Speaker 1: the right decision. And you know, I know people would
Speaker 1: love to know who's going to be the first pick
Speaker 1: in the draft on March fourteenth. We don't know to
Speaker 1: pick it on March fourteen. We got six and a
Speaker 1: half weeks or so before we get to that point,
Speaker 1: So I think it's probably the smart play to exhaust
Speaker 1: all your time, to exhaust all your resources, to go
Speaker 1: through the process and make sure you know, because you
Speaker 1: can't get this one wrong. You've got to be absolutely
Speaker 1: You're going to hear the word conviction a lot over
Speaker 1: the next six weeks, and you've got to make sure
Speaker 1: you have that conviction about whoever it is, because it's
Speaker 1: such a huge investments. And it's a great point too,
Speaker 1: about the thoroughness in which David Tepper has been conducting
Speaker 1: hiring of anyone. I'd say since Scott Fitterer. On Darren,
Speaker 1: I remember you and I sat with him when he
Speaker 1: talked us through the process of hiring Scott Fitterer, and
Speaker 1: you just talked about the process of hiring Frank Reich
Speaker 1: and his staff. And we've heard the jokes, you and
Speaker 1: I have heard them of just how thorough those processes
Speaker 1: have been. As you said, they made a joke. Dan
Speaker 1: Morgan was probably ready to fall over at a certain
Speaker 1: point when they were going through the head coaching search
Speaker 1: because they conducted so many interviews. It is such a
Speaker 1: thorough process. And Scott was what one of fourteen to
Speaker 1: interview for the GM job. Yeah, and that's what Dave
Speaker 1: told us that at that time. I remember him telling
Speaker 1: you and I, Darren, we're going to go through all
Speaker 1: of the processes that we need to go through, and
Speaker 1: it's not going to be for lack of getting to
Speaker 1: know people and for lack of vetting and making sure
Speaker 1: that we know things. And yeah, so it does make sense.
Speaker 1: It is in keeping with the ethos that he has
Speaker 1: established with his more recent hires that we're going to
Speaker 1: take all the time available yea, and they'll probably take
Speaker 1: the full ten minutes on the clock on the first
Speaker 1: night of the draft too. We're gonna take all the
Speaker 1: time available to us to make sure that when that
Speaker 1: pick comes there are no questions. And that's what you've
Speaker 1: got to do. Because again, and Scott even laughed and
Speaker 1: kind of admitted it when he was talking about this
Speaker 1: at the combine before they made the move, because there
Speaker 1: was so much conversation even then about what it would
Speaker 1: take to be in position. And every time he's asked
Speaker 1: about it, he says some version of you better be right,
Speaker 1: because I mean, let's be honest, gms don't get many
Speaker 1: chances to pick first overall. If you're ever in position
Speaker 1: to do that more than one time, usually some things
Speaker 1: have gone poorly. So yeah, I mean they just they
Speaker 1: know the stakes of this thing. Yes, that was I
Speaker 1: completely agree with you listening to Scott Fitterer talk at
Speaker 1: the combine. As you said, they know the stakes. This
Speaker 1: is a very bold move. And as he said, and
Speaker 1: as Darren said, you'll hear a lot over the next month,
Speaker 1: you have to have conviction about it. And so they
Speaker 1: know that this is a big thing and you gotta
Speaker 1: get it right. So with that being said, what are
Speaker 1: they looking for? What do they need to have in
Speaker 1: this quarterback? We've heard them talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: the traits. What are you looking for with this person
Speaker 1: who is going to be picked first overall? I mean,
Speaker 1: he's got to be a leader first and foremost. I mean,
Speaker 1: this guy's becoming the face of your friend Chase. Whether
Speaker 1: you want to put that kind of pressure on him
Speaker 1: or not, it's undeniable. That will happen. That's the thing
Speaker 1: that comes with it. I mean, it happened to Cam Newton,
Speaker 1: and it will happen to whether it's Bryce Young or C. J.
Speaker 1: Strout or whoever it happens to be, that'll be the thing.
Speaker 1: Fair unfair. He's going to walk into that situation. Now again,
Speaker 1: does is it fair to a rookie to have that
Speaker 1: put on him? Not necessarily, but that's the landscape. That's
Speaker 1: why it's look, it's it's also what comes along with
Speaker 1: being the first overall picking. I would think that any
Speaker 1: of those guys that it might potentially be want that right.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's not an easy transition to go
Speaker 1: from college to the NFL. But is it fair? Maybe not,
Speaker 1: But it comes with the job, I think. And again,
Speaker 1: I think when you look back over the last five years,
Speaker 1: there was pressure on Teddy Bridgewater being the guy after
Speaker 1: Cam Newton. There's pressure on anything. Then there's pressure on
Speaker 1: Sam when you make a trade for Sam Darnold to
Speaker 1: come in. And then there was pressure on Baker Mayfield
Speaker 1: to revive his career, which didn't exactly work out. So
Speaker 1: there's pressure on all these guys. But I think what
Speaker 1: they want first and foremost is to kind of modernize
Speaker 1: the offense. And I think, you know, as I wrote
Speaker 1: the other day on Panthers dot Com, the part of
Speaker 1: the reason you make this move is, Okay, you didn't
Speaker 1: hire Frank Reich and Jim Calwell and Josh McCown and
Speaker 1: Thomas Brown and Sean Jefferson and du Staley to run
Speaker 1: a pedestrian offense. Your goal was to modernize and catch
Speaker 1: up to the NFL in terms of offense. When you
Speaker 1: heard it a lot when they hired Frank, it was
Speaker 1: the very first coach in franchise history to come from
Speaker 1: an offensive background. And you know, when you back it
Speaker 1: up with that degree of assistant coaching experience, and they're
Speaker 1: over two hundred years of NFL experience on this coaching
Speaker 1: staff right now, most of it clumped up on the
Speaker 1: offensive side of the ball. And that's on purpose. And
Speaker 1: they didn't hire old those guys to coach a seventh
Speaker 1: round pick. You want to take a big sw all right,
Speaker 1: here's the people you want to work with him. And
Speaker 1: that's the thing. While that quarterback, whoever he may be,
Speaker 1: and depending on what time you're looking at Twitter, you'll
Speaker 1: be convinced at somebody else, whoever it is, that kid's
Speaker 1: going to be backstopped by a great coaching staff. And
Speaker 1: after yesterday's news, which we are allowed to talk about Yes,
Speaker 1: he's going to have Bradley Boseman snapping in the ball
Speaker 1: and that means an intact offensive line. I was downstairs
Speaker 1: earlier today ran into Taylor Moten and it's like, you
Speaker 1: got your guy back in. The band's back together. And
Speaker 1: Taylor's been around here for a long time of not
Speaker 1: knowing who's going to be next to you sometimes from
Speaker 1: game to game, from game to game or play to play,
Speaker 1: and so he was kind of laughing about it. He said,
Speaker 1: it's just an opportunity to grow. It's a chance to
Speaker 1: build on something that was already pretty good and to
Speaker 1: become more cohesive and to stay together for a little
Speaker 1: bit and really be something to build upon. Speaking of
Speaker 1: building to James, Campin also did a great job with
Speaker 1: the line last year. Was retained by Frank Reich on
Speaker 1: his staff. And you're right, I mean that quarterback is
Speaker 1: coming in, at least in terms of the offensive line,
Speaker 1: in a very good position. Which, again, if you're the
Speaker 1: number one overall pick, as you said, sometimes you don't
Speaker 1: come into that if you're a quarterback with a great
Speaker 1: offensive line, because a lot of a lot of the times,
Speaker 1: as you said, you're you're going to the team that
Speaker 1: was worse last year. So and we are going to
Speaker 1: exhaust and a lot of Cam Newton comparisons because Cam
Speaker 1: be in the first pick in eleven. Cam went through it.
Speaker 1: I mean after Jordan Grosser retired, Cam never had the
Speaker 1: same left tackle going from one year into the next.
Speaker 1: Cam always had a revolving door. I mean, he had
Speaker 1: good lines on the interior. They were usually stronger at
Speaker 1: guard and center than they were outside. But Cam was
Speaker 1: able to make stuff work without the benefit of having
Speaker 1: anything resembling this five. And you know, I think that's
Speaker 1: going to be a benefit, whether it's to Bryce, whether
Speaker 1: it's CJ or Will or Anthony or whoever it happens
Speaker 1: to be. They walk into a little more comfortable play.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about some of the positions that we that
Speaker 1: are not as as sure as the offensive line and
Speaker 1: where things stand. Again, this is Tuesday afternoon, so by
Speaker 1: the time you listen to this, things could have changed.
Speaker 1: But just as things stand right now, Darren with DJ
Speaker 1: Moore no longer with the Panthers, that leaves some questions
Speaker 1: at receivers. Yeah, that's a thing and they could really
Speaker 1: use and I think it even goes beyond wide receiver.
Speaker 1: You've got a lump tied end in with this, and
Speaker 1: Augusta did a good job the other day kind of
Speaker 1: summing up what's available in the market, and I think
Speaker 1: you've got to turn over every rock. You've got to
Speaker 1: talk to all the free agents. They are not a
Speaker 1: ton of free agents at wide receivers, so I think
Speaker 1: you're going to be looking for guys who you may
Speaker 1: have to trade for, guys who may get cut in
Speaker 1: the coming days. I mean, there are certain positions, there's
Speaker 1: certain teams. Usually if somebody signs with a team big
Speaker 1: free agent contract, somebody ends up leaving who might be
Speaker 1: on a big salary. And I think they're probably looking
Speaker 1: at around at a few of those situations right now.
Speaker 1: So I think you're curious about how they're going to
Speaker 1: fill those jobs. But they've said flat out. I mean
Speaker 1: even before they traded DJ, they were talking about adding
Speaker 1: to the receiver position. Now obviously it's it's hugely important.
Speaker 1: I mean, you need a for Terrace Marshall Junior to
Speaker 1: become something greater than he has been, and you've got
Speaker 1: to go find help. I mean, they're going to be
Speaker 1: multiple new faces at that position. But I think tight
Speaker 1: end is as important as a wide receiver because if
Speaker 1: you had that kind of safety blanket target for a
Speaker 1: rookie quarterback, that works out again Cam Newton reference alert
Speaker 1: first thing they did for Cam Newton when he comes
Speaker 1: here as a first pick in eleven, trade for some
Speaker 1: guy named Greg Olsen and then back him up with
Speaker 1: Jeremy Shockey. I would say, though it feels like from
Speaker 1: that time to now you're talking about not a lot
Speaker 1: wide receivers being available. There's there's a certain number of
Speaker 1: pass catching tight ends, right, and they're not easy to
Speaker 1: come by, you know, ones that are putting up certainly
Speaker 1: not that are putting up numbers like Greg Olson, right.
Speaker 1: Greg Olson's are rare for a reason. I mean, Greg
Speaker 1: was great at what he does. But and I'm not
Speaker 1: saying they're going to be able to find a Greg
Speaker 1: Olsen caliber, but they just have to have more production
Speaker 1: out of that position. I mean, they've got a bunch
Speaker 1: of guys who are good blockers. They've got people who
Speaker 1: are developing and may turn into something somewhere down the road.
Speaker 1: But for the most part, these are guys who haven't
Speaker 1: been big factors in the passing game. And Bryce or CJ.
Speaker 1: Or Anthony or will you know, we'll just say those
Speaker 1: four names as a as a conglomerate for the next
Speaker 1: six weeks, that guy's going to need one of those
Speaker 1: guys or a little bit more from that position. So
Speaker 1: I think it's kind of a two pronged approach to
Speaker 1: fix in this thing. And then let's talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about what else the Panthers have, according to reports,
Speaker 1: been doing in free agency, some of the early news
Speaker 1: that has come out and where things stand, and it's
Speaker 1: kind of a ah by the way, you know, the
Speaker 1: team has reportedly allegedly traded for the first pick in
Speaker 1: the draft. They're also turning over an entire defense, I
Speaker 1: mean going from a four to three base. You talk
Speaker 1: about always having defensive coordinators and defensive coaches in charge
Speaker 1: of the place, it's always been a four to three
Speaker 1: for the most part since the early years. Before we
Speaker 1: go into what that Personnella is starting to look like.
Speaker 1: Can because we haven't talked about this on the podcast,
Speaker 1: we talked with a Vero a little bit about it
Speaker 1: or I have, I know you have as well, and
Speaker 1: what he has said is, yes, we are going to
Speaker 1: a three four, but that's the base package we're very multiple.
Speaker 1: So as as far as what we're seeing now in
Speaker 1: free agency and really just the philosophy, how much is
Speaker 1: this changing everything? I think it's it's reasonably, it's sort
Speaker 1: of substantial. I think Derek Brown's going to be doing
Speaker 1: some different things. I think you're gonna see Derek Brown
Speaker 1: lined up as a defensive end in a three to four.
Speaker 1: He's going to have the opportunity to continue to try
Speaker 1: to get pressure, to continue to rush, be an upfield player,
Speaker 1: because that's what Derek's best at. I think you're gonna
Speaker 1: see Brian Burns with his hand up out of the dirt.
Speaker 1: You're not going to see him buried on the line
Speaker 1: in front of somebody. He's going to be in space
Speaker 1: a little more often, and we'll see what that means
Speaker 1: for him. Obviously, this is a big year for Brian
Speaker 1: for a lot of reasons. But I think as you
Speaker 1: go into that process of converting to a three four,
Speaker 1: there were a couple places where you needed more of
Speaker 1: something or needed a little something different. Keeping Shack Thompson
Speaker 1: around on a different contract was important because without him,
Speaker 1: you're basically remaking the entire linebacker corps with guys who
Speaker 1: either haven't been linebackers or aren't exactly suited for this role.
Speaker 1: But I think the big one is, according to reports,
Speaker 1: Shy Tuttle coming in from the Saints. That's your nose,
Speaker 1: you know, that's the guy who's there to take up
Speaker 1: a lot of space. And again, Averro's defense is complicated enough.
Speaker 1: It's hard to you know, give it a Twitter description.
Speaker 1: I want you to explain the whole thing in thirty
Speaker 1: seconds or lest Yeah, exactly, it's a complicated thing. But
Speaker 1: Shy is good enough at taking up space and creating Uh.
Speaker 1: I don't know that taking on the doubles inside that
Speaker 1: it's going to create opportunities for the guys behind him.
Speaker 1: If you remember back to the early days, and you're
Speaker 1: so young, you probably do not remember the nineties, Kristen,
Speaker 1: But back in the old days, when it was Mike
Speaker 1: Fox and Greg Craigan and Gerald Williams upfront, those guys
Speaker 1: were there to take up space for Sam Mills, for
Speaker 1: Lamar Lath and for Kevin Green. This is a little
Speaker 1: bit different defense. It's got shades of what Dom Capers
Speaker 1: was coaching then and what Dom continues to help jero
Speaker 1: Everau coach now. Um But burn This is going to
Speaker 1: be the guy in space doing the Lamar Lathan and
Speaker 1: Kevin Green stuff, and Shack's going to be the guy
Speaker 1: in the Sam Mills spot. And after that there's still
Speaker 1: some matching up. I think Frankie Luvu is going to
Speaker 1: play mostly inside but has the ability to do some
Speaker 1: outside stuff too. Jeremy Chen, who we haven't mentioned yet.
Speaker 1: With the addition reportedly of Von Bell at safety to
Speaker 1: pair in the back with the Xavier Woods, suddenly Jeremy
Speaker 1: becomes another guy you can move around and do different
Speaker 1: stuff with, and I think that's place to history. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's going to give them a lot of options in
Speaker 1: terms of how they match people up. The question also becomes,
Speaker 1: all right, who's your other outside linebacker in bays packages?
Speaker 1: Is it a tour? Is it markis Haynes? Is it
Speaker 1: somebody who's not on the roster right now? We'll see.
Speaker 1: It's still very early in this free agent period. I
Speaker 1: just want to say, I know this is a podcast,
Speaker 1: but Darren has looked at his imaginary watch a few
Speaker 1: times to emphasize it's still very early, so he's not
Speaker 1: wearing a watch, but he's doing the glance and we
Speaker 1: are not recording on camera. But I like that you're emphasizing.
Speaker 1: You're like, oh, still really early, let me check my wrist.
Speaker 1: Here's here's a parenting story for you, Kristin Balboni, Um,
Speaker 1: I stopped wearing an actual watch on my wrist about
Speaker 1: twenty years ago when my daughter was born. And when
Speaker 1: baby girl was, you know, being carried around, I scratched
Speaker 1: her with the class the back of my watch one
Speaker 1: time early she started screaming. I took it off, put
Speaker 1: it in my pocket, and never put a watch on since.
Speaker 1: So I've been walking around staring at an empty wrist
Speaker 1: a twenty years. That is the kind of thing you
Speaker 1: get to know when you're a parent. I love that.
Speaker 1: I love that. Is there anything else as it relates
Speaker 1: to where we are in free agency that we haven't covered?
Speaker 1: I feel like we've gotten through a lot of it.
Speaker 1: We've we've covered a good bit of ground. I mean again,
Speaker 1: when you trade for the first pick in the draft
Speaker 1: and DJ Moore is a part of it, and you
Speaker 1: bring back Bradley Bozeman and you go out and reportedly
Speaker 1: Sunshie Tuttle and Von Bill and Sam Franklin's coming, and
Speaker 1: you structure Shack Thompson's and you restruct sack so he
Speaker 1: hangs around. I mean, so I'm saying that the front
Speaker 1: office has kept us busy on this podcast. They are
Speaker 1: certainly busy. I'm just making sure that we've ticked all
Speaker 1: of our boxes and a little bit of stuff going on,
Speaker 1: and probably a little bit more coming in the next
Speaker 1: couple of days. So stay too, absolutely well, we will
Speaker 1: be here when more stuff does come back around. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for listening to this episode of The
Speaker 1: Happy Half Hour podcast. We'll catch you next time.