Speaker 1: This week on The Happy half Hour, one of the
Speaker 1: things they are going to have to figure out is
Speaker 1: how to get safeties backed off the line of scream
Speaker 1: at Jesse Bates was able to kind of break the rules,
Speaker 1: as Frank Reich said, and cheat up on some passes
Speaker 1: because in the absence of Djchart, the Carolina Panthers were
Speaker 1: not exactly a high flying open TuS dow R, I
Speaker 1: know it's time for the Happy half Hour with your
Speaker 1: friends Kristin Balboni, Augusta Stone, and Darren Gannon. Hello, welcome
Speaker 1: to the Happy half Hour. I'm strongly considering doing this
Speaker 1: as an ASMR episode of The Happy Half Hour, just
Speaker 1: to keep everybody back in the place they need to be. Augusta,
Speaker 1: why are you shaking your head?
Speaker 2: I am very fiercely anti ASMR.
Speaker 3: We've never talked about it, but honestly, like like you
Speaker 3: saying the words gave me anxiety. A lot of people
Speaker 3: say that ASMR like calms them down. I don't know
Speaker 3: what it is, but that little tapping noise and the
Speaker 3: squishy noises and the small whispers, and I have never
Speaker 3: been able to get into it.
Speaker 2: And you know what, I support people who do it.
Speaker 3: I know it looks really fun and it's an easy
Speaker 3: way to make some money. I'm so scared of ASMR. Like,
Speaker 3: just hearing you say that, I was like, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: No, you're saying I should not run my hands across
Speaker 1: this beaded curtain.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, I might start screaming, like it's so
Speaker 3: it's such.
Speaker 2: A weird trait.
Speaker 3: I know, of all the things ASMR is like where
Speaker 3: I draw the line, I've.
Speaker 1: Learned something about you here today. I'm not sure how
Speaker 1: I feel about it either, but uh, yeah, welcome to
Speaker 1: the happy half hour. You never know where this is
Speaker 1: gonna go. Uh because I don't think she anticipated this,
Speaker 1: and frankly I didn't either when I woke up this morning.
Speaker 1: But no, it just kind of feels like we needed
Speaker 1: to take a minute and let everybody breathe after last week.
Speaker 1: One of the things, it is week two, all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, and now the Carolina Panthers are zero to
Speaker 1: one after a twenty fourteen loss at Atlanta last Sunday.
Speaker 1: Not the way I think a lot of people were
Speaker 1: hoping the season was going to end. But certainly not
Speaker 1: a sky is falling kind of loss to the Atlanta Falcons.
Speaker 1: I think after a lot of build up in the
Speaker 1: off season, number one pick, all the excitement, new coaches,
Speaker 1: all that stuff, it was kind of a letdown, for sure.
Speaker 1: But the one thing I know for sure is that
Speaker 1: the season is not over. And I have tried to
Speaker 1: take the long view on a lot of this stuff
Speaker 1: throughout this kind of thing, and look back, I mean,
Speaker 1: rookie quarter number one pick quarterbacks haven't won an opener
Speaker 1: since two thousand and two. Frank Craig had never won
Speaker 1: an opener period, and still has not. In twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: when he was Andrew Lux coach, they started one in
Speaker 1: five and finished ten and six. That is not to
Speaker 1: say that losing to the Falcons means the Panthers are
Speaker 1: about to go ten and six this season, but it
Speaker 1: also does not mean that they're about to go oh
Speaker 1: in seventeen. So I would encourage everyone to take the
Speaker 1: long view on this one, as I am choosing to
Speaker 1: and try to figure out what it all means.
Speaker 3: We have the home opener, too, Like I was thinking
Speaker 3: about it this morning, we haven't even gotten into an
Speaker 3: actual regular season game at Bank of America Stadium yet,
Speaker 3: and you know, happy half hour, happy thing, It's going
Speaker 3: to be on Monday night football, which is really cool
Speaker 3: and actually might be one of the last milestones for
Speaker 3: me in my young career that I haven't been able
Speaker 3: to cover yet. I think I've done every other start time.
Speaker 3: We had a Thursday game last year, my first year,
Speaker 3: so this will be my first time covering a Monday
Speaker 3: night football game, which will be really fun for me personally.
Speaker 2: But how cool is it that? You know?
Speaker 3: And I love that Bryce Young is the quarterback here
Speaker 3: because he is quite literally kind of one of the
Speaker 3: last people to take the bait on asking questions about
Speaker 3: things like that.
Speaker 2: Yesterday in his press conference, they were.
Speaker 3: Like, oh, you're starting at home on Monday night football,
Speaker 3: and he said something about how he's like, well, you know,
Speaker 3: the game's still on a football field even if it's
Speaker 3: Monday night or something like that, and I was like,
Speaker 3: it's so it's just so like perspective at making it all,
Speaker 3: you know, seem as regular as it can, which is
Speaker 3: it's just very I went into yesterday like, oh, man,
Speaker 3: that's that's a storyline of it, you know. The Bryce Young,
Speaker 3: he's the kind of guy who I think and he
Speaker 3: mentioned this too, he was like, I'll.
Speaker 2: Reflect on it afterwards, But going into.
Speaker 3: It, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna make the moment
Speaker 3: bigger than what it is. But as a thing listening
Speaker 3: to this and hopefully filling the stands, you can make
Speaker 3: a lot out of it because I think it's pretty
Speaker 3: dang cool, and I hope the atmosphere is really cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah it should be. I mean, the weather's cool and off.
Speaker 1: The weather's good. It's not oppressively hot the way it
Speaker 1: was here in the preseason. They're all kind of cool.
Speaker 1: Rocks all over the place or are you allowed to
Speaker 1: talk about rock set? Yes, rocks. So yeah, Monday night,
Speaker 1: bright lights woo. But as the noted Eastern philosopher John
Speaker 1: Fox once said, it's not when you play, it's who
Speaker 1: you play. And I think that it's cut out to
Speaker 1: Bryce's point. I mean these Monday night and attention in
Speaker 1: bright lights and all that stuff. It's cool for fans,
Speaker 1: it's cool for you know, Hey, it's a nice visual
Speaker 1: for all. This puts us on a national stage and
Speaker 1: all that fun stuff. But players and coaches want things
Speaker 1: to be as normal as often as possible. So I
Speaker 1: think if you gave a lot of coaches and players
Speaker 1: their choice. Every game would be Sunday afternoon at one
Speaker 1: o'clock and they could keep the exact same schedule every
Speaker 1: week and sleep at the same time and eat at
Speaker 1: breakfast at the same time and all that fun stuff, which,
Speaker 1: from what I know about my co host here at
Speaker 1: Gusta Stone, would be just fine with her too.
Speaker 2: I love me a little bit of routine.
Speaker 3: Before we started recording, I was talking about how I
Speaker 3: do like things that I know.
Speaker 2: I'm loyal to a fault.
Speaker 3: We were talking about cell phone providers and how I
Speaker 3: had to make a switch when I was in college
Speaker 3: and for some reason I had a lot of issues
Speaker 3: but it ended up being fine. But like the small things,
Speaker 3: but no, I love me and I saw a routine.
Speaker 3: That was another thing Bryce talked about. He talked about
Speaker 3: getting into more of a routine, and I was like,
Speaker 3: how ironic is it that he's not even in a
Speaker 3: routine yet and he won't be until after the Monday
Speaker 3: night game. Because he brought up a really good point
Speaker 3: that I was able to write about the notebook yesterday
Speaker 3: about how whenever he declared for the draft, you know
Speaker 3: it kind of before you even know what team you're
Speaker 3: going to you're thinking about week one, that first game,
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, what's it going to be, Like, what's
Speaker 3: going to happen, how's it going to be? And then
Speaker 3: you get into the preseason training camp all that stuff,
Speaker 3: and you're just still like oriented. I mean, we've been
Speaker 3: saying week one against Atlanta on September tenth since we
Speaker 3: had schedule release, and I know Bryce said it, he's
Speaker 3: been thinking about it even longer than that, just like
Speaker 3: what will the first one be? And now he's kind
Speaker 3: of he said he likes the routine of focusing on
Speaker 3: this week it's the Saints. Which is so funny that
Speaker 3: we've gotten into this for almost five ten minutes and
Speaker 3: we're talking about who you play. We haven't even said
Speaker 3: New Orleans Saints yet, will be the New Orleans Saints
Speaker 3: here at Bank of America Stadium. But it's funny how
Speaker 3: he kind of was talking about getting into that week
Speaker 3: by week rhythm of not thinking about upon it for
Speaker 3: a month, not thinking about them for a week. But
Speaker 3: it's still not a regular week for him yet. So
Speaker 3: I'm sure after this New Orleans thing and the quick
Speaker 3: turnaround when he's able to get into the Sunday to
Speaker 3: Sunday grind, which will happen between weeks three and four.
Speaker 3: I suppose like good for him because he's definitely itching
Speaker 3: for normalcy and he's getting more of it. But that
Speaker 3: is kind of funny of such a routine oriented guy
Speaker 3: that Bryce Young is that he's kind of with this
Speaker 3: week two Monday night situation kind of being jerked around
Speaker 3: a little bit.
Speaker 1: It's not ideal. It's not ideal, but there's not a
Speaker 1: lot that gets to be ideal over the course of
Speaker 1: an NFL season, and certainly last week's start was not ideal.
Speaker 1: We should probably talk about that Falcons game a little bit.
Speaker 1: I think that, you know, and I've always told you
Speaker 1: NFL games can often be really complicated. Last week's was
Speaker 1: kind of simple. A team starting a rookie quarterback turned
Speaker 1: it over three times on the road the end, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's kind of the thing. And between the Miles
Speaker 1: Sanders fumble and a couple of Bryce interceptions, you know,
Speaker 1: that was kind of the story of that game. And
Speaker 1: I think it creates a lot of the stuff we'll
Speaker 1: be talking to guys about over the next couple of days,
Speaker 1: for sure, because one of the things they're going to
Speaker 1: have to figure out is how to get safeties backed
Speaker 1: off the line of scrimmage. Jesse Bates was able to
Speaker 1: kind of break the rules, as Frank Reich said, and
Speaker 1: cheat up on some passes because in the absence of
Speaker 1: DJ Hark, the Carolina Panthers were not exactly a high
Speaker 1: flying offense. Three point eight yards per pass attempt. That's
Speaker 1: not gonna win you a lot of games in this league.
Speaker 1: So I understand the temptation to keep Bryce safe and
Speaker 1: to keep him making easy throws, but at some point
Speaker 1: they're gonna have to cut a couple loose just to
Speaker 1: create some lanes for the running game. I mean, they
Speaker 1: still ran pretty well, honestly, between Miles and Cuba Hubbard.
Speaker 1: They ran well last week. You know, Bryce completed a
Speaker 1: fair amount of passes. He threw a number of balls
Speaker 1: away just to stay out of trouble and keep things moving.
Speaker 1: But you know, until they hit a couple of deep
Speaker 1: shots to loosen things up, that's going to be what
Speaker 1: they see. So he'd better be accurate, and he'd better
Speaker 1: be on target with all the short stuff because that's
Speaker 1: what everybody's going to be playing.
Speaker 3: On exactly, and that's sort of the bread and butter
Speaker 3: that we saw. I do think it's absolutely huge that
Speaker 3: Chart gets back as soon as he possibly can, because
Speaker 3: I was talking with a with a friend about it
Speaker 3: about you know, the preseason and everything, and I was like,
Speaker 3: I remember in training camp we had almost like you
Speaker 3: could have scheduled the tweet of like the big connection
Speaker 3: between Bryce and DJ and they had that really great
Speaker 3: chemistry down in Wofford and it came back up here
Speaker 3: in the in the I remember they had a big
Speaker 3: one here at FanFest when we did that during training
Speaker 3: camp and all the fans got to see it here
Speaker 3: at the stadium, and it was one of those things.
Speaker 3: It was kind of a shame because he is that
Speaker 3: guy that's are to blow open just the offensive playbook
Speaker 3: for him. And I will say too, a couple of
Speaker 3: performances that you know, because it was a lost gets
Speaker 3: lost in the shuffle. But like you said, it was
Speaker 3: pretty simple. It was the turnovers that really kind of
Speaker 3: did him in I mean Atlanta Square, I think seventeen
Speaker 3: off of the three turnovers. But Hayden Hurst and Cuba
Speaker 3: Hubbard both looked like really good. I was impressed by
Speaker 3: Cuba personally just because I mean, you see him last year.
Speaker 3: He was kind of a complimentary back to foreman when
Speaker 3: he was here, and then New pair him with Sanders.
Speaker 3: He's still got a decent bunch of carries, and he
Speaker 3: was the one that was going for those explosive runs,
Speaker 3: the ones that Frank Craik was talking about on Monday,
Speaker 3: the ones of ten plus yards. I think I counted
Speaker 3: two of them. One of them went for like twenty
Speaker 3: twenty one. Like he was kind of a real big
Speaker 3: part of the offense that of course, when there's a loss,
Speaker 3: you talk about what happened, how that happened, but lost
Speaker 3: in the shuffle where some some good signs for the offense,
Speaker 3: and then hayden Hurst kind of being that reliable target.
Speaker 3: The whole reason that they brought him here, something that
Speaker 3: we talked about a lot for him, you know, that
Speaker 3: veteran guy, and caught his first touchdown pass and promptly
Speaker 3: threw in the air and then promptly got it back,
Speaker 3: which we talked to him about in the locker room
Speaker 3: yesterday and he said they just immediately threw it back.
Speaker 3: I mean, he was back in Atlanta, so I don't
Speaker 3: think the fans were thrilled that he threw that ball,
Speaker 3: but no, it was really I think that kind of
Speaker 3: worked how they had anticipated in what they were looking
Speaker 3: to see from her specifically. I mean, obviously Feeling didn't
Speaker 3: get a ton of play, but he was coming off
Speaker 3: that ankle. He looked fine. But I just think there's
Speaker 3: a lot of different pieces that still need to fall.
Speaker 3: But Chuck is a big one that they need.
Speaker 1: No doubt about that. And you know that's the thing
Speaker 1: and talking about this, yes, running game, check the offensive
Speaker 1: line protected well. Check two sacks, but they were both
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter when things were kind of going
Speaker 1: a certain direction and they were dropping back and passing
Speaker 1: on every down basically.
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 1: There were things. And you know, Frank is an unfailingly
Speaker 1: positive guy, and he's gonna say, you know, hey, saw
Speaker 1: a lot of good and that kind of stuff. But
Speaker 1: there were a lot of good things, honestly. I mean,
Speaker 1: it just kind of gets lost when you turn it
Speaker 1: over three times. On the other side of the ball,
Speaker 1: we spent a lot of time last week talking about elephants,
Speaker 1: fictional and otherwise, and Brian Burns came out and played
Speaker 1: like an elephant in the first quarter. I mean, he
Speaker 1: was all in the backfield. He was going one hundred
Speaker 1: miles an hour, probably more of a Tasmanian devil than
Speaker 1: a elephant, necessarily because Burns was getting after it, and
Speaker 1: he was obviously asked about it after the game and
Speaker 1: talked about with the recent contract negotiation stuff, and you know,
Speaker 1: Burns is trying to stay above board with all this
Speaker 1: and he is trying to keep it at arms distance,
Speaker 1: but he honestly seemed at peace with the business side
Speaker 1: of it, which remains unresolved and probably you know, will
Speaker 1: until it isn't, honestly, so it's going to be part
Speaker 1: of the subtext all year long or until that deal
Speaker 1: gets signed. But he the thing we do know for
Speaker 1: sure is that he's continuing to show up. He's continuing
Speaker 1: to play, and he's continuing to look like the Brian
Speaker 1: Burns we're accustomed to seeing. I mean again, second a
Speaker 1: half tackle for loss right there in the first quarter,
Speaker 1: and played well throughout the game and got to the
Speaker 1: point where the Falcons were kind of scheming away from him.
Speaker 1: It turned into a run game for them. It turned
Speaker 1: into don't let Desmond rid Or drop back and put
Speaker 1: himself in harm's way. So there weren't that many opportunities
Speaker 1: in the second half, and when you can create that
Speaker 1: kind of pressure and cause your opponent to change their
Speaker 1: game plan, I mean, that's the impact Brian Burns can
Speaker 1: have exactly.
Speaker 3: It feels like all the panic cussaw on Twitter and
Speaker 3: all over social media was pretty well pretty quickly too.
Speaker 3: As you mentioned, I mean, Burns really did kind of
Speaker 3: flash the very very beginning of that game, and he said,
Speaker 3: you know that it wasn't about making a statement, it
Speaker 3: was about kind of, you know, reaching the pinnacle of
Speaker 3: his game.
Speaker 2: But he's he's getting up.
Speaker 3: There really really quickly, and he really wasted absolutely no time.
Speaker 3: I mean, the first big plays that I was making
Speaker 3: notes of and tweeting about where all Brian Burns related,
Speaker 3: and I was.
Speaker 2: Like, Okay, so yeah, he's just fine.
Speaker 3: He's giving one hundred ten percent of for He definitely
Speaker 3: has been practicing this week obviously, and I think that
Speaker 3: was really reassuring. The bad news is when there's one
Speaker 3: thing that you're not paying about on the defense as
Speaker 3: a fan base, there's another one.
Speaker 2: As j C.
Speaker 3: Horn was injured again and it's looking like it may
Speaker 3: be a little bit longer. From some of the conversations
Speaker 3: or some of the words that Frank Reich used in
Speaker 3: the press conference, he's sticking out a second opinion on
Speaker 3: that hamstring, and he called it serious, used the word
Speaker 3: pop yesterday. There were just some some keywords that were
Speaker 3: kind of kind of rough and for for JC, I
Speaker 3: mean just a gut punch after going through most of
Speaker 3: last season that risk.
Speaker 2: At the end and now this didn't even finish the game.
Speaker 3: So I know that's something like you have one part
Speaker 3: of the defense where you're like, oh, man, is Burn's
Speaker 3: gonna play? What's going on? Burns looks good? And then
Speaker 3: something happens with JC. It's like these stars they can't
Speaker 3: really get a break.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's definitely unfortunate for JC, and his teammates
Speaker 1: are kind of angry and frustrated for him. We hadn't
Speaker 1: seen a lot of JC again. He's out solicting opinions
Speaker 1: on how to get this thing treated and what the
Speaker 1: nixt steps for him is going to be. But you know,
Speaker 1: Don Jackson talked about in the locker room after the game,
Speaker 1: he said, you hate it for him because you know
Speaker 1: what people are going to say, it's going to be.
Speaker 1: This guy has always heard it's going to be. You know,
Speaker 1: can't stay on the field, and that's a frustrating part
Speaker 1: of it for them because they see what JC puts
Speaker 1: into this deal. I again kind of leaned back on
Speaker 1: the long view of things. I remember a guy who
Speaker 1: they drafted pretty high one year and had a lot
Speaker 1: of big plans for and they needed him to make
Speaker 1: impact plays early on. He made a few. He was
Speaker 1: a big physical freak, but he couldn't stay on the field.
Speaker 1: I mean, his first couple of years, he was not
Speaker 1: what you would refer to as a reliable player. They're
Speaker 1: going to put him in the Hall of Honor here
Speaker 1: in October because Mussin Mohammad figured out a way to
Speaker 1: get past some of that physical stuff and really became
Speaker 1: one of the more reliable players in the latter stages
Speaker 1: of his career here. I mean, he was always available
Speaker 1: after he got through that. So the hope is that
Speaker 1: JC is able to push through the way Moose did
Speaker 1: and figure out what it takes to keep himself on
Speaker 1: the field. I am not going to draw too many lines.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can't really connect a broken foot, a
Speaker 1: broken wrist, and a hamstring. Those are three different things.
Speaker 1: And it's not as if you can say aha, because
Speaker 1: he fill in the blank. He always breaks bones and
Speaker 1: pulls muscle. I mean, those things aren't connected. So it's
Speaker 1: not a satisfying explanation. But sometimes dumb luck is a
Speaker 1: big factor here in our little NFL, and a lot
Speaker 1: of people are hesitant to acknowledge that. But I mean
Speaker 1: other than you know, other than that, yeah, and that's
Speaker 1: a kind of a hard one to say. Other than
Speaker 1: that about you know, not a bad day for a
Speaker 1: defense that had a lot of questions about it coming
Speaker 1: into the game. I mean, when you look at two
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty one yards allowed, two of ten on
Speaker 1: third down, they only face i think forty seven forty
Speaker 1: eight plays, fewer than fifty plays for sure, and it
Speaker 1: was a pretty solid performance for a lot of guys
Speaker 1: that you didn't quite know what to expect from. And
Speaker 1: you know, the Falcons are going to be able to
Speaker 1: run it. They're an unconventional offense. They are going to
Speaker 1: put up numbers against a lot of people this year.
Speaker 1: The defense I think was pretty good all things considered,
Speaker 1: and obviously loosing JC is going to be tricky, but
Speaker 1: I don't think this is a situation where you say,
Speaker 1: oh god, they're doomed at one week end of this thing.
Speaker 3: I completely agree, and I wanted to segue into something
Speaker 3: that you wrote yesterday that I really enjoyed reading personally,
Speaker 3: but about the guy or one of the guys that'll
Speaker 3: step up in JC Horn's absence. We've heard Troy Hill, obviously,
Speaker 3: they have Dante, but you got to write about CJ.
Speaker 2: Henderson if you wanted to share.
Speaker 3: Some of that, because I thought it was a very
Speaker 3: compelling story in a way where CJ's not the kind
Speaker 3: of guy that talks a ton to media and reporters,
Speaker 3: but you were able to really get some stuff out
Speaker 3: of helm that I think personalized him in a way
Speaker 3: that I found really interesting and I enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, CJ's quiet guy, and when you move around in
Speaker 1: a locker room where there's a Anti Jackson and O'Brian
Speaker 1: Burns and cats like that, quiet guys getting lost every
Speaker 1: now and then. I think it's funny that Jeremy Chin's
Speaker 1: over in that corner of the locker room now, because
Speaker 1: Ten's like the accountant in the middle of a frat
Speaker 1: party or something. But no, CJ's a quiet guy. But
Speaker 1: he did talk a little bit about kind of what
Speaker 1: this season means to him, he's got a lot. You know,
Speaker 1: CJ had a lot of expectations on him coming into
Speaker 1: the league. I think when you think of a guy
Speaker 1: through the lens of being a top ten pick, as
Speaker 1: he was in Jacksonville, it would be easy to say
Speaker 1: he hasn't delivered on that potential. At the same time,
Speaker 1: the Carolina Panthers acquired him for a third round pick basically,
Speaker 1: so if you think of him as a third round pick,
Speaker 1: who is your third cornerback who can step in and
Speaker 1: make some plays, I think it's easier to have a
Speaker 1: more generous opinion of CJ. He's had ups and downs.
Speaker 1: But I think Frank Reich actually surprised some people during
Speaker 1: the preseason when he referred to him as mister Consistency
Speaker 1: because CJ hadn't always been consistent. I mean, he had
Speaker 1: some ups and downs last year. Obviously, the Tampa game
Speaker 1: is the thing people remember going into the offseason about him.
Speaker 1: But the talent has always been there. And I remember
Speaker 1: back in training camp, D'Angelo Hall, a longtime NFL corner
Speaker 1: new assistant coach here d Hall said, you know he's
Speaker 1: got that newborn now and CJ talked about his son
Speaker 1: Jays who was born in March. And when you've got
Speaker 1: that motivation at home, when you've got that perspective at home,
Speaker 1: it's easy to draw the line between CJ. Henderson didn't
Speaker 1: have his fifth year option picked up. He's a free agent.
Speaker 1: Everything's on the line for him professionally at this point.
Speaker 1: CJ got another mouth to feed at home now and
Speaker 1: having that son. He talked about kind of how that
Speaker 1: grounds him, how that brings a lot of things in perspective.
Speaker 1: And you know, I know, if a guy's struggling on
Speaker 1: the field, fans may not necessarily want I always hear
Speaker 1: about that kind of stuff. But the human being who
Speaker 1: is inside that uniform has a lot on the line
Speaker 1: this year and a lot to prove this exactly.
Speaker 3: And like you mentioned watching him at training camp this year,
Speaker 3: I mean especially I remember back together Saturday back in Wafford, Like,
Speaker 3: he made a ton of plays there.
Speaker 2: He is he has like it in him to make plays.
Speaker 2: I don't think some of the some of.
Speaker 3: The the the fodder you hear around him isn't necessarily
Speaker 3: I think completely true.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's the full story now.
Speaker 3: I think we should trust the opinions like you mentioned
Speaker 3: of a guy like Frank Reich, whod calls a mister consistency,
Speaker 3: because I mean he really did show that in the
Speaker 3: off season, in the preseason and through training camp. So
Speaker 3: I think it's one of those things that you know
Speaker 3: when you when you kind of, like you said, take
Speaker 3: a big view and step.
Speaker 2: Back, look at the body of work.
Speaker 3: He's had some really, really really bad moments. At the
Speaker 3: same time, that's not the only thing he does, and
Speaker 3: he has opportunities now and we could be sitting here,
Speaker 3: you know, a week from now after New Orleans and
Speaker 3: maybe you know, he made Derek Carr's day absolutely abysmal,
Speaker 3: or maybe you know he had another bad showing. Who knows,
Speaker 3: But I think it's it's too early to rule out,
Speaker 3: you know, especially in the state of the Pans are
Speaker 3: in right now, it's easy to say that Like between
Speaker 3: him and Troy Hill, I mean, they're decent options, and
Speaker 3: they're kind of what they have going into this week.
Speaker 3: So I don't think it's as abysmal as maybe some
Speaker 3: people would make it out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, whether it's good option or a bad option, it's
Speaker 1: what they've got for the option a little bit here,
Speaker 1: So because again jac is going to be out for
Speaker 1: a minute. We're not sure exactly what the timeframe is
Speaker 1: on that one at this point. At this point he
Speaker 1: has not going on IR but I think that's probably
Speaker 1: a reasonable expectation at some point because I don't necessarily
Speaker 1: think it's a short term kind of situation. So we'll
Speaker 1: see how CJ responds. But again, he definitely has a
Speaker 1: lot on the line this season personally and professionally, and
Speaker 1: if he makes plays over the next period of time
Speaker 1: when Jc's not on the field, and he's going to
Speaker 1: put himself in position for a nice payday, whether it's
Speaker 1: here or somewhere else in the off season. So anyway,
Speaker 1: here we are, twenty minutes into a happy half hour,
Speaker 1: and we've barely talked about the Saints.
Speaker 3: Well we're here now, Saints are coming in. The Saints
Speaker 3: are marching in. Isn't that the song Saints are in
Speaker 3: the Saints go marching in? Yeah, that's our song. Well
Speaker 3: that's I wrote about it this week, did our little preview.
Speaker 3: Their game was very interesting against the Titans, very very close.
Speaker 3: Their defense looked very good up against Tennessee. But I
Speaker 3: think in looking at the Saints, it's how different the
Speaker 3: roster is from last year. Kind of similar to the Panthers.
Speaker 3: We have a lot of new offensive weapons, a lot
Speaker 3: of new guys on defense. Obviously, they were the team
Speaker 3: that got Derek Carr. I do remember a time when
Speaker 3: we were at the combine before we knew everything that
Speaker 3: was going down with the first overall pick and quarterbacks
Speaker 3: and all that stuff, when I wrote a story about,
Speaker 3: you know, comments on Derek Carr here. But now he
Speaker 3: is in the division and he's in New Orleans and
Speaker 3: took aim minute to warm up. Their offensive line definitely
Speaker 3: took him inte to warm up. I believe he took
Speaker 3: four sacks in the first half of that game and
Speaker 3: then went the rest of the game untouched in the
Speaker 3: second half, so that was probably a more positive development
Speaker 3: for the Saints. But yeah, I mean they have those receivers.
Speaker 3: I think when we talk so much about the absence
Speaker 3: of J C. CJ needing to step up, it's because
Speaker 3: of guys like Rashid Shahid, like Chris Olave who really
Speaker 3: impressed me last year.
Speaker 2: But they also have one.
Speaker 3: Of my favorite players just from a personality standpoint, in
Speaker 3: Jamal Williams, who gave some of the best postgame interviews
Speaker 3: last year when he was with the Lions and he's
Speaker 3: a Saint now, So it's an interesting crew. It's kind
Speaker 3: of like like we've talked about, but it's retooled and
Speaker 3: different and well, we'll see what happens when they come here.
Speaker 3: But I think the biggest matchup that I'll be looking
Speaker 3: for is what happens with the secondary and the receivers,
Speaker 3: because you know, they were able to make big plays
Speaker 3: against Tennessee and that was kind of the way that
Speaker 3: they won because that game they won by one point,
Speaker 3: between the defense kind of picking off Tannehill making his
Speaker 3: day hard, and then you know, Derek Carr finally warming
Speaker 3: up in the second half. That was sort of the
Speaker 3: way they won that one. It was it was a
Speaker 3: little bit less cut and dry and a little bit
Speaker 3: more tail of two has as they say in that
Speaker 3: game for them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think, and this will be a consistent
Speaker 1: theme throughout the course of this season, but I think
Speaker 1: the Saints are still trying to figure out who they
Speaker 1: want to be exactly. They're in the post Sean Payton,
Speaker 1: post Drew Brees era, and you've got to get used
Speaker 1: to what it's going to look like with their Carr.
Speaker 1: He was a guy that Panthers talked to prior to
Speaker 1: trading for the number one pick, prior to him going
Speaker 1: to New Orleans. He is a good, solid NFL quarterback,
Speaker 1: and I thought going into the season that if you
Speaker 1: had to declare somebody in this division of misfits a favorite,
Speaker 1: it probably would have been the Saints simply because they've
Speaker 1: got the established quarterback of the bunch. So we will
Speaker 1: see how that all shakes out, but we will begin
Speaker 1: to see it on Monday night. We've got a new
Speaker 1: routine to get ready for seven to fifteen start on
Speaker 1: Monday night, the early Monday night start. I kind of
Speaker 1: like that as an old person, you know, staying up
Speaker 1: till two am for my football product doesn't always appeal
Speaker 1: to me. But yeah, seven fifteen.
Speaker 3: It's better today night one the late or the one
Speaker 3: that's not even that late. I was talking about it
Speaker 3: at practice yesterday. Apparently the other one that starts around
Speaker 3: I guess it would be halftime of our game. The
Speaker 3: other one starts on a different channel. So the doubleheader
Speaker 3: thing's interesting. I'm so kind of locked in on Panthers
Speaker 3: mode that I didn't realize it was a doubleheader. And
Speaker 3: you and I realized at the same time that it
Speaker 3: wasn't eight o'clock, it was a seven fifteen.
Speaker 1: So and of course you can consume that game on
Speaker 1: ESPN if you please, but you could also tune in
Speaker 1: on the Carolina Panthers Radio Network for the very first
Speaker 1: pairing of the season of Jake Delongman Luke Keigley, Who
Speaker 1: doesn't love Luke?
Speaker 3: That's a happy half hour conversation. That's gonna be awesome. See,
Speaker 3: I'm a little envious of the fans of get to
Speaker 3: listen to that. I would love to get to listen
Speaker 3: to that. Maybe I'll have an earbuddon.
Speaker 1: I was just gonna say, we'll get you a transistor radio.
Speaker 3: I do it.
Speaker 1: Do you know what a transistor radio is? Maybe there's
Speaker 1: an app or transistor.
Speaker 3: I mean, I know what a radio is, but when
Speaker 3: you add the word transistor, it makes it feel like
Speaker 3: it's something different. Is it like the little hang on?
Speaker 3: I'm gonna google it. I had a boombox when I
Speaker 3: as a kid, and I know about the the antenna's.
Speaker 3: I know antenna's or I don't know what this is.
Speaker 3: I just google transistor radio. Oh, it's just a little
Speaker 3: it's like a little box. I've definitely seen these before.
Speaker 3: I do love radio though, that's kind of one of
Speaker 3: my like fun facts. I've always been an FM, an
Speaker 3: FM kind of kind of girl. So I podcasts are cool,
Speaker 3: but I like kind of the chaos of the radio.
Speaker 2: I never know who's gonna be yelling about what.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get your We're gonna get you hooked up
Speaker 1: on the list and live feature on the Panthers app,
Speaker 1: and so you too can enjoy Jake and Luke as
Speaker 1: as everyone will. So anyway, all right, so we will
Speaker 1: meet again a week from now, and we'll be able
Speaker 1: to talk about Jake Delohm and Luke Keigley, we'll be
Speaker 1: able to talk about the New Orleans Saints, and maybe
Speaker 1: we'll be able to talk about something different this week.
Speaker 1: So until then, my friends, it's the Happy half Hour
Speaker 1: Asmo
Speaker 2: Edition, oh No or something