Speaker 1: This week on a Happy Half Hour.
Speaker 2: You've seen the connection with Bryce and Deontay Johnson developed
Speaker 2: this week through Mini Camp and canals are saying that
Speaker 2: they've told Bryce Deontay is going to make the right
Speaker 2: football move. Deontay's going to make the right decision, trust him.
Speaker 2: So that'll be a fun connection to kind of watch
Speaker 2: continue to develop.
Speaker 1: To'sdow cow Wha. It's time for the Happy Half Hour
Speaker 1: presented by Southern Star, an official bourbon of the Carolina Panthers.
Speaker 1: Here are your hosts, Darren Gant and Cassidy Hill.
Speaker 3: Hello friends, And if I sound more excited than normal,
Speaker 3: it's because it's the summertime edition you just get of
Speaker 3: the Happy Half Hour. Yeah, me being in a good
Speaker 3: mood scares people. Welcome to it. If you've been listening
Speaker 3: to The Happy Half Hour, you know that already, so
Speaker 3: welcome to it. This is a very special episode of
Speaker 3: The Happy Half Hour presented by a Southern Star, an
Speaker 3: official bourbon partner of the Carolina Panthers. Celebrate the spirit
Speaker 3: of the Carolinas. And we're celebrating because we're about to
Speaker 3: get some time off for a little bit tier in
Speaker 3: a little bit. But before that, we had a lot
Speaker 3: of football, and we got a lot of football to
Speaker 3: get to. But yeah, it's definitely got a feeling around
Speaker 3: the building today. It is now Thursday afternoon, and this
Speaker 3: place is cleared out pretty good. There was initially a
Speaker 3: walkthrough on the schedule for the Panthers after yesterday's final
Speaker 3: practice of mini camp. That walk through got canceled and
Speaker 3: so dudes were bolting out of here after the last
Speaker 3: team meeting before training camp, and I heard a couple
Speaker 3: of them saying, hey, win's your flight winds your flight Well,
Speaker 3: it was gonna be nine, but now I'm gonna move
Speaker 3: it up.
Speaker 4: So everybody was. Everybody's excited to just take a break.
Speaker 4: I mean it's not that you know.
Speaker 3: They hated it or anything like that, but as with
Speaker 3: any school year, when you get to the end of it,
Speaker 3: everybody's in a little bit different mood, you know. I
Speaker 3: remember back in the day, I would call into a
Speaker 3: radio station and request that they would play Freebird, which
Speaker 3: was stupid and self defeating because every radio station I
Speaker 3: listened to played Freebird all the time anyway, didn't.
Speaker 2: Have to request it. But nowadays you request, like do
Speaker 2: you ever have you ever heard the vitamin c graduation song.
Speaker 2: It's like, as we go, oh yeah, that feil. That's
Speaker 2: what that song says to me that schools out because
Speaker 2: radio stations start playing it at the end of the
Speaker 2: at the end of the school year to like say
Speaker 2: goodbye to all the seniors, and that means it's summer.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, and in my day it was either Leonard Skinner
Speaker 3: or Alice Cooper schools out for summer. But anyway, before
Speaker 3: we get everybody in trouble with copyright music violations, we
Speaker 3: should probably we should probably go ahead and talk about
Speaker 3: the football because I think in this kind of way
Speaker 3: I tried to write it yesterday at the end of practice,
Speaker 3: was now that we've been through an entire offic season,
Speaker 3: now that we've met the cast of characters, after watching
Speaker 3: these guys for the last three months on the field,
Speaker 3: what have we learned about this crowd and cass as
Speaker 3: you go through this thing. I know you've spent a
Speaker 3: lot of time on the Dave Canalis Bryce Young relationship,
Speaker 3: the two point seven second release time, that kind of
Speaker 3: thing when you think about what you've seen and where
Speaker 3: they were in March and where they are now, kind
Speaker 3: of what's your big takeaway.
Speaker 2: Ooh, so many takeaways. Let's see what's the big one.
Speaker 2: I think, more than anything, it's just how comfortable those
Speaker 2: two have become in their relationship with each other, and
Speaker 2: how trusting they've become. And the fact that you know,
Speaker 2: Canalis is always in Bryce's ear dear in practice, he's
Speaker 2: right there next to him. He's, you know, changing little
Speaker 2: things here and there. Of course, you have Will Heringer
Speaker 2: the quarterback coach, Nate Carroll the passing game coordinator. Brad
Speaker 2: is like the offensive coordinator. But right now, Bryceshong is
Speaker 2: Dave Canalis's pet project, so to speak. And there's a
Speaker 2: lot that they're just kind of working on here and there.
Speaker 2: And it's more than anything, it's helping Bryce understand you
Speaker 2: don't have to do everything. You don't have to be superman.
Speaker 2: You don't have to play hero ball when you get
Speaker 2: out there, which is what it kind of was becoming
Speaker 2: by the end of last season, you know, as much
Speaker 2: as I could.
Speaker 3: Ball, yeah, because there was nothing else to do other
Speaker 3: than it became kind of yellow ball at a certain dame.
Speaker 2: YOA. That's a better way of putting it.
Speaker 4: And nobody wants to go back to those days.
Speaker 2: And I think just in conversations that I've had with
Speaker 2: coaches with players here and there, it's a lot of
Speaker 2: making sure that this offense is built around what they
Speaker 2: want to do, but more than anything, what Bryce does well,
Speaker 2: which sounds like that should be a given, like let's
Speaker 2: build it around what our quarterback does well, but that's
Speaker 2: not always the case for whatever reason. And you know,
Speaker 2: when he was coming into the league last year, there's
Speaker 2: a caveat there. He's a rookie coming into the NFL.
Speaker 2: You don't necessarily know how the skills from college are
Speaker 2: going to translate. It's a little bit of figuring it
Speaker 2: out as you go. But this coaching staff has a
Speaker 2: pretty good grasp of what they think Bryce does well,
Speaker 2: and they're making sure to do that. You know, Dave
Speaker 2: can Al has talked this week about how much Bryce
Speaker 2: has been scrambling in practice, and he was saying, you know,
Speaker 2: I want him to be first read, second read. If
Speaker 2: there's nothing there, he needs to be moving. And that
Speaker 2: was something that Nate Carroll and I talked about as well,
Speaker 2: and that story is up on our website about kind
Speaker 2: of building from the ground up and starting with Bryce's
Speaker 2: footwork and the footwork has been the biggest focus this offseason.
Speaker 2: You can't do anything up top until you fix your foundation,
Speaker 2: and so they've they've kind of been tueling with his
Speaker 2: footwork and making sure he stays on the move because
Speaker 2: that's where they feel like Bryce Young is at his best.
Speaker 2: You know, Nate Carroll gave me a really good example about,
Speaker 2: you know, certain quarterbacks and I won't make names because
Speaker 2: they're still in the league, but he was saying, certain
Speaker 2: quarterbacks can only roll left and they can't necessarily roll
Speaker 2: right or vice versa. And it was a, you know,
Speaker 2: it's a very like Zoolander sort of situation there, and
Speaker 2: he said, Bryce has the ability to throw while rolling
Speaker 2: left or throw a throw while rolling right. That's a
Speaker 2: tongue twister, hm, he said. And that's not every quarterback
Speaker 2: can do that, and so when you have a guy
Speaker 2: that can do it, you want to be able to
Speaker 2: take advantage of it. And so it's not so much
Speaker 2: a scramble drill as it is just getting Bryce on
Speaker 2: the move where he can kind of feel free to
Speaker 2: move the pocket if he wants to, and he's not
Speaker 2: standing in a pocket and taking sixty two sacks.
Speaker 3: Yeah, one of the things I've noticed, and I mean
Speaker 3: I think early on and we've been in the business
Speaker 3: of new coaches a little bit around here, is you
Speaker 3: might be aware, but when a new guy comes in,
Speaker 3: you get kind of caught up in the personality. And
Speaker 3: it's good they want to do this and they want
Speaker 3: to do that, that sort of stuff, but you never
Speaker 3: it takes a minute, I should say, to figure out
Speaker 3: what they want to do on the field.
Speaker 4: And for a couple.
Speaker 3: Months, all we ever heard about, all people talked about
Speaker 3: with Dave Canalis was positivity, personality and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: What I've found out about Dave in the last little
Speaker 3: bit is he is still a very granular football coach.
Speaker 4: He enjoys, you know.
Speaker 3: The hands on on the field practice, you know, repetition,
Speaker 3: do the drill, do it right, do it the way
Speaker 3: we talked about in a meeting. If not, let's bring
Speaker 3: it back. You know, I think we talked previously there.
Speaker 3: There was a scene at one point during OTAs where
Speaker 3: they were doing two minutes stuff and he had instructed them, Hey, listen,
Speaker 3: the way we want to do two minutes. Run the
Speaker 3: ball back to the center, give it to Austin, let
Speaker 3: him spot it. So the referee can get it going
Speaker 3: and we can go. Well, somebody, there's no use calling
Speaker 3: anybody out because everybody is learning each other. Somebody just
Speaker 3: kind of chunked the ball back toward the huddle.
Speaker 2: Little lax days.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 3: It was a little casual and a little more casual
Speaker 3: than Dave wanted. So he basically blew the whistle and said, Nope,
Speaker 3: that's not how we want to do it. Remember we
Speaker 3: talked about in a meeting, and it wasn't a big
Speaker 3: scream and yelling, holler and cuss and anything like that.
Speaker 3: It was just very matter of fact. Hey, listen, we
Speaker 3: talked about this, we want to do it this way.
Speaker 3: And he just kind of read down the script of
Speaker 3: how they wanted to do it, and then he blew
Speaker 3: to whistle again, bring it back, let's start his segment
Speaker 3: over the next time they did it correctly, and all
Speaker 3: the times after that they did it correctly. And I
Speaker 3: think that's the kind of coach Dave Canalis is. It's
Speaker 3: easy to get caught up in some of that thirty
Speaker 3: thousand foot He's trying to bring positivity, he wants to
Speaker 3: build a culture. What he is is kind of a
Speaker 3: ball coach. He enjoys that part of it and he's
Speaker 3: really into it. And I think people who've had conversations
Speaker 3: with Dave knows that Dave Canalis is an extreme eye
Speaker 3: contact guy, and when you're having a conversation, you get
Speaker 3: every bit of him. And he coaches that way too.
Speaker 3: I mean he's very involved, you know, from talking to
Speaker 3: Brice talking to a bunch of guys on offense. I mean,
Speaker 3: he is not afraid to get down in the weeds
Speaker 3: of what he wants to do offensively. And I think
Speaker 3: that's been good because it's safe to say this is
Speaker 3: kind of a fresh start for everybody. I mean, last year,
Speaker 3: let's just pretend didn't happen and kind of move forward,
Speaker 3: and I think everybody would be happy with that.
Speaker 4: But they're building this offense from scratch.
Speaker 3: The other thing I've kind of picked up on from
Speaker 3: watching these guys over the last couple of months is
Speaker 3: Dave Canals hain't lyin when he talks about running the football.
Speaker 3: That's what they You know, we should have known that
Speaker 3: when he said it to begin with. We should have
Speaker 3: figured that it was going that way when they spend
Speaker 3: one hundred and fifty million dollars on six hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty pounds a guard in free agency, and then when
Speaker 3: we watch them practice, that's what they.
Speaker 4: Want to be gang.
Speaker 3: I mean, he talked about running stubbornly in Tampa because
Speaker 3: they weren't particularly good at it. You just keep beating
Speaker 3: you ahead against the wall. There are signs that this
Speaker 3: could be a pretty good running team. Now, again, they're
Speaker 3: not in pads, it's not full contact. They're not exerting
Speaker 3: their will and pushing defensive lines back or anything like that.
Speaker 3: But when you see Robert Hunt, Austin Corbett, Damian and
Speaker 3: Lewis move inside, and pair that with what we know
Speaker 3: about Cuba Hubbard that Cuba is a very able, a
Speaker 3: very willing to run inside and get dirty yards kind
Speaker 3: of back. When you pair that with Miles Sanders is
Speaker 3: pretty good coming out of the backfield as a receiver
Speaker 3: and has got some speed when you get him out
Speaker 3: in space. When you pair that with the eventual contributions
Speaker 3: of a guy like Jonathan Brooks who's coming off that
Speaker 3: acl in college and may not be ready to go,
Speaker 3: it's start a training camp, which we kind of knew already.
Speaker 3: You can kind of imagine this being a productive running game,
Speaker 3: and as you're trying to rebuild Bryce from the ground up,
Speaker 3: including confidence after a season that went so sideways, that's
Speaker 3: a pretty good place to start.
Speaker 2: And you know, Darren, I think they've even got four
Speaker 2: backs and Canals has talked about wanting to keep that room,
Speaker 2: you know, flush, and I think they will because you
Speaker 2: also got a guy like Raheem Blacksheer who can be
Speaker 2: used the return game. But remember he had a pretty
Speaker 2: solid end to last season and he's been the fortunate
Speaker 2: recipient of Miles Sanders sort of just nursing some injuries
Speaker 2: here and there, and it might also be fine. It's
Speaker 2: just you know, taking some precautions. Raheem's been the recipient
Speaker 2: of those extra snaps in practice and he again there's
Speaker 2: not pads, they're not full on hitting. It's not full speed,
Speaker 2: so there's always that caveat that goes with it. But
Speaker 2: he sees the field so well and he's got such
Speaker 2: a such a burst when he takes off, and that's
Speaker 2: a nice little weapon to have in your back pocket, like, oh, hey,
Speaker 2: here's our returner. Let's pop him in there to the
Speaker 2: running game as well. Use him if we need to
Speaker 2: flex him out and you've got that. I think you
Speaker 2: could legitimately see them use all four of those guys.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think Raheem's an interesting cat. I mean,
Speaker 3: he's got he's got some pop. That's why he's good
Speaker 3: in the return game. I mean he and I could
Speaker 3: see him being the beneficiary of these new kickoff rules
Speaker 3: because he is a very decisive runner. He hits the
Speaker 3: hole with intent and he's quick to it and can
Speaker 3: push through. I mean we've seen him. He's good in
Speaker 3: two point situations. I mean even in even in weird situations,
Speaker 3: he's shown that he's got some skills. So I think
Speaker 3: it's an interesting room. You know that've got a bunch
Speaker 3: of guys. And Dave talked about the running back room
Speaker 3: and the tight end group at length when he was
Speaker 3: talking about particular position groups yesterday. But this thing, I'm
Speaker 3: not one of the things that I think happens reflexively
Speaker 3: when there's a new coach. New coaches get to places
Speaker 3: because things went poorly previously, so everybody assumes there's an
Speaker 3: immediate reflex of, ah, now we fixed it, we figured
Speaker 3: out the secret sauce, this is all going to be
Speaker 3: better now.
Speaker 4: And I'm not.
Speaker 3: Suggesting that this offense is going to go from what
Speaker 3: it was last year, which passed the Southern Star.
Speaker 4: To a good offense now.
Speaker 3: But there are times out there on the practice field
Speaker 3: over the last couple months when you can sort of
Speaker 3: see between the cracks and it's like.
Speaker 4: Okay, I can see how they might score points this year.
Speaker 3: You know, I mean, you sort of see things coming
Speaker 3: together in a way that makes sense. And I know
Speaker 3: that sounds almost patronizing, maybe insulting, but that's where I
Speaker 3: think you've got to start with the Carolina Panthers. This
Speaker 3: offseason is Okay, we're beginning at zero. You can sort
Speaker 3: of see some tangible steps, and again, none of this
Speaker 3: is going to matter to you getting a season. I
Speaker 3: think people, based on what they saw last year, are
Speaker 3: going to want to see a little more in the
Speaker 3: preseason than they did, which is reasonable and fair. And
Speaker 3: I do think there is some degree of burden to
Speaker 3: build on some of those positive results and justify some
Speaker 3: of that work to say, Okay, yeah, that's what it's
Speaker 3: supposed to look like.
Speaker 4: But I can sort of see some of that.
Speaker 3: I don't think this is gonna be one of the
Speaker 3: top five passing games in the league any stretch of
Speaker 3: the imagination. There's still a lot to be figured out
Speaker 3: on that side of it, but I can imagine this
Speaker 3: team ought to be able to run and run well
Speaker 3: over the course of the year, and.
Speaker 2: The running game opens up the passing game.
Speaker 4: It always does, and you know, it's.
Speaker 2: Just speaking of the passing game. Something that Dave Canalis
Speaker 2: said on Wednesday that stood out to both of us
Speaker 2: was that they've kind of been telling Bryce and you've
Speaker 2: seen the connection with Bryce and Deontay Johnson developed this
Speaker 2: week through Mini camp, and Canals was saying that they've
Speaker 2: told Bryce, Deontay is going to make the right football move.
Speaker 2: He's going to make the right football decision, Trust him
Speaker 2: to be where he needs to be. And that kind
Speaker 2: of goes into as well, you know, just helping Bryce
Speaker 2: understand you don't have to play hero ball do your part.
Speaker 2: But I thought that was telling that Canal has said
Speaker 2: that part out loud. You know, Deontay's going to be
Speaker 2: Deontay's going to make the right decision, trust him, and
Speaker 2: so that'll be a funn to kind of watch continue
Speaker 2: to develop it.
Speaker 3: And again because of you know, Deontae was off doing
Speaker 3: his own thing.
Speaker 4: For a little bit.
Speaker 3: I'm sure everybody saw the social media video of him
Speaker 3: out working out on his own, but when he's been here,
Speaker 3: you've seen a pretty significant difference in that passing game
Speaker 3: because he's a different kind of receiver compared to what
Speaker 3: they had on Ham previously. And you know, Adam Feeling
Speaker 3: was the target last year by default, he was the
Speaker 3: one thing that worked in the passing game. I don't
Speaker 3: know that it would be realistic to expect the same
Speaker 3: kind of production out of him this year, not because
Speaker 3: of anything he's doing or not doing, because they got
Speaker 3: a few more guys that it's possible. And you know,
Speaker 3: Xavier Leaguett was in and doing some things, and you
Speaker 3: see him running around in OTAs and it's.
Speaker 4: Like, oh, well, he's big and fast.
Speaker 3: We kind of knew that based on South Carolina, but
Speaker 3: when when you see him out there on the field,
Speaker 3: you understand the difference between him and all these other kids,
Speaker 3: and then you know, looking at the rest of the
Speaker 3: passing game. Canal has talked about Ters Marshall having a
Speaker 3: good spring. I don't know that Jonathan Mingo is a
Speaker 3: guy that we should count out of the mix here either,
Speaker 3: because you know, with legat out the last couple weeks
Speaker 3: with that hamstring. I mean, he's taken a lot of
Speaker 3: those reps and he's looking pretty comfortable. I mean, Mingo
Speaker 3: is another guy. He's not as fast as Exavier, but
Speaker 3: he's got a similar kind of skill set, similar kind
Speaker 3: of frame, and I think he's learning a little bit.
Speaker 3: And we'll have some more on him and all these
Speaker 3: guys over the next couple of months. But things are
Speaker 3: ratcheting back a little bit. We're easing into the training
Speaker 3: camp mode coming up soon here. It'll be honest before
Speaker 3: we know it. But you know, just seeing that first
Speaker 3: impression of that offense, I feel reasonably safe saying it's
Speaker 3: going to be better.
Speaker 2: Let me put the car before the horse here and
Speaker 2: ask you a question. Do you think they have a
Speaker 2: thousand yard receiver again this year?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: That would be nice. It would certainly be helpful if
Speaker 3: there was one of those guys. I think if they're
Speaker 3: gonna have one, it's probably gonna be Deontae.
Speaker 4: But we'll see.
Speaker 3: I think, you know, in a perfect world, you would
Speaker 3: see a situation where Feeling's still getting his Now, you know,
Speaker 3: eighty catches for Adam Thielen might turn into seven hundred
Speaker 3: yards but in a normal situation, but I don't know exactly,
Speaker 3: and they're still they're still putting a lot of this
Speaker 3: stuff together. I kind of asked one of the offensive
Speaker 3: coaches the other day kind of a granular question about
Speaker 3: what the offense was gonna look like, and he said, honestly,
Speaker 3: we're gonna find that out in training camp because they've
Speaker 3: got all the stuff installed now, and now it's gonna
Speaker 3: be getting out there in pads, running it at full
Speaker 3: speed and seeing what it looks like, and that's gonna.
Speaker 4: Determine a lot of it.
Speaker 3: I think you're gonna see, you know again, You're gonna
Speaker 3: see a lot of run game, which means Bryce is
Speaker 3: probably gonna be under center a good bit. We know
Speaker 3: he's good in the shotgun based on what he did
Speaker 3: in college. But I think they're still trying to see
Speaker 3: what some of that stuff is going to feel like
Speaker 3: once they're out there, almost said Spartanburg.
Speaker 4: Once they're out.
Speaker 3: Here, happy outside Bank of America Stadium, on the practice
Speaker 3: fields here on this property for training camp details to come.
Speaker 3: Stay tuned to Panthers dot com for all the latest
Speaker 3: on that. But they're still working through that thing. I
Speaker 3: could see it, but I think Deonta's obviously the best
Speaker 3: shot at it, just based on the way they've been
Speaker 3: running around and kind of the quick connection they've had
Speaker 3: in a little bit of time they've worked together.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he's you know, people talk about his ability
Speaker 2: to create separation. He's opened more often than not when
Speaker 2: Bryce has throwing him. It's not a contested catch. It's
Speaker 2: easy to pick up an extra ten twelve yards when
Speaker 2: there's not a defender in your hip pocket.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that's how that was probably one of
Speaker 3: the first signs last year we should have known we
Speaker 3: had entered the upside down when Adam Thielen was among
Speaker 3: the league leaders in yards after the catch, right, because
Speaker 3: that ain't really his jam he was. He was up
Speaker 3: there early in the year simply because he was the
Speaker 3: guy who could move in space and get himself open
Speaker 3: among those guys last season. So anyway, but there's you know,
Speaker 3: we spend all our time talking about offense because that's
Speaker 3: the thing that went so spectacularly wrong last season.
Speaker 2: There's lots to dissect.
Speaker 4: I mean, there really is.
Speaker 3: But on the other side of the ball, it was
Speaker 3: almost it was almost funny to hear Shaq Thompson talk
Speaker 3: about it yesterday because.
Speaker 4: Shack's like, you know, there's a lot of new over
Speaker 4: here too, But it did.
Speaker 2: I think we got so many it was so easy
Speaker 2: to say, Okay, well, the whole defensive coaching staff returned,
Speaker 2: so the defense is going to stay the same, right,
Speaker 2: The scheme may stay the same, but there's a lot
Speaker 2: of new faces.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, say goodbye to Brian Burns, Frankie Luvu,
Speaker 3: Dante Jackson, Jeremy Chen, et cetera, et cetera, E Tour,
Speaker 3: a lot of different guys. And in their place, they
Speaker 3: brought in a bunch of dudes who already knew EJ.
Speaker 3: And these defensive coaches, a lot of former Rams and Broncos,
Speaker 3: you know. A'shawn Robinson gives them that third big body
Speaker 3: up front next to Shy tut On Derrick Brown that
Speaker 3: ought to stabilize things from front to back. Josie Jewel
Speaker 3: gives them that second true inside linebacker who can wear
Speaker 3: green dot call of defense, get everybody lined up and
Speaker 3: know what's coming alongside Shaq, and then you go through
Speaker 3: Jordan Fuller, Nick Scott, and they bring in all these
Speaker 3: other guys and and Shaq said, they're new, but they're
Speaker 3: not really these They know what we're supposed to do.
Speaker 3: So he said, I'm still getting to know the people,
Speaker 3: but it's it's interesting to see those kind of pieces
Speaker 3: come together and listen, I'm not gonna deceive our listeners.
Speaker 4: I respect them too much for that.
Speaker 3: We don't know one hundred percent how any of this
Speaker 3: is gonna look once they put on pads and start
Speaker 3: playing games. But just in in watching the communication and
Speaker 3: seeing them work through this stuff again, I don't know
Speaker 3: that it's going to be this calamitous drop off on
Speaker 3: that side of the ball, even though the turnover in
Speaker 3: terms of personnel was pretty massive, and we were talking
Speaker 3: about front end contributors and guys like Brian Burns and
Speaker 3: Frankie Luvu walking out the door.
Speaker 2: And it is June, so we can we can play
Speaker 2: a little bit of you know, have fun with it
Speaker 2: a little bit. All of those new faces that have
Speaker 2: played in this defense before, Jordan Fuller, Ashan Robinson, Josie Jewel,
Speaker 2: Nick's Gout. Especially Fuller, Robinson and Jewel had their best
Speaker 2: years in that defense. And so when you're looking at
Speaker 2: that especially a guy like Jordan Fuller and Josie Jewel
Speaker 2: and how important those positions are. And you realize that
Speaker 2: not only do they know this system, but they have
Speaker 2: flourished in this system. It's hard not to get a
Speaker 2: little bit excited about the possibilities. And then you've got someone
Speaker 2: like you know, Dan Jackson who kind of it took
Speaker 2: him a while to get his footing buffalo, but once
Speaker 2: he did, really kind of it showed up to be
Speaker 2: a good turnover guy. And that's something that you know,
Speaker 2: Canalis and Shack Thompson mentioned it on Wednesday as well.
Speaker 2: Is there massive focus on the offensive side, it's if
Speaker 2: it's all about getting the ball out quick and moving
Speaker 2: it down. On the defensive side, it's definitely about getting
Speaker 2: it back. That is something that Canalis has not been
Speaker 2: shy about saying out loud that the turnover ability is
Speaker 2: going to be their biggest focus this offseason for the defense.
Speaker 2: And you're looking at guys that have turned it over
Speaker 2: well before in their previous stops, and like we said,
Speaker 2: in this defense as well. So you see definitely what
Speaker 2: they're doing and the pieces they're putting into place, and
Speaker 2: why they brought in who they did and how they
Speaker 2: kind of see this defense unfolding on the field.
Speaker 3: And listen, this is going to have to be a
Speaker 3: different kind of defense than it was a year ago
Speaker 3: because Jadavian Clowney coming here is a big deal.
Speaker 2: My gosh, how are we not even talking about Clowny?
Speaker 3: And Clowney is a guy who is central to what
Speaker 3: they're going to do defensively, because when you think about
Speaker 3: all the production Brian Burns had in terms of sack
Speaker 3: and sacks and pressure and quarterbacks, Clowny's coming in to
Speaker 3: be that as close to like for like replacement as
Speaker 3: you can find. Obviously, it's very different around him, but
Speaker 3: those two are different players, and it's not like they
Speaker 3: are you can expect the same kind of stuff out
Speaker 3: of Jadevion that you got out of Brian because they're
Speaker 3: different players. I mean, Jadavion is much more of a
Speaker 3: run defender. He's gotten sacks, you know, primarily. I mean
Speaker 3: when he was in Baltimore, he's surrounded by studs. Okay,
Speaker 3: it was easy to get numbers there because you were
Speaker 3: around a lot of dudes. It's gonna be a lot
Speaker 3: more pressure on him to produce because that is not
Speaker 3: a deep position. I mean, we still haven't seen DJ
Speaker 3: want I'm on the field since coming over in free
Speaker 3: agency from Minnesota. He's had some complications after some offseason surgery.
Speaker 3: Hadn't been out there yet, and Canal said he might
Speaker 3: not be ready for the start of the tramp. That obviously
Speaker 3: complicates things because when you watch this offseason, Calevon Chason
Speaker 3: wasn't a round much through OTA's. DJ Johnson leaves with
Speaker 3: a knee injury the other day. The good news is
Speaker 3: doesn't seem to be that bad and he should be
Speaker 3: ready for the start of training camp. Ekugliota was getting
Speaker 3: a lot of snaps and people. You know, we're getting
Speaker 3: down to that point where people are like Ekugliota, who
Speaker 3: is that? You should know Eku? He's a remarkable fellow.
Speaker 2: Do you know what I love about Eku? No one
Speaker 2: is happier to be here than he is.
Speaker 3: That guy is super positive, brings great energy to the
Speaker 3: room everywhere he goes, and he can play a little bit.
Speaker 3: We saw that in spurts last year when he had
Speaker 3: to when he was out to run around as an
Speaker 3: undrafted rookie. But listen, that position is unsettled to say
Speaker 3: the least, So I I think it's going to be
Speaker 3: interesting to see how that manifests itself. But they're gonna
Speaker 3: EJ Is going to have to call this defense a
Speaker 3: little bit differently. I think you might see them just
Speaker 3: blitzing more than maybe they want in a perfect world,
Speaker 3: simply because they don't have the same kind of depth
Speaker 3: at that outside linebacker position as you would prefer to
Speaker 3: go into a season one.
Speaker 2: You say blitz moren Do you know what I immediately
Speaker 2: think of? I should maybe I should ask Podcast mass
Speaker 2: since he's on TikTok and more and vi age. What
Speaker 2: do you think of when you hear blitz.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 4: Blitz game No, no, no, I just.
Speaker 2: Think it was blitz Bama blitz.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, I don't know that one.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: It's this Alabama fan that like he got famous on
Speaker 2: TikTok because he was always like Blitz Bama Blitz and
Speaker 2: it became such a big deal and they brought him
Speaker 2: out to an Alabama practice a few months ago and
Speaker 2: the defensive coordinator put him on the megaphone and he's like,
Speaker 2: tell him what we're gonna do, and he was like,
Speaker 2: Blitz Bama Blitz.
Speaker 3: This is like the opposite of the dare and dated
Speaker 3: pop culture reference of the week here on the Happy
Speaker 3: Half Hour.
Speaker 4: So, uh, the the what is it? You're You're not
Speaker 4: even millennial? Are you are?
Speaker 2: Firmly I am?
Speaker 4: I am?
Speaker 2: There is no way, you know, like some people will
Speaker 2: be like, well, I'm a fringe millennial, I'm I'm millennial
Speaker 2: gen Z or I'm gen X millennial. I am firmly millennial.
Speaker 2: There is no which way for me to go to
Speaker 2: be anything else.
Speaker 4: Well, now Darren will know what it's like when he
Speaker 4: makes the references. He's on the other side of it.
Speaker 2: Now, Yeah, it's I'm now in the area. I'm in
Speaker 2: the age where my millennial references are becoming the dated ones,
Speaker 2: which is just that serves you a sobering reality serves you.
Speaker 3: Right now, you see what it's been like for me
Speaker 3: the last thirty years. But anyway, before we start talking
Speaker 3: about Mash or something like that.
Speaker 2: Mash the TV show or Mash the game we used
Speaker 2: to play in elementary school where you were figuring out
Speaker 2: what you were going to do with your life.
Speaker 4: Oh god, what are we doing?
Speaker 3: At any rate, maybe that's the point at which we
Speaker 3: need to clear summer break on this podcast.
Speaker 4: We've we're having a good.
Speaker 2: Time any summer breaks, Darren.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I mean, plans are kind of hard to make sometimes,
Speaker 3: but I'm spectacularly bad at it. We're trying to go
Speaker 3: out with some friends tonight. We're gonna go see a
Speaker 3: show tonight, and it's like, where are we gonna meet beforehand?
Speaker 3: And I literally created a group text with me and
Speaker 3: my friend, who are ostensibly the ones who will be
Speaker 3: making these plans, but I included the wives on this
Speaker 3: group text. I was like, I want y'all to figure
Speaker 3: this out. And my wife looked at me this morning.
Speaker 3: She said, you know, it's more likely to happen if
Speaker 3: you and will just talk, And I said, but I
Speaker 3: would rather you do it. So that's how plans get
Speaker 3: made or not made at the Gant House. And uh
Speaker 3: so we're still working on that part of it. But
Speaker 3: uh yeah, I'm gonna go see some shows. There's a
Speaker 3: I'm going to see a bunch of concerts in the
Speaker 3: next couple of weeks really, so yeah, I'm digging it.
Speaker 4: We're going to see Drive By Truckers tomorrow night.
Speaker 3: Actually, I got Frank Turner and Willie Nelson and Robert
Speaker 3: Plant and Bob Dylan Wow next week, so that's a
Speaker 3: bit two separate concerts. Frank Turner and Willie Nelson would
Speaker 3: be an interesting pairing, but the English punk rock crowd
Speaker 3: with Willy would not be anything.
Speaker 4: You know what.
Speaker 2: I think he'd have a good time though.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he would.
Speaker 3: They come from similar, similar philosophical places, let's say it
Speaker 3: like that. But yeah, a lot of shows coming up
Speaker 3: this summer. I can't wait to get to a lot
Speaker 3: of summer I can't wait to get to how about you.
Speaker 2: I've got my godparents coming into town next week and
Speaker 2: We're going to take a day to go over to
Speaker 2: the Biltmore. Love going over there whenever I can and
Speaker 2: just exploring and take a day to kind of bounce
Speaker 2: around Ashville. Because anytime I've gone to Ashville, it's been
Speaker 2: to go to the Biltmore. I've never actually explored the town.
Speaker 2: And I'm a big fan of the Last of the
Speaker 2: Mohicans and it was filmed right around Ashville, So I
Speaker 2: kind of want to take that little hiking tour to
Speaker 2: see all the lives the Mohicans spots, and then gonna
Speaker 2: probably go to Alabama for a little bit. Nieces and
Speaker 2: nephew and the rest of my family, but the nieces
Speaker 2: and nephew are really the important ones. There you go
Speaker 2: and just kind of relax, go home tonight and watch
Speaker 2: the second half of Bridgerton. I was downstairs earlier and
Speaker 2: I was trying to commit Derek Brown. He needed to
Speaker 2: catch up on Bridgerton to join the worldwide phenomenon.
Speaker 3: How that go?
Speaker 2: And he was like, He's like, it's a big deal.
Speaker 2: And I was like, yeah, it's a big deal. And
Speaker 2: he was like, I don't know what's it about. And
Speaker 2: I was like, I don't think he's gonna watch it,
Speaker 2: but if we come back for training camp, we should
Speaker 2: ask him. Yeah, Derrick Brown, give us a recap of Richerton.
Speaker 4: I can.
Speaker 3: I'm having a vision in my head of Derek Brown
Speaker 3: in Victorian era garb.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, that's not a thing. I should have a picture.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but don't forget too for fans. We do have
Speaker 2: a couple of players on the Keep Pounding tour next week,
Speaker 2: so we'll have footage and recaps from that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's a chance.
Speaker 3: Don't don't check out on us completely for the next month. Ors,
Speaker 3: because here's what I can tell you is coming. You're
Speaker 3: gonna get announcements coming very soon about things like training camp, which,
Speaker 3: as we mentioned, is going to be right here at
Speaker 3: Bank of America Stadium. There's some exciting stuff alongside training
Speaker 3: camp that you'll be finding out about very soon. You
Speaker 3: got a second episode of Blueprint coming next week, which
Speaker 3: I think everybody's gonna enjoy. That's gonna be that deep
Speaker 3: dive into the draft and free agency process, kind of
Speaker 3: take you behind the scenes on how some of that
Speaker 3: stuff came together and a lot more. I mean, this
Speaker 3: is not just me being a shameless corporate shill, which
Speaker 3: I am. Have I told you have I told you
Speaker 3: lately about Southern Star, an official bourbon partner of the
Speaker 3: Carolina Panthers, which we enjoy very much. Yeah, there's a
Speaker 3: lot of stuff coming up, and we're gonna take a
Speaker 3: little time. This may be a brief hiatus. I don't
Speaker 3: know when we will convene again for another happy half hour,
Speaker 3: but when we do, there's gonna be a reason for that.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be because football seasons right around the corner.
Speaker 3: So we appreciate y'all hanging with us this offseason. We
Speaker 3: will see you again soon.