Speaker 1: This week on a Happy Half Hour.
Speaker 2: Here's what I think about preseason football after watching thirty
Speaker 2: years of NFL preseason football product. It's kind of like
Speaker 2: when you buy Craft singles or something that says American
Speaker 2: cheese product. They don't say cheese, they say cheese product.
Speaker 2: That's what preseason football's like.
Speaker 1: Touchdown 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 2: All right, it's a great day. I don't know, I
Speaker 2: just felt like starting the Happy Half Hour in the
Speaker 2: voice of Dave Canalis. I mean, he always walks into
Speaker 2: press conference, you know, full of energy, and he says
Speaker 2: things like that was a great.
Speaker 3: Day, what a great day, to have a great day.
Speaker 2: How we do on everybody, every big good good.
Speaker 3: I wish I had a little bit of his energy.
Speaker 2: Podcast, Matt, Does it come off as sincere when I
Speaker 2: say it that way?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: Okay, what if I just do it the way I
Speaker 2: always do and say, hello, friends, welcome to the Happy
Speaker 2: Half Hour.
Speaker 3: If you're not starting the podcast talking about liquor, then
Speaker 3: it doesn't feel sincere.
Speaker 2: Yeah, hey, okay, I'll take that all right. So there
Speaker 2: we go. We're already into this happy half hour presented
Speaker 2: by a Southern Star, an official bourbon of the Carolina
Speaker 2: Panthers celebrate the spirit of the Carolinas. And you know
Speaker 2: what we celebrated last week, Cassi Hill, What did we
Speaker 2: celebrate last We celebrated a touchdown. We saw it with
Speaker 2: our own two.
Speaker 3: D Actually we didn't if you were in the elevator
Speaker 3: like I was.
Speaker 2: Well, I was. I was watching it on a monitor.
Speaker 3: So I've heard the stories.
Speaker 2: Yes, touchdowns have been scored. The Carolina Panthers have scored points.
Speaker 2: All of you naysayers go someplace else. It is a
Speaker 2: happy half hour and a happy half hour. Uh and
Speaker 2: only happy because preseason almost over. Oh yeah, it's kind
Speaker 2: of a drag. I understand people who have been frustrated
Speaker 2: not seeing the starters and the people that they kind
Speaker 2: of want to see. But there's a reason for this gang.
Speaker 3: There is a reason. And Bryshawn kind of summed it
Speaker 3: up on Tuesday.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, day of the week is it anymore?
Speaker 3: That is a great question. But bryshonk summed it up
Speaker 3: on Tuesday when he said, you know, we trust the coaches.
Speaker 3: They have a plan, and they have put us in
Speaker 3: a lot of game like situations in practice to kind
Speaker 3: of adjust for if they don't play in a preseason game. Now, granted, Darren,
Speaker 3: a lot of people will say, well, we're prepared regardless.
Speaker 3: You've watched a lot of practices, and you've watched a
Speaker 3: lot of practices for the Carolina Panthers. Do you see it?
Speaker 3: From my point of view, We've heard so much about
Speaker 3: Dave Canalys's training camp plan and and not straying from
Speaker 3: the plan even when it would have been easy to
Speaker 3: and actually sticking to it, and it's sort of beginning
Speaker 3: to unfold to prepare the players in a certain way.
Speaker 3: I feel like we have actually seen that happen, and
Speaker 3: we've seen it working in the longer camp went on,
Speaker 3: and the closer we get to the regular season, you're like, Okay,
Speaker 3: I actually kind of see his process here. Do you
Speaker 3: think that plan is enough to make up for possibly
Speaker 3: not playing the starters in a preseason game.
Speaker 2: Here's what I think about preseason football after watching thirty
Speaker 2: years of NFL preseason football product, and it's kind of
Speaker 2: like when you buy craft singles or something that says
Speaker 2: American cheese product. They don't say cheese, they say cheese product.
Speaker 2: That's what preseason football is like. It's preseason football product.
Speaker 3: It is a product of the NFL.
Speaker 2: It is not like the other football And Canal has
Speaker 2: talked about it earlier this week, and Matt is awesome,
Speaker 2: and we'll pull the sound and he can say it
Speaker 2: in his own words, but Dave said in as many words,
Speaker 2: there is a difference between a joint practice snap and
Speaker 2: a preseason game snap. And I'll let him explain that
Speaker 2: part before we come back.
Speaker 4: So you're gonna get an elevated speed just naturally, you.
Speaker 1: Know, guys.
Speaker 4: Guys, we're pushing our guys to go full speed all
Speaker 4: the time. But as we know, they get into this
Speaker 4: competitive moment and when the jersey color changes and it's
Speaker 4: someone new, there's an excitement to it. There's just naturally
Speaker 4: an excitement to that part of it. But we're not
Speaker 4: tackling to the ground, you know, we're certainly not you know,
Speaker 4: cut blocking anywhere, and we're not doing some of the
Speaker 4: things that that we would normally do in a normal
Speaker 4: game setting, you know, so there's still a big difference,
Speaker 4: you know, it's like, there's it's amazing to me always
Speaker 4: the levels of speed that our players take it when
Speaker 4: it goes from the most competitive thing you can create
Speaker 4: in a practice to what happens in the game, you know,
Speaker 4: and the adrenaline and all those things and the lights
Speaker 4: and all the excitement of that.
Speaker 2: And I get that. I'll go with him on that,
Speaker 2: except here's what I like about the joint practice situation.
Speaker 2: And I swear I believe if my friends at three
Speaker 2: forty five Park Avenue steal my idea and turn joint
Speaker 2: practices into three hour scrimmages where the first half is
Speaker 2: one versus two or Mayo versus your D, the second
Speaker 2: half's your DMO that kind of thing, and turn it
Speaker 2: into a three hour joint practice on television inside stadium
Speaker 2: bowls with money, then we'll all be better off. Because
Speaker 2: here's what I like about a joint practice. Snap number one,
Speaker 2: it's predictable. You can strap a red jersey on your
Speaker 2: quarterbacks back. Know that nobody who's trying to prove a
Speaker 2: point and make a name for himself and become the
Speaker 2: fifty third man on the roster tries to take out
Speaker 2: your guy. The other thing I like about it, and
Speaker 2: I actually prefer this one. I mean, I understand safety,
Speaker 2: but it is still football and people are still gonna
Speaker 2: get hurt no matter how many steps you take to
Speaker 2: try to protect them. Here's what I like the most
Speaker 2: about a joint practice. It's a repeatable rep. If you
Speaker 2: want to get I mean, say, for instance, da and
Speaker 2: Canalis open the door to maybe playing those guys in
Speaker 2: Buffalo on Saturday afternoon. And if he does, that's fine.
Speaker 2: But if he does, he's going to be going against
Speaker 2: Buffalo's twos because Sean McDermott already said he wasn't playing
Speaker 2: his And you don't know if you're going to get
Speaker 2: in a red zone situation or not. I mean, Bryce
Speaker 2: might drop back, scramble a little bit, chuck one up
Speaker 2: to the heavens, and Deontay Johnson might run eighty yards
Speaker 2: for a touchdown. Boom. That's a series. I don't know.
Speaker 2: Would you go one play and get them on out
Speaker 2: of there, but you'd get no red zone. So he
Speaker 2: can get together with Robert Salah or whatever coach he
Speaker 2: wants to do it with in the future and say,
Speaker 2: really like to work on red zone today? All right, cool,
Speaker 2: let's do twelve plays of red zone and if something
Speaker 2: doesn't go right in one of those plays, blow the whistle,
Speaker 2: bring it back reset. We've seen Dave do that in
Speaker 2: his own practices before. So I just think the repeatable work,
Speaker 2: the controlled work, the predictable work, allows it to be
Speaker 2: better work. I mean, there were things I saw during
Speaker 2: the joint practice on both sides, on both fields that
Speaker 2: were instructive to where the Carolina Panthers were. I mean,
Speaker 2: this time a year ago when the Jets were in Spartanburg,
Speaker 2: that joint practice did not go particularly well for the
Speaker 2: Carolina Panthers. You could tell. And again, you know, sometimes
Speaker 2: it's a canary and a coal mine, sometimes it's just
Speaker 2: a dead bird. But that practice last year should have
Speaker 2: been the moment when we all said this ain't quite right.
Speaker 2: But we didn't even realize how bad it was going
Speaker 2: to become at the time. But this year, you know,
Speaker 2: and people ask me on Twitter, you know what the
Speaker 2: difference was in this one now one, and I said,
Speaker 2: a competent offensive product was on the field. I mean,
Speaker 2: not only did they score during those sessions, Bryce moved
Speaker 2: the ball downfield, he was hitting some shots deep. You know,
Speaker 2: they were protecting well. Icky was getting good work. And
Speaker 2: I think some of the things you've seen over the
Speaker 2: course of and this is a really long way of
Speaker 2: answering what was a really direct question on your part
Speaker 2: about seven minutes ago. I think the work Dave Canalis
Speaker 2: has done during this training camp's been very focused. He's
Speaker 2: been intentional about we want to run, we want to
Speaker 2: be physical, and they've practiced that way by being very intentional.
Speaker 3: The one thing that Dave Canal said he would want
Speaker 3: to see out of the starters if they did play
Speaker 3: in a preseason game specifically Bryce was essentially the between
Speaker 3: the snaps procedures, the operation of things, getting in and
Speaker 3: out of the huddle, you know, getting to the line,
Speaker 3: maybe making some checks or whatnot. Those are things that
Speaker 3: you can, like you can practice in practice, but I
Speaker 3: don't know if you can really facilitate the game atmosphere
Speaker 3: of doing those things. So, if let's say they don't
Speaker 3: play on Saturday, and the first time the starters step
Speaker 3: onto the field to play this season is that first
Speaker 3: week in New Orleans, a notable tough place to play
Speaker 3: there in the super Dome or sound echoes, do you
Speaker 3: just resign yourself to the fact that there might be
Speaker 3: some procedural issues the first few drives, maybe even the
Speaker 3: first game.
Speaker 2: I think it could be, but it doesn't have to be,
Speaker 2: don't I don't think it has to be that way.
Speaker 2: And I just think that they've gotten a little bit
Speaker 2: of that out of the way in terms of Canalis's operation.
Speaker 2: He went through a George League game management coordinator in
Speaker 2: the first game and did his first challenge and one
Speaker 2: he's one and zero. They've done a lot of that stuff.
Speaker 2: I think you can replicate some of that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: I used to laugh when John Fox was coach, he
Speaker 2: dedicated part of a training camp practice to how they're
Speaker 2: coming out of the tunnel to stretch, and he would
Speaker 2: have everybody on the roster, ninety deep crowd into that
Speaker 2: little you know, crepe myrtle shaded corner of the field
Speaker 2: at Wafford and come out of the corner and then
Speaker 2: it would go stretch and everything. You can teach some
Speaker 2: of that procedural kind of stuff. And listen, Bryce Young's
Speaker 2: been in big games before in that building, you know.
Speaker 2: I think in the course of his time as a
Speaker 2: college player he might have wandered in there a time
Speaker 2: or two, but it's you know, I think some of
Speaker 2: that stuff and the call for these guys to play
Speaker 2: in a preseason because they have to do it. I
Speaker 2: keep going back to, you know, just checking the numbers,
Speaker 2: Thirteen teams, including the Carolina Panthers, have not played their
Speaker 2: starting quarterbacks at all in the preseason so far through
Speaker 2: two weeks now. Some of that's injury. I mean, Matt
Speaker 2: Stafford's been a little dinged up. You know, different guys
Speaker 2: are out for different reasons, but you know, seventeen teams
Speaker 2: didn't play them in Week one, twenty teams didn't play
Speaker 2: them in Week two. You know, obviously that vin diagram
Speaker 2: crosses a little bit there, but thirteen teams doing it
Speaker 2: means there's a reason some people don't do it, and
Speaker 2: I think the lack of predictability. And Canalis also mentioned
Speaker 2: this last week, just having guys dinged up. I mean
Speaker 2: Xavier League, it has missed some time with injuries. Damian
Speaker 2: Lewis has been in and out of practice a little
Speaker 2: bit with some shoulder related stuff, some personal stuff, and
Speaker 2: so I think that without being able to put all
Speaker 2: those people together, Dave's just been hesitant to put half
Speaker 2: a first offense out there. Because if you want it
Speaker 2: to be what you expect to get out of it,
Speaker 2: if you want it to be intentional, and there's that
Speaker 2: Dave Canala's word again, you want to play those guys
Speaker 2: all together. So it's decent work.
Speaker 3: Can I take a guess at what thirteen teams haven't
Speaker 3: played their quarterback?
Speaker 2: You can, and as you talk, I'll dig the notebook
Speaker 2: out of my bag that has that information.
Speaker 3: And this is purely just a guess. I'm trying to
Speaker 3: think of who I've heard this played, and therefore who
Speaker 3: wouldn't know.
Speaker 2: If Matt had a digging sound effect.
Speaker 3: The Jets have not played their starting quarterback. Oh no,
Speaker 3: I don't think the forty nine ers have.
Speaker 2: You're all over the yard now.
Speaker 3: The forty nine ers have.
Speaker 2: Blah blah blah blah, and the forty nine ers have not.
Speaker 3: Okay, so some two for two I want to say
Speaker 3: the Bucks have not.
Speaker 2: I'm all over this notebook now the Diggings again, No,
Speaker 2: brock Purty did play in Week two, so the forty
Speaker 2: nine ers have not. Here we go the thirteen teams
Speaker 2: that have not played a quarterback in the preseason. Jets, Baltimore,
Speaker 2: ravens Lamar Jackson, Cleveland, Deshaun Watson was I guess Chargers,
Speaker 2: I mean, Justin Herbert's been hurt, He's coming back this week,
Speaker 2: probably played a little bit. Maybe Miami's played two has played,
Speaker 2: Dak Prescott hasn't played, Jalen Hurts, Jared Goff, Kirk Cousins, Bryce,
Speaker 2: Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, Matt Stafford, Gino Smith. Those are
Speaker 2: the thirteen guys. So you've got kind of a mixed
Speaker 2: bag of old and dinged up and old and don't
Speaker 2: need it and young and could you know, could arguably
Speaker 2: use some. You know, I think you could talk about
Speaker 2: Baker Mayfield in Tampa as being a guy who could
Speaker 2: probably use as much as anybody else. He's running a
Speaker 2: brand new offense this year without Dave Canal.
Speaker 3: Speaking of Baker Mayfield, Dave Canal has actually made a
Speaker 3: good point. I thought early this week about you know,
Speaker 3: they played their they played their quote unquote starters in
Speaker 3: the preseason at Tampa last year because they were in
Speaker 3: the middle of a quarterback competition. It was still down
Speaker 3: between Baker Mayfield and Cayl Trask until Week one, And
Speaker 3: he said that's obviously not the case here. Yeah, and
Speaker 3: so that makes a difference too. Another question that I'm
Speaker 3: meant to ask a few minutes ago, what is at
Speaker 3: three forty five Park Avenue the NFL headquarters.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's their mailing address.
Speaker 3: Do you send a postcard?
Speaker 2: Now? It's just one of those things. I know. It's
Speaker 2: kind of in thirty years you kind of pick up
Speaker 2: certain things, and certain things just become shorthand, and it's
Speaker 2: really like, yeah.
Speaker 3: When people say like or you hear like reports from
Speaker 3: the British media and they're like news today out of ten.
Speaker 2: Downing, Yeah, exactly, it's kind of like that.
Speaker 3: You know what's at ten Downing?
Speaker 2: Is it the Prime Minister's House?
Speaker 3: It's the Prime Minister's House.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'm a genius.
Speaker 3: Or six hundred Pennsylvania Avenue, it's the.
Speaker 2: White House, sixteen hundred Pennsylvania Avenue. See what happens when
Speaker 2: you try to get wise the confidence? Yeah, I know,
Speaker 2: un earned confident. This is the benefit of being old.
Speaker 2: You just kind of stop and look at people and say,
Speaker 2: did you mean to do that?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 3: I was short numb a thousand, my bad?
Speaker 2: Yeah, at any rate, you could have been more intentional
Speaker 2: with that. Hey, speaking of intentional here's an adorable Dave
Speaker 2: Canalis story about being intentional. I saw him this morning
Speaker 2: on the practice field before practice started. He's walking out
Speaker 2: on the grass doing his Dave Canalis thing, being very
Speaker 2: bouncy and energetic.
Speaker 3: Because it is. It's more it like we joked about
Speaker 3: it not being as legit from you at the top,
Speaker 3: but it is legit from him.
Speaker 2: Oh, no question. And he stops dead in his tracks,
Speaker 2: and I thought, did he step on something sharp? What
Speaker 2: happened here? And he bends down and he picks something
Speaker 2: up out of the grass, and I was like, I'm
Speaker 2: assuming somebody left a nail or something there that somebody's
Speaker 2: going to drive a golf cart tire over and flatten it,
Speaker 2: because I just kind of think nails are going to
Speaker 2: go in tires. But it was a moth. And Dave
Speaker 2: Canalis comes up with two hands holding this big brown
Speaker 2: moth and he's like, look at that. He stands there
Speaker 2: and he considers it for a second, and then he
Speaker 2: walks it over to the side across the little artificial
Speaker 2: turf barrier between the grass field and everything else in
Speaker 2: the world, and he kind of sits it down on
Speaker 2: the edge very gently, And I was like it's adorable,
Speaker 2: because ay, I believe Dave Canalis has the best interest
Speaker 2: of that moth at heart, he wants the moth to
Speaker 2: become its best version of its moth self. But I
Speaker 2: think also in Dave Canalis's brain, he's like, I do
Speaker 2: not want one of my guys seeing a moth on
Speaker 2: the ground and getting distracted and taking away from the
Speaker 2: activity of football practice. I think both of those things
Speaker 2: can be equally true.
Speaker 3: And with the advent of technology, that moth could be
Speaker 3: a little drone for all we know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's clearly a Saint's drone that's flying over this place.
Speaker 2: So anyway, now that and that was a story about
Speaker 2: Dave Canalis in a moth. So at any rate, where
Speaker 2: were we We were talking about what's coming up in
Speaker 2: the next little bit. You know, we covered obviously there's
Speaker 2: going to be a game Saturday at one o'clock in Buffalo,
Speaker 2: New York, Orchard Park to be specific, and then we
Speaker 2: will be back and this will turn into a whole
Speaker 2: new ball team again. Because before we talk to you
Speaker 2: again here on the Happy half hour, since we normally
Speaker 2: do these in midweek, this team's going to look very
Speaker 2: different on Tuesday by four o'clock. They've got to turn
Speaker 2: a ninety man roster into a fifty three and that
Speaker 2: is going to be hard, and you know, for a
Speaker 2: lot of different reasons. I mean, I think anybody could
Speaker 2: look at this roster and say, okay, there's one, there's
Speaker 2: one that you could probably cross some names off and
Speaker 2: have a decent chance of being successful. But where this
Speaker 2: is tricky is we're not gonna know on Tuesday who
Speaker 2: the fifty three is. We're not gonna know on Wednesday
Speaker 2: who the fifty three is. It's going to be a
Speaker 2: minute because, as we've mentioned throughout the off season, one
Speaker 2: of the benefits of being two and fifteen the year
Speaker 2: before is you've got the very first spot in waiver
Speaker 2: claim order. So basically, any player with four years or
Speaker 2: viewer of experience in the league that gets cut next week,
Speaker 2: if the Carolina Panthers won them, they're going to have
Speaker 2: them right. And I imagine, based on you know what
Speaker 2: we've talked about this roster being which is thin in
Speaker 2: a lot of places, that is a privilege they are
Speaker 2: going to exercise. So it's going to be interesting to
Speaker 2: see how all this comes together.
Speaker 3: With that in mind, going into Saturday's game, which Dave
Speaker 3: Canals alluded to earlier this week, is being a decision
Speaker 3: game for a lot of guys. What units are you
Speaker 3: keeping an eye on the most, and even if for
Speaker 3: different reasons, like for example, I think both the wide
Speaker 3: receiver and the safety units are ones to keep an
Speaker 3: eye on, but for completely different reasons. One of them
Speaker 3: they're going to be begging guys to take some of
Speaker 3: those spots, to claim those spots, and the other one
Speaker 3: they got some hard decisions to make.
Speaker 2: They really do. I mean, safety is a place where
Speaker 2: they're deep, and I mean they kind of casually old
Speaker 2: by the way, drop into Rudy Ford the other week,
Speaker 2: and Rudy Ford's a cat who started games in the
Speaker 2: league and it's been a good special team year, and
Speaker 2: so yeah, I think safety is one of those places
Speaker 2: because what do you do with a Jamie Robbinson. What
Speaker 2: do you do with an Alex Cook who started a
Speaker 2: couple of games here last year AND's got some potential.
Speaker 2: So that is behind a very veteran starting group. I mean,
Speaker 2: Averro's talked about three starting caliber safeties in Xavier Woods,
Speaker 2: Jordan Fuller, Nick Scott. Right now, Xavier's not practicing. He's
Speaker 2: got a little bit of an injury deal, and who
Speaker 2: knows how long that's going to keep him out. But
Speaker 2: until then, you're looking at all, right, what do you do?
Speaker 2: You know, Sam Franklin broke his foot back together Saturday. Ostensibly,
Speaker 2: Sam is a guy you want to keep on the
Speaker 2: fifty three and bring back later in the year. Now
Speaker 2: they've changed the rules a little. In the past, anybody
Speaker 2: you wanted to put on IR and bring back later
Speaker 2: you had to carry to the fifty three man through
Speaker 2: the fifty three man cuts. This year, they'll let you
Speaker 2: put two guys on IR on cutdown day and then
Speaker 2: bring them back at some point later, not having to
Speaker 2: carry him on because I think a lot of people
Speaker 2: realize those were just kind of roster spots that were
Speaker 2: getting turned over the following day anyway. So let's just
Speaker 2: put that mechanism in place and put a cup on
Speaker 2: our Sam's a guy who could fall into that category.
Speaker 2: But then you're talking about you know, Alex Cook, Demani Richardson,
Speaker 2: who keeps making play after play, whether it's in the
Speaker 2: preseason game or in practice or joint practice. You know,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of guys in there, and again, we
Speaker 2: kind of Oh, by the way, somebody like Alex Cook,
Speaker 2: who's looked good and was able to step into a
Speaker 2: weird situation and start last year in and amongst a
Speaker 2: lot of veterans. So that is probably as deep a
Speaker 2: group as there is. The one that's interesting to me
Speaker 2: and the one I'm continuing to watch and again for
Speaker 2: a very different reason is the Cornerbacks we we know
Speaker 2: based on canal is saying that Dan Jackson was gonna
Speaker 2: miss six weeks ish and I love six weeks ish.
Speaker 2: I love I love six weeks ish almost as much
Speaker 2: as I love a story about taking care of the
Speaker 2: earth and its smallest months. I love six weeks ish.
Speaker 2: But it does tell us that Dame Jackson ain't gonna
Speaker 2: be ready for the Saints in week one, And going
Speaker 2: into last week you could have said, well, maybe Lamar
Speaker 2: Jackson is kind of the leader amongst that group of
Speaker 2: younger guys to start in that outside job opposite j. C.
Speaker 1: Horn.
Speaker 2: But then Lamar gets hurt knee injury. Last week. He
Speaker 2: was waved injured. I mean, there's a chance at some
Speaker 2: point down the road later this year he could come back,
Speaker 2: but for now he is. He's gone. So you take
Speaker 2: him out of the decision making process. That means that
Speaker 2: they probably, depending on who who is on the waiver
Speaker 2: wire next Tuesday, you're probably making a decision on a
Speaker 2: starting cornerback for the regular season opener between DeShawn Jamison, DiCaprio, Bootle,
Speaker 2: and Shaw, Smith Wade, and there are other guys around
Speaker 2: and in the mix, and Troy Hill is on the roster,
Speaker 2: but I mean, Troy's pretty exclusively a nickel at this point.
Speaker 2: He's here because he's smart, and he knows how to
Speaker 2: play nickel, and he's comfortable inside. Shaw had been taking
Speaker 2: a lot of his naps inside at nickel this year.
Speaker 2: But he's a cat who's always played outside. It's like
Speaker 2: every high school team's best offensive lineman's there left tackle.
Speaker 2: Every college's best corner guy plays outside corner. You only
Speaker 2: start playing nickel when you get to the league and
Speaker 2: they realize you're shorter than everybody else, or you're getting older. So,
Speaker 2: although it is a complicated job, but somewhere between that
Speaker 2: three man group of Shaw and DiCaprio and DeShawn Jamison
Speaker 2: and one of them dudes is going to probably be
Speaker 2: starting against the Saints down in the Super Dome, So
Speaker 2: I'm kind of curious to see how much they play
Speaker 2: and who looks like what in a game against the
Speaker 2: Buffalo backups.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I also want to see it maybe a little
Speaker 3: more from the tight ends, because that could be an
Speaker 3: answer to the wide receiver numbers. Do you just maybe
Speaker 3: carry a cup like another tight end or two than
Speaker 3: you would normally.
Speaker 2: Do so, And again, we haven't seen Ian Thomas in
Speaker 2: a little bit. We don't know the extent because as
Speaker 2: Dave's gotten closer to the regular season, he's being less
Speaker 2: forthcoming with his injury information because everybody tightens up when
Speaker 2: you get to the regular season and they get into
Speaker 2: gamesmanship mode. But we ain't seen Ian Thomas in a minute,
Speaker 2: so we don't know when we're going to see him.
Speaker 2: Does he have to become one of those guys who
Speaker 2: goes on ir to come back later, you know, Tommy Tremble,
Speaker 2: Jatavian Sanders, what do you do with the Jordan Matthews
Speaker 2: who is so good and so smart and so able
Speaker 2: to do a lot of different things. But can you
Speaker 2: carry a Jordan Matthews to the exclusion of an extra
Speaker 2: dB or you know, those are the kind of things
Speaker 2: I think are going to be real debates downstairs over
Speaker 2: the next couple of days because, and I don't mean
Speaker 2: to single Jordan out there, a lot of the bubble
Speaker 2: here is very big this year. There's probably about thirty
Speaker 2: guys on the quote unquote bubble and how that thing goes.
Speaker 2: I mean, again, before Dan Jackson and before Dan Jackson
Speaker 2: and Lamar get hurt, some of those guys we were
Speaker 2: talking about at corner were probably on the outside looking in,
Speaker 2: and now you're sort of changing the calculus on a
Speaker 2: lot of that. But there's going to there's gonna be
Speaker 2: a lot of that. I mean, do you keep a
Speaker 2: Mike Boone as a fourth running back until Jonathan Brooks
Speaker 2: is ready or maybe even beyond. Because one of the
Speaker 2: things that I think is going to be interesting is
Speaker 2: how special Teams comes into play, because Tracy Smith is
Speaker 2: going to have to find a dozen dudes to run
Speaker 2: down kicks and punts, not a dozen that, but he's
Speaker 2: going to have to find eleven guys, not counting JJ
Speaker 2: and Johnny or JJ and Johnny and Eddie to be
Speaker 2: on those special teams units. And that's always tricky because
Speaker 2: he's going to be the last one to get to vote.
Speaker 2: I mean, in a situation like this, he might have
Speaker 2: a guy or two that he loves, and in ordinary
Speaker 2: times at Sam Franklin. Unfortunately, Sam's walking around on a
Speaker 2: crutch right now, his foot in the boot. So it's
Speaker 2: a little bit awkward in that regard. But they're going
Speaker 2: to be changing tires on a moving car all year anyway,
Speaker 2: and especially when the roster's in such flux, because there
Speaker 2: aren't very many We talked about safety, but there aren't
Speaker 2: a terrible many positions on this roster that you say, oh,
Speaker 2: they don't need, they don't need anybody who's not here.
Speaker 2: You know, could you find a third quarterback to stick
Speaker 2: on a practice squad instead of a Jake Plumber? You
Speaker 2: could possibly find one of those. Even did I say
Speaker 2: Jake Plumber? God, I've been good at that all preseason,
Speaker 2: and here we are coming down the stretch.
Speaker 3: I was gonna let it slide, but then I was like,
Speaker 3: it's kind of funny.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's like that's smart. Aleck made fun of
Speaker 2: me for six hundred pennsylvania avin it is, I'll show him.
Speaker 2: But this is what happens to us in training camp
Speaker 2: when we lose all side of what time of day
Speaker 2: it is, what day of the week it is, or
Speaker 2: the address of.
Speaker 3: The White White House of the States, or the.
Speaker 2: Back third quarterback on the Carolina Panthers roster. This is
Speaker 2: what happens to us. So anyway, that's that's all going
Speaker 2: to be a complicated set of numbers, and we are
Speaker 2: going to tune in. I don't want to promise Wednesday
Speaker 2: next week because this thing might still be in flux
Speaker 2: a little bit next Wednesday, but next Wednesday or Thursday,
Speaker 2: I feel reasonably confident Wednesday ish, Yes, So tune back
Speaker 2: in next Wednesday ish for the next episode of the
Speaker 2: Happy Half Hour when fifty three people will be happy.
Speaker 2: That could be a revolving cast of characters over the
Speaker 2: next couple of days, but you know, we'll be happy.
Speaker 2: Podcast Matt for Cassidy. I'm Darren and this was the
Speaker 2: Happy Half Hour.