Speaker 1: What is that?
Speaker 2: Is that the breaking sound effect? Now my alarm sounds actually, duck,
Speaker 2: that is the breaking news siren.
Speaker 1: Because ladies and gentlemen, it's.
Speaker 3: Parts of the world.
Speaker 1: It's Tuesday.
Speaker 2: This is not the day we normally do this. This
Speaker 2: is an emergency edition of the Happy Half Hour because
Speaker 2: you're Carolina Panthers have a general manager.
Speaker 1: How about that woop woop.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's not a breaking news.
Speaker 1: That's just a whoop woop. That's just a whoop whoop.
Speaker 1: You're just that excited about Dan Morgan. I hear you.
Speaker 3: One big higher down one to go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is. It's such an interesting time.
Speaker 2: And listen, I know that fans are waiting to see
Speaker 2: what's next, because when you come off of a season
Speaker 2: like that, when what's next is the thing you think about,
Speaker 2: and for the first two weeks of the off season,
Speaker 2: it's like because nobody really knows, yeah, something like that.
Speaker 2: We need the sound effects board. Where's Jim Salane.
Speaker 3: Need a breaking new sound effects But.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that one't ain't it.
Speaker 2: But anyway, so yeah, now there's at least half a
Speaker 2: bit of clarity about the direction of the Carolina Panthers
Speaker 2: moving forward. Because former Carolina Panthers linebacker Dan Morgan is
Speaker 2: now you're a President of Football Operations slash general manager.
Speaker 2: So it's a big title for a guy who was
Speaker 2: assistant GM a year ago.
Speaker 3: Let me ask you a question about this, Darren, because
Speaker 3: I know that there's a mindset or I don't know
Speaker 3: if i'd say consensus, but a line of thinking, if
Speaker 3: you're going to let go of Scott Fitter or why
Speaker 3: not clean house? Did those two come part and parcel
Speaker 3: when they were hired or were they hired separately?
Speaker 2: They were hired separately, Yeah, I mean Scott was named
Speaker 2: GM in January February of twenty one. Dan actually came
Speaker 2: in the summer of twenty one after that draft, because
Speaker 2: you know, scouts typically move post draft because their contracts
Speaker 2: run through June, that kind of stuff. So Dan came
Speaker 2: in that summer. After that, they had work together in Seattle.
Speaker 2: One of the things that's interesting to me and watching
Speaker 2: the reaction to this, is the people who make them
Speaker 2: the same person, right, And I'm sure you know you
Speaker 2: have friends who you are close with who are not
Speaker 2: just like you.
Speaker 3: You know what it reminded me of, or what it
Speaker 3: makes me think of if you go back to this
Speaker 3: is going to be such a random example, but if
Speaker 3: you go back to the way America used to elect
Speaker 3: the president and the vice president, and the vice president
Speaker 3: was just the second runner up for the presidential race.
Speaker 3: So you have two people that are probably different parties
Speaker 3: who are going to approach everything from a different point
Speaker 3: of view, but they have to find a way to
Speaker 3: work together for four years. And so I kind of
Speaker 3: think of it as like that, where you know, you
Speaker 3: might have two people who are vastly different who can
Speaker 3: have a good working relationship, But that doesn't mean that
Speaker 3: the next person that him stepping into this role is
Speaker 3: going to be the exact same operation that the previous
Speaker 3: regime did.
Speaker 2: Oh and that's the thing, and I think it's important
Speaker 2: to point out. I mean, I always tell people this
Speaker 2: time of year, when people are you know, going to
Speaker 2: the streets with their torches and pitchforks, wanting change.
Speaker 1: Change.
Speaker 2: On every one of those changes, somebody's family has to move,
Speaker 2: you know, dad or mom just lost a job. So
Speaker 2: let's be human beings about this for a second. But no,
Speaker 2: I mean, Scott and Dan are friends and remain friends,
Speaker 2: and I have no doubt that they will continue to
Speaker 2: be close friends, but they have very different outlooks in life.
Speaker 2: I mean, Scott Fitterer was a consensus builder and Scott
Speaker 2: fitter you know, had a lot of strengths that they
Speaker 2: were looking for at the time they hired him. But
Speaker 2: what's what they're looking for right now in Dan Morgan?
Speaker 2: And I think it's what Dan can really bring is
Speaker 2: the perspective of somebody who's a done it at a
Speaker 2: high level. I mean Dan's career was cut short by injuries.
Speaker 2: He didn't get to play as many games as anybody
Speaker 2: would have liked him to play, especially Dan Morgan. But
Speaker 2: when he played him, he played at a high level.
Speaker 2: I've said a couple times around the building here the
Speaker 2: last few days, he was Luke Keigley before Luke Keighley
Speaker 2: was cool. He was that medal walkout right. I mean
Speaker 2: he saw things before they happened. He diagnosed, he re react,
Speaker 2: hit and that was Dan Morgan. And he was unfortunate
Speaker 2: with injuries throughout his career. It cut short. I have
Speaker 2: no doubt he would have gone to more than one
Speaker 2: Pro Bowl had he stayed healthy, but he did not.
Speaker 2: So but even beyond the playing stuff, and we can
Speaker 2: get into more of that in a little bit, even
Speaker 2: beyond the playing stuff. The Dan Morgan they're getting as GM,
Speaker 2: and on shorthand and on second reference, I will probably
Speaker 2: say GM rather than saying President of Football Operations last GM.
Speaker 2: But with Dan's GM, what they're getting is a guy
Speaker 2: who started as an evaluator at the very ground floor
Speaker 2: when he was an intern in Seattle. He literally was
Speaker 2: the guy who picked people up at the airport. And
Speaker 2: you laugh when you say that.
Speaker 3: Take some good connections that way.
Speaker 2: Not every former first round pick who was the Bednarik
Speaker 2: Award winner in college and a unanimous Al American at
Speaker 2: the University of Miami is going to be willing to
Speaker 2: be the guy who picks people up at the airport.
Speaker 2: So Dan was willing to start at the bottom, work
Speaker 2: his way up, and here he is. He did it
Speaker 2: through Seattle, he did it through Buffalo, worked in really
Speaker 2: good front offices in both places, and here we are.
Speaker 3: And he learned from to what I think a lot
Speaker 3: of people would consider two of the better gms in
Speaker 3: the league, from John Schneider and Brandon Bean. And you know,
Speaker 3: especially when you think about when he was coming up
Speaker 3: through Seattle and the positions he held in the years
Speaker 3: that he held them. He was kind of in the room,
Speaker 3: a part of the room, a part of the staff
Speaker 3: that put together, Darren what I think we would arguably
Speaker 3: consider the greatest defense of this generation, the Legion to Boom.
Speaker 2: No question, I mean, and he saw it's a little
Speaker 2: bit like what they were trying to do offensively last year,
Speaker 2: with a lot of different perspectives. It's cool to be
Speaker 2: out there in the Pacific Northwest and see how John
Speaker 2: Schneider and those guys do it. And then you come
Speaker 2: to Buffalo and see Brandon Bean and those guys and
Speaker 2: Joe Shane who he worked with up there before Joe
Speaker 2: went to New York again, both former Panthers interns who
Speaker 2: were around Dan when he's a player. You see a
Speaker 2: different way of doing it, and you take a little
Speaker 2: bit from here and a little bit from there, and
Speaker 2: all of a sudden you get to this place. Listen,
Speaker 2: I know there are people who just want to paint
Speaker 2: Dan Morgan with this brush of AH two and fifteen.
Speaker 2: Everybody must go. Dan Markan's a really smart guy. He
Speaker 2: was smart on the field, and he's learned how to evaluate.
Speaker 2: We'll have more on Dan's progress from talking to people
Speaker 2: who have been around him on Panthers dot Com later
Speaker 2: this week. But I just think it's kind of shortsighted
Speaker 2: for a lot of people who said, you know, you
Speaker 2: were part of this, therefore you must be bad, because
Speaker 2: that's not how football.
Speaker 3: And if you're going to buy that scene rule by
Speaker 3: that in that same vein, if you're going to say,
Speaker 3: well he was a part of two and fifteen, he
Speaker 3: was also a part of one of the better defensive
Speaker 3: turnarounds that this team is ever seen and leading them.
Speaker 1: To its if some of these things are about more
Speaker 1: than one thing.
Speaker 3: And I think what I take from it as maybe
Speaker 3: the biggest positive is the timeline by which he got
Speaker 3: to this job, because there's a lot to like about
Speaker 3: the fact. And I know we keep parping on the player,
Speaker 3: and I know the player is different from a GM
Speaker 3: it's a different approach, but he's someone that has been here,
Speaker 3: that was here for a long time, that was a
Speaker 3: part of a turnaround, so he knows what that takes
Speaker 3: and he's been in on the ground floor of it,
Speaker 3: and he understands this franchise, this culture, this fan base
Speaker 3: that's really really important. And you see guys that sort
Speaker 3: of go back home, it means more to them. They're
Speaker 3: going to put more into it, They're gonna put their
Speaker 3: heart and soul into it. But you also run the
Speaker 3: risks sometimes when you quote unquote bring a guy back
Speaker 3: home too early of them and they're going to lose
Speaker 3: their dream job. But he went through the process. He
Speaker 3: spent a long time in Seattle, He's spent a good
Speaker 3: amount of time in Buffalo. He spent time here, you know,
Speaker 3: sort of learning a little bit of the rains and
Speaker 3: the franchise of where it is now before stepping into
Speaker 3: this role. And so I think when you marry the
Speaker 3: background in him both knowing and loving this franchise, and
Speaker 3: then you and you marry that with the process he
Speaker 3: took to get here this and I know we're looking ahead,
Speaker 3: but this seems like the right time for this hire,
Speaker 3: for this team.
Speaker 2: Well, the one thing I will say, and we don't know,
Speaker 2: and again, so many other factors besides one person will
Speaker 2: determine the course of this franchise in twenty four and beyond.
Speaker 2: The one thing I know is that no one I've
Speaker 2: talked to around the league and other cities, other reporters,
Speaker 2: people who work for other teams, absolutely no one has texted,
Speaker 2: called me and said what a bozo Dan Morgan is.
Speaker 2: And usually in the scouting business, there's somebody out there
Speaker 2: who hates you no matter who you are, and Dan
Speaker 2: is kind of that universal, universally respected figure. It's easy
Speaker 2: for you to say Darren, but yeah, I am not.
Speaker 2: But Dan Morgan is. I mean, he's just a guy
Speaker 2: who carries a credibility with him and part of that's
Speaker 2: based on playing, and part of that's based on the
Speaker 2: work he's put in post playing career, which has been voluminous.
Speaker 2: So I just think that it's a it's a right now,
Speaker 2: it looks like a solid move or a franchise that
Speaker 2: needs to make some more solid moves off.
Speaker 3: How long do you think a GM should be given
Speaker 3: a honeymoon period, I'd say two. I'd give him a
Speaker 3: full draft class to get into starters, so three years.
Speaker 2: Either that or a coacher too. I mean, I think
Speaker 2: a lot of times. And that's the other thing that
Speaker 2: I think is for two us about this hire right
Speaker 2: now is now the first Now the coach and the
Speaker 2: GM are on the same timeline for the first time
Speaker 2: since two thousand and two, and last and the last
Speaker 2: time you weren't around here for that one, but I was.
Speaker 2: And the last time they did that in two thousand
Speaker 2: and two, they went from the worst defense in the
Speaker 2: NFL to the second best in one year, and the
Speaker 2: next year we're in the Super Bowl again. Not saying
Speaker 2: that's what's about to happen here, but I do think
Speaker 2: lining those guys up and bringing Dan in at this point,
Speaker 2: a new coach is on the way. Probably in the
Speaker 2: next couple of weeks. I'm sure we'll know who that
Speaker 2: person is and we'll do another emergency podcast, maybe with sound,
Speaker 2: maybe with effects, maybe with sound effects that time. But
Speaker 2: it gives them a chance to find that alignment. And
Speaker 2: that's that's the new buzzword around coaching cycles and GM
Speaker 2: cycles is can you find that alignment in your organization?
Speaker 2: And that means speak the same language. That was the
Speaker 2: problem last year. We did not speak the same language
Speaker 2: personnel to coaching, coaching, to coaching coaching, to play or
Speaker 2: any of it. It was just all a jumble last season,
Speaker 2: as is evidenced by the record. So allowing Dan to
Speaker 2: come in here, bringing in another coach, making other adjustments
Speaker 2: to the front office creates at least the condition for
Speaker 2: that to happen, and it.
Speaker 3: Puts them on the same timeline, not just like the
Speaker 3: timeline of when they were hired, but the timeline of
Speaker 3: what they want this team to be. You know, that's
Speaker 3: something that can work in what's the word I'm looking at,
Speaker 3: looking for a good thing? We don't work in words congregity.
Speaker 3: I can like I got half of the word.
Speaker 1: Floting around them all on the same page, right.
Speaker 3: Of Okay, this is what we want to do with
Speaker 3: this drift class, this is where we want this roster
Speaker 3: to go, and this is how long it's going to
Speaker 3: take to get there.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: And sometimes you have opposing forces where the GM is
Speaker 3: ahead a draft or two and the coach is thinking,
Speaker 3: I've got enough with this roster now, and obviously you
Speaker 3: always want to like win now, but it puts them
Speaker 3: on the same timeline of where they think this team
Speaker 3: can go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and here's another secret of the business that I've
Speaker 2: learned in almost thirty years of doing this. Coaches always
Speaker 2: want to win today, right, every rep in practice, every
Speaker 2: period in practice, every game, every season. GMS have to
Speaker 2: think not just about this year and winning this year,
Speaker 2: because that's the ultimate goal. But he's got to have
Speaker 2: his eyes out on the horizon, and what does this
Speaker 2: look like two years from now, three years from now.
Speaker 2: So it's it's gonna be interesting to see how it
Speaker 2: all comes together. Again, I'm I am not saying this
Speaker 2: because of the room I am sitting in or the
Speaker 2: name on the bottom of my check. But I just
Speaker 2: maybe I'm just too old for hysteria. But I do
Speaker 2: not believe this Carolina Panthers team is five years away
Speaker 2: way from competing for anything.
Speaker 1: I just don't.
Speaker 2: I mean, there's too many dudes on defense. Bryce Young
Speaker 2: was still the guy who every team in the league
Speaker 2: would have picked first overall last year, and so I
Speaker 2: think there's an opportunity to do some things. It's just
Speaker 2: a matter of creating that alignment and getting everybody on
Speaker 2: the same plan and then going out and executing that plan.
Speaker 2: I mean, Dan's job is going to be to go
Speaker 2: find some good players, that's the first thing, and I
Speaker 2: think that's going to be a combination of free agency
Speaker 2: and the draft this year, even without that number one pick,
Speaker 2: thirty three don't look so bad.
Speaker 3: He's lucky. Maybe that the biggest need on this team
Speaker 3: is also arguably the deepest position in the draft. This
Speaker 3: year at wide receiver.
Speaker 2: Or agree or disagree, No, I think that's you know,
Speaker 2: supply and demand kicks in at wide receiver. I mean,
Speaker 2: with the college game going the way it has, all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, everybody's got three or four starting wideouts now,
Speaker 2: so there's more guys coming into the league, better able
Speaker 2: to contribute immediately, and so picking thirty third is a
Speaker 2: good place. And based on every conversation I've had with
Speaker 2: scouts here in other places, that receiver group is the
Speaker 2: thing this year where they're a number of guys and
Speaker 2: you're heading down to Mobile next week.
Speaker 1: So I hope the coach.
Speaker 2: Doesn't get hired next week or Nina Ank just kidding there,
Speaker 2: but you're gonna be a Mobile for the Senior Bowl.
Speaker 2: That's to me one of the quiet advantages of Dan
Speaker 2: being named general manager right now, because the scouting staff
Speaker 2: that's kind of working on draft and has been for
Speaker 2: four months, four or five months can continue to do their.
Speaker 1: Jobs as they were doing them already.
Speaker 2: You know, obviously with change at the top, there's going
Speaker 2: to be some degree of change, But I think those
Speaker 2: college scouts are so deep into this process now and
Speaker 2: you'll see them down in Mobile next week, and they
Speaker 2: are kind of intrigued by this draft class in general
Speaker 2: because there's a lot of there's a lot of underclassmen
Speaker 2: at the Senior Bowl, so that makes the Senior Bowl
Speaker 2: a little bit better, which makes East West a little
Speaker 2: bit better, and all these games down the line a
Speaker 2: little bit better. So I think it's going to be
Speaker 2: interesting to see how that shakes out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and especially to see what they prioritize where, you know,
Speaker 3: behind receiver, is it guard, is it edge rusher? You
Speaker 3: know what are they sort of prioritizing and feeling like
Speaker 3: we can get this maybe later in the draft, or
Speaker 3: they don't really have a ton of capital to move around.
Speaker 3: So I feel like they're they're kind of stuck where
Speaker 3: they are with the six picks that they have and
Speaker 3: where they are. But like we said, there's this is
Speaker 3: a deep class at a couple of different positions, and
Speaker 3: luckily those work out to be the Panthers positions of
Speaker 3: needs this year.
Speaker 1: Kind of works out that way.
Speaker 3: So anyway, Yeah, I'm excited to get out to the
Speaker 3: practice field and kind of see what some of these
Speaker 3: guys do, especially some of these guys that maybe just
Speaker 3: through for whatever reason, you know, didn't get to kind
Speaker 3: of show everything they can do in college this year?
Speaker 3: What do they do when they're facing the best of
Speaker 3: the best and they've got every scale and a lot
Speaker 3: of coaches all looking at them. What do they do?
Speaker 3: Because those one on one drills at the Senior Bowl practices,
Speaker 3: those are where guys make or break their name a
Speaker 3: lot of times when starting off in this draft process.
Speaker 3: So those are going to be fun to watch.
Speaker 1: How many Senior Bowls is this for you? Cass Ooh?
Speaker 3: As a reporter, I think I have done probably like five.
Speaker 1: Or six, And as a child growing up.
Speaker 3: In suburban Albama native, I've probably also been to an
Speaker 3: additional five or six just as a fan. Every year
Speaker 3: when I go to the Senior Bowl, I think to myself,
Speaker 3: this is the coldest I've ever been in my life.
Speaker 3: For whatever reason, that weekend is just frigid.
Speaker 1: In Mobile.
Speaker 3: You're on the water, so you've got the wind coming
Speaker 3: off of the water. It is just miserable.
Speaker 1: It feels like it's always raining in Mobile? Is it
Speaker 1: always rain in Mobile?
Speaker 3: Rainiest city in America?
Speaker 2: Is that?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: Suck?
Speaker 1: At Seattle, I did not know that I learned something
Speaker 1: new here.
Speaker 3: Okay, friends, Seattle rains longer like over the calendar, the
Speaker 3: course of the calendar. Here. It rains longer in Seattle,
Speaker 3: but it's more of a drizzle, whereas in Mobile you
Speaker 3: get it may only rain for an hour a day,
Speaker 3: but it rains two and fifty days out of a year,
Speaker 3: and in that hour it is a complete deluge. So
Speaker 3: as far as inches measured, it is the rainiest city
Speaker 3: in America.
Speaker 1: How about that? I do remember the last time I
Speaker 1: was there it was raining cats and dogs. One day
Speaker 1: I almost stepped in a poodle. Ah.
Speaker 2: We should have a note, We should have a sound
Speaker 2: effect for that, maybe like the sad trombone Wah wah podcast.
Speaker 1: Matt's giving me the thumbs down.
Speaker 3: In a soundboard. Matt, can I be the one to
Speaker 3: press it?
Speaker 1: We're not leaving Darren in charge of the toys. I
Speaker 1: know that much.
Speaker 3: That would give me so much power.
Speaker 1: Oh boy.
Speaker 2: So anyway, on that note, we've got a lot to
Speaker 2: discuss in the coming weeks.
Speaker 1: Maybe by the.
Speaker 2: Next time we catch up there will be a coach. Certainly,
Speaker 2: by the next time we catch up, you will have
Speaker 2: come and gone from Mobile and brought us back all
Speaker 2: the news that's fitthprint on panthers dot com. So until then,
Speaker 2: thank you guys for joining us and we will see.
Speaker 1: You next time on the Happy half hours.
Speaker 3: Send us out with a sound effect, oh y.