Speaker 1: This week on the Happy Half Hour. Signon Bradley Boseman
Speaker 1: was probably the biggest move because having a three hundred
Speaker 1: twenty pounds center a protects whatever quarterback you're going to
Speaker 1: be drafting, and it keeps that offensive line together. The
Speaker 1: starting five is now together under contract through at least
Speaker 1: the twenty fourth season, and that's huge. Text it's time
Speaker 1: for the Happy Half Hour with your friends, Kristin Balboni,
Speaker 1: Augusta Stone, and Darren Gannet. That's right, it's the Happy
Speaker 1: half Hour with your friends, Darren, Augusta and Kristen. Happy April,
Speaker 1: Happy draft month, you two, happy spring. Yeah, it's happy, happy, happy.
Speaker 1: We're fully happy now. Well that's part of the brand. Yes,
Speaker 1: part of the brand, Darren, I know. And we're now
Speaker 1: fully happy again. So we're all back. We have not
Speaker 1: recorded an episode since the Panthers traded up to the
Speaker 1: number one overall pick. Darren, and as you mentioned, Augusta
Speaker 1: was on the road for Pro Days. So as we
Speaker 1: were going through topics, of course we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about your observations from Pro Days. We're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: the upcoming draft, but we're like, we gotta go back
Speaker 1: to free agency. A little bit a lot has happened. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been a been a busy month around here. You know,
Speaker 1: you trade for the first pick and then you just
Speaker 1: start backfilling everything in free agency. I mean, Simon Bradley
Speaker 1: Boseman was probably the biggest move of the light I
Speaker 1: mean literally and physically, because having a three twenty pounds
Speaker 1: center a protects whatever quarterback you're going to be drafting,
Speaker 1: and it keeps that offensive line together. The starting five
Speaker 1: is now together under contract through at least the twenty
Speaker 1: fourth season, and that's huge. I mean when you're trying
Speaker 1: to protect that investment that they're about to make with
Speaker 1: the first pick in the draft. That was the big
Speaker 1: first step. But then they just went through methodically and
Speaker 1: checked off the entire shopping list of stuff a young
Speaker 1: quarterback needs. They got a veteran possession receiver and Adam Dealing.
Speaker 1: They got a tight end in Hayden Hurst. You know,
Speaker 1: they go get Miles Sanders, who's a three down back
Speaker 1: who's good as a receiver and a running back, a
Speaker 1: type of which we're familiar with around here, and that's
Speaker 1: going to be a quarterback's best friend in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways. So they went out very methodically, and then
Speaker 1: they come back after the fact and get Djharg to
Speaker 1: get the speed guy downfield to open things up a
Speaker 1: little bit. So they've got a lot of options now
Speaker 1: offensively for whoever that guy's going to be. And then
Speaker 1: we also saw some moves on the defensive side, which
Speaker 1: you know they're slotting in kind of what that three
Speaker 1: four will start to look like some pieces there. So Augusta,
Speaker 1: what I'm wondering is, you know, of course everyone who
Speaker 1: is listening to this followed the free agents signings or
Speaker 1: some still coming in now as they happened in March,
Speaker 1: But where do we feel this team is right now
Speaker 1: after all of these signings heading into the draft. I mean,
Speaker 1: I feel pretty good about it exactly, and I want
Speaker 1: to go back to a Darren said, especially about getting
Speaker 1: the offensive line together. Obviously Austin Corbett's coming back from
Speaker 1: injury and Bretty Christiansen coming back from injury. But I
Speaker 1: was talking I've been talking with with coaches and stuff,
Speaker 1: and that that foundation. I think I think a lot
Speaker 1: of it is, like we said, just putting together the
Speaker 1: pieces and having like a steady place to build from
Speaker 1: new coaches, new quarterback coming in with with a sense
Speaker 1: of you know, kind of what they know what they're
Speaker 1: setting up from a good basis, a good like if
Speaker 1: you're looking at like a pyramid, solid base, build up,
Speaker 1: build up, build up, thinking of the nutrition pyramid in school, right,
Speaker 1: so those are your grains down at the bottom. You
Speaker 1: got to get a lot of those, right, you have
Speaker 1: like actually probably kind of the meats, aren't they. I mean,
Speaker 1: didn't we do that last year with the Rby's package.
Speaker 1: They have the meats, yes, but but yeah, like I mean,
Speaker 1: and you have like veteran veteran pass catchers like Darren mentioned.
Speaker 1: I think hayden Hurst was a big one. I wrote
Speaker 1: a story about that that we published yesterday. I think
Speaker 1: Um just kind of feeling like he was like, you
Speaker 1: know what, I've been five years in the league. I
Speaker 1: feel like I'm I'm at a place where I have,
Speaker 1: you know, the confidence that I feel good in the league,
Speaker 1: and so I can give that to someone younger, you know,
Speaker 1: he's ready to work. Like in a quarterback in that way,
Speaker 1: so you start out with a bass, you just keep
Speaker 1: moving up. So I kind of like like wait setting
Speaker 1: up and then we'll have the little hop pit quarterback
Speaker 1: at the very little top of the pyramid. Well, and
Speaker 1: speaking of somebody that has a lot to give to
Speaker 1: whoever this young quarterback is, we haven't even mentioned Andy Dalton,
Speaker 1: someone who has a lot of experience, you know, ben
Speaker 1: to the playoffs pro bowler reeve right, Yeah, And we
Speaker 1: talked about that a lot when they started putting coaching
Speaker 1: staff together. I mean, Frank Reich and Josh McCown both
Speaker 1: played in the league a lot of years. Andy Dalton
Speaker 1: was more productive than either one of them as NFL quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: And Josh told me this, he said, you know, it
Speaker 1: hits different when it's coming from the guy in the room,
Speaker 1: And Josh was the guy in the room for a
Speaker 1: long time in his NFL career as that veteran backup
Speaker 1: who was there as a sounding board, someone to help
Speaker 1: mentor it just lands differently with the young guy when
Speaker 1: it's somebody who's wearing a jersey on the practice field
Speaker 1: in the locker room with him every day, as opposed
Speaker 1: to the coach. I mean, that coaching staff is very
Speaker 1: good and very experienced in terms of all the years
Speaker 1: and all the different perspectives they've got to help that guy.
Speaker 1: But having an Andy is going to be important for
Speaker 1: whoever it happens to be. I talked to him when
Speaker 1: he came in during free agency, and I asked him
Speaker 1: about that. You know, I said, the evntional wisdom is
Speaker 1: that it will be a quarterback, of course, with the
Speaker 1: number one overall picks. So what is your mindset going
Speaker 1: into that? And he said, look, I got to start
Speaker 1: as a rookie. I know what that's like, and I
Speaker 1: also know the pressure of that, and so whatever I
Speaker 1: can do, because you know, I'm first and foremost going
Speaker 1: to be the best player that I can be, and
Speaker 1: but also as a contributor, as a mentor, I understand it.
Speaker 1: I get it. And like you said, Darren, when you've
Speaker 1: got you've got Frank Reich, you've got Josh McGown, you've
Speaker 1: got Andy Dalton. The amount of combined starts that they
Speaker 1: have or game appearances that they have is just going
Speaker 1: to be a wealth of knowledge for whoever this is.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about who this might be and what
Speaker 1: you guys learned at Pro Days. I mean, if you
Speaker 1: want to break any news here on the Happy half
Speaker 1: Hour podcast, feel Free Well, sources close to me tell
Speaker 1: me that the Carolina Panthers are likely to select a
Speaker 1: quarterback with the first pick. You heard it here first,
Speaker 1: you heard it here first, And we can probably narrow
Speaker 1: that list to four since they went to see four
Speaker 1: different pro days. So I've just been doing them in
Speaker 1: chronological order of the pro day. But we go from
Speaker 1: CJ's Trau to Bryce Young to Will Levis to Anthony Richards.
Speaker 1: I like that, that's your It's funny because I feel
Speaker 1: like you always have to have the desclip like in
Speaker 1: no specific order, right, So your order is it's not alphabetical,
Speaker 1: it's not it's it's order of pro days, right. And
Speaker 1: I've had people try to read the tea leaves and
Speaker 1: they're like, oh, Darren went to House State and Augusta
Speaker 1: went to Alabama. That means no, it doesn't. That's just
Speaker 1: it's got more to do with commercial travel schedules than
Speaker 1: anything else. But let's so then let's go chronologically by
Speaker 1: you each split it up two and two. So which
Speaker 1: one was was first? CJ. Stroud, All right, Ohio State.
Speaker 1: I start there and you walk in the door and CJ.
Speaker 1: Stroud looks the part and you know, Augusta in her
Speaker 1: pre Pro day road trip barnstorming tour hit Georgia, and
Speaker 1: those guys had seen them all, and those guys had
Speaker 1: played against all four of them, and CJ was the
Speaker 1: last one they saw and consistently talked about how he
Speaker 1: did so many things impressively. And when you get to
Speaker 1: that pro day, you understand why they say it. I mean,
Speaker 1: he looks like what an NFL quarterback is supposed to
Speaker 1: look like. He's six foot three, he's big, he throws
Speaker 1: a really catchaball ball. I mean. The Ohio State Pro
Speaker 1: Day also stood out to me because the best player
Speaker 1: in the building was a guy who's not even draft
Speaker 1: eligible in Marvin Harrison Junior. And that guy is just
Speaker 1: an alien from outer space. He will be in next
Speaker 1: year's draft, and he ain't going to be there long,
Speaker 1: so we won't spend much time talking about him, because
Speaker 1: without a first round pick, you're not even in that
Speaker 1: zip code. But CJ's always had that kind of talent
Speaker 1: around him. So when you watch him work out, yes,
Speaker 1: he throws a catchable ball. And when you're where we were,
Speaker 1: you know, standing kind of on the sidelines with the
Speaker 1: scouts and stuff, you hear these guys whisper to each
Speaker 1: other and stuff like catchable ball makes it easy for
Speaker 1: his receivers. I mean, that's kind of the buzzwords you
Speaker 1: get with CJ. Stroud And so he's really I think
Speaker 1: that Georgia game elevated his stock a lot. I don't
Speaker 1: know that we're necessarily talking about him in the same
Speaker 1: way without that game, but doing that against that grade
Speaker 1: of defense got everybody's attention and put him put him
Speaker 1: on the radar. And then, hypothetically, if you are you
Speaker 1: making your pros and cons list, what are the things
Speaker 1: that are standing out to anyone who's evaluating him in
Speaker 1: terms of Okay, we know all the good stuff, so
Speaker 1: what are the things that give you pause? One of
Speaker 1: the things and I hated about scouting business, but it's
Speaker 1: real and people lean on it is he's an Ohio
Speaker 1: State quarterback. And people think, because of all those weapons,
Speaker 1: because there's a Marvin Junior out here on this side,
Speaker 1: because there's always top shelf receiving talent around him, how
Speaker 1: good is he really? How much of it is he
Speaker 1: doing himself? And the one thing from being up there
Speaker 1: and talking to his offensive coordinator, who's you know, believing
Speaker 1: or not an old Josh McCown teammate, Because everybody who's
Speaker 1: ever passed through the NFL is an old Josh McCown
Speaker 1: teammates a lot of teammates. But Brian Hartline talked about
Speaker 1: how CJ handled a lot more stuff at the line
Speaker 1: of scrimmage than a lot of other quarterbacks up there
Speaker 1: have done, and and just a mature guy, he said,
Speaker 1: he does it the right way. So I think those
Speaker 1: negatives can almost become positives at a certain point because
Speaker 1: he knows how to manage talent. But that's going to
Speaker 1: be a knock until two or three Ohio State quarterbacks
Speaker 1: in a road play well in the NFL. That's those
Speaker 1: old stereotypes die hard. Yeah, but I think you know,
Speaker 1: there's also the question of he was a little up
Speaker 1: and down prior to that Georgia game. There was the
Speaker 1: game before the Georgia game was kind of a disaster
Speaker 1: against Michigan. And when you do it against Michigan, people
Speaker 1: in Columbus remember it a lot more. All right, Chronologically,
Speaker 1: which pro day was next? Rice Young at Alabama? All right, Augusta,
Speaker 1: what do you got for us? Yes, so very next day,
Speaker 1: Darren and I split it up. I will say we
Speaker 1: split up geographically too. For the people reading the tea leaves.
Speaker 1: I went south and he went north, so that's another
Speaker 1: way it went. But um, yeah, Alabama Pro day walk in.
Speaker 1: I think the first thing I noticed about Bryce was
Speaker 1: he waited to throw obviously till the very end. Wasn't
Speaker 1: doing anything else. Was there with his teammates. He has
Speaker 1: a calming let's say, I don't want to quiet. Confidence
Speaker 1: is the word. But it's one of those things where
Speaker 1: it's like, Okay, yeah, this guy kind of runs the show,
Speaker 1: but he's not in your face about it, like going
Speaker 1: around all of his teammates, you know, hitting bumping fists
Speaker 1: one thing, and I tweeted about it. But before he threw,
Speaker 1: he talked with Frank Wright for about ten minutes and
Speaker 1: I was just standing there and I was almost timing.
Speaker 1: I'm like, how long are they going to talk? Kept
Speaker 1: talking so like he had a rapport with a lot
Speaker 1: of people. There was just talking. I met his family,
Speaker 1: his dad and his mom, who were very sweet people.
Speaker 1: I mean, his quarterbacks coach. It felt like one of
Speaker 1: those it was just the whole thing. It's a big day, right,
Speaker 1: but it felt like it was just locked in, very cool,
Speaker 1: very calm. It looked looked great. I think I talked
Speaker 1: with his quarterbacks coach. He started working with him when
Speaker 1: they were when he was in eighth grade, so he's
Speaker 1: been working with him for almost a decade. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: he was he was telling me, you know, the program
Speaker 1: that we put together for him today was basically just
Speaker 1: kind of shown as much variety as possible. I mean,
Speaker 1: he was completely locked in, very much so on target,
Speaker 1: just Bryce Young, Bryce Young things and also pro day.
Speaker 1: Like Darren mentioned, it's like the perfect environment. Everyone's calm,
Speaker 1: everything's cool. Just it felt like, yes, there's a big
Speaker 1: day and there's a lot going on and there's so
Speaker 1: many cameras, but something about it still felt like very chill.
Speaker 1: And I think that's very Bryce Young. I agree, And
Speaker 1: that's what we've always heard. And it's cool to see
Speaker 1: to know that you got that same firsthand experience, because
Speaker 1: that is one of the things that everyone says when
Speaker 1: they first meet him, or they first watch him, or
Speaker 1: you can see it when he's playing, is that the
Speaker 1: moment doesn't never seems too big for him. He is
Speaker 1: he is your prototypical quarterback leader, right. He is the
Speaker 1: guy that is gonna command the offense. I'm sideline reporter
Speaker 1: for the Panthers. So I see a lot of the way.
Speaker 1: I always paid special attention to the way the quarterbacks
Speaker 1: address the other team members coming off the field, good
Speaker 1: or bad. Right, And just like you're saying, like dapping
Speaker 1: guys that like all that stuff, like you're in command, right,
Speaker 1: you are the de facto leader if you're the quarterback.
Speaker 1: And it does seem like he always has had that
Speaker 1: right since we've been watching him play. But then, of
Speaker 1: course everyone knows what if you want to talk about
Speaker 1: what what CJ. Strauto at the knock on CJ Strout
Speaker 1: is or what the hesitation is, we all know what
Speaker 1: the typical hesitation with with Bryce Young is. And that's
Speaker 1: his size, Darren, Right, he's not big. He's not big,
Speaker 1: and if big is a hang up for you, he's
Speaker 1: probably not going to be your guy. But there's simply
Speaker 1: not a lot of comparisons. I mean, there's two of
Speaker 1: but two's bigger than him. There's Drew Brees, there's Russell Wilson.
Speaker 1: But it's a pretty short inventory unintended of guys who
Speaker 1: have played in the NFL at his size. But also
Speaker 1: not three bad comparisons, you know, like if I mean
Speaker 1: those are the three guys that have done some things
Speaker 1: succeed in the NFL at that size, you've got to
Speaker 1: be pretty special, and I think bry Shon can be.
Speaker 1: I mean, to me, when I look at him, it's
Speaker 1: it's the fact that he's been running an NFL offense.
Speaker 1: He's been down there with Bill O'Brien and he's been
Speaker 1: calling plays at the line of scrimmage. He's been making checks,
Speaker 1: he's been doing NFL quarterback stuff at the line for
Speaker 1: the last couple of years and doing it at a
Speaker 1: really high level. How this is something that we haven't
Speaker 1: talked about. I'm sure it's it's been talked about or
Speaker 1: written about, and I've been meaning to ask you about this,
Speaker 1: So why not right now, hypothetically if you are Scott Fitter,
Speaker 1: if you are Frank Reich, And as you talked about,
Speaker 1: the big thing in free agency was making sure that
Speaker 1: Bradley Boseman came back. So you know what this line
Speaker 1: is now. Of course, as you said, Austin Corbett, Brady
Speaker 1: Christiansen rehabbing from very serious injuries, and you know that
Speaker 1: this line does not put their quarterback in a bad
Speaker 1: situation very often. And you have, as you said, three
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty pounds in front of your quarterback. Does
Speaker 1: that give you a little more confidence about Bryce Young's size?
Speaker 1: I think so, I mean the obvious. And I've talked
Speaker 1: to other coaches and other personnel people in different places
Speaker 1: where they've used first round picks on quarterbacks about how
Speaker 1: you do it. And I think people the first thing
Speaker 1: they say is often you got to protect that guy.
Speaker 1: You got to make sure he's protected offensive line wise,
Speaker 1: am with weapons. And you know, I just think when
Speaker 1: I go back and look at the very deliberate job
Speaker 1: they did in free agency last year. You signed corbitch,
Speaker 1: you signed Bozeman, You can the draft icky, Yeah, to
Speaker 1: put that foundation in place so you can drop a
Speaker 1: quarterback in this is a good spot. I mean, this
Speaker 1: is a good place for him to be. And I
Speaker 1: think it was intentional. They didn't know it was going
Speaker 1: to be Stroud or Young, or it's intentional because you
Speaker 1: want to have the best offensive line you can have
Speaker 1: for any quarterback. But I but I think in that
Speaker 1: context of a smaller guy, absolutely, it's crucial to be
Speaker 1: able to have those level of guys in front of them.
Speaker 1: So and they do all right, so chronologically, which pro
Speaker 1: day was next well, well le Kentucky, and it was
Speaker 1: kind of I was going through the map with the
Speaker 1: dotted lines, you know, it was very Chevy Chase. Vacation
Speaker 1: holiday road was playing in the back from Ohio on Kentucky.
Speaker 1: Aren't that It's not right? Yeah, we flew it. Darren
Speaker 1: is making it. If you're listening, you can't see. Darren's
Speaker 1: got you know, one hand over here and then ten
Speaker 1: feet away, pointing a map all the way. Yes. Now,
Speaker 1: we flew in a Columbus and then drove down a
Speaker 1: Lexing in about a three hour drive, not too bad
Speaker 1: and you know, very Chevy Chase. Yeah, it's uh yeah,
Speaker 1: it's we're taking Root sixty six to the Grand Canyon. Everybody, um,
Speaker 1: but no, we rode down in Lexington. And here's the
Speaker 1: thing about Will Levis he is he can throw the
Speaker 1: football over a mountain. I mean he has yoked up.
Speaker 1: I think the popular phrase now is rocked up. You
Speaker 1: hear college coaches say all the time. He is muscular,
Speaker 1: he is big, he is strong, he's got the big arm.
Speaker 1: He hits the ceiling of the facility, because that's gonna
Speaker 1: be the new thing now. Josh Allen, Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm old enough to remember Kyle Bohler doing hitting a
Speaker 1: crossbar from the fifty yard line on his knees, and
Speaker 1: so hitting the roof is going to be the new thing.
Speaker 1: So let's get Michael Jordan to check in the ceiling
Speaker 1: is the roof. But he's got a big strong arm.
Speaker 1: He's never been surrounded with a lot of talent around
Speaker 1: him At Kentucky, obviously it's a different situation. But after
Speaker 1: transferring him from Penn State, he put up a lot
Speaker 1: of numbers as junior especially, and he's one of those guys.
Speaker 1: Before they knew they were picking first, they spent a
Speaker 1: lot of time looking at Will Levins. You would walk
Speaker 1: by Scott Fitter Dan Morgan's office last fall and there
Speaker 1: would be Kentucky tape on the screen because when they
Speaker 1: thought they were picking ninth, I mean, that's kind of
Speaker 1: the range. I think a lot of people were thinking
Speaker 1: about for Will leave us at the time. So he's
Speaker 1: somebody they've been looking at for a long time. They
Speaker 1: went to the weekend of the Falcons game on the road.
Speaker 1: They ran up to Knoxville the night before to see
Speaker 1: him play Tennessee and it's you know, he's somebody they've
Speaker 1: paid attention to for a long time, talented kid and
Speaker 1: can move around. He is a mobile guy in addition
Speaker 1: to big strong arm, so he's an interesting prospect. But
Speaker 1: the thing that kind of came through up there is,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know that I think it would
Speaker 1: be a huge surprise to a lot of people if
Speaker 1: Will leave us was necessarily the guy. But to me,
Speaker 1: it's an example of how thorough they're being because David
Speaker 1: Nicole's still there, going out to dinner with him the
Speaker 1: night before, going through the entire process, the whole offensive
Speaker 1: coaching brain trust is they're talking to him. They still
Speaker 1: had a huge contingent there, and Kentucky didn't have a
Speaker 1: lot of other people other than Will Levis to look at.
Speaker 1: You go to Alabama, you go to Ohio State, there's
Speaker 1: always half a dozen other first round picks on the
Speaker 1: side at the two places, so not so at Kentucky.
Speaker 1: Everybody was only there to see Levis. And it's just
Speaker 1: an example to me of how thorough the process is.
Speaker 1: You want to make sure you button up everything, you
Speaker 1: check everything. And Scott said when we was up there,
Speaker 1: when I talked to him after the workout, he said,
Speaker 1: you know, hey, even if it's not in this draft,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe it's four years from now in free agency,
Speaker 1: maybe it's at some point down the line, or you know,
Speaker 1: something happens and you're looking at a trade or you're
Speaker 1: playing against him. You want to have as much base
Speaker 1: of information about a guy as you can. And also
Speaker 1: something that is, you know, a check mark in his column.
Speaker 1: Is that system right and the and the coordinators that
Speaker 1: are the coordinates are typically at Kentucky's. Yeah, the thought
Speaker 1: is that you know, he has the tools and has
Speaker 1: been in the system too. Yeah, make the transition to
Speaker 1: the next level fairly. And I think he's got an
Speaker 1: opportunity to be good. With all these guys, it's about fit.
Speaker 1: That's the most important thing in the NFL is getting
Speaker 1: to the right spot. Because I can see, you know,
Speaker 1: I can see Will Levis with the right set of
Speaker 1: people being really successful in the NFL. I can see
Speaker 1: any of these guys if they get in bad situations
Speaker 1: with the wrong people, becoming a complete disaster, because that's
Speaker 1: what happens in the league. A lot of good quarterbacks
Speaker 1: go to bad places and you never hear from them again. Yeah.
Speaker 1: All right, So the last one on the list. Anthony
Speaker 1: Richardson at Florida, Yes, and came right after the owners
Speaker 1: meetings in Arizona. So they were coming in hot from that.
Speaker 1: The Panthers, Yes, the Panthers, yes, yes, yes, not Anthony
Speaker 1: richards No, no, no, he was not there. He was
Speaker 1: not there, So coming in hot from that. This was
Speaker 1: about a week or move from the other three. Again
Speaker 1: very similar to Will Levis. I think the biggest thing
Speaker 1: with him is his strength and his size. I snapped
Speaker 1: a photo of him holding a football and his hands
Speaker 1: are so massive, and we talk a lot about hand size.
Speaker 1: Hands are so massive, looks like one of those nerf
Speaker 1: you know, little child size footballs. It's a real one.
Speaker 1: I actually met his younger brother. This is like a
Speaker 1: nice little aside. But his brother's like, oh goodness, I
Speaker 1: want to say, thirteen years old, just as like large
Speaker 1: Lands already. It was so funny he was grabbing a football.
Speaker 1: He was like runs in the family was so well.
Speaker 1: Look for him in like twenty thirty or something exactly.
Speaker 1: You know, Scott Fitter is probably down there looking at
Speaker 1: him too, right, and never know in ten years a
Speaker 1: little Richardson. Yeah, so his whole family was there too. Um,
Speaker 1: like Darren said, you know, tried to hit the roof.
Speaker 1: It was a whole thing. I saw him and Bryce
Speaker 1: Young do it. He saw Will Levis do it. Um.
Speaker 1: One of the things before when he was still warming up,
Speaker 1: he was just like tossing the ball from sitting just
Speaker 1: completely crisscross apple sauce like on the on the ground
Speaker 1: like things like that. I mean, just it was. It
Speaker 1: was again just a show. I felt like it was
Speaker 1: being entertained for a minute. Um. But the thing about
Speaker 1: Anthony Richardson is um and I had forgotten this until
Speaker 1: I got there. I'm like, he's only twenty years old. Um,
Speaker 1: he's only started one season. That was something that his
Speaker 1: coach kind of highlighted as a benefit. It's like he's
Speaker 1: a quick learner, and you know he came in started
Speaker 1: one season at Florida kind of you know, already took command.
Speaker 1: He's only twenty, so he has it's a good coach
Speaker 1: to highlight that as a benefit. Right, Yeah, Hey, that's
Speaker 1: it's good that he's only played one season and started
Speaker 1: one season. He found a way he kind of he
Speaker 1: used his in it. He said, inexperience, but found a
Speaker 1: way to kind of you know to twist it forward
Speaker 1: and be like, well he's inexperience, but he knows how
Speaker 1: to do what he's done. He knows how to learn. Um.
Speaker 1: So that was really interesting talking with with Billy Napier
Speaker 1: about that, um and then and then yeah, Anthony Richardson.
Speaker 1: I mean it's one of those things where you wouldn't
Speaker 1: you wouldn't see him and think that he's, you know,
Speaker 1: so young, but it's like one of those things. He's
Speaker 1: so I don't know if unpolished is the word, but
Speaker 1: he has so many tools. I mean we saw his
Speaker 1: his combine was absolutely off the wall. Um. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it was, it was, It was interesting and and it
Speaker 1: was another really exciting day. Again. I felt like that
Speaker 1: one was almost more like like the Bryce Young one
Speaker 1: that I went to was very you know, not stoic,
Speaker 1: but it felt very you know, like professional, and then
Speaker 1: the Anthony Richardson one was really fun and interesting. I
Speaker 1: think it like kind of reflects the personalities too in
Speaker 1: a way. Yeah, yea, because Bryce Young is very you know,
Speaker 1: I mean they're both like really cool to talk to by.
Speaker 1: Bryce is very you know, but nothing and Anthony Richardson's
Speaker 1: sort of just kind of fun and listen to Anthony
Speaker 1: Richardson's kind of a cheat code. Yeah, I mean he
Speaker 1: is so athletic. When you saw him at the combine,
Speaker 1: set records in the vertical leaps, at quarterback records in
Speaker 1: the forty yard dash, you see it. I mean, stuff
Speaker 1: breaks down, he just hits the button and takes off,
Speaker 1: and he is capable of doing some incredible things. He's
Speaker 1: another one of those guys I think, you know, I know,
Speaker 1: people would probably freak out if Anthony Richardson was the
Speaker 1: first pick. But the idea of a guy with that
Speaker 1: kind of tools being surrounded by Frank Wright, Jim Colwell,
Speaker 1: Josh McCown, Thomas Brown because he's got that running element
Speaker 1: to his game. I mean, the idea of what they
Speaker 1: could do with someone like that is amazing. But you know,
Speaker 1: the big thing, all of those other quarterbacks have at
Speaker 1: least basically twice as many snaps. I mean, they've got
Speaker 1: more reps than him. He just hasn't done it enough,
Speaker 1: and I think that makes him a little bit of
Speaker 1: an outlier. But gosh, she's talented. I mean, that kid,
Speaker 1: in the right situation could freak out. And he gives
Speaker 1: big number one vibes I mean, he's got some Cam
Speaker 1: Newton about him, and not just because he's a Florida quarterback,
Speaker 1: but he plays that way and you can see that potential.
Speaker 1: It's just a matter of how comfortable are you drafting
Speaker 1: potential when you've given up all that stuff to get
Speaker 1: to that spot. And that's really the thing, right, which
Speaker 1: is we've just gone through and very systematically. You guys
Speaker 1: were there in person, and you could make a case
Speaker 1: for any of these four guys, and certainly that is
Speaker 1: what's going on with this Panther's front office, ownership, coaching
Speaker 1: staff is as you said, Darren, they are traveling in Augusta.
Speaker 1: As you said, you know, they are taking a huge
Speaker 1: contingent to each of these places and then they're going
Speaker 1: to owners meetings and then they're coming back or they're
Speaker 1: taking it very seriously, really no stone left unturned, and
Speaker 1: it's the priority. And Darren, on our last podcast Augusta
Speaker 1: you weren't here, you said, you said, look, they're going
Speaker 1: to take every opportunity. They're going to do the in
Speaker 1: person visits. They're going to talk to these players as
Speaker 1: much as they can, they're going to see as much
Speaker 1: as they can. We're going to have conversations every day. Right,
Speaker 1: I was at the combine and there was a big
Speaker 1: meeting about about quarterbacks after they had their interviews with them,
Speaker 1: and then there was a smaller meeting, and I imagine
Speaker 1: there were more meetings after that, because this is such
Speaker 1: a big decision and the way in which this Panther's
Speaker 1: group is approaching it is the way we are going
Speaker 1: to feel great about whoever this is, is that we
Speaker 1: are going to take every available opportunity to learn as
Speaker 1: much as we can visualize it, as much as we
Speaker 1: can feel the fit, as much as we can with
Speaker 1: all of the available quarterbacks that we think could potentially
Speaker 1: be our pick. And it's exhaustive, but that is the process, right,
Speaker 1: no question, it's not over all four of those cats
Speaker 1: are going to rolling through here in the next week,
Speaker 1: ten days. Sort of looking at the calendar now, make
Speaker 1: sure I'm right, But yeah, over the next couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: all all four of them will be back in the
Speaker 1: building again for what they call top thirty visits, along
Speaker 1: with a lot of other guys as a prep for
Speaker 1: the entire draft, not just that first pick. But it's
Speaker 1: that's gonna be where they put them on the board
Speaker 1: and get to spend you know it to combine. You're
Speaker 1: limited to eighteen minutes, so you're really not getting a
Speaker 1: lot of time to go in depth with anything. When
Speaker 1: they get them in the building here next week and
Speaker 1: week after that's when you can get them on the board,
Speaker 1: go through stuff, see how they learn, get them to
Speaker 1: spit it back to you thirty minutes later, go down
Speaker 1: the hall and introduce them to somebody else, come back
Speaker 1: and see if they retained it. So stuff like that's
Speaker 1: going to happen over the next couple of weeks. Is
Speaker 1: they narrow this thing down and make a final decision
Speaker 1: and Augusta. It feels to me like, you know, on
Speaker 1: April twenty seventh, when that number one pick gets announced,
Speaker 1: of course everyone is going to have opinions about it.
Speaker 1: You've got people in all four If you look at
Speaker 1: it Twitter, any NFL fan, any Panthers fan has got
Speaker 1: you know that all four camps have very strong supporters.
Speaker 1: They are going through the things that we just talked about.
Speaker 1: They are pointing out stuff that you know, I don't
Speaker 1: know if anyone saw this or remember that game or whatnot,
Speaker 1: but it does feel like whether you agree or disagree
Speaker 1: with the pick. The Panthers are going to have conviction
Speaker 1: one percent conviction on who this person is, and no
Speaker 1: one will have done more due diligence on all of
Speaker 1: their options, which I think is something that as a
Speaker 1: fan you got to feel good about, right. But we'll
Speaker 1: see how it plays out, of course. But there was
Speaker 1: no there was no eye Yeah, the eye tests. We're
Speaker 1: gonna go with this guy. You know, It's really been
Speaker 1: an incredibly, incredibly thorough process, which I imagine everyone is
Speaker 1: tired too, so exactly they get a sort of zombified
Speaker 1: look in their eyes at a certain point. I think
Speaker 1: when I caught him on day three in Kentucky, No,
Speaker 1: they were going to turn around and Scott and I
Speaker 1: were on the same flight to Arizona the next day,
Speaker 1: so we all flew back to Charlotte, the upset that
Speaker 1: you had better seats than him. Unfortunately I did not.
Speaker 1: I did get upgraded on the way home from Kentucky.
Speaker 1: That was nice. It still wasn't private, so I don't
Speaker 1: I didn't win that trip, but um, but yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean you can see that you get a little bleary
Speaker 1: eyed out there on the road at a certain point
Speaker 1: when you're gone from home for more than a couple
Speaker 1: of days at a time, because we're so used to
Speaker 1: weekend travel. You're out on Saturday. Back on God though,
Speaker 1: that was one of the things that we bonded over.
Speaker 1: Sideline reported we first Scott here and then a scout.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, we joked about how fast can you
Speaker 1: pack a suitcase? He was like, oh, I got it
Speaker 1: in like fifteen seconds, you know, keep it by the door.
Speaker 1: That was his life. I mean, he's perfectly cut out
Speaker 1: for that, and I think lives for it a little bit.
Speaker 1: So this has got to be fun. And then and then,
Speaker 1: of course, as we said, you're also signing guys during
Speaker 1: free agency right during this time too. Oh, by the way,
Speaker 1: other stuff going on, because they actually got the DJ
Speaker 1: chart deal done while we were standing on the Sideline's
Speaker 1: in Kentucky. Yeah, and Sameir was standing there and it's
Speaker 1: like Sameir, Scott and Frank or I'll standing in a group.
Speaker 1: It's like, here's the phone, your phone, phone phone, everybody good? Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: we're good. And that's how that deal. Let's watch, We'll
Speaker 1: love us throw Let's watch will love us throw it around?
Speaker 1: All right. Well, since you guys have been on the
Speaker 1: road so much, I figured we would end this with
Speaker 1: just a little I just want to get some some
Speaker 1: travel style vibes from the two of you. If you
Speaker 1: had to choose, you want to drive to wherever you're going,
Speaker 1: or do you want to take a plane? Not private?
Speaker 1: Darren every time, fly every time. Me. I like to
Speaker 1: get out on the open road a little bit. Every
Speaker 1: time I can go. It's effortless, you know, out of
Speaker 1: my out of my hands. I was talking to someone
Speaker 1: about it the other day. It's like, you know, there's
Speaker 1: people who love control. That's not me. I love not
Speaker 1: having it. It's like I can sit back, relax, catch
Speaker 1: up on some sleep. It is nice to Yeah, you
Speaker 1: could read a book, do some work, all that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff. But I every time get out and drive. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I used to be a big road trip guy. I
Speaker 1: could do the drive. I have fourteen hours in one day,
Speaker 1: cannonball at across country, stuff like that. I remember driving
Speaker 1: back from Chicago once when I was in my twenties.
Speaker 1: I left Chicago one morning and drove back to Gastonia
Speaker 1: and finished up a night shift at the paper. You know,
Speaker 1: it was just bizarre and why would you do it?
Speaker 1: But um, yeah, now I'm not there. In fact, it's
Speaker 1: kind of like driving Miss Daisy. I was out there
Speaker 1: with Kyle Toot and Rob Paul from the video team,
Speaker 1: and I told him, I said, I've got one condition
Speaker 1: on travel. I'm a real prima donna. I don't drive.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, who was driving? If you gotta go,
Speaker 1: are you driving? I'm gonna guess you standing back, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna guess Rob drove. Yeah, YEA drove. I could see that.
Speaker 1: Been out there with Kyle behind the wheel, and it's like,
Speaker 1: I remember Atlanta a couple of years ago. We drove
Speaker 1: down for some reason. Um yeah, yeah. I was during COVID.
Speaker 1: We were all driving separately, and I was in the
Speaker 1: backseat of the car driving or writing while Kyle was driving.
Speaker 1: And I was like, okay, I'm finished writing, I can
Speaker 1: let you. You can pull over, and I can get
Speaker 1: in the front seat and be a normal human being.
Speaker 1: He was like, no, I don't feel like stopping. Did
Speaker 1: you crawl through? That's what I just sat in the
Speaker 1: back like I was being show first. This is a
Speaker 1: more this is a more interesting thing. You had your
Speaker 1: laptop out writing in the backseat. Oh yeah, Oh, I
Speaker 1: would have I would have Oh yeah, I would not
Speaker 1: have been able to say that's how your sausage gets
Speaker 1: made at Panthers dot com, all those road games Augustine
Speaker 1: and I are writing on the bus between the locker
Speaker 1: rooms and that. But I would have chosen the front seat.
Speaker 1: I would have gotten too car sick. I could not
Speaker 1: have done it the whole read the whole Bryce Young
Speaker 1: Alabama story, I promise you, because we we flew out
Speaker 1: of Birmingham and we had to drive from Tuscaloosa. I
Speaker 1: wrote that entire thing in a backseat of a vehicle.
Speaker 1: The whole thing, like the from start to finish, was
Speaker 1: in a car. Well, no wonder you guys want to,
Speaker 1: you know, not be driving places because all your articles
Speaker 1: are coming immediately after you finish your event. Uh and
Speaker 1: they got to be published. All right? This was fun? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's happy. Absolutely. Thanks everyone for listening to the Happy
Speaker 1: Half Hour podcast. We'll catch you nex time. H