Speaker 1: All right, welcome everybody to the Happy half Hour.
Speaker 2: And isn't it a happy half hour.
Speaker 1: It's a beautiful day outside in Charlotte, North Carolina, especially.
Speaker 2: If you're a duck.
Speaker 1: Severe thunderstorms, Yeah, it's we're underwater here in Charlotte. There
Speaker 1: are things falling out of the sky like giant limbs
Speaker 1: and everything else.
Speaker 3: So we had an eclipse this week, the.
Speaker 1: Eclipse the moon God ate the sun the other day.
Speaker 1: Fortunately it came back. I don't know, you know, cats
Speaker 1: and dogs sleeping together. There's your dated pop culture reference
Speaker 1: right out of the top. Let's get through with that
Speaker 1: and talk about the thing people came here to hear,
Speaker 1: which is the many many football things. Woo.
Speaker 3: We need like a little audio run.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we do when we produce this thing at a
Speaker 1: different level, which you know, you never know.
Speaker 2: Stay tuned.
Speaker 1: There could be some exciting news regarding your Happy half
Speaker 1: Hour coming up in the weeks and months to come,
Speaker 1: including a sponsor that I think is going to fit
Speaker 1: in perfectly with our whole little aesthetic.
Speaker 2: We've got going on around here. Stay tuned for that.
Speaker 1: But in the interim, what we've got to offer you,
Speaker 1: as many many football people in this stadium. It is
Speaker 1: finally starting to look like football again with the offseason
Speaker 1: conditioning program beginning this week, and there's a lot of
Speaker 1: dudes wandering around, and not just a lot of dudes,
Speaker 1: a lot of new dudes, a lot of old dudes.
Speaker 1: It's still a little jarring to walk down the hall
Speaker 1: and say, oh, hi, Jadavian Clowney, I hate you are
Speaker 1: a person who works here now, because that is a
Speaker 1: thing that's happened since the last time we got together.
Speaker 3: Jadavian Clowney, Derek Brown got his extension. I mean, they're
Speaker 3: shoring up the defense. One of the few things that
Speaker 3: I learned from Rben Meyer that can actually be taken
Speaker 3: away and applied positively to someone's life is that you
Speaker 3: build a team through the defensive line. And this defensive
Speaker 3: line now boast Derek Brown, a Sean Robber, Sin shy Tittle,
Speaker 3: and then you've got Jadavion Clowney coming off the edge.
Speaker 3: Which I know Jadavion Clowney is going into his eleventh season,
Speaker 3: but Darreny came off one of his best seasons in
Speaker 3: his since his early career last year nine.
Speaker 1: And a half sacks last year for a pretty good
Speaker 1: Baltimore defense was Yep, was a resurgence for Jadavion, and
Speaker 1: he's kind of knocked around and been on one year
Speaker 1: deals for a little bit. But that's signing to me
Speaker 1: as much for all the stuff they did, and they've
Speaker 1: operated in bulk this offseason, and I would like to
Speaker 1: remind people this ain't how it's always going to be,
Speaker 1: and this ain't how they want it to be every year,
Speaker 1: because you don't want to be in the business of
Speaker 1: signing twelve, thirteen, fourteen free agents every March, because that
Speaker 1: means you've got a bunch of holes you got to fill.
Speaker 3: The Baker's doesn't plus.
Speaker 1: But getting him in was like the signal of Okay,
Speaker 1: that's the last big one, right, that's the last you know.
Speaker 1: I think people daydream about other things that might happen
Speaker 1: in the future. But now that you've got Jadavion Clowney
Speaker 1: in the building, you can put a team on the ft.
Speaker 1: Before that signing, it's like, who's playing the outside linebacker?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I don't know. When I was in
Speaker 1: Orlando talking to Canalis at the owners meetings, you know,
Speaker 1: I asked him specifically prior to the Clowny signing, this.
Speaker 2: Group you have here, What can you do with it?
Speaker 2: Can you go? Can you play?
Speaker 1: And he's like, we like all these guys individually, but
Speaker 1: there was clearly something missing from the group, and bringing
Speaker 1: in a heavy hitter like Clowney lends a little bit
Speaker 1: of stability to do this thing.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's.
Speaker 1: Obviously not the same as it was, and people are
Speaker 1: going to miss Brian and Frankie for years to come
Speaker 1: because those guys were around here and made connections with
Speaker 1: people and all that kind of stuff. But I think
Speaker 1: in terms of the overall defense, this thing might be
Speaker 1: a little more stable and ought to be better against
Speaker 1: the run than it was a year ago because you've
Speaker 1: swapped out smaller bodies for bigger bodies.
Speaker 2: You know, Deshaun Wims love him.
Speaker 1: He's a great dude, created an NFL career out of
Speaker 1: an unlikely background, hometown kid effectively home state kid sort of.
Speaker 1: But you've replaced a six one, two hundred and eighty
Speaker 1: pound defensive end with a six foot four, three and
Speaker 1: twenty pound a Shawn Robinson, and Ashawn is just that
Speaker 1: kind of door frame big even among big people, he
Speaker 1: looks big.
Speaker 2: He's the big one.
Speaker 1: When big people get together, he's the he's the one
Speaker 1: there's head sticks up above the rest of the crowd.
Speaker 1: I love the fact that in his backstory his mom
Speaker 1: used to have to carry birth certificate to Pop Warner
Speaker 1: games to prove that he was actually five and not seventeen.
Speaker 2: But they've done things like that.
Speaker 1: And with Robinson coming up front to stand alongside Shy
Speaker 1: tut On Derrick Brown, with Clowney on that second line,
Speaker 1: you're a little more stout against the run, which you
Speaker 1: needed to be. I mean, the Panthers had to face
Speaker 1: way too many runs last year because they were always behind.
Speaker 1: But I think personnel wise, they're a little more stable there.
Speaker 1: So that in and of itself is a good thing.
Speaker 3: Right, we can clum into who Like we said, with
Speaker 3: the nine and a half sacks, I think he even
Speaker 3: had ten and a half when you count the playoffs.
Speaker 3: You know he was in high forties and tackles for
Speaker 3: somebody in his tenth season coming off the edge. That's
Speaker 3: what you need that Darren. This is just getting off
Speaker 3: on a little tangent. I have a philosophy that that
Speaker 3: position is the most important position on defense in today's game,
Speaker 3: and when you have somebody who can still move the
Speaker 3: way he can still move even at his age. At
Speaker 3: his age he's like thirty two. When you have somebody
Speaker 3: that can still move like that but also has the
Speaker 3: experience and the mind to know these quarterbacks, he's been
Speaker 3: he played in the AFC last year. He's so he's faced,
Speaker 3: you know, guys like Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes. So
Speaker 3: when you've got somebody who knows these quarterbacks, who knows
Speaker 3: where to be, he knows what to do, and he
Speaker 3: still has all of the physical attributes that once made
Speaker 3: him a first overall pick, that's got to be a
Speaker 3: little excited. I was walking out of an interview yesterday
Speaker 3: with Dave Canalis and I made the joke said, you know,
Speaker 3: you've got two number one overall picks now at two
Speaker 3: of the most important positions. He just started smiling, and
Speaker 3: he's like, can you imagine how much fun we're going
Speaker 3: to have? And I think that's what they're thinking is,
Speaker 3: you know, we've got Jadavian Clowney on one side, we've
Speaker 3: got Bryce Young on the other with us with a
Speaker 3: very high ceiling still to come for Bryschong, Imagine how
Speaker 3: much fun they could be happy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And that's the other thing.
Speaker 1: That's kind of become obvious walking around this building for
Speaker 1: the last couple of days, Cass is there are We've
Speaker 1: talked a lot about individual components of this thing that's
Speaker 1: being put together. But I think this week is important
Speaker 1: because now, for the first time, it is a tangible
Speaker 1: thing you're doing. You now see this group of people.
Speaker 1: It's not just the idea of Okay, we signed this
Speaker 1: guy to this contract and he's going to play this role. No,
Speaker 1: that's Jadavion. He lives here. He's from rack Hill.
Speaker 2: This thing. He likes Bojangles, which we learned during our.
Speaker 1: Ass the Old Guy video mail bag the other week,
Speaker 1: which day beyond, which you can enjoy on Panthers dot com.
Speaker 3: What was his order?
Speaker 2: He is a he is a Supremes guy. The fries
Speaker 2: at night.
Speaker 1: In the morning he'll go chick, He'll go spicy file
Speaker 1: a biscuit, add egg.
Speaker 3: Okay, I had my first Bojangles biscuit this week?
Speaker 2: Is that right?
Speaker 3: First one of my life?
Speaker 2: How is that possible? You know?
Speaker 3: Bojingles is not I lived in Florida for ten years
Speaker 3: where there's not any really bo Jingles. I lived in
Speaker 3: Green Bay for two years where there's not any and
Speaker 3: when I last lived in Alabama, they were just starting
Speaker 3: to get there.
Speaker 2: So well, now you've come to the good Land, and
Speaker 2: now there.
Speaker 3: Is one literally across the street from my house.
Speaker 1: There you go and we can start pilgrimages. I can
Speaker 1: take you to Bojangles One, which is just down the
Speaker 1: street here, the mother ship where it all started.
Speaker 2: What did you get at your first trip to Bojangles?
Speaker 2: While we're on this tank.
Speaker 3: I just got a steak biscuit it and a doctor pepper.
Speaker 3: But last week I went there for the first time,
Speaker 3: and I had gone in college one time, and then
Speaker 3: last week I went for the first time since college
Speaker 3: and it was lunchtime. So I got a chicken sandwich
Speaker 3: in a sweet tea and the sweet tea was actually
Speaker 3: really really good.
Speaker 2: You didn't get bow rounds?
Speaker 3: Oh? I did get bow round Yes, I did. I
Speaker 3: forgot Thank you Matt for pointing that out. That's I'm
Speaker 3: all about some hash brons in the morning, and those
Speaker 3: bow rounds were really good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's uh. We could do an entire podcast about
Speaker 2: bow Jangles.
Speaker 3: And y'all are making me hungry.
Speaker 1: I might don't even get me started on the bow
Speaker 1: Jangler on a biscuit instead of a bond no cheese.
Speaker 3: Back to Clowney though. Yeah, I thought the most thing
Speaker 3: that stood out the most about what he told you
Speaker 3: when you were talking to him was that he waited
Speaker 3: to want to be here. Yeah, you know this is
Speaker 3: it's some people say that that's the worst thing that
Speaker 3: can happen to a guy is to go to his
Speaker 3: hometown team. And he purposely waited and I'll let you.
Speaker 1: Finish, and he mentioned I mean he like at times
Speaker 1: early in his career he wasn't prepared personally for the
Speaker 1: pressure that comes with being the hometown guy, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: when you're surrounded by your friends from high school, you
Speaker 1: get all those little things. And I've actually known people
Speaker 1: in front offices here, you know, in the past and
Speaker 1: even twenty years ago and beyond. Who would actually that
Speaker 1: downgrades a guy on the draft if you've got to
Speaker 1: worry about hometown friends being a negative influence on sometimes.
Speaker 1: I mean, honestly, in that in that Patriots documentary, that
Speaker 1: was a thing he wanted to go to Seattle.
Speaker 3: So, but that's as far away as you can get
Speaker 3: from Boston.
Speaker 1: But I think for Jadavian, he's coming back a different
Speaker 1: cat I mean, he is no longer the first overall
Speaker 1: picking a draft who made a guy's head roll halfway
Speaker 1: down the field against Michigan. He's now a old pro.
Speaker 1: He's kind of an old head coming into this place.
Speaker 2: Who's he's a dad.
Speaker 1: He's a dad. He talked about, you know, I hang
Speaker 1: around the house. I'm here with the kids and the family.
Speaker 1: This is not you know, I'm not out doing what
Speaker 1: I was doing when I was younger. And I think
Speaker 1: that maturity kind of allows him to walk into this
Speaker 1: place and a little bit in a little bit better spot.
Speaker 1: And that's what I was getting at. When you see
Speaker 1: these guys all together, all of these individual parts kind
Speaker 1: of came in at one time. When you see them
Speaker 1: all in the room and you see them interact. When
Speaker 1: you see guys out on the practice field Monday, and
Speaker 1: oh yeah, Bryce is talking to a huddle of offensive
Speaker 1: teammates about what they're going to do that day. And
Speaker 1: even if all they're going to do is run and
Speaker 1: stretch and do some conditioning work and that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: just the idea of creating that vibe, creating that leadership,
Speaker 1: creating those bonds.
Speaker 2: You know, Canalist talks about it all the time.
Speaker 1: You know, if you can create a family he I
Speaker 1: think he tweeted this out the other day, create a family,
Speaker 1: the winds will come. They're in the process of creating
Speaker 1: that family this week because all the cousins at the
Speaker 1: reunion who don't know each other are meeting each other
Speaker 1: for the first time, and they're trying to figure out
Speaker 1: where they fit. And that's kind of what happens here
Speaker 1: in this phase one. To use the football parlance, it's
Speaker 1: a lot of weightlifting and run around and exercising and
Speaker 1: stuff like that, with some meetings involved.
Speaker 2: They're not actually out there running.
Speaker 1: Routes on the field or being coached and that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff that's against the rules this time of year,
Speaker 1: and no football, no, you know it's not football.
Speaker 3: Ye.
Speaker 1: But they're learning each other and that, after what this
Speaker 1: team has been through for the last couple of years,
Speaker 1: is as important as any schematic thing or any personnel
Speaker 1: thing that's going to happen. I mean, I have said before,
Speaker 1: this team has to kind of reset. This team has
Speaker 1: to adopt normal for five minutes. You know, you've got to.
Speaker 1: We can't worry about reinventing the wheel. We can't worry
Speaker 1: about revolutionizing football. We just got to be evolutionary for
Speaker 1: a minute and do the normal things. Well, what's get
Speaker 1: the football rain? And that's yeah, get the football right.
Speaker 1: That could be the secret word for our podcast. One
Speaker 1: of these days we'll go full pee Wee's Playhouse on
Speaker 1: that go secret word. And when Dave Canally says get
Speaker 1: the football right, streamers come out of the ceiling and
Speaker 1: there's confetti, cannons and everything.
Speaker 2: Mett'll clean up the studio.
Speaker 3: I have a question. What is pee Wee's Playhouse?
Speaker 1: You might as well tell me you'd never been to
Speaker 1: Both Jangles? What pee Wee's playhouse? Pee Wee Herman looking
Speaker 1: up her pee had a children's show that aired on
Speaker 1: Saturday mornings.
Speaker 2: It was very fun. Him and all his.
Speaker 1: Friends got in adventures to entertain kids. And one of
Speaker 1: the features was the secret word. And the secret word
Speaker 1: might be something as innocuous as rain. And if somebody
Speaker 1: accidentally said the word rain and that was a secret word,
Speaker 1: everybody go. It sounds like it was a more playful
Speaker 1: Peewee not the Isn't he like pee Wee's no longer
Speaker 1: among us? Oh that's all right, I will forgive you
Speaker 1: for that one.
Speaker 3: I new something happened.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's in the basement of the Alamo.
Speaker 2: Now where is this podcast gone?
Speaker 3: Do you know who else is down there?
Speaker 1: Jimmy awful, Matt, you were worried about this one coming in,
Speaker 1: and I think we've lived down to your every expectation.
Speaker 1: What on earth are we doing here? So anyway, all right,
Speaker 1: we've covered a lot of the big news. Clowny's here,
Speaker 1: We talked about all of the free agents and previous incarnations.
Speaker 1: The other really big thing is, and you kind of
Speaker 1: mentioned it out of the top, Dereck Brown has the
Speaker 1: contract and you want to talk about something that is
Speaker 1: a statement. Telling Derek Brown here's a pile of money,
Speaker 1: stay here for the next four years is a big one.
Speaker 1: But to me, as good as Derek was on the field,
Speaker 1: the important part of Derreck Brown signing extension here is
Speaker 1: Derek Brown's going to be here. And we've seen I
Speaker 1: mean for too long, and people who listen to this
Speaker 1: show or fans of this team know all the history.
Speaker 1: I mean, Christian McCaffrey's not here, DJ Moore's not here,
Speaker 1: Brian Burns is not here anymore. But giving Derek that
Speaker 1: contract kind of says Okay, the buck stops here. We're
Speaker 1: gonna keep ours now starting today. The guys who are
Speaker 1: from and of the guys who grow up here and
Speaker 1: become stars are going to be part of this program
Speaker 1: moving on. So, I mean, I think Derek carries symbolic
Speaker 1: weight that is as important for this team as his
Speaker 1: actual weight, which is considerable, exactly.
Speaker 3: And like you said, it shows the other players that
Speaker 3: are here that if you put in the work and
Speaker 3: you put in the time, you'll be rewarded for that
Speaker 3: as well, and you're not going to be traded away.
Speaker 3: And it shows to Derek, we trust you to be
Speaker 3: a foundational piece for this team. And it also says
Speaker 3: to this team, we're not just completely in rebuilding mode
Speaker 3: year after year, like we're going to keep these pieces,
Speaker 3: We're going to build around them, which is essentially what
Speaker 3: they did by you know, shoring up that line by
Speaker 3: bringing in Robinson. I mean, imagine Ashan Robinson is going
Speaker 3: to get a lot of attention, and that frees up
Speaker 3: Derek Brown. Like imagine the wrecking ball that can come
Speaker 3: through a line like that. And so, like you said,
Speaker 3: it makes a statement, that was the best word for it.
Speaker 3: It tells the players there. Put in the work, you'll
Speaker 3: be rewarded. It tells Derek Brown, we want you here,
Speaker 3: we want to build around you, and it tells this
Speaker 3: club and this fan base we're going to we're building
Speaker 3: for the future, but we're actually building, We're not just
Speaker 3: saying we're going to be doing it.
Speaker 2: So there you go, Jadavian Clowney. Check. Big piece of business.
Speaker 2: Derek Brown secured for the future. Check. Obviously, the next.
Speaker 1: Couple of weeks offer even more big stuff for the
Speaker 1: Carolina Panthers. There are guys in here this week for
Speaker 1: pre draft visits. That's a lot that's gonna happen. We
Speaker 1: will have, I promise you this is my vow. A
Speaker 1: pre draft edition of The Happy Half Hour coming up
Speaker 1: in the next couple weeks, and that's obviously a big thing.
Speaker 1: I've got two picks in the top forty thirty three
Speaker 1: and thirty nine. I know a lot of people have
Speaker 1: probably been wasting a lot of time on the mock
Speaker 1: draft simulators on the internet. It beats working, is that,
Speaker 1: And yeah, sometimes it's research, darn it. But we will
Speaker 1: get into all that on the next episode of The
Speaker 1: Happy Half Hour, along with many more earthly delights. You
Speaker 1: never know what you're gonna get here, so until then,
Speaker 1: have a happy half hour.
Speaker 2: Everybody