April 18, 2025 • 24 mins
This week on the Happy Half Hour, Darin and Kassidy discuss the possibility of trading back from 8 overall, react to the mock draft "consensus", breakdown a few prospects and so much more as they get you ready for the 2025 NFL Draft!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This week on a Happy half Hour.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Every GM dreams about having more stuff. If you've got
seven picks, you want eight. If you got eight, you
want ten. If you've got nine, you want twelve. So
if you can load up on stuff, if you could
get somewhere between eight and fifty seven, I think that's
something Dan Morgan absolutely would be interested in exploring.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
What's up.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
It's time for the Happy Half Hour, presented by Southern Star,
an official bourbon of the Carolina Panthers. Here are your hosts,
Darren Gant and Cassidy Hill.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Hello, friends, we are back again. It is Thursday, April seventeenth.
We are recording. Let's call this your pre draft Bonanza
episode Bonanza Bonanza.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Bonanza.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I mean, then, since we're celebrating, there's no other way.
I mean, this episode of the Happy Half Hours, brought
to you by our friends at Southern Stars, celebrate the
spirit of the Carolinas. They are an official bourbon partner
of your Carolina Panthers and frankly an official bourbon partner
of Darren Gant. Right now, so maybe as soon.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
As erring is the spirit of the Carolina that's.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Right, something like that, or the spirit of the Carolinas
is inside of me. Here you go. No, we got
a lot. It's almost party time. We are one week
out from when all this goes down, yep, and we
have got a lot to get through between now and then. Honestly,
because it's a week out, you know, most of the
mock drafts have been done, most of the work has
(01:37):
been done. You and I have been putting stories in
the can that are going to roll out days at
a time in advance. And it's almost here. It's that time,
and you're about to get on an airplane and go
to Green Bay and be right there in the middle
of it all.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yeah. It sneaks up on you every year around this
time too, and this is when everything changes. For when
everything can change for a team is very exciting. I've
got to figure out since we are getting on a
plane on Wednesday, Uh, the team returns on Monday, you know,
off season programs kind of begin. I've got to figure
(02:09):
out when I'm gonna fit in my annual viewing of
draft day. You know, it's not really the draft time
until Kevin Costner writes on a post it note, so
it's also Easter weekend, you know, it's it's gonna be
a busy time, but that's really important.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, mixing Easter ends always tricky.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
I've got who planned that.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Yeah, I've got deviled eggs to make before this weekend
gets here. But uh, you're a big devil egg person.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
By the way, I'm a big devil degg person. But
I don't like it when people put a lot of
mustard in theirs.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
You know, I think deviled egg might be my number
one pick in the Easter food draft.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Really, yeah, I can see that because it goes along
with the whole egg thing too. Ham if done right,
is good, but it can be done wrong really really easily.
You know, we used I think we've usually have like
baked beans, potato salad, macaroni, and cheese, but deviled eggs
(03:02):
are definitely up there.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah, I'm definitely going deviled egg number one. I might
trade up to acquire deviled egg, and I might trade
down to acquire even more. My wife asked me the
other day, she said, how many devil eggs you plan
on making? I was like, well, two dozen. She said,
so like a dozen eggs and I said, no eggs.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
So that's forty eight deviled egg that's correct. I can
do that math, I can do.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Devil people are gonna be at your mom's house and man,
I am nine or ten something like that, small gathering
and uh and she was like, so four or five,
and I said, don't I need deviled eggs to be
left over? I just yeah, I'm sitting here like Scrooge
McDuck in my pool of gold.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
You don't want them left over too much, though.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Find two dozen deviled eggs at a time. So anyway,
we should talk about football, because this is a football podcast.
That's what they tell me. Yeah, you can you do
anything we wanted to make you have got Uh. So
you made this a tradition of watching Draft egg before
every draft day.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
It didn't really like I didn't mean for it to
become a tradition. It just kind of did. Like I
realized I was watching it because usually it'll be on
TV around draft time as well. And then one year
I couldn't find it on TV or I missed it,
and I couldn't find it on a streaming service. So
I bought it on DVD. And now the past like
two or three years, I've made sure to watch it
(04:18):
usually that Wednesday night, the night before the draft. It
just gets me excited. It gets me pumped because, like,
I know, the Draft more than anything is like a
TV event at this point, but it is still like
fun to kind of get into it and to you know,
imagine what's actually going on in the rooms. I always
want like I would love to be a fly on
the wall in those rooms and find out, you know
(04:39):
how many times each year there is really like a
and David Putney just for the heck of it, like
one of those moments it's have you ever seen the
get and give me David Putney just for the heck
of it moment. I'm paraphrasing because there's certain words I
feel like we get fined for saving saying.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
I feel like I am culturally aware of this movie
without ever ha having sat through the entire day.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
You've never watched Draft Day.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Not intentionally. I mean I'm aware of the premise. I
know how I know the build up and trust me,
we we got Scott Fitterer to hold up the post
it note in the palm of his hand that sip
Rice Young the other year, So we've done all.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
That, Darren. It is. It is cheesy. It puts a
Hollywood spin on football, there's an unnecessary love story. It
is a fantastic movie.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Wow, it's I don't know, maybe, And there are.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
So many like cultural references that can be made around
draft time to the movie, like and I do appreciate
too that, like they didn't make up teams, like everybody
in the NFL was completely on board with being it's
really an NFL vehicle. But because everybody was on board,
Like they filmed scenes at the actual draft, and you know,
(05:53):
it's the commissioner, what, it's Roder Goodell walking out to
read a name. And there's also just a moment in
there where you just remind yourself that every year at
the draft, this is somebody's life on dream coming true.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Well, and that's the key, and a lot's going to
change for these individuals and teams in particular, because we,
you know, we're gonna do all the build up. We
have been doing the build up. I was joking with
some friends on a local radio station earlier this week.
I said, you know, maybe just maybe we've started too soon.
When we start doing mock drafts around Thanksgiving Thanksgiving, Yeah,
(06:24):
that's probably a little early when we start thinking about
draft position, because it it does, I mean you always
watch draft day, I always try to go into a
dark room with no input whatsoever and just kind of
vege for five minutes because I feel like I've been
swimming in the school for the last four months. But
but anyway, I mean, it's just with all of that
(06:47):
build up, there is an excitement, and I think for
the Carolina Panthers, there's the realization that they have an
opportunity coming up this week to really change this football
team for the better. They've got nine to picks right
in the first five rounds, including that sweet, sweet number
eight spot that gives them a lot of opportunities. I mean,
there's been a lot of talk about this player, that player,
(07:09):
but when you just look at having eight picks in
the first five rounds for a team that's looking to
build on the talent and make those big strides on
defense and continue to develop the roster as a whole,
I think this weekend's big, big opportunity.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Anytime you have a top ten pick, that's a potential
franchise chasing pick, because you either are getting a top
ten talent or you're trading back and you're getting a
lot of picks to build your team around. So you
can really kind of control your own destiny when you're
sitting there with a top ten pick, especially when you
have units that are as deep as they are this
(07:45):
year and you've got so many teams ahead of you
that have very specific needs. That kind of puts you
in a really really good position if you're the Panthers
at number eight overall and knowing what you.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Need right And listen that Derek Carr news last week
when the Saints find out they're starting quarterbacks got a
shoulder injury that may or may not preclude him from
beginning this season or being able to play, depending on
whether he needs surgery or not. It's kind of gone
dark since that's an early word that's you know, put
the Saints on everybody's radar in terms of quarterback. And
(08:15):
you know, if you if you're in the top ten
or if you're on the fringes of the top ten
and you want to get a guy and everybody knows it,
then they're probably going to be calling Dan Morgan to
see what aids worth to them. And you know, I
think there are a lot of there are a lot
of defensive players that they like, and we've talked about
a lot of them at length here and abroad. Jalen
Walker's name is attached to the Carolina Panthers impractically every
(08:38):
mock draft, and there reason for that. Jalen Walker's really
good in football, and it would be and it would
be pretty easy to imagine him slotting right in here
for his hometown team. He grew up right up the
road in Salisbury. Cheerwine's not a sponsor, but will make
an exception for one day to get Salisbury in the house.
But I just think that if it's him, that may
(09:00):
makes a lot of sense. But there's a lot of
different ways this could go. When we talked to Dan
earlier this week at his annual pre draft press conference,
which is an exercise in trying to say anything revelatory.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Which he did very well at.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
He did a great job. He did a great job.
He got asked a lot, though about the idea of
trading back, and as tempting as that top ten impact
player is, the idea of adding more stuff is appealing
because through deals that were made before he became general manager,
the Panthers got a big gap between eight and fifty seven,
(09:33):
a thirty ninth pick that would have been theirs is
still with Chicago. That's the remnant of the Bryce Young trade,
the last thing that's hanging out there, you know, keeping
them from being hold. But they did get a late
second from the Rams in a trade last year, So
you know, I think it's natural and every GM dreams
about having more stuff. If you've got seven picks, you
(09:53):
want eight. If you got eight, you want ten. If
you've got nine, you want twelve. So if you can
load up falling stuff, if you could get somewhere between
eight and fifty seven, I think that's something Dan Morgan
absolutely would be interested in exploring.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
And he bought himself a lot of flexibility with what
they did in free agency, and he also has a
little bit of flexibility considering again kind of just going
back to this, considering what their positions of need are
and how deep those particular classes are in this year's draft.
You know, yes, you want the top ten pick. And
if you're sitting there, you know, I think he said,
(10:27):
if we're there, like, obviously we're gonna we're gonna take
somebody that's gonna be great. You've got you've still got
that game changing talent that you could maybe get in
the late teens the twenties with this particular ad rushing class,
maybe even with this like safety class, this the trenches,
(10:47):
like you've got some flexibility with this particular class, and
how it's unfolding this year, which may not be the
case next year.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Right, And again, pass rushers are always a scarce commodity.
And if you're the Carolina Panthers, yes, you've got dj
Wanam Patrick Jones signed this offseason, Davin Clowney is still here.
You've got people if you have a chance to add
impact to that, that's something every you know, those those
guys get picked high for a reason. I still remember
a couple of years ago there was a pass rusher
(11:17):
that they had their eyes on. They thought they were
going to try to trade up into the late twenties
and get and he went, and he went in the
middle of the first round. He went about ten twelve
spots higher than they were talking about trading to get
to to select him. So it's it's always valued commodity.
It will be again. But with so many guys at
that position this year, that makes this kind of a
(11:39):
rare draft. And it makes that idea of Okay, what
if we're picking sixteenth, what if we're picking twentieth. What
if we're picking twenty first, You know, can you still
get guys that help this team? And I think with
the makeup of this year's draft, the answer to that
should be yes.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
What's gonna They're gonna have to be careful with those
two is when you have a position like that, there
are times that those players can be very scheme dependent.
You know, this defense runs a three four, which means
you can also usually drop into a four to three
like you've You've gotta make sure that you're not And
Dan Morgan knows this, he's not I'm not telling him anything.
(12:16):
He doesn't know. You can't just grab an outside linebacker.
You're gonna need to grab, you know, somebody that might
could be, you know, a stand up or it's not
necessarily going to be a hand in the ground guy,
although those exist too, And maybe it is. If you're
gonna get a hand in the ground guy, that kind
of changes what your defense is gonna look like. There
(12:40):
is some scheme dependency that is still there within that.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Class, Yeah, no doubt. And I think even with that,
you just got to think about impact. I mean, when
you when you're thinking about the Carolina Panthers defense Right now,
you're not thinking good thoughts because it was thirty second
in all the categories. Last year. Gave up a league
record all time league record points allowed, second most yards allowed,
third most rush yards allowed. What they need is people
(13:05):
who are good at playing defensive football. This guy right here,
Derek Brown, he needs friends. This is the theater of
the mind is happening right here. We've got Derek Brown
on a stick here in the podcast studio, and uh,
once we put this bad boy on video, you'll be
able to see all my friends. We've got props and
(13:26):
we're gonna use them. Uh, But Derek Brown needs help.
Jac Horn needs help. You've got a couple of guys
there and those two who are those culture builders? Who
are those guys who set the tone for the entire defense?
Now you need somebody at that second level, somebody who
is that you know, choose your football cliche of preference
war daddy, you know, whatever happens to be. That was.
(13:49):
That was one that our friend Dave Canalis used down
at the UH and I just did the Dave Canalis
on a stick. If you're imaginings, which you should be,
I'm having fun with this anytime you've got an opportunity
to have Derek Brown on a stick, you should. But
they need guys who can help create a new culture
(14:11):
on that defense and they there's a story I'm in
the middle of writing right now that'll go up on
Panthers dot Com later this afternoon. The way they built
the offensive line over the last couple of years kind
of informs what they ought to be doing or want
to be doing with defense, which is, you put money
in it at a certain point to raise the level.
(14:33):
Then you're able to kind of fix a piece or
two at a time by saying, Okay, we know we've
got to find a guy who's better than this guy,
or if we're trying to do this, is there anybody
who's better than this guy? So I think getting to
that point on defense is going to be easier because
there aren't enough of those guys to go around. But J. C. Horn,
(14:54):
Dereck Brown need a friend. They need somebody to create
a little pressure to help set the to for what
needs to be a significant.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Turnaround, and he could take a couple of years, No doubt,
it will take a couple of years. So even with
the top ten pick, you're not gonna change an entire defense.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Well, this was not a one year fix, and it
never was going to be. I don't think anybody had
that illusion when Dave Canalis Stan Morgan took over a
year ago, and and to see the kind of progress
I mean when Dave was talking down at the owners
meeting and he said, listen to what we saw out
of these guys second half of the year was enough
to make us think there's something to build on. So
(15:32):
you know, that's why there's been a lot of clamoring
for target for Bryce and where's your Bryce, Where's my Bryce?
Here's my Bryce? Would bright would Bryce like a big
pass catching target in the first round? Sure he would.
Would Bryce like to have somebody like a big old
six foot four volleyball playing Ted McMillan, who's a go
(15:54):
fetch that's right? He was, Uh, he is a big
up and go get it guy was at Arizona and
I could they use one of those guys? Of course
they could. And if the right defensive player is not
there and they don't trade down or something, I think
that's a very real possibility at number eight. But I
(16:15):
just keep coming back to that defense, and I keep
thinking about Hey, how not great it was last year.
When you give up six hundred or when you give
up six straight games to close the year of over
two hundred rushing yards allowed, that speaks to a problem.
And you know, they did the things in free agency.
They added linemen, they added Pat Jones, but they still
(16:37):
need dudes, and so we'll see, we'll see how that goes.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Do you do mock drafts to kind of figure out
where you think it's gonna lie.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
I do. I think I'm like everybody else. I've been
looking at mock drafts, thinking about mock drafts, mocking mock
drafts for a long time. There seems to be some
degree of consensus when you look at the way this
top ten of this draft's gonna go. I think there's
a general expectation at this point the Camlord is going
(17:06):
to be the number one pick going to Tennessee. Then
you've got your Travis Hunters, your Abdul Carter's many many
people believe that the New England Patriots love Will Campbell.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
I mean they need to tackle the tackle from Ellens.
They need to tackle.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Many people believe that he's a Mike Vrabel kind of guy.
So that kind of blocks in those four And as
you go through this thing, you hear all the same names.
I mean, you're hearing that Jacksonville. I mean, Jacksonville's got
a brand new GM, brand new head coach. So there's
a little bit of mystery. But that GM came from
the Rams. So how do the Rams do business? They've
(17:42):
generally the last couple of years found impact players in
the defensive front seven. Yeah, when they've got premium picks.
So maybe the jet edguiers go with Mason Graham the
big defensive one. Right, I can see that Michigan. I
mean that is that has become the conventional wisdom. Okay,
now you get the five and here comes the Raiders,
you know, and everybody wants to give them a running
back or maybe a tackle, you know. And there's Genti,
(18:05):
there's Bimbo Can.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
I'll see he's a quarterback.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
They could use a lot of things. But you know,
I think that as you go through this thing, there's
a consensus of at least at first five and what
happens in spots six seven is going to have a
huge impact on what happens here. Because we were talking
about Jalen Walker earlier, and there's been a ton of
conversation about Jalen Walker here in Charlotte for the last
(18:31):
little bit. Other teams like him too, you know. And
so if the Jacksonmouth Jaguars decide to build that defensive
front seven around a guy like that instead of a
defensive tackle, then maybe Mason Graham comes into play. If
the Raiders see the opportunity to find a guy like
that to put with Max Crosby, it's like, oh wow, okay,
(18:53):
imagine what that could be like. And so while Walker
has become the object of fascination for so many people, boll,
I don't know that we can safely assume that he's
absolutely there.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Yeah, that's a good point. He could be off the
board already. And then you you really can kind of
look at my beat, maybe trading back and dip it
into a much bigger bucket, or like you said, going
after one of those receivers somebody. We did a video
last week with Trevor Second, the draft analysts from PFF.
He put a name on my radar that I had,
I had heard of, and I'd looked at, but I'd
(19:26):
not looked at closely until he said it. And it's
as Arakku from Boston College.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
I I was gonna say, Donovan say his last name
as Arakku.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
He was second in the FBS last year, was sixteen
and a half sacks. I mean, that's what we don't
think about Boston College much unless it's really kind of
in relation to Luke Keigley.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
I was gonna say, I think about Boston College defensive
players quite.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Often unless but this is a guy that's before he's big.
He could stand to put on about fifteen to twenty pounds.
That's something you know, you get around here with a
bunch of Bojangles and that can happen a little bit easier.
He counts stand to put on a little way. But
he's tall, he's lengthy, he has he has a killer
swim move, and clearly it works. He's getting in the
(20:08):
backfield sixteen and a half times.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
No doubt. And there are a lot of those guys
in this year's draft. I mean, when you're talking about
you know, Dan talked the other day about liking production.
I mean, and I think one of the things that
amuses me that we do as a media is we
take the most innocuous press conference of the year and
try to extrapolate it into oh that means.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
You know what's funny is when he said that, I
did extravulate it, and I started thinking about who he
could be talking about, right, I mean, you loo get
a guy like Shamar Stewart who has so much promise
but so little production, right.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
I mean, Shamar Stewart's got all the testing numbers you'd
ever want to see in a defensive end outside linebacker,
but he had three sacks in three years, right, And
that's not a lot. So I just think when Dan said, oh, yeah,
obviously you prefer guys who have had that kind of production.
You know, I think people some people were probably crossing
names off the list. I think that's probably premature because
(21:00):
if you get to a certain level. You know this
still when when my friend Dave Canalis here likes to
talk about this team, he uses the word developmental an
awful lot and they're good coaches here, you know, on
the defensive side of the ball, on a Varro's staff,
And I mean Dom Capers is like the godfather of
three four outside linebackers. He was here with Lamar Lathan
(21:23):
and Kevin Green and had a lot of success in
a lot of places with a lot of different guys.
So could they coach up somebody who had those kind
of measurables into that player. I like their chances, but yeah,
I would caution people against reading too much into any
particular thing that falls out of a GM's mouth.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
It's also important to remember they could be measuring production
different than we do. We're gonna look at a stat sheet,
it's just in our nature. But these guys are watching
hours upon hours of tape and again, and not just
to narrow in on one guy, but for an example,
Shamar Stewart. So he sent over and over turn on
(22:02):
the tape. You'll see how I affected the game, even
if I didn't get a sack. And so you know,
what is the what is Jero Evro and Dan Morgan
considering production that maybe a box score is not. And
so you know that's something to keep in mind as well.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Yeah, it's gonna be so so much. And again we're
gonna get locked in. We're going to talk about that
first pick an awful lot. Having those two picks on
Friday fifty seven and seventy four give them an opportunity
to add guys to this team who can make a difference.
I think if if it goes if it goes defense early,
I think there's a reasonable expectation they're still in the
(22:37):
market for wide receiver. Yeah, and that second third round area,
one of those fourths is probably the shelf where you
want to go get a guy like that. So we'll
see how all this develops. But it's gonna be a lot,
and I want everybody to stay tuned the amount of
stuff we've got planned, the amount of stuff that's coming.
(22:58):
We're gonna have our live draft show day of the draft.
Check the Panthers YouTube channel. Checkpanthers dot com for that.
We're gonna have written pieces throughout the next seven days.
By the way, it's Jason Baker days away from the draft.
You're familiar with Jason.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
Baker, right, I feel like I need to be.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Jason Baker was, of course the punter for your Carolina
Panthers in the UH late two thousand's, the late oughts
to about a l Yeah, from the late adds to eleven.
He's the record holder for most punts in franchise history
and was part of one of the great trades in
Panthers history. He was he was one of two things
(23:35):
acquired for one sour brind so when they finally got
tat out of here, but it's yeah, it's all coming.
We're gonna have it covered Panthers dot Com, our YouTube channel, uh,
throughout the day, We're just gonna reach this point. You
know what you do, You watch Draft Day every year
to get ready for this. I practice not sleeping because
(23:57):
these are long.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
You need just sleep to get your energy out.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Yeah, these are long days, and they're days full of content.
But it's the exciting time of year because the next
time we join you here on the Happy half hour,
this team's gonna look a lot different. Yeah, we are
gonna have a lot more to talk about. So until then, friends,
watch your Draft Day, mock your mock drafts, and we'll
see you in a week.
This week on a Happy half Hour.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Every GM dreams about having more stuff. If you've got
seven picks, you want eight. If you got eight, you
want ten. If you've got nine, you want twelve. So
if you can load up on stuff, if you could
get somewhere between eight and fifty seven, I think that's
something Dan Morgan absolutely would be interested in exploring.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
What's up.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
It's time for the Happy Half Hour, presented by Southern Star,
an official bourbon of the Carolina Panthers. Here are your hosts,
Darren Gant and Cassidy Hill.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Hello, friends, we are back again. It is Thursday, April seventeenth.
We are recording. Let's call this your pre draft Bonanza
episode Bonanza Bonanza.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Bonanza.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I mean, then, since we're celebrating, there's no other way.
I mean, this episode of the Happy Half Hours, brought
to you by our friends at Southern Stars, celebrate the
spirit of the Carolinas. They are an official bourbon partner
of your Carolina Panthers and frankly an official bourbon partner
of Darren Gant. Right now, so maybe as soon.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
As erring is the spirit of the Carolina that's.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Right, something like that, or the spirit of the Carolinas
is inside of me. Here you go. No, we got
a lot. It's almost party time. We are one week
out from when all this goes down, yep, and we
have got a lot to get through between now and then. Honestly,
because it's a week out, you know, most of the
mock drafts have been done, most of the work has
(01:37):
been done. You and I have been putting stories in
the can that are going to roll out days at
a time in advance. And it's almost here. It's that time,
and you're about to get on an airplane and go
to Green Bay and be right there in the middle
of it all.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yeah. It sneaks up on you every year around this
time too, and this is when everything changes. For when
everything can change for a team is very exciting. I've
got to figure out since we are getting on a
plane on Wednesday, Uh, the team returns on Monday, you know,
off season programs kind of begin. I've got to figure
(02:09):
out when I'm gonna fit in my annual viewing of
draft day. You know, it's not really the draft time
until Kevin Costner writes on a post it note, so
it's also Easter weekend, you know, it's it's gonna be
a busy time, but that's really important.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, mixing Easter ends always tricky.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
I've got who planned that.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Yeah, I've got deviled eggs to make before this weekend
gets here. But uh, you're a big devil egg person.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
By the way, I'm a big devil degg person. But
I don't like it when people put a lot of
mustard in theirs.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
You know, I think deviled egg might be my number
one pick in the Easter food draft.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Really, yeah, I can see that because it goes along
with the whole egg thing too. Ham if done right,
is good, but it can be done wrong really really easily.
You know, we used I think we've usually have like
baked beans, potato salad, macaroni, and cheese, but deviled eggs
(03:02):
are definitely up there.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah, I'm definitely going deviled egg number one. I might
trade up to acquire deviled egg, and I might trade
down to acquire even more. My wife asked me the
other day, she said, how many devil eggs you plan
on making? I was like, well, two dozen. She said,
so like a dozen eggs and I said, no eggs.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
So that's forty eight deviled egg that's correct. I can
do that math, I can do.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Devil people are gonna be at your mom's house and man,
I am nine or ten something like that, small gathering
and uh and she was like, so four or five,
and I said, don't I need deviled eggs to be
left over? I just yeah, I'm sitting here like Scrooge
McDuck in my pool of gold.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
You don't want them left over too much, though.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Find two dozen deviled eggs at a time. So anyway,
we should talk about football, because this is a football podcast.
That's what they tell me. Yeah, you can you do
anything we wanted to make you have got Uh. So
you made this a tradition of watching Draft egg before
every draft day.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
It didn't really like I didn't mean for it to
become a tradition. It just kind of did. Like I
realized I was watching it because usually it'll be on
TV around draft time as well. And then one year
I couldn't find it on TV or I missed it,
and I couldn't find it on a streaming service. So
I bought it on DVD. And now the past like
two or three years, I've made sure to watch it
(04:18):
usually that Wednesday night, the night before the draft. It
just gets me excited. It gets me pumped because, like,
I know, the Draft more than anything is like a
TV event at this point, but it is still like
fun to kind of get into it and to you know,
imagine what's actually going on in the rooms. I always
want like I would love to be a fly on
the wall in those rooms and find out, you know
(04:39):
how many times each year there is really like a
and David Putney just for the heck of it, like
one of those moments it's have you ever seen the
get and give me David Putney just for the heck
of it moment. I'm paraphrasing because there's certain words I
feel like we get fined for saving saying.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
I feel like I am culturally aware of this movie
without ever ha having sat through the entire day.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
You've never watched Draft Day.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Not intentionally. I mean I'm aware of the premise. I
know how I know the build up and trust me,
we we got Scott Fitterer to hold up the post
it note in the palm of his hand that sip
Rice Young the other year, So we've done all.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
That, Darren. It is. It is cheesy. It puts a
Hollywood spin on football, there's an unnecessary love story. It
is a fantastic movie.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Wow, it's I don't know, maybe, And there are.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
So many like cultural references that can be made around
draft time to the movie, like and I do appreciate
too that, like they didn't make up teams, like everybody
in the NFL was completely on board with being it's
really an NFL vehicle. But because everybody was on board,
Like they filmed scenes at the actual draft, and you know,
(05:53):
it's the commissioner, what, it's Roder Goodell walking out to
read a name. And there's also just a moment in
there where you just remind yourself that every year at
the draft, this is somebody's life on dream coming true.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Well, and that's the key, and a lot's going to
change for these individuals and teams in particular, because we,
you know, we're gonna do all the build up. We
have been doing the build up. I was joking with
some friends on a local radio station earlier this week.
I said, you know, maybe just maybe we've started too soon.
When we start doing mock drafts around Thanksgiving Thanksgiving, Yeah,
(06:24):
that's probably a little early when we start thinking about
draft position, because it it does, I mean you always
watch draft day, I always try to go into a
dark room with no input whatsoever and just kind of
vege for five minutes because I feel like I've been
swimming in the school for the last four months. But
but anyway, I mean, it's just with all of that
(06:47):
build up, there is an excitement, and I think for
the Carolina Panthers, there's the realization that they have an
opportunity coming up this week to really change this football
team for the better. They've got nine to picks right
in the first five rounds, including that sweet, sweet number
eight spot that gives them a lot of opportunities. I mean,
there's been a lot of talk about this player, that player,
(07:09):
but when you just look at having eight picks in
the first five rounds for a team that's looking to
build on the talent and make those big strides on
defense and continue to develop the roster as a whole,
I think this weekend's big, big opportunity.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Anytime you have a top ten pick, that's a potential
franchise chasing pick, because you either are getting a top
ten talent or you're trading back and you're getting a
lot of picks to build your team around. So you
can really kind of control your own destiny when you're
sitting there with a top ten pick, especially when you
have units that are as deep as they are this
(07:45):
year and you've got so many teams ahead of you
that have very specific needs. That kind of puts you
in a really really good position if you're the Panthers
at number eight overall and knowing what you.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Need right And listen that Derek Carr news last week
when the Saints find out they're starting quarterbacks got a
shoulder injury that may or may not preclude him from
beginning this season or being able to play, depending on
whether he needs surgery or not. It's kind of gone
dark since that's an early word that's you know, put
the Saints on everybody's radar in terms of quarterback. And
(08:15):
you know, if you if you're in the top ten
or if you're on the fringes of the top ten
and you want to get a guy and everybody knows it,
then they're probably going to be calling Dan Morgan to
see what aids worth to them. And you know, I
think there are a lot of there are a lot
of defensive players that they like, and we've talked about
a lot of them at length here and abroad. Jalen
Walker's name is attached to the Carolina Panthers impractically every
(08:38):
mock draft, and there reason for that. Jalen Walker's really
good in football, and it would be and it would
be pretty easy to imagine him slotting right in here
for his hometown team. He grew up right up the
road in Salisbury. Cheerwine's not a sponsor, but will make
an exception for one day to get Salisbury in the house.
But I just think that if it's him, that may
(09:00):
makes a lot of sense. But there's a lot of
different ways this could go. When we talked to Dan
earlier this week at his annual pre draft press conference,
which is an exercise in trying to say anything revelatory.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Which he did very well at.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
He did a great job. He did a great job.
He got asked a lot, though about the idea of
trading back, and as tempting as that top ten impact
player is, the idea of adding more stuff is appealing
because through deals that were made before he became general manager,
the Panthers got a big gap between eight and fifty seven,
(09:33):
a thirty ninth pick that would have been theirs is
still with Chicago. That's the remnant of the Bryce Young trade,
the last thing that's hanging out there, you know, keeping
them from being hold. But they did get a late
second from the Rams in a trade last year, So
you know, I think it's natural and every GM dreams
about having more stuff. If you've got seven picks, you
(09:53):
want eight. If you got eight, you want ten. If
you've got nine, you want twelve. So if you can
load up falling stuff, if you could get somewhere between
eight and fifty seven, I think that's something Dan Morgan
absolutely would be interested in exploring.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
And he bought himself a lot of flexibility with what
they did in free agency, and he also has a
little bit of flexibility considering again kind of just going
back to this, considering what their positions of need are
and how deep those particular classes are in this year's draft.
You know, yes, you want the top ten pick. And
if you're sitting there, you know, I think he said,
(10:27):
if we're there, like, obviously we're gonna we're gonna take
somebody that's gonna be great. You've got you've still got
that game changing talent that you could maybe get in
the late teens the twenties with this particular ad rushing class,
maybe even with this like safety class, this the trenches,
(10:47):
like you've got some flexibility with this particular class, and
how it's unfolding this year, which may not be the
case next year.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Right, And again, pass rushers are always a scarce commodity.
And if you're the Carolina Panthers, yes, you've got dj
Wanam Patrick Jones signed this offseason, Davin Clowney is still here.
You've got people if you have a chance to add
impact to that, that's something every you know, those those
guys get picked high for a reason. I still remember
a couple of years ago there was a pass rusher
(11:17):
that they had their eyes on. They thought they were
going to try to trade up into the late twenties
and get and he went, and he went in the
middle of the first round. He went about ten twelve
spots higher than they were talking about trading to get
to to select him. So it's it's always valued commodity.
It will be again. But with so many guys at
that position this year, that makes this kind of a
(11:39):
rare draft. And it makes that idea of Okay, what
if we're picking sixteenth, what if we're picking twentieth. What
if we're picking twenty first, You know, can you still
get guys that help this team? And I think with
the makeup of this year's draft, the answer to that
should be yes.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
What's gonna They're gonna have to be careful with those
two is when you have a position like that, there
are times that those players can be very scheme dependent.
You know, this defense runs a three four, which means
you can also usually drop into a four to three
like you've You've gotta make sure that you're not And
Dan Morgan knows this, he's not I'm not telling him anything.
(12:16):
He doesn't know. You can't just grab an outside linebacker.
You're gonna need to grab, you know, somebody that might
could be, you know, a stand up or it's not
necessarily going to be a hand in the ground guy,
although those exist too, And maybe it is. If you're
gonna get a hand in the ground guy, that kind
of changes what your defense is gonna look like. There
(12:40):
is some scheme dependency that is still there within that.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Class, Yeah, no doubt. And I think even with that,
you just got to think about impact. I mean, when
you when you're thinking about the Carolina Panthers defense Right now,
you're not thinking good thoughts because it was thirty second
in all the categories. Last year. Gave up a league
record all time league record points allowed, second most yards allowed,
third most rush yards allowed. What they need is people
(13:05):
who are good at playing defensive football. This guy right here,
Derek Brown, he needs friends. This is the theater of
the mind is happening right here. We've got Derek Brown
on a stick here in the podcast studio, and uh,
once we put this bad boy on video, you'll be
able to see all my friends. We've got props and
(13:26):
we're gonna use them. Uh, But Derek Brown needs help.
Jac Horn needs help. You've got a couple of guys
there and those two who are those culture builders? Who
are those guys who set the tone for the entire defense?
Now you need somebody at that second level, somebody who
is that you know, choose your football cliche of preference
war daddy, you know, whatever happens to be. That was.
(13:49):
That was one that our friend Dave Canalis used down
at the UH and I just did the Dave Canalis
on a stick. If you're imaginings, which you should be,
I'm having fun with this anytime you've got an opportunity
to have Derek Brown on a stick, you should. But
they need guys who can help create a new culture
(14:11):
on that defense and they there's a story I'm in
the middle of writing right now that'll go up on
Panthers dot Com later this afternoon. The way they built
the offensive line over the last couple of years kind
of informs what they ought to be doing or want
to be doing with defense, which is, you put money
in it at a certain point to raise the level.
(14:33):
Then you're able to kind of fix a piece or
two at a time by saying, Okay, we know we've
got to find a guy who's better than this guy,
or if we're trying to do this, is there anybody
who's better than this guy? So I think getting to
that point on defense is going to be easier because
there aren't enough of those guys to go around. But J. C. Horn,
(14:54):
Dereck Brown need a friend. They need somebody to create
a little pressure to help set the to for what
needs to be a significant.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Turnaround, and he could take a couple of years, No doubt,
it will take a couple of years. So even with
the top ten pick, you're not gonna change an entire defense.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Well, this was not a one year fix, and it
never was going to be. I don't think anybody had
that illusion when Dave Canalis Stan Morgan took over a
year ago, and and to see the kind of progress
I mean when Dave was talking down at the owners
meeting and he said, listen to what we saw out
of these guys second half of the year was enough
to make us think there's something to build on. So
(15:32):
you know, that's why there's been a lot of clamoring
for target for Bryce and where's your Bryce, Where's my Bryce?
Here's my Bryce? Would bright would Bryce like a big
pass catching target in the first round? Sure he would.
Would Bryce like to have somebody like a big old
six foot four volleyball playing Ted McMillan, who's a go
(15:54):
fetch that's right? He was, Uh, he is a big
up and go get it guy was at Arizona and
I could they use one of those guys? Of course
they could. And if the right defensive player is not
there and they don't trade down or something, I think
that's a very real possibility at number eight. But I
(16:15):
just keep coming back to that defense, and I keep
thinking about Hey, how not great it was last year.
When you give up six hundred or when you give
up six straight games to close the year of over
two hundred rushing yards allowed, that speaks to a problem.
And you know, they did the things in free agency.
They added linemen, they added Pat Jones, but they still
(16:37):
need dudes, and so we'll see, we'll see how that goes.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Do you do mock drafts to kind of figure out
where you think it's gonna lie.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
I do. I think I'm like everybody else. I've been
looking at mock drafts, thinking about mock drafts, mocking mock
drafts for a long time. There seems to be some
degree of consensus when you look at the way this
top ten of this draft's gonna go. I think there's
a general expectation at this point the Camlord is going
(17:06):
to be the number one pick going to Tennessee. Then
you've got your Travis Hunters, your Abdul Carter's many many
people believe that the New England Patriots love Will Campbell.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
I mean they need to tackle the tackle from Ellens.
They need to tackle.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Many people believe that he's a Mike Vrabel kind of guy.
So that kind of blocks in those four And as
you go through this thing, you hear all the same names.
I mean, you're hearing that Jacksonville. I mean, Jacksonville's got
a brand new GM, brand new head coach. So there's
a little bit of mystery. But that GM came from
the Rams. So how do the Rams do business? They've
(17:42):
generally the last couple of years found impact players in
the defensive front seven. Yeah, when they've got premium picks.
So maybe the jet edguiers go with Mason Graham the
big defensive one. Right, I can see that Michigan. I
mean that is that has become the conventional wisdom. Okay,
now you get the five and here comes the Raiders,
you know, and everybody wants to give them a running
back or maybe a tackle, you know. And there's Genti,
(18:05):
there's Bimbo Can.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
I'll see he's a quarterback.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
They could use a lot of things. But you know,
I think that as you go through this thing, there's
a consensus of at least at first five and what
happens in spots six seven is going to have a
huge impact on what happens here. Because we were talking
about Jalen Walker earlier, and there's been a ton of
conversation about Jalen Walker here in Charlotte for the last
(18:31):
little bit. Other teams like him too, you know. And
so if the Jacksonmouth Jaguars decide to build that defensive
front seven around a guy like that instead of a
defensive tackle, then maybe Mason Graham comes into play. If
the Raiders see the opportunity to find a guy like
that to put with Max Crosby, it's like, oh wow, okay,
(18:53):
imagine what that could be like. And so while Walker
has become the object of fascination for so many people, boll,
I don't know that we can safely assume that he's
absolutely there.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Yeah, that's a good point. He could be off the
board already. And then you you really can kind of
look at my beat, maybe trading back and dip it
into a much bigger bucket, or like you said, going
after one of those receivers somebody. We did a video
last week with Trevor Second, the draft analysts from PFF.
He put a name on my radar that I had,
I had heard of, and I'd looked at, but I'd
(19:26):
not looked at closely until he said it. And it's
as Arakku from Boston College.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
I I was gonna say, Donovan say his last name
as Arakku.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
He was second in the FBS last year, was sixteen
and a half sacks. I mean, that's what we don't
think about Boston College much unless it's really kind of
in relation to Luke Keigley.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
I was gonna say, I think about Boston College defensive
players quite.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Often unless but this is a guy that's before he's big.
He could stand to put on about fifteen to twenty pounds.
That's something you know, you get around here with a
bunch of Bojangles and that can happen a little bit easier.
He counts stand to put on a little way. But
he's tall, he's lengthy, he has he has a killer
swim move, and clearly it works. He's getting in the
(20:08):
backfield sixteen and a half times.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
No doubt. And there are a lot of those guys
in this year's draft. I mean, when you're talking about
you know, Dan talked the other day about liking production.
I mean, and I think one of the things that
amuses me that we do as a media is we
take the most innocuous press conference of the year and
try to extrapolate it into oh that means.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
You know what's funny is when he said that, I
did extravulate it, and I started thinking about who he
could be talking about, right, I mean, you loo get
a guy like Shamar Stewart who has so much promise
but so little production, right.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
I mean, Shamar Stewart's got all the testing numbers you'd
ever want to see in a defensive end outside linebacker,
but he had three sacks in three years, right, And
that's not a lot. So I just think when Dan said, oh, yeah,
obviously you prefer guys who have had that kind of production.
You know, I think people some people were probably crossing
names off the list. I think that's probably premature because
(21:00):
if you get to a certain level. You know this
still when when my friend Dave Canalis here likes to
talk about this team, he uses the word developmental an
awful lot and they're good coaches here, you know, on
the defensive side of the ball, on a Varro's staff,
And I mean Dom Capers is like the godfather of
three four outside linebackers. He was here with Lamar Lathan
(21:23):
and Kevin Green and had a lot of success in
a lot of places with a lot of different guys.
So could they coach up somebody who had those kind
of measurables into that player. I like their chances, but yeah,
I would caution people against reading too much into any
particular thing that falls out of a GM's mouth.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
It's also important to remember they could be measuring production
different than we do. We're gonna look at a stat sheet,
it's just in our nature. But these guys are watching
hours upon hours of tape and again, and not just
to narrow in on one guy, but for an example,
Shamar Stewart. So he sent over and over turn on
(22:02):
the tape. You'll see how I affected the game, even
if I didn't get a sack. And so you know,
what is the what is Jero Evro and Dan Morgan
considering production that maybe a box score is not. And
so you know that's something to keep in mind as well.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Yeah, it's gonna be so so much. And again we're
gonna get locked in. We're going to talk about that
first pick an awful lot. Having those two picks on
Friday fifty seven and seventy four give them an opportunity
to add guys to this team who can make a difference.
I think if if it goes if it goes defense early,
I think there's a reasonable expectation they're still in the
(22:37):
market for wide receiver. Yeah, and that second third round area,
one of those fourths is probably the shelf where you
want to go get a guy like that. So we'll
see how all this develops. But it's gonna be a lot,
and I want everybody to stay tuned the amount of
stuff we've got planned, the amount of stuff that's coming.
(22:58):
We're gonna have our live draft show day of the draft.
Check the Panthers YouTube channel. Checkpanthers dot com for that.
We're gonna have written pieces throughout the next seven days.
By the way, it's Jason Baker days away from the draft.
You're familiar with Jason.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
Baker, right, I feel like I need to be.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Jason Baker was, of course the punter for your Carolina
Panthers in the UH late two thousand's, the late oughts
to about a l Yeah, from the late adds to eleven.
He's the record holder for most punts in franchise history
and was part of one of the great trades in
Panthers history. He was he was one of two things
(23:35):
acquired for one sour brind so when they finally got
tat out of here, but it's yeah, it's all coming.
We're gonna have it covered Panthers dot Com, our YouTube channel, uh,
throughout the day, We're just gonna reach this point. You
know what you do, You watch Draft Day every year
to get ready for this. I practice not sleeping because
(23:57):
these are long.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
You need just sleep to get your energy out.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Yeah, these are long days, and they're days full of content.
But it's the exciting time of year because the next
time we join you here on the Happy half hour,
this team's gonna look a lot different. Yeah, we are
gonna have a lot more to talk about. So until then, friends,
watch your Draft Day, mock your mock drafts, and we'll
see you in a week.
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