June 6, 2025 • 18 mins
This week on the Happy Half Hour, Darin and Kassidy dive deep into the latest episode of "Panthers Blueprint" and share their thoughts and perspective on some of the big moments featured in the episode.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The happy half hoar. How about that blueprint? Everybody, y'all
watch that right? You watch that right?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
If you have it, you can pause this actually no way,
finish this and then go watch it.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Finish this circle back and then if you have watched it,
watch it again and patronize our mini sponsors. Panthers Blueprint,
of course is brought to us by Coca Cola. But yeah,
how about Blueprint. That was one of it's really one
of the cool projects of the year, is doing that
behind the scenes stuff because we talk about this a
lot here at Panthers dot com. We have the opportunity
(00:32):
to give people stuff that they can't get anywhere else,
and that kind of inside the draft room insight. You know.
I wrote a five thousand word version of it that
came out over the weekend. That kind of primes the
pump for you know, blueprint coming out on video on Monday,
and it all works together to kind of show you
exactly how this draft class came together. And I think
(00:53):
once people see it, it's like holy smokes. The level
of preparation that went into making that call people's minds.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
We learned a lot from it. One thing I did
want to note though, is that it's also cool to
realize that the players watch this and learn things that
they didn't even know necessarily the team thought about them.
I was sitting downstairs yesterday with Nick Gorton and Azeriro.
Everro walked by and Nick stopped him and said, coach,
I saw what you said about me on the Blueprint video.
(01:21):
That was really cool, Like thank you for that, like,
you know, kind of pounding the table for me. And
everyone was like, hey, man, like I'm in every event
of it. You deserved it. And he walked away and
Nick was like, that was really cool to like hear
them talk about me and like hear what they thought.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Right, you know. And there's so many little cool human elements.
I mean, I love when I wrote the story, one
of the things I loved is the way Dan Morgan
and Brandt till let's go back and forth. There's just
I use the line they kind of remind me of
Will Ferrell and John c Riley. Sometimes they've got kind
of a weird sense of humor amongst each other. And
(01:55):
because this was a real thrown together relationship, I mean,
these two guys met each other on a zoom call
in January of twenty twenty four, and now they're kind
of they've reached the point of their relationship where they're
finishing each other's sentences. They've got their little inside jokes
and stuff. But when somebody in the room, Dave Tipper,
you know, started busting Brant's chops a little bit about
(02:17):
his socks, He's like, what's what the socks? And Brandt
tells the completely adorable personal anecdote, which I just loved
as a dad. I mean, Brant's got a great story.
The donut socks he was wearing in the draft room
on night one where a gift from his daughter because
he and his daughter when they lived in Kansas City
used to go get donuts every Tuesday morning, and now
that she's here in Charlotte, a little bit older, school
(02:38):
keeps them from being able to go, and Dad's missed
that kind of stuff. So the fact that his daughter
bought him donut socks and he wore him to work
on the biggest night of the year a touching personal
anecdote and pro tip also touching personal anecdote is an
effective deterrent to sarcasm. Is when somebody's trying to light
you up and then all of a sudden you say, well,
(02:59):
my daughter, these sons, right. It was very thoughtful and meaningful.
So it's like, yeah, that one's over. So anyway, what
else did you as you as you kind of processed blueprint?
I mean, what was one of your takeaways from it?
As much as anything.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Else, there were a couple of things. Obviously. The part
that a lot of people are talking about, and I
think deservedly so, is the discussions about whether or not
to take the trade with the Rams and to trade back.
And you saw, because you know, I think in twenty
twenty four, we saw them kind of move all over
the board all three days, and so the thinking was, Okay,
Dan loves to trade. And you realize it's not so
(03:37):
much that Dan loves to trade, it is Dan loves
the right trade and he wasn't going to move off
of that spot unless he felt like he got something
that was more than deserving of what that spot should
have been, right, because they felt that convicted about t Mac. Yep.
And that's not even necessarily to say the Rams would
have comeing up and got t Mac. They could have.
They could have gone after somebody else. But it was like, okay,
(04:00):
this is going to have to be something that is
greater of a value than what we value teamac app
and it wasn't. And so to see that sort of conviction,
and to your point, to know that they had spent
months already kind of trying to lay this out, and
here's our game plan. If scenario A happens, we do this.
If scenario B happens, we do this. They had plans
(04:21):
on top of plans, and so they could be sitting
there with two minutes left to go on the clock,
waiting on the fondering and not necessarily be freaking out right.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
And if it seems like all this is on purpose,
it absolutely is. I mean they do. And Brant talks
about that a lot. They've been they've been talking about
all these scenarios for months at a time. They've already
had the meeting. So when you watch Blueprint and you see,
you know, Brandt look at Dan and say, all right,
they're out, it was immediate. There was that immediate reaction
(04:51):
of call teamac you know, and it looks knee jerk,
but it was well studied, it was well rehearsed. It
was something they had planned on for months and months
and months at a time. One of the things that
I think is interesting to me as the person who
is sitting in there kind of watching this all unfold
and documenting it is You've heard me say this, Cassidy,
(05:14):
and I'll say this A lot one of anything can't
be a trend. So after last year, it was impossible
to know, Okay, there are teams that always want to
trade up, there teams that always want to trade back. Well,
last year they were going in both directions, so it
was impossible to know what they like doing. And I
love the way brands like I want action. He just
wants to be moving around to maximize value. And when
(05:37):
they were in that situation with the Rams, Dan flat
out admitted he said, if the Rams want to trade
into this spot, it's going to be so much that
we can't say no, right And you know, he basically
admitted too. He made an offer he hoped they would refuse,
which indicates exactly how much they liked Tero McMillan the player.
(06:00):
So we can talk about abstract concepts like value, we
can talk about abstract concepts like future picks and stacking
up assets and stuff like that. Ultimately, what they wanted
was Teteroa McMillan on this football team, and that I
think came clear in this video.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
And you you saw that kind of throughout the draft
as that continued to go on, and you mentioned this
in your draft story too a lot that you heard
the phrase our guy, our guy, our guy, because everybody
kind of has a different draft philosophy. It's, you know,
do you want to go after after the best player,
the best available? You're a guy position of need da
(06:35):
da da da da. And you saw them not necessarily
like some teams, And not to say one way is
right or wrong, it's just everybody has a differenthilosophy. Some
teams kind of let the board come to them. And
you saw Dan and I think Brand even made a comment,
you know, watching Dan in the draft room is like
he attacks it the same way he did on the field,
Like he sees this hole and then he takes it.
(06:55):
He was willing to sit at eight to get t
mac need to move to do that, and then on
day two you saw him go, oh, wait, Nick Corton
is available, Princeville man Meellen is available. Let's go get
them right, and you saw him willing to kind of
move up. So it was more so like, and you
saw that on day three Eve and you know you
(07:16):
saw it with with Trevor ETN with Cam Jackson, with
lath and Ransom. It was kind of like, okay, we
have these two safeties we both like, and that one
was a little bit more of let the board come
to them. But it's because the board worked in the
favor with the guy they wanted, right. It was more
about their guy than the.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Board, right, And they had kind of you go through
this process and there are a lot of there are
a lot of guys they liked there, and they knew
waiting from eight to fifty seven was going to cause
them to miss out on guys they liked a lot.
So that's why you know they kind of get to
that spot. Runs on positions are real. When you saw
a bunch of pass rushers start to go early middle
(07:52):
second round, that's when they kind of get up on
the balls of their feet and it's like, all right,
now we got to make a move because we like
Nick sufficiently, we don't want to take chance to lose him.
And that's when you see them make that crazy deal
with with the Broncos where it's like four of ours
for four of yours and you're moving in a lot
of different rounds. But it was because Nick Gorton was
a guy they felt strongly about wanting to add to
(08:13):
this roster. And you know, I Dan was. Dan was
kind of funny talking about the notion of who their
guy was, because everybody in the world thought their guy
was somebody else, right, and somebody else. The Falcons may
have chosen seven spots later, but they were content. They
knew that they like mc millan a lot. They like
(08:35):
I mean, they liked that guy in Atlanta a lot
too at certain points. And what happens is you get
in that situation and you start weigh in the balance
of Okay, we could go pass rusher here, but then
we know we want to go wide receiver. And as
Dan explained it, he kind of liked the group of
pass rushers that were going to be available in rounds
(08:57):
two and three better than he liked the wide receivers
that were available in rounds two or three. So that
was part of kind of what led them to this
path of t mac and then the pass rusher.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yeah, and it was a deep pass rushing class. You
should be afforded to do that.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Yeah, And there.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Was lots more tidbits and theirs to definitely go watch it.
They're all here now though they've been they've been on
the field for a while now, three weeks.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Yeah, And what's interesting to me watching these guys and
McMillan gets a lot of attention. Being the first round pick,
you're a top ten pick, You're gonna get a lot
of attention. That's just the way that goes. He he
is a sponge out there on the field. He has
been put into a position that I don't let me
just say it up front. We don't know right now
if this is all gonna work, if he's going to
(09:43):
turn into all pro receiver or anything like that. What
I know is he has been put into a position
to succeed because early on he has dropped into a
position room with a coach and Rob Moore who's respected
and good at his job, but also with veterans and
Adam Thielen and Hunter Infro. And to me, one of
(10:04):
the interesting things about Teroa that makes me think there
is a chance for this to work is watching the
way he responds to Adam and Hunter on the practice field,
Because those are a couple of guys who have made
long careers for themselves, not based on being six' four
with this big tarodactyl wingspan and hands that can catch.
(10:25):
Anything they've made their living in THE nfl by being
precise and doing their job in a particular, way and
being just meticulous with the way they. Work watching them
show him, footwork watching them show him route, running how
to come out of a, release stuff like. That he's
(10:45):
getting graduate level. Stuff it's one thing when a coach
tells you. Stuff when you get it backed up from
guys in your position, room that adds a layer to.
It and he said it the other, day he, Said
i'm blessed to be able to have guys like that
around early.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
On and another part of the like the chemistry of
that wide receiving cord THAT i wasn't quite sure what
it was going to look, like was how he and
lyget got. Along and granted It's, june, yeah and, like
we haven't even seen this group on the field together
in a, game but you we've both been around this
(11:24):
sport long enough to. Know you get two first round
receivers in a group together that are close in the same,
age there can sometimes be a little bit of, competition
like you, know that personality comes out of, like oh
he might be taking by snaps and that has not
happened at. All between those. Two they clicked very very
quickly early. On.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Yeah the people seem to get. Along, Yeah AND i
think that's an important part of this thing. TOO i
mean it's not you, know it's not like this summer.
Camp we're not Singing kumbaya around.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Here but and like everybody still wants their.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Snaps don't that just?
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Wrong but like they they.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Click, YEAH i, mean these two, guys they're both. Young
that's what's interesting about watching the construction of this. Team
last year's team was kind of an older, team you,
know oddly enough for a team and a first year head,
coach first YEAR. Gm they were older last year kind of.
Intentionally AND i think they've started to phase some of
that out now and build with these young. Guys you
(12:20):
see second year guys becoming more of a part of this.
Thing you, see you, know these young receivers in this.
Room and so there's a there's an energy about having
young people around that it's naturally. Occurring it's not like they, designed,
oh we want to have these two guys with big.
Personalities it's let's see how these two guys get, along
(12:40):
and they are getting along, well watching the, interaction watching
them throw the ball back and forth across the field
to each other and one of them catches a. PASS i,
mean there's these little things where it's, Like, okay the
chemistry is, good this is this looks.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Real and you AND i have talked about this a
couple of. Times this is is going to sound so,
Cliche so anybody listens to this, podcast just bear with
us because it sounds. Cliche but before the, Draft Dan
morgan talks so much about like how important it was
to find guys that love, football and you, think, well,
due and he's, like but that's not always the, case,
Right and you see they brought in a class of
(13:16):
free agents and rookies that do AND i don't, know
it feels. Tangible, which, again It's. June it's so so early.
On there's still a lot to. Go But june is
also when things can get a little mundane out, there
and that hasn't really been the.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Case. Yeah they also one of the other things they
did this offseason was invest significantly in a cat NAMED Jc.
Horn and you want to talk about somebody who loves.
FOOTBALL i will just say this and their. People comparisons
make people. Nervous when you start, saying, oh this guy's
like this. Guy people are afraid of the, comparison afraid
(13:54):
of the bar you're gonna. Set i'm just going to
explain this in a long way because that's WHAT i.
Do once upon a, time there was a quarterback Named
Cam newton and a linebacker Named Thomas, davis and watching
those two cats get after each other in practice was a.
Spectacle unto. ITSELF i mean a lot of times the
(14:17):
practice and we've talked to a bunch of people you
know this offseason already about some stuff you'll see later
on At panthers dot com about that, group and the
practices were. Incredible the intensity of a practice With Thomas
davis And Luke keigley on one, side you Know Cam
newton on the other, side it's Like holy. Cow but
(14:37):
the Way cam AND td chirped at each other created
a different. Level now IT'S J. C horn And Bryce.
Young and let me, say for the rest in case
you aren't clear about, This Bryce young is not Like
Cam newton in CASE i needed to clear that up for.
(14:58):
You but WATCHING i kind of give it back TO
jc a little. Bit WATCHING jc make sure the guys
on the other side are at the same. Level it's
like a lower key version of the same. Song, yeah
and it's, like, WELL i, mean this is it's a
good thing for these guys because, again these are young
(15:20):
leaders of this. Team when you talk about the people
who are going to be a part of The Carolina
panthers for the, future you, Know bryce YOUNG. J. C
horn are right up there near the top of the.
List so having the guys being the ones who are
creating the, tempo the guys being the ones who are
bringing the energy to practice rather than at having to
come from the top, down that's where teams develop. Personality
(15:45):
and to, me that's What i'm seeing from this. BUNCH
i ALWAYS i am always cautious about what we learn
from An ota because it's An. Ota you, know they're
not in, pads the linemen aren't hitting each. Other, no
there's no tackling or anything like. That it's not real.
Football it's like glorified seven on. Seven but you can
see that personality beginning to, emerge and that's gonna be
(16:09):
one of the interesting things to follow over the course
of this season and WATCHING jc and brides get after
it a little bit has been.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Fun and there's been times too Where bryce's initiated those.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Chirpings that's, right and.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
He'll LET jc. Know you mentioned it coming from the bottom,
up not having to come from the top.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Down.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Yep we even you AND i were walking through the
hallway the other day because we had Heard coolly kind
of get fired up at practice that day and said
something to him about, it and he, said, OH jc
got me fired, Up he got me. Going so to your,
point it is coming from the bottom, up and it's
filtering up and not having to all come from the.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Top. Yeah it you, know all of this. STUFF i,
mean you can kind of see The Carolina panthers as
they stand right, now are still a very young team
in their, progression going into a second year under a
NEW gm and head. Coach starting to see that develop
a little bit and there's a little bit of a.
Vibe you saw it second half of last, year and
(17:05):
everything's about building on last, year so you, know we'll
kind of see where that.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Goes it's very much still a. Process But Dave canell
has also spent all of last year saying we have
to figure out who we, are who are we gonna.
Be we've got to know who we are before we
can become who we. Are AND i think you've seen
over the past year and then to now them kind of, Decide,
okay this is who we want to. Be now how
do we make it?
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Work just little glimpses of who we want to. Be
so it's all interesting stuff we've. Had we've got one
more week basically next week will be the final week
of off season. Program mini camp will wrap everything up
next week and then we go into summer vacation mode
for about what five or six weeks before we gather
(17:50):
again for training. Camp but a lot to be accomplished
between now and. Then we got a lot of work to.
Do we got a lot of stuff we want to
tell you and show you Here panthers Dot, com the
YouTube channel and all that cool. Stuff so we've got
a lot of good stuff coming your. Way we've got
a lot of good stuff behind. Us we'll leave a
little extra time so you've got time to go Watch blueprint.
(18:11):
AGAIN i, mean it's not like you're. Working you're listening
to The happy Half hour for Getting oh It's Little
friday here at the. Stadium we should go ahead and
take advantage of. That Watch blueprint again and we'll see
you next. Time we'll catch up with you next week
as we wrap up OTA's In Mini camp with another
edition of The Happy Half hour
The happy half hoar. How about that blueprint? Everybody, y'all
watch that right? You watch that right?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
If you have it, you can pause this actually no way,
finish this and then go watch it.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Finish this circle back and then if you have watched it,
watch it again and patronize our mini sponsors. Panthers Blueprint,
of course is brought to us by Coca Cola. But yeah,
how about Blueprint. That was one of it's really one
of the cool projects of the year, is doing that
behind the scenes stuff because we talk about this a
lot here at Panthers dot com. We have the opportunity
(00:32):
to give people stuff that they can't get anywhere else,
and that kind of inside the draft room insight. You know.
I wrote a five thousand word version of it that
came out over the weekend. That kind of primes the
pump for you know, blueprint coming out on video on Monday,
and it all works together to kind of show you
exactly how this draft class came together. And I think
(00:53):
once people see it, it's like holy smokes. The level
of preparation that went into making that call people's minds.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
We learned a lot from it. One thing I did
want to note though, is that it's also cool to
realize that the players watch this and learn things that
they didn't even know necessarily the team thought about them.
I was sitting downstairs yesterday with Nick Gorton and Azeriro.
Everro walked by and Nick stopped him and said, coach,
I saw what you said about me on the Blueprint video.
(01:21):
That was really cool, Like thank you for that, like,
you know, kind of pounding the table for me. And
everyone was like, hey, man, like I'm in every event
of it. You deserved it. And he walked away and
Nick was like, that was really cool to like hear
them talk about me and like hear what they thought.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Right, you know. And there's so many little cool human elements.
I mean, I love when I wrote the story, one
of the things I loved is the way Dan Morgan
and Brandt till let's go back and forth. There's just
I use the line they kind of remind me of
Will Ferrell and John c Riley. Sometimes they've got kind
of a weird sense of humor amongst each other. And
(01:55):
because this was a real thrown together relationship, I mean,
these two guys met each other on a zoom call
in January of twenty twenty four, and now they're kind
of they've reached the point of their relationship where they're
finishing each other's sentences. They've got their little inside jokes
and stuff. But when somebody in the room, Dave Tipper,
you know, started busting Brant's chops a little bit about
(02:17):
his socks, He's like, what's what the socks? And Brandt
tells the completely adorable personal anecdote, which I just loved
as a dad. I mean, Brant's got a great story.
The donut socks he was wearing in the draft room
on night one where a gift from his daughter because
he and his daughter when they lived in Kansas City
used to go get donuts every Tuesday morning, and now
that she's here in Charlotte, a little bit older, school
(02:38):
keeps them from being able to go, and Dad's missed
that kind of stuff. So the fact that his daughter
bought him donut socks and he wore him to work
on the biggest night of the year a touching personal
anecdote and pro tip also touching personal anecdote is an
effective deterrent to sarcasm. Is when somebody's trying to light
you up and then all of a sudden you say, well,
(02:59):
my daughter, these sons, right. It was very thoughtful and meaningful.
So it's like, yeah, that one's over. So anyway, what
else did you as you as you kind of processed blueprint?
I mean, what was one of your takeaways from it?
As much as anything.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Else, there were a couple of things. Obviously. The part
that a lot of people are talking about, and I
think deservedly so, is the discussions about whether or not
to take the trade with the Rams and to trade back.
And you saw, because you know, I think in twenty
twenty four, we saw them kind of move all over
the board all three days, and so the thinking was, Okay,
Dan loves to trade. And you realize it's not so
(03:37):
much that Dan loves to trade, it is Dan loves
the right trade and he wasn't going to move off
of that spot unless he felt like he got something
that was more than deserving of what that spot should
have been, right, because they felt that convicted about t Mac. Yep.
And that's not even necessarily to say the Rams would
have comeing up and got t Mac. They could have.
They could have gone after somebody else. But it was like, okay,
(04:00):
this is going to have to be something that is
greater of a value than what we value teamac app
and it wasn't. And so to see that sort of conviction,
and to your point, to know that they had spent
months already kind of trying to lay this out, and
here's our game plan. If scenario A happens, we do this.
If scenario B happens, we do this. They had plans
(04:21):
on top of plans, and so they could be sitting
there with two minutes left to go on the clock,
waiting on the fondering and not necessarily be freaking out right.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
And if it seems like all this is on purpose,
it absolutely is. I mean they do. And Brant talks
about that a lot. They've been they've been talking about
all these scenarios for months at a time. They've already
had the meeting. So when you watch Blueprint and you see,
you know, Brandt look at Dan and say, all right,
they're out, it was immediate. There was that immediate reaction
(04:51):
of call teamac you know, and it looks knee jerk,
but it was well studied, it was well rehearsed. It
was something they had planned on for months and months
and months at a time. One of the things that
I think is interesting to me as the person who
is sitting in there kind of watching this all unfold
and documenting it is You've heard me say this, Cassidy,
(05:14):
and I'll say this A lot one of anything can't
be a trend. So after last year, it was impossible
to know, Okay, there are teams that always want to
trade up, there teams that always want to trade back. Well,
last year they were going in both directions, so it
was impossible to know what they like doing. And I
love the way brands like I want action. He just
wants to be moving around to maximize value. And when
(05:37):
they were in that situation with the Rams, Dan flat
out admitted he said, if the Rams want to trade
into this spot, it's going to be so much that
we can't say no, right And you know, he basically
admitted too. He made an offer he hoped they would refuse,
which indicates exactly how much they liked Tero McMillan the player.
(06:00):
So we can talk about abstract concepts like value, we
can talk about abstract concepts like future picks and stacking
up assets and stuff like that. Ultimately, what they wanted
was Teteroa McMillan on this football team, and that I
think came clear in this video.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
And you you saw that kind of throughout the draft
as that continued to go on, and you mentioned this
in your draft story too a lot that you heard
the phrase our guy, our guy, our guy, because everybody
kind of has a different draft philosophy. It's, you know,
do you want to go after after the best player,
the best available? You're a guy position of need da
(06:35):
da da da da. And you saw them not necessarily
like some teams, And not to say one way is
right or wrong, it's just everybody has a differenthilosophy. Some
teams kind of let the board come to them. And
you saw Dan and I think Brand even made a comment,
you know, watching Dan in the draft room is like
he attacks it the same way he did on the field,
Like he sees this hole and then he takes it.
(06:55):
He was willing to sit at eight to get t
mac need to move to do that, and then on
day two you saw him go, oh, wait, Nick Corton
is available, Princeville man Meellen is available. Let's go get
them right, and you saw him willing to kind of
move up. So it was more so like, and you
saw that on day three Eve and you know you
(07:16):
saw it with with Trevor ETN with Cam Jackson, with
lath and Ransom. It was kind of like, okay, we
have these two safeties we both like, and that one
was a little bit more of let the board come
to them. But it's because the board worked in the
favor with the guy they wanted, right. It was more
about their guy than the.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Board, right, And they had kind of you go through
this process and there are a lot of there are
a lot of guys they liked there, and they knew
waiting from eight to fifty seven was going to cause
them to miss out on guys they liked a lot.
So that's why you know they kind of get to
that spot. Runs on positions are real. When you saw
a bunch of pass rushers start to go early middle
(07:52):
second round, that's when they kind of get up on
the balls of their feet and it's like, all right,
now we got to make a move because we like
Nick sufficiently, we don't want to take chance to lose him.
And that's when you see them make that crazy deal
with with the Broncos where it's like four of ours
for four of yours and you're moving in a lot
of different rounds. But it was because Nick Gorton was
a guy they felt strongly about wanting to add to
(08:13):
this roster. And you know, I Dan was. Dan was
kind of funny talking about the notion of who their
guy was, because everybody in the world thought their guy
was somebody else, right, and somebody else. The Falcons may
have chosen seven spots later, but they were content. They
knew that they like mc millan a lot. They like
(08:35):
I mean, they liked that guy in Atlanta a lot
too at certain points. And what happens is you get
in that situation and you start weigh in the balance
of Okay, we could go pass rusher here, but then
we know we want to go wide receiver. And as
Dan explained it, he kind of liked the group of
pass rushers that were going to be available in rounds
(08:57):
two and three better than he liked the wide receivers
that were available in rounds two or three. So that
was part of kind of what led them to this
path of t mac and then the pass rusher.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yeah, and it was a deep pass rushing class. You
should be afforded to do that.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Yeah, And there.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Was lots more tidbits and theirs to definitely go watch it.
They're all here now though they've been they've been on
the field for a while now, three weeks.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Yeah, And what's interesting to me watching these guys and
McMillan gets a lot of attention. Being the first round pick,
you're a top ten pick, You're gonna get a lot
of attention. That's just the way that goes. He he
is a sponge out there on the field. He has
been put into a position that I don't let me
just say it up front. We don't know right now
if this is all gonna work, if he's going to
(09:43):
turn into all pro receiver or anything like that. What
I know is he has been put into a position
to succeed because early on he has dropped into a
position room with a coach and Rob Moore who's respected
and good at his job, but also with veterans and
Adam Thielen and Hunter Infro. And to me, one of
(10:04):
the interesting things about Teroa that makes me think there
is a chance for this to work is watching the
way he responds to Adam and Hunter on the practice field,
Because those are a couple of guys who have made
long careers for themselves, not based on being six' four
with this big tarodactyl wingspan and hands that can catch.
(10:25):
Anything they've made their living in THE nfl by being
precise and doing their job in a particular, way and
being just meticulous with the way they. Work watching them
show him, footwork watching them show him route, running how
to come out of a, release stuff like. That he's
(10:45):
getting graduate level. Stuff it's one thing when a coach
tells you. Stuff when you get it backed up from
guys in your position, room that adds a layer to.
It and he said it the other, day he, Said
i'm blessed to be able to have guys like that
around early.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
On and another part of the like the chemistry of
that wide receiving cord THAT i wasn't quite sure what
it was going to look, like was how he and
lyget got. Along and granted It's, june, yeah and, like
we haven't even seen this group on the field together
in a, game but you we've both been around this
(11:24):
sport long enough to. Know you get two first round
receivers in a group together that are close in the same,
age there can sometimes be a little bit of, competition
like you, know that personality comes out of, like oh
he might be taking by snaps and that has not
happened at. All between those. Two they clicked very very
quickly early. On.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Yeah the people seem to get. Along, Yeah AND i
think that's an important part of this thing. TOO i
mean it's not you, know it's not like this summer.
Camp we're not Singing kumbaya around.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Here but and like everybody still wants their.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Snaps don't that just?
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Wrong but like they they.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Click, YEAH i, mean these two, guys they're both. Young
that's what's interesting about watching the construction of this. Team
last year's team was kind of an older, team you,
know oddly enough for a team and a first year head,
coach first YEAR. Gm they were older last year kind of.
Intentionally AND i think they've started to phase some of
that out now and build with these young. Guys you
(12:20):
see second year guys becoming more of a part of this.
Thing you, see you, know these young receivers in this.
Room and so there's a there's an energy about having
young people around that it's naturally. Occurring it's not like they, designed,
oh we want to have these two guys with big.
Personalities it's let's see how these two guys get, along
(12:40):
and they are getting along, well watching the, interaction watching
them throw the ball back and forth across the field
to each other and one of them catches a. PASS i,
mean there's these little things where it's, Like, okay the
chemistry is, good this is this looks.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Real and you AND i have talked about this a
couple of. Times this is is going to sound so,
Cliche so anybody listens to this, podcast just bear with
us because it sounds. Cliche but before the, Draft Dan
morgan talks so much about like how important it was
to find guys that love, football and you, think, well,
due and he's, like but that's not always the, case,
Right and you see they brought in a class of
(13:16):
free agents and rookies that do AND i don't, know
it feels. Tangible, which, again It's. June it's so so early.
On there's still a lot to. Go But june is
also when things can get a little mundane out, there
and that hasn't really been the.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Case. Yeah they also one of the other things they
did this offseason was invest significantly in a cat NAMED Jc.
Horn and you want to talk about somebody who loves.
FOOTBALL i will just say this and their. People comparisons
make people. Nervous when you start, saying, oh this guy's
like this. Guy people are afraid of the, comparison afraid
(13:54):
of the bar you're gonna. Set i'm just going to
explain this in a long way because that's WHAT i.
Do once upon a, time there was a quarterback Named
Cam newton and a linebacker Named Thomas, davis and watching
those two cats get after each other in practice was a.
Spectacle unto. ITSELF i mean a lot of times the
(14:17):
practice and we've talked to a bunch of people you
know this offseason already about some stuff you'll see later
on At panthers dot com about that, group and the
practices were. Incredible the intensity of a practice With Thomas
davis And Luke keigley on one, side you Know Cam
newton on the other, side it's Like holy. Cow but
(14:37):
the Way cam AND td chirped at each other created
a different. Level now IT'S J. C horn And Bryce.
Young and let me, say for the rest in case
you aren't clear about, This Bryce young is not Like
Cam newton in CASE i needed to clear that up for.
(14:58):
You but WATCHING i kind of give it back TO
jc a little. Bit WATCHING jc make sure the guys
on the other side are at the same. Level it's
like a lower key version of the same. Song, yeah
and it's, like, WELL i, mean this is it's a
good thing for these guys because, again these are young
(15:20):
leaders of this. Team when you talk about the people
who are going to be a part of The Carolina
panthers for the, future you, Know bryce YOUNG. J. C
horn are right up there near the top of the.
List so having the guys being the ones who are
creating the, tempo the guys being the ones who are
bringing the energy to practice rather than at having to
come from the top, down that's where teams develop. Personality
(15:45):
and to, me that's What i'm seeing from this. BUNCH
i ALWAYS i am always cautious about what we learn
from An ota because it's An. Ota you, know they're
not in, pads the linemen aren't hitting each. Other, no
there's no tackling or anything like. That it's not real.
Football it's like glorified seven on. Seven but you can
see that personality beginning to, emerge and that's gonna be
(16:09):
one of the interesting things to follow over the course
of this season and WATCHING jc and brides get after
it a little bit has been.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Fun and there's been times too Where bryce's initiated those.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Chirpings that's, right and.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
He'll LET jc. Know you mentioned it coming from the bottom,
up not having to come from the top.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Down.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Yep we even you AND i were walking through the
hallway the other day because we had Heard coolly kind
of get fired up at practice that day and said
something to him about, it and he, said, OH jc
got me fired, Up he got me. Going so to your,
point it is coming from the bottom, up and it's
filtering up and not having to all come from the.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Top. Yeah it you, know all of this. STUFF i,
mean you can kind of see The Carolina panthers as
they stand right, now are still a very young team
in their, progression going into a second year under a
NEW gm and head. Coach starting to see that develop
a little bit and there's a little bit of a.
Vibe you saw it second half of last, year and
(17:05):
everything's about building on last, year so you, know we'll
kind of see where that.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Goes it's very much still a. Process But Dave canell
has also spent all of last year saying we have
to figure out who we, are who are we gonna.
Be we've got to know who we are before we
can become who we. Are AND i think you've seen
over the past year and then to now them kind of, Decide,
okay this is who we want to. Be now how
do we make it?
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Work just little glimpses of who we want to. Be
so it's all interesting stuff we've. Had we've got one
more week basically next week will be the final week
of off season. Program mini camp will wrap everything up
next week and then we go into summer vacation mode
for about what five or six weeks before we gather
(17:50):
again for training. Camp but a lot to be accomplished
between now and. Then we got a lot of work to.
Do we got a lot of stuff we want to
tell you and show you Here panthers Dot, com the
YouTube channel and all that cool. Stuff so we've got
a lot of good stuff coming your. Way we've got
a lot of good stuff behind. Us we'll leave a
little extra time so you've got time to go Watch blueprint.
(18:11):
AGAIN i, mean it's not like you're. Working you're listening
to The happy Half hour for Getting oh It's Little
friday here at the. Stadium we should go ahead and
take advantage of. That Watch blueprint again and we'll see
you next. Time we'll catch up with you next week
as we wrap up OTA's In Mini camp with another
edition of The Happy Half hour
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