July 17, 2025 • 22 mins
This week on the Happy Half Hour, Darin and Kassidy discuss why this offseason feels different than recent years, breakdown a few of the roster improvements, talk about Xavier Legette's boat video, and make an announcement about the short term future of the Happy Half Hour.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Happy half hour and hello friends, it's been too long,
it has and it's almost training camp time. So you
know what we should happy half hour?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
We should? I need I need training camp to get here, Darren?
Why like I need it to get here? I am
so locked into this like love Island social media bubble
that I have now turned on notifications on Instagram, TikTok
and snapchat like who am I?
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Are you? Eleven?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
I feel like it and I'm like, why am I
so obsessed with a bunch of twenty four year old
reality stars? I need a bunch of like I guess,
twenty four year old NFL players to take my time
back up.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I need to shift my focus for sure.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
It's all that does that.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I'm ready for training camp to get here.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
It really is that time, man. And I got to
tell you I have my wife is learning the rhythms
of this thing, and she has now recognized that I
reached this point about the middle of July where I'm
already thinking about training camps. See, you know, and it's
like he can no longer relax. It is time to
go back to work, and it is you know, we
(01:08):
are sitting here on Wednesday, afternoon, and we've got a
lot of stuff coming your way. It all starts up
in Earnest next Monday, when rookies report vet's report on Tuesday,
and Wednesday, off we go. It is training camp time
and all those abstract concepts we've been talking about all
off season become real tangible things and we get to
(01:28):
see the football.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yeah, and they're going to hit the ground running right
away in that first week. I think like four days
on the field, yep, which is good. You know, like
we said at this point in the summer, we all
need to touch grass, and we're gonna touch it on
the practice field.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yeah, And I think so. And it's going to be
an exciting time. And we know, we understand this training
camp is going to be a little bit different because
of the construction going to work on the indoor facility
behind the practice field. Not going to be any fans.
But here's the thing, And I wanted to come right
out of the top and tell you guys, we got
plans for a lot of cool stuff, yeah this summer
for you here at Panthers dot com and on the
(02:01):
YouTube channel and all of our properties. And the one
thing I can tell you right here from this spot
as we practice filming this thing with cameras and everything
you're used to the Happy half hour only coming in
your ears. We're gonna do this video throughout training camp.
We're gonna go Happy half hour daily every day during
training camp.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
You need a daily happy half hour? Why not camp?
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Why not? You're a massacrest, you want this every day.
We're gonna we're gonna crank one of these out every day.
In addition to the stories at Panthers dot com and
everything else, the goal is to have this in your
ears on your ride home, so every day when you're
heading home from work, you can check out the latest
in Panthers Training Camp from that that morning's practice and
everything that's happened. It's gonna be a busy camp and
(02:44):
we're looking forward to bringing it to you in a
lot of different ways. We got a lot of other
cool plans in the department we'll sprinkle out and share
with you over the next couple of days. But there's
gonna be a lot of stuff coming your way, and
we understand that. We understand you guys depend on us
for a lot of your information about training camp, and
we take that responsibility seriously. So we want to wrap
it up and we want to bring it to you.
(03:04):
And I got to tell you there is an excitement
about this team like there hasn't been in a couple
of years. And that's nothing against anything that's happened in
the past, but just based on the way the Carolina
Panthers finished last season. The last time we saw this
football team play a game, Bryce Young put forty four
on the board on the Atlanta Falcons and was throwing
(03:26):
no look touchdown passes to Tommy Tremble, And a lot
of people are fired up about what's about to happen here.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
You've been here for every Panthers off season? Is that correct?
Speaker 1 (03:35):
And that is correct? You know.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
I always tell my parents, like when people are like, oh,
what's the team that looked like this year? And I'm like,
I don't answer that question until about two or three
weeks into training camp, and that's when I start to
get you'd obviously you never know for sure because like
any given Sunday, but you start to get a feel
for like what a team's identity could be during training camp.
Why do you think this offseason feels different than it
(03:57):
has maybe the past five, six, seven years?
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Well, for one thing, you're carrying positive momentum from last year.
They finished strong. The end of the season was much
better than the beginning of the season. But I think
at a very basic level, there's a stability here. And
not only do you have the same coaching staff from
last year, which you know is something we haven't been
able to take for granted around here for a little bit.
(04:20):
And I think you know, Bryce has talked about that
over the course of the offseason, how important it was
having Dave Canalis, having Brad it is having the same
staff and so much consistency on offense because basically the
entire offense practically is back intact. Plus Teedaroa McMillan, a
first round wide receiver who's big and tall and can
go get it, plus a guy like Creco Daldell who was, oh,
(04:43):
by the way, a thousand yard rusher who's here to
be your backup to Chubu Hubbard this year, and an
entire offensive line. It's like WHOA, I mean, suddenly there's expectations.
I think the realistic view is the Carolina Panthers are
still building, still on their way up, but you can
see this steps they've taken and I think fans are
latching onto that.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Do you think some of that too could also be
because on defense it feels like, in no disrespect to
anyone that was here in the past, that everyone worked
hard to be in the NFL, but it's less stop
gap more foundational.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Oh yeah, I mean, and just look at what they
did this offseason. And we've got stories coming up next
couple of days to lead you into training camp, and
one of the things that's coming is the guys on
that defense talking about, hey, we know, we know, we
don't want to go back to last year. That was
not We saw the numbers, they set all the wrong
kinds of records and they don't want to go back,
(05:35):
and Dave Canelis don't want them talking about it that much.
But the reality is those guys who were back from
last year, and there ain't all that many of them,
but the ones who were back from last year understand
that's got the elephant in the room until they put
different evidence on tape. But this offseason has been so
dramatic when you think about the turnover on defensive personnel,
(05:56):
they people were running on them. I think you know,
the last six games were over two hundred rushing yards against,
you know, each each game, and you just can't sustain
anything when you're playing that kind of run defense. So
what do you do. You go out to soft season Boom,
first day of free agency, Bobby Brown, Terschell and Wharton
Trayvon Merrick, Christian Rose, Boom and Patrick Jones. And there's
(06:19):
five dudes who were contributors to defense on the first
day of free agency. Kind of tells you that Dan
Morgan did not want it to be like that anymore.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
And that's a given a great point because like you
want to look at the trenches, but even someone like
Trevor Merrick, I mean he had what one hundred and
three tackles I think last year. He was huge in
the run defense for the Raiders as well as somebody
that can play close to the line. So there was
definitely a plan in place and you saw it get executed.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
It's almost like it was on purpose.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Right, we'll see what it looks like on the field.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
And if you've seen some of our other properties here,
if you've gone through the Blueprint series, I mean not
only the drafting of Tetero McMillan, but the second episode
which really took you through that free agency period. When
you see Dan Morgan talk about Bobby Brown at the combine, yeah,
you realize, oh, he's locked in. I mean they wanted
a big, solid nose to put between a Derek Brown
(07:11):
and an Ashawn Robinson and really lend that stability to
that front line. Tershaun Wharton's a big time pass rusher
from the interior, played on good teams. And the fact
that they go out and get a couple of defensive
linemen who've got Super Bowl rings on their fingers, that
was intentional too.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
I did the math the other day. I think there's
six guys on this team now, and I want to
say all on defense that have super Bowl rings.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Well, plus Austin Corbett.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
I no, I think I was counting him six and
then five on defense. Okay did I say all on defense?
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah, that's all.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
I'm sorry, My bad. Yeah, there's there's I want to
say six, and five of them are on defense that
have super Bowl rings.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
So Tershawn, Bobby Ushawn, Ashawn rose Boom, and Nick Scott.
Nick Scott, there you go a lot of former rams.
Which makes sense is zero Everee brought a bunch of
his guys and they are stabilizing things we haven't seen
as you go through the OTA season, they're out there
running around. It's glorified seven on seven a lot of times.
(08:09):
But what you can tell just in the way those
guys talk about it is how intentional they are being
about setting a new standard, because when last year went
the way last year went, you don't want to spend
a lot of time thinking about it. So when you
look across the board, it's brand new. And that carried
through into the draft as well. When you go Nick Gordon, princevill,
(08:30):
you Man Meel and with the second and third round picks,
it's like, oh yeah, this is different for sure.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
When they get back out onto the field for training
camp next week, and those first four days are a
lot of like bringing everybody back together, I think it's
there in the second week before they put pads on.
What do you look for as indicators or markers of
like what are you looking forward to figure out who
this team can be?
Speaker 1 (08:55):
I think you're gonna you know, you see it in
the little communication things you see, the way guys work together.
I think there is some you know, with putting so
many new pieces together on defense, you know it's gonna
take a little time for those guys to all get
to know each other, for Josie Jewele to know exactly
where everybody's gonna be when he's lining them up in
the huddle, for you know, Trayvon in the secondary to
(09:17):
kind of know what to expect out of JC, what
to expect out of Mike Jack. On the other side,
those guys are still getting to know each other, so
that's going to be an ongoing process. But you can
kind of tell the way they're coming together based on
the Spring. I mean, just based on the j C.
Horn and Bryce Young smack talk that's been going on
throughout OTA's in mini camp. You know, that was one
(09:39):
of the big storylines of the Spring. I don't expect
that to stop now that it's training camp. I figure
they're going to continue to talk to each other that way.
But yeah, it's been I think most of it is
a learning process and a communication, So it's it's how
they come together rather than any particular plays people make.
When camp comes around, we're going to show you plenty
(10:02):
of video highlights where you're going to see diving one
handed catches by Xavier League getting Ceteroa and you're gonna
see too be Hubbard doing two Behubbard things. But what
happens during training camp is all those pieces kind of
come together and once they understand each other, I mean,
being a known commodity is the biggest thing that can
(10:23):
happen during that month of time. I mean, just learning
each other and getting comfortable in what you're doing, and
the combination of having so many people back on offense
coaching staff back only adds to that and gives them
a little forward momentum.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Yeah, I think that's a good good things to look
for exactly some of the stuff I like to look
for too, And you saw this during OTA's in mini camp,
so I want to see how much of it carries
over to training camp. Is for somebody who works in words,
this is going to be hard to describe, but I
think you're gonna know what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
You can do this.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
You can usually tell if plays because you're not looking
for specific plays in training camp, but you can usually hell,
if things are being pushed to the point of force,
like I've got to get this, I've got to get this,
I've got to get this, or if it feels natural,
like hey, we're just out here seeing what we can
do and what we can like almost I guess, take
(11:14):
the top off to in a sense, but not necessarily
even meaning like oh go, don't feel take the top off,
but more so just like take the top off of
the playbook and like get out here together and figure
out what all we can do together. More so like
this sounds so cliche, but like have fun out there
and see what they can do as a team versus
it feeling forced like, oh, this is what I have
to do today and I have to make this throw
(11:36):
for it to be a successful day, and you can
usually tell that. And then the other thing is, I mean, honestly,
just toughness, because at the end of the day, this
is still gonna come down. This is a trench's game,
and there's not going to be full on tackling. They're
going to take care of each other. But there is
a certain level of toughness that you usually want to
(11:56):
see a team reach in training camp, and they were
already getting to that, no tas, especially with the trash
talk and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Yeah, no doubt. And to your point about fun, I
think one of the things that's emerging here as a
pattern with your Carolina Panthers is there is a little
personality emerging here. And again, the Bryce JC thing got
a lot of attention during camp, and rightfully so. When
your quarterback and your one hundred million dollar corner are
going back and forth, yawing at each other every day.
(12:23):
You know the fact that I loved when we wrote
about this a couple of weeks ago, Austin Korbett said,
he's just sitting there trying to get the line set
protection called snapped the ball, and he hears his voice
over his shoulder say JC, you're cooked right here. And
everybody's kind of taken aback by that. But that's been
going on and it's not just those two. I also
(12:44):
remember there was a day toward the end of mini
camp where some guys bowed up on each other. There
was a little bit of one of those fights, not
really fight, but just dudes who are sick of looking
at each other kind of bow up on each other.
And Rob Hunt jumped between a couple of people who
might have otherwise wanted square off, and Rob started dancing.
(13:04):
And for the people who are consuming this podcast in
a video form, be very grateful this table is here
and you cannot see what's happening with Dren below this level.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
That's enough of a dance move to draw attention. Yeah,
and just the goal, which was his goal.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
And so when I talked to Rob about that afterward,
he was like, oh you like that, did you? Yeah? Rob,
we all thought that was pretty funny. But Rob's like
he understands that part of his role as a leader
on that offensive line is not just be big and
massive and plow people down, which he does well create
lanes for Cuba Hubbard to run through, but to also
set the tone. And that's physically and that's taken the
(13:42):
job seriously and not letting distraction levels stuff like that
get away from you.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Yeah, and you need those guys. You mentioned something about
your one hundred million dollar corner just real quick, because
Sauce Gardner got a new deal this week. Man, that
JC Dill looks like a deal, now, don't it.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Yeah. The best time to sign somebody is off yesterday.
The next best time is right now if you want
to keep from paying more money. But that's the deal
I mean. And JC has he has proven to be
over the last year or so, and I think he's
still one of the more fascinated players to watch going
into this camp, because when you look at who the
(14:18):
Carolina Panthers have invested in, it's those guys who are
tone setters in ways beyond the plays he makes on
the field, the passes he breaks up, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
J C.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Horn gets after it, and nobody is ever going to
dispute whether he cares about his job, or cares about
being good at it, or cares about changing what this
place is all about any more than j. C. Horn.
But look across the line, there's Derek Brown. Derek Brown,
coming off last year's tormniscus in Game one, hadn't been
(14:50):
out there on the field one hundred percent. Yet it
may not be when training camp starts. I think they're
going to be smart with Derek and he's him into
this thing because he's too important. But Derek's p since
shows every other guy on the roster, Oh that's how
the guy making the most money works. I've got to
match his level. And Derek has always been a guy
who brings people along with him by working that way.
(15:13):
So seeing Derek take on that role, see and JC
do that kind of stuff. C Rob Hunt being the
guy who jumps in the middle of those kind of things.
That's been interesting. The other one that kind of tackles
me is a year ago they use first round pick
on Xavier League. This year they use first round pick
on Tedoro McMillan. I think there were people who were
(15:36):
anticipating tension, and what we are getting is the opposite
of what we are getting.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
A Buddy cut movie out of these two. Gosh, there's
so much fun to watch together. They have fun on
the field, they have fun off the field. They encourage
each other, they rib each other. They are so different.
I don't know if you could have found two more
different first round wide receivers, like personality wise, I mean,
(16:01):
they are from They are both very gregarious, and so
they're fun.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Two different parts of the world. You know, Tetoroha's got
that Southern cow laid back vibe. You know, XL is exl.
He's out there living his best life this offseason, whether
he's at hockey games or in glow rilla videos. This
this excursion they just went on to Minnesota the other day.
This tickles me to no end because a they're out
(16:26):
there working and doing the thing. You know, Bryce gets
his guys together. Quarterbacks usually do that and take the
lead on that. But they're up in Minnesota at Adam
Thlen's home base the other week, and the video of
them on the.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Boat, Oh my gosh. I Darren goes to bed really early.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
I'm an old person, walted.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Him late last night because I just had to tell.
I was like, you have got to go watch this.
Go to the fifteen minute mark of this video as
soon as you can, because I was crying laughing.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
I was not disappointed. I mean, if you haven't seen
the video, go to Carolina Panthers or go to Panthers
dot com. Check out the video on there. Because XL
is not comfortable in the water, much like me, he
understands that's a road game.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
I don't blame him. You can't see the bottom, and
that's that's an alligator's water, that's the fish's that's the
fishes else.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
You gotta be careful. So I'm feeling EXL on that.
But uh, it's been good and and seeing that kind
of commonaraderie develop is going to be interesting. Uh. And
you know who is uh right there in the middle
of it all, just not really in the middle, but
kind of sitting back on the sideline watching all these
high jinks. Bryce shun.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Bryce also didn't get in the water, something Xcel called
him out for.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Yeah, Bryce would Bryce didn't get in the water. Bryce
didn't participate in goat yoga. He's he's getting there, He's
he's getting after it in his own ways.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
But uh, he's an observant fellow first, that's right.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
And by the way, in case you are consuming this
podcast in its video form, which you know, hey, who
wouldn't we right, who wouldn't want to? We got toys
back here. Look at this setup in this studio.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
This looks c Y so proud of his toys. You
know that? Tic Okay, you're you're probably not on TikTok.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
First of all, I'm digging. Look at these screens. We
got happy half hour back here on the big screens.
You know, I this is like professional video here. What
are we doing? I feel like David Byrne of the
Talking Heads. This is not my beautiful house. What's going
on in here? But yeah, we've got artifacts back here,
(18:30):
and I gotta show you my newest artifact. Let me
pull these headphones off for one quick second.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
There. While he does that, there is a TikTok trend
where people are like, like, if it was me and Darren,
I'll be like, my boss is gonna show you his
new toys and you better like it. It'd be nice
in the comments. That's totally us right now. Yeah, you'll
be nice to Darren about his toys.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
That's that's right. Here we go, I'm back. I'm back.
Darren's got new toys?
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Is so cute? The Andy Dalton how.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
T Yeah, this is great. My stepdaughter lives do what
halt it in front of me? Says podcast Matt, who's
in the back.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
He's gonna be our director.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Now that's right. My stepdaughter lives in Amsterdam or suburban Amsterdam,
uh Trek, to be specific. And she was traveling and
found this fine item. It is a nesting doll of
Carolina panthers legends and I want to unfold the whole thing.
But here's Bryce Young on the outside. This is amazing.
I love this. And if you go four layers deep
(19:32):
into the middle you get little Andy Dalton. Look at that?
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Wait is it? Does he have red here?
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Sure? Maybe these are not the most These are not
the most.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
I'd call that red.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Yeah. Accurate descriptions of these people. I mean, the cat
head on the side of his helmets a little bit off,
but it's just as adorable as it can be. A
little Bryce Young, but all the way from Prague we
have an actual Brys Young nesting doll set of Carolina Panthers.
There's Andy doing a little thing. When I open this
thing up to begin with, I gotta be honest with you.
(20:06):
There's a little line over here off the side of
the one in the fourteen I thought this was gonna
be jj Janssen. And if if there had been a
jj Jansen in the middle of this misting doll of
Carolina Panthers legends, that would have been the funniest thing
I've ever experienced in my entire life.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Oh, I know what I'm getting you for Christmas?
Speaker 1 (20:23):
That's right. We might have to do a custom order
kind of like the podcast Matt Bobblehead that we just
you know, we're gonna try to have a little fun.
We may decorate this shelf behind us. If we're going
to be in this professional podcast studio, we might decorate.
We might put some secret treasures up there.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
You never know, you know, are we gonna get like
a you know how PTI has the Christmas story leg lamp.
We could I'm not saying I have one of those
at home, but I'm not not saying it.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
That's fair enough.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
One could be easily procured.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
We've got all kinds of cool toys that we might
play with, and that's why we're excited. I mean, I
truly am. I think it's gonna be cool during try
training camp. A lot of this stuff happens so immediately
and fans are so starved for information. I'm kind of
excited about bringing you guys this podcast. Every day we'll
wrap up practice each day, we'll tell you about the highlights,
(21:13):
we'll talk about the transactions, we'll talk about what we've
seen on the field that day, and it's gonna be awesome.
We are going to start that up next week, so
can't wait for you guys to join us. And you
know what, Little Bryce and our Big Bryce and Little Andy,
they might stay with us here in the studio. You
(21:33):
never know, we might bring more cool stuff. We've got
all kinds of fun things in the back and I
just look forward to you guys coming and sharing it
with us. I mean, it's training camp, It's that time.
It's time to get back to football, and we're gonna
do it. So that'll take care of us for this
edition of the Happy Half Hour. Tune in next.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Week starting Wednesday for.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Training camp daily Happy half Hour. For your ride home,
we'll have it ready for you on your way home
from work. We're gonna have some fun. Gang. Let's do it.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Let's see it in h
Happy half hour and hello friends, it's been too long,
it has and it's almost training camp time. So you
know what we should happy half hour?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
We should? I need I need training camp to get here, Darren?
Why like I need it to get here? I am
so locked into this like love Island social media bubble
that I have now turned on notifications on Instagram, TikTok
and snapchat like who am I?
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Are you? Eleven?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
I feel like it and I'm like, why am I
so obsessed with a bunch of twenty four year old
reality stars? I need a bunch of like I guess,
twenty four year old NFL players to take my time
back up.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I need to shift my focus for sure.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
It's all that does that.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I'm ready for training camp to get here.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
It really is that time, man. And I got to
tell you I have my wife is learning the rhythms
of this thing, and she has now recognized that I
reached this point about the middle of July where I'm
already thinking about training camps. See, you know, and it's
like he can no longer relax. It is time to
go back to work, and it is you know, we
(01:08):
are sitting here on Wednesday, afternoon, and we've got a
lot of stuff coming your way. It all starts up
in Earnest next Monday, when rookies report vet's report on Tuesday,
and Wednesday, off we go. It is training camp time
and all those abstract concepts we've been talking about all
off season become real tangible things and we get to
(01:28):
see the football.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yeah, and they're going to hit the ground running right
away in that first week. I think like four days
on the field, yep, which is good. You know, like
we said at this point in the summer, we all
need to touch grass, and we're gonna touch it on
the practice field.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yeah, And I think so. And it's going to be
an exciting time. And we know, we understand this training
camp is going to be a little bit different because
of the construction going to work on the indoor facility
behind the practice field. Not going to be any fans.
But here's the thing, And I wanted to come right
out of the top and tell you guys, we got
plans for a lot of cool stuff, yeah this summer
for you here at Panthers dot com and on the
(02:01):
YouTube channel and all of our properties. And the one
thing I can tell you right here from this spot
as we practice filming this thing with cameras and everything
you're used to the Happy half hour only coming in
your ears. We're gonna do this video throughout training camp.
We're gonna go Happy half hour daily every day during
training camp.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
You need a daily happy half hour? Why not camp?
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Why not? You're a massacrest, you want this every day.
We're gonna we're gonna crank one of these out every day.
In addition to the stories at Panthers dot com and
everything else, the goal is to have this in your
ears on your ride home, so every day when you're
heading home from work, you can check out the latest
in Panthers Training Camp from that that morning's practice and
everything that's happened. It's gonna be a busy camp and
(02:44):
we're looking forward to bringing it to you in a
lot of different ways. We got a lot of other
cool plans in the department we'll sprinkle out and share
with you over the next couple of days. But there's
gonna be a lot of stuff coming your way, and
we understand that. We understand you guys depend on us
for a lot of your information about training camp, and
we take that responsibility seriously. So we want to wrap
it up and we want to bring it to you.
(03:04):
And I got to tell you there is an excitement
about this team like there hasn't been in a couple
of years. And that's nothing against anything that's happened in
the past, but just based on the way the Carolina
Panthers finished last season. The last time we saw this
football team play a game, Bryce Young put forty four
on the board on the Atlanta Falcons and was throwing
(03:26):
no look touchdown passes to Tommy Tremble, And a lot
of people are fired up about what's about to happen here.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
You've been here for every Panthers off season? Is that correct?
Speaker 1 (03:35):
And that is correct? You know.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
I always tell my parents, like when people are like, oh,
what's the team that looked like this year? And I'm like,
I don't answer that question until about two or three
weeks into training camp, and that's when I start to
get you'd obviously you never know for sure because like
any given Sunday, but you start to get a feel
for like what a team's identity could be during training camp.
Why do you think this offseason feels different than it
(03:57):
has maybe the past five, six, seven years?
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Well, for one thing, you're carrying positive momentum from last year.
They finished strong. The end of the season was much
better than the beginning of the season. But I think
at a very basic level, there's a stability here. And
not only do you have the same coaching staff from
last year, which you know is something we haven't been
able to take for granted around here for a little bit.
(04:20):
And I think you know, Bryce has talked about that
over the course of the offseason, how important it was
having Dave Canalis, having Brad it is having the same
staff and so much consistency on offense because basically the
entire offense practically is back intact. Plus Teedaroa McMillan, a
first round wide receiver who's big and tall and can
go get it, plus a guy like Creco Daldell who was, oh,
(04:43):
by the way, a thousand yard rusher who's here to
be your backup to Chubu Hubbard this year, and an
entire offensive line. It's like WHOA, I mean, suddenly there's expectations.
I think the realistic view is the Carolina Panthers are
still building, still on their way up, but you can
see this steps they've taken and I think fans are
latching onto that.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Do you think some of that too could also be
because on defense it feels like, in no disrespect to
anyone that was here in the past, that everyone worked
hard to be in the NFL, but it's less stop
gap more foundational.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Oh yeah, I mean, and just look at what they
did this offseason. And we've got stories coming up next
couple of days to lead you into training camp, and
one of the things that's coming is the guys on
that defense talking about, hey, we know, we know, we
don't want to go back to last year. That was
not We saw the numbers, they set all the wrong
kinds of records and they don't want to go back,
(05:35):
and Dave Canelis don't want them talking about it that much.
But the reality is those guys who were back from
last year, and there ain't all that many of them,
but the ones who were back from last year understand
that's got the elephant in the room until they put
different evidence on tape. But this offseason has been so
dramatic when you think about the turnover on defensive personnel,
(05:56):
they people were running on them. I think you know,
the last six games were over two hundred rushing yards against,
you know, each each game, and you just can't sustain
anything when you're playing that kind of run defense. So
what do you do. You go out to soft season Boom,
first day of free agency, Bobby Brown, Terschell and Wharton
Trayvon Merrick, Christian Rose, Boom and Patrick Jones. And there's
(06:19):
five dudes who were contributors to defense on the first
day of free agency. Kind of tells you that Dan
Morgan did not want it to be like that anymore.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
And that's a given a great point because like you
want to look at the trenches, but even someone like
Trevor Merrick, I mean he had what one hundred and
three tackles I think last year. He was huge in
the run defense for the Raiders as well as somebody
that can play close to the line. So there was
definitely a plan in place and you saw it get executed.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
It's almost like it was on purpose.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Right, we'll see what it looks like on the field.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
And if you've seen some of our other properties here,
if you've gone through the Blueprint series, I mean not
only the drafting of Tetero McMillan, but the second episode
which really took you through that free agency period. When
you see Dan Morgan talk about Bobby Brown at the combine, yeah,
you realize, oh, he's locked in. I mean they wanted
a big, solid nose to put between a Derek Brown
(07:11):
and an Ashawn Robinson and really lend that stability to
that front line. Tershaun Wharton's a big time pass rusher
from the interior, played on good teams. And the fact
that they go out and get a couple of defensive
linemen who've got Super Bowl rings on their fingers, that
was intentional too.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
I did the math the other day. I think there's
six guys on this team now, and I want to
say all on defense that have super Bowl rings.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Well, plus Austin Corbett.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
I no, I think I was counting him six and
then five on defense. Okay did I say all on defense?
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah, that's all.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
I'm sorry, My bad. Yeah, there's there's I want to
say six, and five of them are on defense that
have super Bowl rings.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
So Tershawn, Bobby Ushawn, Ashawn rose Boom, and Nick Scott.
Nick Scott, there you go a lot of former rams.
Which makes sense is zero Everee brought a bunch of
his guys and they are stabilizing things we haven't seen
as you go through the OTA season, they're out there
running around. It's glorified seven on seven a lot of times.
(08:09):
But what you can tell just in the way those
guys talk about it is how intentional they are being
about setting a new standard, because when last year went
the way last year went, you don't want to spend
a lot of time thinking about it. So when you
look across the board, it's brand new. And that carried
through into the draft as well. When you go Nick Gordon, princevill,
(08:30):
you Man Meel and with the second and third round picks,
it's like, oh yeah, this is different for sure.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
When they get back out onto the field for training
camp next week, and those first four days are a
lot of like bringing everybody back together, I think it's
there in the second week before they put pads on.
What do you look for as indicators or markers of
like what are you looking forward to figure out who
this team can be?
Speaker 1 (08:55):
I think you're gonna you know, you see it in
the little communication things you see, the way guys work together.
I think there is some you know, with putting so
many new pieces together on defense, you know it's gonna
take a little time for those guys to all get
to know each other, for Josie Jewele to know exactly
where everybody's gonna be when he's lining them up in
the huddle, for you know, Trayvon in the secondary to
(09:17):
kind of know what to expect out of JC, what
to expect out of Mike Jack. On the other side,
those guys are still getting to know each other, so
that's going to be an ongoing process. But you can
kind of tell the way they're coming together based on
the Spring. I mean, just based on the j C.
Horn and Bryce Young smack talk that's been going on
throughout OTA's in mini camp. You know, that was one
(09:39):
of the big storylines of the Spring. I don't expect
that to stop now that it's training camp. I figure
they're going to continue to talk to each other that way.
But yeah, it's been I think most of it is
a learning process and a communication, So it's it's how
they come together rather than any particular plays people make.
When camp comes around, we're going to show you plenty
(10:02):
of video highlights where you're going to see diving one
handed catches by Xavier League getting Ceteroa and you're gonna
see too be Hubbard doing two Behubbard things. But what
happens during training camp is all those pieces kind of
come together and once they understand each other, I mean,
being a known commodity is the biggest thing that can
(10:23):
happen during that month of time. I mean, just learning
each other and getting comfortable in what you're doing, and
the combination of having so many people back on offense
coaching staff back only adds to that and gives them
a little forward momentum.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Yeah, I think that's a good good things to look
for exactly some of the stuff I like to look
for too, And you saw this during OTA's in mini camp,
so I want to see how much of it carries
over to training camp. Is for somebody who works in words,
this is going to be hard to describe, but I
think you're gonna know what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
You can do this.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
You can usually tell if plays because you're not looking
for specific plays in training camp, but you can usually hell,
if things are being pushed to the point of force,
like I've got to get this, I've got to get this,
I've got to get this, or if it feels natural,
like hey, we're just out here seeing what we can
do and what we can like almost I guess, take
(11:14):
the top off to in a sense, but not necessarily
even meaning like oh go, don't feel take the top off,
but more so just like take the top off of
the playbook and like get out here together and figure
out what all we can do together. More so like
this sounds so cliche, but like have fun out there
and see what they can do as a team versus
it feeling forced like, oh, this is what I have
to do today and I have to make this throw
(11:36):
for it to be a successful day, and you can
usually tell that. And then the other thing is, I mean, honestly,
just toughness, because at the end of the day, this
is still gonna come down. This is a trench's game,
and there's not going to be full on tackling. They're
going to take care of each other. But there is
a certain level of toughness that you usually want to
(11:56):
see a team reach in training camp, and they were
already getting to that, no tas, especially with the trash
talk and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Yeah, no doubt. And to your point about fun, I
think one of the things that's emerging here as a
pattern with your Carolina Panthers is there is a little
personality emerging here. And again, the Bryce JC thing got
a lot of attention during camp, and rightfully so. When
your quarterback and your one hundred million dollar corner are
going back and forth, yawing at each other every day.
(12:23):
You know the fact that I loved when we wrote
about this a couple of weeks ago, Austin Korbett said,
he's just sitting there trying to get the line set
protection called snapped the ball, and he hears his voice
over his shoulder say JC, you're cooked right here. And
everybody's kind of taken aback by that. But that's been
going on and it's not just those two. I also
(12:44):
remember there was a day toward the end of mini
camp where some guys bowed up on each other. There
was a little bit of one of those fights, not
really fight, but just dudes who are sick of looking
at each other kind of bow up on each other.
And Rob Hunt jumped between a couple of people who
might have otherwise wanted square off, and Rob started dancing.
(13:04):
And for the people who are consuming this podcast in
a video form, be very grateful this table is here
and you cannot see what's happening with Dren below this level.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
That's enough of a dance move to draw attention. Yeah,
and just the goal, which was his goal.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
And so when I talked to Rob about that afterward,
he was like, oh you like that, did you? Yeah? Rob,
we all thought that was pretty funny. But Rob's like
he understands that part of his role as a leader
on that offensive line is not just be big and
massive and plow people down, which he does well create
lanes for Cuba Hubbard to run through, but to also
set the tone. And that's physically and that's taken the
(13:42):
job seriously and not letting distraction levels stuff like that
get away from you.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Yeah, and you need those guys. You mentioned something about
your one hundred million dollar corner just real quick, because
Sauce Gardner got a new deal this week. Man, that
JC Dill looks like a deal, now, don't it.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Yeah. The best time to sign somebody is off yesterday.
The next best time is right now if you want
to keep from paying more money. But that's the deal
I mean. And JC has he has proven to be
over the last year or so, and I think he's
still one of the more fascinated players to watch going
into this camp, because when you look at who the
(14:18):
Carolina Panthers have invested in, it's those guys who are
tone setters in ways beyond the plays he makes on
the field, the passes he breaks up, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
J C.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Horn gets after it, and nobody is ever going to
dispute whether he cares about his job, or cares about
being good at it, or cares about changing what this
place is all about any more than j. C. Horn.
But look across the line, there's Derek Brown. Derek Brown,
coming off last year's tormniscus in Game one, hadn't been
(14:50):
out there on the field one hundred percent. Yet it
may not be when training camp starts. I think they're
going to be smart with Derek and he's him into
this thing because he's too important. But Derek's p since
shows every other guy on the roster, Oh that's how
the guy making the most money works. I've got to
match his level. And Derek has always been a guy
who brings people along with him by working that way.
(15:13):
So seeing Derek take on that role, see and JC
do that kind of stuff. C Rob Hunt being the
guy who jumps in the middle of those kind of things.
That's been interesting. The other one that kind of tackles
me is a year ago they use first round pick
on Xavier League. This year they use first round pick
on Tedoro McMillan. I think there were people who were
(15:36):
anticipating tension, and what we are getting is the opposite
of what we are getting.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
A Buddy cut movie out of these two. Gosh, there's
so much fun to watch together. They have fun on
the field, they have fun off the field. They encourage
each other, they rib each other. They are so different.
I don't know if you could have found two more
different first round wide receivers, like personality wise, I mean,
(16:01):
they are from They are both very gregarious, and so
they're fun.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Two different parts of the world. You know, Tetoroha's got
that Southern cow laid back vibe. You know, XL is exl.
He's out there living his best life this offseason, whether
he's at hockey games or in glow rilla videos. This
this excursion they just went on to Minnesota the other day.
This tickles me to no end because a they're out
(16:26):
there working and doing the thing. You know, Bryce gets
his guys together. Quarterbacks usually do that and take the
lead on that. But they're up in Minnesota at Adam
Thlen's home base the other week, and the video of
them on the.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Boat, Oh my gosh. I Darren goes to bed really early.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
I'm an old person, walted.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Him late last night because I just had to tell.
I was like, you have got to go watch this.
Go to the fifteen minute mark of this video as
soon as you can, because I was crying laughing.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
I was not disappointed. I mean, if you haven't seen
the video, go to Carolina Panthers or go to Panthers
dot com. Check out the video on there. Because XL
is not comfortable in the water, much like me, he
understands that's a road game.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
I don't blame him. You can't see the bottom, and
that's that's an alligator's water, that's the fish's that's the
fishes else.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
You gotta be careful. So I'm feeling EXL on that.
But uh, it's been good and and seeing that kind
of commonaraderie develop is going to be interesting. Uh. And
you know who is uh right there in the middle
of it all, just not really in the middle, but
kind of sitting back on the sideline watching all these
high jinks. Bryce shun.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Bryce also didn't get in the water, something Xcel called
him out for.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Yeah, Bryce would Bryce didn't get in the water. Bryce
didn't participate in goat yoga. He's he's getting there, He's
he's getting after it in his own ways.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
But uh, he's an observant fellow first, that's right.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
And by the way, in case you are consuming this
podcast in its video form, which you know, hey, who
wouldn't we right, who wouldn't want to? We got toys
back here. Look at this setup in this studio.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
This looks c Y so proud of his toys. You
know that? Tic Okay, you're you're probably not on TikTok.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
First of all, I'm digging. Look at these screens. We
got happy half hour back here on the big screens.
You know, I this is like professional video here. What
are we doing? I feel like David Byrne of the
Talking Heads. This is not my beautiful house. What's going
on in here? But yeah, we've got artifacts back here,
(18:30):
and I gotta show you my newest artifact. Let me
pull these headphones off for one quick second.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
There. While he does that, there is a TikTok trend
where people are like, like, if it was me and Darren,
I'll be like, my boss is gonna show you his
new toys and you better like it. It'd be nice
in the comments. That's totally us right now. Yeah, you'll
be nice to Darren about his toys.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
That's that's right. Here we go, I'm back. I'm back.
Darren's got new toys?
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Is so cute? The Andy Dalton how.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
T Yeah, this is great. My stepdaughter lives do what
halt it in front of me? Says podcast Matt, who's
in the back.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
He's gonna be our director.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Now that's right. My stepdaughter lives in Amsterdam or suburban Amsterdam,
uh Trek, to be specific. And she was traveling and
found this fine item. It is a nesting doll of
Carolina panthers legends and I want to unfold the whole thing.
But here's Bryce Young on the outside. This is amazing.
I love this. And if you go four layers deep
(19:32):
into the middle you get little Andy Dalton. Look at that?
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Wait is it? Does he have red here?
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Sure? Maybe these are not the most These are not
the most.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
I'd call that red.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Yeah. Accurate descriptions of these people. I mean, the cat
head on the side of his helmets a little bit off,
but it's just as adorable as it can be. A
little Bryce Young, but all the way from Prague we
have an actual Brys Young nesting doll set of Carolina Panthers.
There's Andy doing a little thing. When I open this
thing up to begin with, I gotta be honest with you.
(20:06):
There's a little line over here off the side of
the one in the fourteen I thought this was gonna
be jj Janssen. And if if there had been a
jj Jansen in the middle of this misting doll of
Carolina Panthers legends, that would have been the funniest thing
I've ever experienced in my entire life.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Oh, I know what I'm getting you for Christmas?
Speaker 1 (20:23):
That's right. We might have to do a custom order
kind of like the podcast Matt Bobblehead that we just
you know, we're gonna try to have a little fun.
We may decorate this shelf behind us. If we're going
to be in this professional podcast studio, we might decorate.
We might put some secret treasures up there.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
You never know, you know, are we gonna get like
a you know how PTI has the Christmas story leg lamp.
We could I'm not saying I have one of those
at home, but I'm not not saying it.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
That's fair enough.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
One could be easily procured.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
We've got all kinds of cool toys that we might
play with, and that's why we're excited. I mean, I
truly am. I think it's gonna be cool during try
training camp. A lot of this stuff happens so immediately
and fans are so starved for information. I'm kind of
excited about bringing you guys this podcast. Every day we'll
wrap up practice each day, we'll tell you about the highlights,
(21:13):
we'll talk about the transactions, we'll talk about what we've
seen on the field that day, and it's gonna be awesome.
We are going to start that up next week, so
can't wait for you guys to join us. And you
know what, Little Bryce and our Big Bryce and Little Andy,
they might stay with us here in the studio. You
(21:33):
never know, we might bring more cool stuff. We've got
all kinds of fun things in the back and I
just look forward to you guys coming and sharing it
with us. I mean, it's training camp, It's that time.
It's time to get back to football, and we're gonna
do it. So that'll take care of us for this
edition of the Happy Half Hour. Tune in next.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
Week starting Wednesday for.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Training camp daily Happy half Hour. For your ride home,
we'll have it ready for you on your way home
from work. We're gonna have some fun. Gang. Let's do it.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Let's see it in h
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