September 4, 2025 • 21 mins
Today on the Happy Half Hour, Darin and Kassidy get you ready for week 1! They discuss the injury report, offensive line depth, the Panthers running game, defending Brian Thomas Jr. and Travis Hunter, and so much more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Happy half hour. Hello friends, we're back, and look this
time I brought help because everybody decided me talking solo
for twenty minutes our low Guthrie style was not anything
anyone was particularly interested in. So welcome back from special assignment, Cassidy.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
You know, I don't know how I feel about knowing
that I can be replaced by mayonnaise and fat heads,
but I feel like I'm welcome back, So that's at
least encouraging.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I'm writing that down right now. Mayonnaise and fat heads. No,
it wouldn't be a happy half hour without you. And
it is week one, friends, It is that time we
got football to talk about. Yeah, we do. We've been
spending so much time this offseason talking about global.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Themes, exponential ideas.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
You know, we've just been way out here and it's
time to get down in here because it's football time.
There's a game this Sunday, and the Carolina Panthers are
going to be in it against the Jacksonville Jaguars, and
all that abstract stuff we've been talking about to become
a concrete reality, and frankly, I am grateful for that.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Finally, you know what, you know, how Steve Spurry always
called the off season like talking season. Now we're finally
ready to put boot to ball, as they say, get
back on the ground a ball. Yeah, have you ever
heard that one?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
I don't think I've ever heard that one. Is that Alabama?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Or I don't think I made it up?
Speaker 1 (01:22):
That would be a good parlor game Alabama or English?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
You know, I don't know if you know this, but
modern Southern English is the closest thing we have to Shakespeare,
because Shakespeare that lent like time period in England. That
is how commoners spoke, and that's really how a lot
(01:47):
of English people spoke, and which is what when people
came over to America, like pilgrims and stuff, and that
was their accent, and they kind of settled down into
the southern part of America, starting in Virginia, and then
the royal family in England like that sect, you know,
lords and ladies and dukes and duchesses wanted to separate
themselves from the common people, so they started speaking in
(02:10):
a in a different accent and a different tone, and
that became what is the modern English accent, and the
English accent of Shakespeare's time is what is most closely
related to Appalachia is Appalachia.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
All right, I'm gonna have to push the button on
your name to end this story because you said it wrong.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
It's if you want to hear Shakespeare as it was
meant to be performed, have a Southerner performance forsooth.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I did not know what this had to do with
Duke's mayonnaise. But here we are, all right, Football, Bryce Young,
Jacksonville Jaguars. Let's get it on. Bryce has been It's
been so interesting to me. Bryce. We kind of know
by this point. Bryce is not that rear view mirror guy.
He's not one to look back or put things into
historical perspective.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
That's why he has us.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
He is folks doing the thing in front of his
feet right now, and he does a good job of
compartmentalizing everything. So I don't think it was a surprise
when he was talking yesterday that he's just like, man,
I'm on this now, I'm I'm looking forward. And the
interesting part about that is Bryce has something different to
look at now than he did a week ago this time,
(03:20):
because a week ago this time, roughly, he thought he
was going to be throwing to XLT. Mac and Adam
Thielen and now he's got xlt MAC and Hunter Renfrow and.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
No Jalen Coker and no Jalen Kocher. That was Jalen
Cooker in there as well.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
It's been an adjustment for him and to me that
puts so much pressure on him this week that there's
any more or less than there was already. But he's
going to have to adjust on the fly to a
thing that none of us really predicted. I mean, they
shuffled the deck a little bit. It's still a group
they like, but it's a very different group because now
(03:53):
you're mixing a twenty nine year old Hunter Renfro into
the thirty whatever year old Adam Thielen spot from the
other day.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Adam thlnd was a known commodity. You knew exactly what
you were going to get out of him, which was
usually consistency. That was the most important thing, and he
was I don't even want to say a safety blanket
for Bryce because a safety blanket indicates a last option.
He was a first option a lot of time. He
was his number one target. What does the offense look
like without that? Coaches have talked a lot about t
(04:21):
Mac this offseason, and the possibility of him kind of
being that number one guy. They also, we know Bryce
is at his best when he's distributing and when he's
playing point guard. He doesn't necessarily this is so cliche
because we've heard it over and over, but he doesn't
necessarily need a number one guy, right, And so you know,
does that does it work kind of in his favor
(04:42):
or does it not hurt him? Maybe that's the better
way of saying, does it not hurt him? Really? Like
it would maybe another quarterback to lose an Adam then
to have, you know, the Jaalen Coker Hunter Renfro switcheroo
going on with Jalen Coker going on. IR That's where
yet to find out. We'll find out on Sunday. But
I do think that Bryce's skill set can weather a
(05:05):
lost such as that a little bit better than maybe
some other quarterbacks.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah, and I think what happens when we're in the
training camp portion of the year, but we see a
lot of seven on seven, We see a lot of
what amounts to passing drills on air. Let's be honest.
When we get to whatever they're calling that stadium right
now in Jacksonville, EverBank EverBank. Okay, sure that when we
get to EverBank Stadium on Sunday. You know who's gonna
(05:30):
go center stage on this thing. Not all those fancy
pretty receiving routes. These two cats right here, Chewba Hubbard,
Rob Hunt, everybody. And by the way, Rob Hunt popped
up on the injury report with the foot. We'll see
how he is. Checkpanthers dot com for your latest injury
updates all day long, but especially later this afternoon. And
then this guy right here, this offense is still going
(05:53):
to run through Chewba Hubbard, and I am convinced that
for all the talk about Bryce and receiving targets and
everything else, this first couple of games are going to
be Let's get back to those basics that we do
really well, and we know this guy right here does
those things really well.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
I can't I want to do this, but I don't
want to do this. I almost want to like grab a.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Piece of this. There's going to be another three and
a half minute Shakespearean soliloquy.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
I think that was like a minute and a half.
All right, we should just take a piece of paper
and write down what we think the first play will
be and then we look at it next week to
see who was right.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Yeah, well, I've already written mine down in this notebook.
We'll see.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I don't want to put mine out there in case
I'm right. I don't want to give away anything.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
See that's difference between me and you. I don't want
to put mine out if I'm wrong. But anyway, I
just think and and Brad Iazac talked about this this morning.
I mean, there is a Rico Daltle here for a reason,
and the reason is because they want to continue to
run the ball. What they did last year with Cuba
was a good start to what they wanted to do.
Rico adds to that. And it also gives you the
(06:53):
opportunity to spell him through the season so that he's
got gas left in the tank in December, because we've
seen before with different Carolina Panthers teams under different coaches,
when you can run on people in December, that's when
you can demoralize somebody. I don't think anybody who was
at the December twenty two game against Detroit when it
was about minus one hundred and fifty degrees. It was
(07:15):
football on hath out here at Bank of America stadium,
and I just I remember that so vividly because Cuba
and Deontay Foreman were able to basically take the souls
straight out of the Detroit Lions that day and make
them their own. And when you can do that, that
buys you so much time to be bryce young people,
(07:38):
peel and pew the ball around the way you want to,
and especially at a time when there are questions to
be answered about the Carolina Panthers defense, I think that's
super valuable. So we'll see how it goes on on Sunday,
see who gets that first play of the game. But
I would I would be willing to bet that this
guy right here gets a lot of action and a
lot of action early just to try to establish wish
(08:00):
what they want to be about.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
And I wouldn't be surprised if we even see like
some equal numbers of carries between he and Rico, or
maybe equal number of touches, because you know Rico can
do it, can can kind of flex out a little
bit some too, and just kind of keep defense back
on their heels a little bit, or even better, have
them cheating up and then you can throw downfield to
a guy like t Mac and when you have a
(08:25):
stable of backs to your point, when when the other
team knows what you're doing and you still are able
to do it like that is that's that's probably one
of the better feelings on a football field. Etn could
factor into that some You know, he's probably going to
be active because he is their primary returner now, and
so you've got that to go. You've got him to
go in as a spell as well, and all three
(08:48):
of them are very, very different, and so you can
keep your running back game, or you can keep your
running game going in a myriad of ways, which is
always helpful.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Yeah, there's no doubt. There's no doubt. And and again
that's gonna be important to me because everything is so
unsettled and we don't know. You want to talk about
abstract concept. I have no idea what the Carolina Panthers
defense it's going to look like on Sunday. I believe
it's going to be better. I believe it's going to
be more stable. Having a big old Derek Brown in
the middle of it makes everything better behind him. But
(09:20):
we don't know particularly how that's gonna look. I mean,
what you're gonna get out of turche on Wharton as
a rusher from inside. You know how many snaps you're
going to be able to get out of Nick Gorton
and Princely backing up Pat Jones and dj Wanam. I
think the plan is just to have those guys come
at you in waves a little bit and use them
in different different orientations, just to keep people off balance
(09:45):
a little bit, because right now they're the group with
the most approved I mean, for all the stuff you
want to say about changes in the wide receiver room,
this is still about that offensive line, which Ikyakwanu's still
kind of up in the air. We'll see what he
does on Friday in practice. That's what Dave Canalis said.
He's a little bit up in the air based on
(10:05):
that appendectomy last week. But if he he's not able
to play, you go yosh Niman or Brady Christians, and
then that's still the rest of a really good line
that you know well from last year. That's still the
base fit. We know that much. On the other side,
not so much. And that's why I think getting Derek
back in there is just central to everything, because I
(10:25):
think the thing we lost sight of last year when
he was gone is just how good Derek Brown he
is at football.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
And Ashan Robinson was able to step in in a
huge way. What did those two look like together? Now
that's what I'm kind of excited to see. And you
wrote about this a little earlier in the off season,
but you know, Ashan Robinson played a lot of snaps
last year. He played more snapstein he's ever played in
his career bar a season that went into the playoffs.
So in a regular season, this is the most he's
(10:54):
ever played. And now he can be able to catch
his breath. He can do that in a rotation, you know,
that make a difference. Does that help him when he
goes out there? Although he also talked about wanting to
rush more and he definitely got to do that some
last year. Yeah, Listen, it's gonna take a little bit
of time. I don't think whatever we see on Sunday
is necessarily gonna be you know, that's the twenty twenty
(11:16):
five iteration of this defense. But it'll be an interesting start,
especially because about the pass rushers as well. We've seen
them working interchangeably. You know, it's not like, Okay, if
one them's out there, then Pat Jones is out there,
and if Nick Gorton's out there, then Princely's out there.
We've seen them interchange where it's it's Wan them and
Princely or vice versa. You know, it's been a lot
(11:37):
of different looks with all four of those guys.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah, And I don't know if you're looking at last
year's stats or what might Actually I am terrible. Ashan
had what five and a half sacks last year? Five
and a half, six and a half.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
I think he was tied with five and a half,
lie something like that.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
He was right in that range. Church and Wharton had
eight and a half sacks for the Chiefs if you
include the playoffs, and why not, let's count that. So
they've got guys who can rush from inside up front,
and to me, that's the biggest difference in this year's
defense is you've got a more capable front line, which
just enables all the other stuff behind it to be
(12:12):
that much better. You've spent a lot of time this
week on the Jaguars itself, and I mean when you
look at their offense, everybody knows about that shiny new
Travis Hunter, but they've got a lot of parts over there.
For Trevor lall Rance, I mean, whether it's Brian Thomas,
whether it's there on ETN Brother that they've got, They've
got dudes over there on that side of.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
The ball, and they lost some of that too, you
know with different trades Christian kirk ev and Ingram Is
that right? But then you know they still got guys
like ever mentioned today with Brenton Strange and ETN Tank Bigsby,
They've got a little bit of a stable there at
running back and man Brian Thomas Junior. There's gonna be
(12:51):
so much focus on Hunter, Travis Hunter. Understandably so. Brian
Thomas Junior made the Pro Bowl in his rookie season
on a bad time team, and it's because that's how
just outstanding he was. He was a huge bright spot
for them. So what does it look like for him
now when obviously Travis Hunter is gonna have to draw
some attention and you know, does that open up Brian
(13:14):
Thomas Junior a little bit more? They're gonna have to.
It's also gonna be interesting because this is gonna be
the first time a defense has faced Travis Hunter in
the NFL, and the first time a defense has faced
that duo of Hunter and Thomas and so I mean,
let's be honest, the first fifteen plays might be a
little bit of like back on your heels, just kind
(13:35):
of assessing some stuff, figuring out what exactly they're going
to do, and then going from there.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
You think so, because I'm not sure about that, because
you know who's not really a back on his heels guy.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
They might.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
I mean, here's what's gonna be interesting though they.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
See speaking of people who've got stuff to prove. I mean,
Jac's coming off that first Pro Bowl last year, and
last year was that time when he kind of announced
to the world what he was all about, much in
the same way Derek did two years ago before he
was injured. So I loved the idea of Okay, Brian Thomas,
Travis Honold, see what you got, because we got one
of these on this side.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
I am also curious to see, like do they switch
stuff up because the Jacks have pretty much exclusively worked
Hunter in the slot. So is that a chall Smith
Wade assignment? Is that do they move guys around? I
don't know, We're gonna find out, yeah, because nobody really
knows yet what the Jaguars are gonna actually do because
they were they were very very careful in Vanilla with
(14:32):
it in the preseason as well. In fact, I don't
even think Hunter played but one preseason game or something
like that.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Yeah, and so give me started on preseason football unlike Bryce.
That's in my rear view mirror and I don't want
to think about it.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
In a Shawn Robinson did have five and a half
sacks Licke, Yeah, so I did.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
I nailed it. I was correct. I just wasn't clear.
So that's the second time that's happened today. We'll leave
that alone. But anyway, it is all coming around. And
you know, the Carolina Panthers have started seasons in Jacksonville before, right, Yeah,
so you never know what can happen when we get
down there and see what Speaking of twenty fifteen, Yes,
(15:10):
you weren't here then, I was not you. You were
all my something else Where were you in two thousand?
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Here's what's interesting, Darren, this is gonna be really funny.
I did not realize this until I turned this game
on last night. I wanted to go back and watch
because I was not here in twenty fifteen. I was
in Florida. I was covering the Florida Gators at the time,
and I was like, you know what, I want to
go back and watch that season with eyes as somebody
or fresh eyes as somebody watching it for.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
The first time.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
And because I would watch it passively here and there.
You know that Panthers were good miss in twenty fifteen,
and so I would watch it here and there, but
it was never like actively watching. So I was like,
I want to go back and find these games. You
can find pretty much any full NFL game on al
Gore's Internet if you know where to look.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
It's usually YouTube all right.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Piece streaming, And so I pulled up that week one
game at Jacksonville last night. I started watching this game.
As I'm getting into it, it clicked. I was at
this game like I was in the stadium. I don't
even think it was called EverBank at the time. I
was in that stadium watching that game. There was like
a networking event going on before the game. For any
(16:22):
of us that work in sports know about teamwork online,
and they were having like some networking event ahead of time,
and your ticket to the event also got you a
ticket to the game. So I went and sat up
in the top of the stands watched this game by
myself didn't really know much about either team. I do
remember one play vividly though, where Cam broke off on
(16:43):
a run like it was started as a scramble and
then he ended up running up the middle and he
got a first down and it was a big first down,
and he like he got tackled pretty hard, and he
like immediately popped up. And you know, the screens in
Jacksonville are bigger. You could see them things from the
space station, and so you could see him smiling, and
he like does this little dance to indicate first down
(17:05):
and move the markers. And I was like, he is electric.
And I grew up in Auburn fan so I watched
him in college, but to see him in person, I
was like, this is just an electric football player. I
did keep some notes as I watched this game last night,
though I'm not going to go through them all because
some of them were just like stream of conscious thoughts.
Did not realize Michael Orr had been on this team.
(17:26):
That was an interesting little note. Sandra Bulock was not.
I forgot that Paul. I'm making sure I'm say his
last name right, Paul's Lesnie. I forgot that he existed,
like as a person and then the game started and
I was like, oh, yeah, he was their defense. And
then say with Phillip Brown, Jonathan Stewart, my apologies, wasn't
(17:49):
familiar with your game.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Wow was he?
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Like he was just incredible, Like he would just like
go into a scrum and then just like pop out
of it.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
You've gone full shit.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
I'm like, where did he come from? And he's just
like bouncing off people.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
It was.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
It was really really impressive. I don't know, and I'm
interested to see if this continues throughout the season. I
can't remember watching a team before and this was just
one game, but I can't remember watching a team before
where the middle linebackers are switching and moving that close
to the snap and like moving around. And I guess
that's the benefit of having a Luke Keigley in there
(18:27):
that knows everything that's going on and where everybody needs
to be that he can. You know, he's got rookie
Shack Thompson out there, and he's moving him right before
the snap into a different place. And I think there
was one play where he like physically moved Shack over
That was fun to watch.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
No doubt.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
I love that there were so many drops in that game,
and I was like, oh, you know, we think about
that twenty fifteen team as just like running through everybody.
But there was ted Ginn had a wide open touchdown
I think middle of the second quarter.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
You got that every now and then with Teddy.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yeah, and there was a couple Greg Olsen had a
touchdown that got negated because he pushed off, so it
was OPI. There were a couple other drops, right, So yeah,
it was a little clunkier than I remember that twenty
fifteen offense being. But it was also the first game.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
It was also the first game because that was a team,
as you remember, lost their Calvin Benjamin during training camp
to a torn acl and we're sitting there in week
one wondering, how are we going to make up for this,
How are we going to find how are we going
to replace a number one wide receiver? And that was
a late train It took some time. That was a
late training camp injury too. That was like August nineteenth,
(19:36):
as I recall, in the way back Machine or something
like that, and it took them a minute. But yeah,
it certainly does make it easier when you've got a
big Ol'cam Newton and a big old Jonathan Stewart in
the backfield who can run straight through people.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Yeah, that seemed to be the offense at least in
that week one game. So interested to keep watching and
see how the offense evolves. The defense clearly very very strong.
I mean they had Blake Bortles kind of in a
blender all day, Josh Norman with the pick six. That
was fun.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
And by the way, Stu, if you're watching, and I
know you are, the rest of us know who you are,
and we value your contributions greatly.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
So I've been a fan of Jonathan Stewart the person
since I've been here, and now I'm realizing, like, oh,
this is why people are such a fan of you
as a players.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
And he's always hanging around and talking about stuff. It's
because he's good at the thing. So that'll be cool.
I'm looking forward to as the season goes along, you
actually watching those things for the first time. That was
the second time for that game, but I.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Didn't remember it until I started the game.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Look forward to touching base on those on this podcast
throughout the course of the season, because that was quite
a season to look back on. Check the Panthers YouTube channel.
There's plenty of twenty fifteen content there, whether it's our
look back series, the video tributes, that kind of stuff,
round tables, JJ Jansen, cart talks. All that kind of
stuff's there. But this twenty twenty five season starts on Sunday.
(21:00):
Stay tuned to Panthers dot com for all the latest
throughout the week, getting ready for that game on game day.
We've got all your stuff covered there. Keep it locked
onto Panthers dot com. Subscribe to the YouTube channel. We
got podcasts all week long. Jordan and Jake, the whole crowd.
We've got it for you. We know it's football season,
and the next time we see you here on the
Happy half Hour, we'll have a ballgame to talk about.
(21:22):
So until then, friends, we'll see it next week on
the Happy half Hour
Happy half hour. Hello friends, we're back, and look this
time I brought help because everybody decided me talking solo
for twenty minutes our low Guthrie style was not anything
anyone was particularly interested in. So welcome back from special assignment, Cassidy.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
You know, I don't know how I feel about knowing
that I can be replaced by mayonnaise and fat heads,
but I feel like I'm welcome back, So that's at
least encouraging.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I'm writing that down right now. Mayonnaise and fat heads. No,
it wouldn't be a happy half hour without you. And
it is week one, friends, It is that time we
got football to talk about. Yeah, we do. We've been
spending so much time this offseason talking about global.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Themes, exponential ideas.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
You know, we've just been way out here and it's
time to get down in here because it's football time.
There's a game this Sunday, and the Carolina Panthers are
going to be in it against the Jacksonville Jaguars, and
all that abstract stuff we've been talking about to become
a concrete reality, and frankly, I am grateful for that.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Finally, you know what, you know, how Steve Spurry always
called the off season like talking season. Now we're finally
ready to put boot to ball, as they say, get
back on the ground a ball. Yeah, have you ever
heard that one?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
I don't think I've ever heard that one. Is that Alabama?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Or I don't think I made it up?
Speaker 1 (01:22):
That would be a good parlor game Alabama or English?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
You know, I don't know if you know this, but
modern Southern English is the closest thing we have to Shakespeare,
because Shakespeare that lent like time period in England. That
is how commoners spoke, and that's really how a lot
(01:47):
of English people spoke, and which is what when people
came over to America, like pilgrims and stuff, and that
was their accent, and they kind of settled down into
the southern part of America, starting in Virginia, and then
the royal family in England like that sect, you know,
lords and ladies and dukes and duchesses wanted to separate
themselves from the common people, so they started speaking in
(02:10):
a in a different accent and a different tone, and
that became what is the modern English accent, and the
English accent of Shakespeare's time is what is most closely
related to Appalachia is Appalachia.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
All right, I'm gonna have to push the button on
your name to end this story because you said it wrong.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
It's if you want to hear Shakespeare as it was
meant to be performed, have a Southerner performance forsooth.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I did not know what this had to do with
Duke's mayonnaise. But here we are, all right, Football, Bryce Young,
Jacksonville Jaguars. Let's get it on. Bryce has been It's
been so interesting to me. Bryce. We kind of know
by this point. Bryce is not that rear view mirror guy.
He's not one to look back or put things into
historical perspective.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
That's why he has us.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
He is folks doing the thing in front of his
feet right now, and he does a good job of
compartmentalizing everything. So I don't think it was a surprise
when he was talking yesterday that he's just like, man,
I'm on this now, I'm I'm looking forward. And the
interesting part about that is Bryce has something different to
look at now than he did a week ago this time,
(03:20):
because a week ago this time, roughly, he thought he
was going to be throwing to XLT. Mac and Adam
Thielen and now he's got xlt MAC and Hunter Renfrow and.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
No Jalen Coker and no Jalen Kocher. That was Jalen
Cooker in there as well.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
It's been an adjustment for him and to me that
puts so much pressure on him this week that there's
any more or less than there was already. But he's
going to have to adjust on the fly to a
thing that none of us really predicted. I mean, they
shuffled the deck a little bit. It's still a group
they like, but it's a very different group because now
(03:53):
you're mixing a twenty nine year old Hunter Renfro into
the thirty whatever year old Adam Thielen spot from the
other day.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Adam thlnd was a known commodity. You knew exactly what
you were going to get out of him, which was
usually consistency. That was the most important thing, and he
was I don't even want to say a safety blanket
for Bryce because a safety blanket indicates a last option.
He was a first option a lot of time. He
was his number one target. What does the offense look
like without that? Coaches have talked a lot about t
(04:21):
Mac this offseason, and the possibility of him kind of
being that number one guy. They also, we know Bryce
is at his best when he's distributing and when he's
playing point guard. He doesn't necessarily this is so cliche
because we've heard it over and over, but he doesn't
necessarily need a number one guy, right, And so you know,
does that does it work kind of in his favor
(04:42):
or does it not hurt him? Maybe that's the better
way of saying, does it not hurt him? Really? Like
it would maybe another quarterback to lose an Adam then
to have, you know, the Jaalen Coker Hunter Renfro switcheroo
going on with Jalen Coker going on. IR That's where
yet to find out. We'll find out on Sunday. But
I do think that Bryce's skill set can weather a
(05:05):
lost such as that a little bit better than maybe
some other quarterbacks.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah, and I think what happens when we're in the
training camp portion of the year, but we see a
lot of seven on seven, We see a lot of
what amounts to passing drills on air. Let's be honest.
When we get to whatever they're calling that stadium right
now in Jacksonville, EverBank EverBank. Okay, sure that when we
get to EverBank Stadium on Sunday. You know who's gonna
(05:30):
go center stage on this thing. Not all those fancy
pretty receiving routes. These two cats right here, Chewba Hubbard,
Rob Hunt, everybody. And by the way, Rob Hunt popped
up on the injury report with the foot. We'll see
how he is. Checkpanthers dot com for your latest injury
updates all day long, but especially later this afternoon. And
then this guy right here, this offense is still going
(05:53):
to run through Chewba Hubbard, and I am convinced that
for all the talk about Bryce and receiving targets and
everything else, this first couple of games are going to
be Let's get back to those basics that we do
really well, and we know this guy right here does
those things really well.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
I can't I want to do this, but I don't
want to do this. I almost want to like grab a.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Piece of this. There's going to be another three and
a half minute Shakespearean soliloquy.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
I think that was like a minute and a half.
All right, we should just take a piece of paper
and write down what we think the first play will
be and then we look at it next week to
see who was right.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Yeah, well, I've already written mine down in this notebook.
We'll see.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I don't want to put mine out there in case
I'm right. I don't want to give away anything.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
See that's difference between me and you. I don't want
to put mine out if I'm wrong. But anyway, I
just think and and Brad Iazac talked about this this morning.
I mean, there is a Rico Daltle here for a reason,
and the reason is because they want to continue to
run the ball. What they did last year with Cuba
was a good start to what they wanted to do.
Rico adds to that. And it also gives you the
(06:53):
opportunity to spell him through the season so that he's
got gas left in the tank in December, because we've
seen before with different Carolina Panthers teams under different coaches,
when you can run on people in December, that's when
you can demoralize somebody. I don't think anybody who was
at the December twenty two game against Detroit when it
was about minus one hundred and fifty degrees. It was
(07:15):
football on hath out here at Bank of America stadium,
and I just I remember that so vividly because Cuba
and Deontay Foreman were able to basically take the souls
straight out of the Detroit Lions that day and make
them their own. And when you can do that, that
buys you so much time to be bryce young people,
(07:38):
peel and pew the ball around the way you want to,
and especially at a time when there are questions to
be answered about the Carolina Panthers defense, I think that's
super valuable. So we'll see how it goes on on Sunday,
see who gets that first play of the game. But
I would I would be willing to bet that this
guy right here gets a lot of action and a
lot of action early just to try to establish wish
(08:00):
what they want to be about.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
And I wouldn't be surprised if we even see like
some equal numbers of carries between he and Rico, or
maybe equal number of touches, because you know Rico can
do it, can can kind of flex out a little
bit some too, and just kind of keep defense back
on their heels a little bit, or even better, have
them cheating up and then you can throw downfield to
a guy like t Mac and when you have a
(08:25):
stable of backs to your point, when when the other
team knows what you're doing and you still are able
to do it like that is that's that's probably one
of the better feelings on a football field. Etn could
factor into that some You know, he's probably going to
be active because he is their primary returner now, and
so you've got that to go. You've got him to
go in as a spell as well, and all three
(08:48):
of them are very, very different, and so you can
keep your running back game, or you can keep your
running game going in a myriad of ways, which is
always helpful.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Yeah, there's no doubt. There's no doubt. And and again
that's gonna be important to me because everything is so
unsettled and we don't know. You want to talk about
abstract concept. I have no idea what the Carolina Panthers
defense it's going to look like on Sunday. I believe
it's going to be better. I believe it's going to
be more stable. Having a big old Derek Brown in
the middle of it makes everything better behind him. But
(09:20):
we don't know particularly how that's gonna look. I mean,
what you're gonna get out of turche on Wharton as
a rusher from inside. You know how many snaps you're
going to be able to get out of Nick Gorton
and Princely backing up Pat Jones and dj Wanam. I
think the plan is just to have those guys come
at you in waves a little bit and use them
in different different orientations, just to keep people off balance
(09:45):
a little bit, because right now they're the group with
the most approved I mean, for all the stuff you
want to say about changes in the wide receiver room,
this is still about that offensive line, which Ikyakwanu's still
kind of up in the air. We'll see what he
does on Friday in practice. That's what Dave Canalis said.
He's a little bit up in the air based on
(10:05):
that appendectomy last week. But if he he's not able
to play, you go yosh Niman or Brady Christians, and
then that's still the rest of a really good line
that you know well from last year. That's still the
base fit. We know that much. On the other side,
not so much. And that's why I think getting Derek
back in there is just central to everything, because I
(10:25):
think the thing we lost sight of last year when
he was gone is just how good Derek Brown he
is at football.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
And Ashan Robinson was able to step in in a
huge way. What did those two look like together? Now
that's what I'm kind of excited to see. And you
wrote about this a little earlier in the off season,
but you know, Ashan Robinson played a lot of snaps
last year. He played more snapstein he's ever played in
his career bar a season that went into the playoffs.
So in a regular season, this is the most he's
(10:54):
ever played. And now he can be able to catch
his breath. He can do that in a rotation, you know,
that make a difference. Does that help him when he
goes out there? Although he also talked about wanting to
rush more and he definitely got to do that some
last year. Yeah, Listen, it's gonna take a little bit
of time. I don't think whatever we see on Sunday
is necessarily gonna be you know, that's the twenty twenty
(11:16):
five iteration of this defense. But it'll be an interesting start,
especially because about the pass rushers as well. We've seen
them working interchangeably. You know, it's not like, Okay, if
one them's out there, then Pat Jones is out there,
and if Nick Gorton's out there, then Princely's out there.
We've seen them interchange where it's it's Wan them and
Princely or vice versa. You know, it's been a lot
(11:37):
of different looks with all four of those guys.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah, And I don't know if you're looking at last
year's stats or what might Actually I am terrible. Ashan
had what five and a half sacks last year? Five
and a half, six and a half.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
I think he was tied with five and a half,
lie something like that.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
He was right in that range. Church and Wharton had
eight and a half sacks for the Chiefs if you
include the playoffs, and why not, let's count that. So
they've got guys who can rush from inside up front,
and to me, that's the biggest difference in this year's
defense is you've got a more capable front line, which
just enables all the other stuff behind it to be
(12:12):
that much better. You've spent a lot of time this
week on the Jaguars itself, and I mean when you
look at their offense, everybody knows about that shiny new
Travis Hunter, but they've got a lot of parts over there.
For Trevor lall Rance, I mean, whether it's Brian Thomas,
whether it's there on ETN Brother that they've got, They've
got dudes over there on that side of.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
The ball, and they lost some of that too, you
know with different trades Christian kirk ev and Ingram Is
that right? But then you know they still got guys
like ever mentioned today with Brenton Strange and ETN Tank Bigsby,
They've got a little bit of a stable there at
running back and man Brian Thomas Junior. There's gonna be
(12:51):
so much focus on Hunter, Travis Hunter. Understandably so. Brian
Thomas Junior made the Pro Bowl in his rookie season
on a bad time team, and it's because that's how
just outstanding he was. He was a huge bright spot
for them. So what does it look like for him
now when obviously Travis Hunter is gonna have to draw
some attention and you know, does that open up Brian
(13:14):
Thomas Junior a little bit more? They're gonna have to.
It's also gonna be interesting because this is gonna be
the first time a defense has faced Travis Hunter in
the NFL, and the first time a defense has faced
that duo of Hunter and Thomas and so I mean,
let's be honest, the first fifteen plays might be a
little bit of like back on your heels, just kind
(13:35):
of assessing some stuff, figuring out what exactly they're going
to do, and then going from there.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
You think so, because I'm not sure about that, because
you know who's not really a back on his heels guy.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
They might.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
I mean, here's what's gonna be interesting though they.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
See speaking of people who've got stuff to prove. I mean,
Jac's coming off that first Pro Bowl last year, and
last year was that time when he kind of announced
to the world what he was all about, much in
the same way Derek did two years ago before he
was injured. So I loved the idea of Okay, Brian Thomas,
Travis Honold, see what you got, because we got one
of these on this side.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
I am also curious to see, like do they switch
stuff up because the Jacks have pretty much exclusively worked
Hunter in the slot. So is that a chall Smith
Wade assignment? Is that do they move guys around? I
don't know, We're gonna find out, yeah, because nobody really
knows yet what the Jaguars are gonna actually do because
they were they were very very careful in Vanilla with
(14:32):
it in the preseason as well. In fact, I don't
even think Hunter played but one preseason game or something
like that.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Yeah, and so give me started on preseason football unlike Bryce.
That's in my rear view mirror and I don't want
to think about it.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
In a Shawn Robinson did have five and a half
sacks Licke, Yeah, so I did.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
I nailed it. I was correct. I just wasn't clear.
So that's the second time that's happened today. We'll leave
that alone. But anyway, it is all coming around. And
you know, the Carolina Panthers have started seasons in Jacksonville before, right, Yeah,
so you never know what can happen when we get
down there and see what Speaking of twenty fifteen, Yes,
(15:10):
you weren't here then, I was not you. You were
all my something else Where were you in two thousand?
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Here's what's interesting, Darren, this is gonna be really funny.
I did not realize this until I turned this game
on last night. I wanted to go back and watch
because I was not here in twenty fifteen. I was
in Florida. I was covering the Florida Gators at the time,
and I was like, you know what, I want to
go back and watch that season with eyes as somebody
or fresh eyes as somebody watching it for.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
The first time.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
And because I would watch it passively here and there.
You know that Panthers were good miss in twenty fifteen,
and so I would watch it here and there, but
it was never like actively watching. So I was like,
I want to go back and find these games. You
can find pretty much any full NFL game on al
Gore's Internet if you know where to look.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
It's usually YouTube all right.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Piece streaming, And so I pulled up that week one
game at Jacksonville last night. I started watching this game.
As I'm getting into it, it clicked. I was at
this game like I was in the stadium. I don't
even think it was called EverBank at the time. I
was in that stadium watching that game. There was like
a networking event going on before the game. For any
(16:22):
of us that work in sports know about teamwork online,
and they were having like some networking event ahead of time,
and your ticket to the event also got you a
ticket to the game. So I went and sat up
in the top of the stands watched this game by
myself didn't really know much about either team. I do
remember one play vividly though, where Cam broke off on
(16:43):
a run like it was started as a scramble and
then he ended up running up the middle and he
got a first down and it was a big first down,
and he like he got tackled pretty hard, and he
like immediately popped up. And you know, the screens in
Jacksonville are bigger. You could see them things from the
space station, and so you could see him smiling, and
he like does this little dance to indicate first down
(17:05):
and move the markers. And I was like, he is electric.
And I grew up in Auburn fan so I watched
him in college, but to see him in person, I
was like, this is just an electric football player. I
did keep some notes as I watched this game last night,
though I'm not going to go through them all because
some of them were just like stream of conscious thoughts.
Did not realize Michael Orr had been on this team.
(17:26):
That was an interesting little note. Sandra Bulock was not.
I forgot that Paul. I'm making sure I'm say his
last name right, Paul's Lesnie. I forgot that he existed,
like as a person and then the game started and
I was like, oh, yeah, he was their defense. And
then say with Phillip Brown, Jonathan Stewart, my apologies, wasn't
(17:49):
familiar with your game.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Wow was he?
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Like he was just incredible, Like he would just like
go into a scrum and then just like pop out
of it.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
You've gone full shit.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
I'm like, where did he come from? And he's just
like bouncing off people.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
It was.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
It was really really impressive. I don't know, and I'm
interested to see if this continues throughout the season. I
can't remember watching a team before and this was just
one game, but I can't remember watching a team before
where the middle linebackers are switching and moving that close
to the snap and like moving around. And I guess
that's the benefit of having a Luke Keigley in there
(18:27):
that knows everything that's going on and where everybody needs
to be that he can. You know, he's got rookie
Shack Thompson out there, and he's moving him right before
the snap into a different place. And I think there
was one play where he like physically moved Shack over
That was fun to watch.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
No doubt.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
I love that there were so many drops in that game,
and I was like, oh, you know, we think about
that twenty fifteen team as just like running through everybody.
But there was ted Ginn had a wide open touchdown
I think middle of the second quarter.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
You got that every now and then with Teddy.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yeah, and there was a couple Greg Olsen had a
touchdown that got negated because he pushed off, so it
was OPI. There were a couple other drops, right, So yeah,
it was a little clunkier than I remember that twenty
fifteen offense being. But it was also the first game.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
It was also the first game because that was a team,
as you remember, lost their Calvin Benjamin during training camp
to a torn acl and we're sitting there in week
one wondering, how are we going to make up for this,
How are we going to find how are we going
to replace a number one wide receiver? And that was
a late train It took some time. That was a
late training camp injury too. That was like August nineteenth,
(19:36):
as I recall, in the way back Machine or something
like that, and it took them a minute. But yeah,
it certainly does make it easier when you've got a
big Ol'cam Newton and a big old Jonathan Stewart in
the backfield who can run straight through people.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Yeah, that seemed to be the offense at least in
that week one game. So interested to keep watching and
see how the offense evolves. The defense clearly very very strong.
I mean they had Blake Bortles kind of in a
blender all day, Josh Norman with the pick six. That
was fun.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
And by the way, Stu, if you're watching, and I
know you are, the rest of us know who you are,
and we value your contributions greatly.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
So I've been a fan of Jonathan Stewart the person
since I've been here, and now I'm realizing, like, oh,
this is why people are such a fan of you
as a players.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
And he's always hanging around and talking about stuff. It's
because he's good at the thing. So that'll be cool.
I'm looking forward to as the season goes along, you
actually watching those things for the first time. That was
the second time for that game, but I.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Didn't remember it until I started the game.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Look forward to touching base on those on this podcast
throughout the course of the season, because that was quite
a season to look back on. Check the Panthers YouTube channel.
There's plenty of twenty fifteen content there, whether it's our
look back series, the video tributes, that kind of stuff,
round tables, JJ Jansen, cart talks. All that kind of
stuff's there. But this twenty twenty five season starts on Sunday.
(21:00):
Stay tuned to Panthers dot com for all the latest
throughout the week, getting ready for that game on game day.
We've got all your stuff covered there. Keep it locked
onto Panthers dot com. Subscribe to the YouTube channel. We
got podcasts all week long. Jordan and Jake, the whole crowd.
We've got it for you. We know it's football season,
and the next time we see you here on the
Happy half Hour, we'll have a ballgame to talk about.
(21:22):
So until then, friends, we'll see it next week on
the Happy half Hour
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