July 24, 2025 • 21 mins
Today on the Happy Half Hour, Darin and Kassidy describe the epic battles T-Mac and Jaycee Horn are having in practice, discuss the Panthers loaded wide receiver room, praise Andy Dalton for his leadership and professionalism, and so much more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Happy Half Hour. Hello friends, welcome to our latest edition.
What day is this? I don't even know anymore.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Think Google tells me it's Thursday.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome to the in this world. That's right.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Welcome to the Thursday edition of The Happy Half Hour
Training Camp Daily Special. We have hit that point in
a hurry. There's always a moment in training camp where
I lose sight of what day of the week, what
time of the day it is. And we're there and
it's day two. But there's been a lot going on,
and we are going to tell you all about it.
We're gonna bring you all the pictures in video at
(00:35):
Panthers dot Com, the Panthers YouTube channel, check it all out.
But there's actual football practice happening again, and for the
second day in a row. You know, that first day
is always such a first.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Ask Y is so excited?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Yeah, the second day is always like, yep, that's football practice,
all right. But one of the things that's immediately apparent
to me and I touched on this in the observations
after practice earlier this afternoon, the.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Job J C.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Horn does getting a good group of receivers ready is
going to.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Make this football team better. I mean a j C.
Horn one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
I think we established that last year when he played
fifteen games and went to a Pro Bowl, But seeing
him match up on a day to day basis, whether
it's outside against Teoa McMillan up in Xavier League, it's
face I mean, two big, physical guys going at it.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
He is the test all of those guys.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Need exactly and he takes great pride in that he
knows that is his job and he makes it as
difficult for them as he can on the field, mentally, logistically,
he's gonna make sure that by the time they get
to Sunday, they're like, thank God, I can play a
different corner than j. C.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Horn, Right, Because there are not very many weeks on
this schedule where you're going to see somebody as good
as or better than j. C. Horn that you get
a chance to see every day. Today was one of
those plays. It was kind of a deep ball and
it wasn't one of those things that was dramatic to
look at. But it's not like a big diving pass
breakup or anything like that. But Jac was on Team
Mac to the point that it wasn't nobody catching that ball.
(02:09):
I mean, he just basically boxed him out and kind
of kept him from getting to a spot where he
could make a play.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
And it's just an education.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
And Canalis went on and on after practice talking about
that play and what t Mac learns from it and
if he continues to learn those lessons from it, and
every indication is he's willing to. He's got a good
opportunity because that is, as we said, as good a
test as you're going to see in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
And you know, there are times that team at gets
his on JC too, and I'm sure that's got to
feel pretty good to get that one under your belt.
He had one again today. It was kind of a
drag right there across the middle. Jac's chasing him. It
was good defense. He was making sure he didn't get
a flag. He was, but he was also ensuring that
Tea Mack had little to no room to work. He
was pushed right up against the sideline. Ball was a
(02:59):
little high, just to give Team AC a place to
go get it, and he did. You know, he's got
such great like he's such a good hands catcher. He's
got such soft hands and he's you know, don't forget
a six eight. I don't remember how tall he is,
but he's tall. He can go up there and get it.
He made it what is actually a difficult catch look
(03:21):
pretty routine.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Yeah, I'm sure a lot of you saw on the
social media's yesterday the very casual one handed catch during
individual drills where he almost runs into a training in
turn carrying a crate full of water bottles and it's like, oh,
by the way, and.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
It just sticks sticks there.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
And that kind of goes back to what we were
talking about the other day with Canalis when they drafted him.
Dave's like, I love him because he catches it here,
and he catches it here, and he catches it here,
and he.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Catches it here.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
You know, he has this very nonchalant way of doing things.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Other people have to be very chalant to try.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
To do very chalant. What actually a word or I.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Think it is and I and that's how you pronounce
it too. No shots fired podcast, that's all right at homeschool, Yeah, no, great.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
At any great battle between the two of them every day,
And I feel like people are probably maybe not tired
of hearing us say it, but they're like, really, that's
that's all y'all are seeing. It's a really good battle.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
And the other thing that's become a parent in two
days of practice and again second day in shorts and jerseys.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Basically they won't put on pads.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Until next week, so it doesn't start looking like actual football.
So what we're watching now is glamorized seven on seven,
And when you're in that situation, you can tell a
lot more about receivers and cornerbacks than you can't offensive
lineman and defensive lineman. I kind of laugh today somebody
asked Canalis about the run defense.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
And it's like, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Yeah, you're out there in Schwartz. And by the way,
Derrick Brown's out again today. He's got some personal stuff.
Bobby's on the side, he's still on the NFI list.
Having the two Browns and getting in pads is probably
going to tell you more about the run defense than
what we're finding out right now. But that receiver group
is really good. If you go back to yesterday's highlights,
(05:13):
Hunter Renfro just keeps catching football.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
And he doesn't give up on a play at all.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
He's got this ability to make plays at different angles.
He's willing to throw himself into spaces. Hunter Renfro is
going to make it very difficult to cut this roster
down because six is kind of the general number of receivers.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
A team will.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Usually carry seven if you're really really deep, and a
couple of them are really really good at special teams.
And when you go through Adam Thielen excel Tea mac Okay,
there's your starting three. Then you throw in a Jalen Cocher,
who really impressed last year and came on and showed
a lot of promise for an undrafted rookie. And then
(05:57):
you added David Moore, who all he does is make
plays for Dave Canalis offenses and late in the year,
whether it's here in Atlanta, whether it's when he was
with the Bucks, whether it was with the Seahawks, David
Moore is a known commodity, right, And then you go
through guys like Dan Shasena. They've got some undrafted rookies
that they really like. That's a really deep room, and
(06:19):
they've got a bunch of dudes who could conceivably make
this team or somebody else's. And that's not necessarily anything
we've said about receiver groups here in the last couple
of years. Nothing against any of those other guys, but
the difference in talent and production based on what we're
seeing in practice is night and day.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
I'm just kind of looking through some of the notes
I jotted down today, and I think, other than Adam Thielen,
who obviously you know what you're getting with him, you know,
great production every time, I think I wrote down the
name of pretty much every other one of those receivers
you just said, McMillan, Cocher, renfro More. You know, they
all had a moment at some point today. David Moore
(07:01):
was during red zone period, I mean, just caught something
in a tight window, guy all over his back and
then turned and just out muscled the guy to get
in for a touchdown. Cocher with a nice, nice snag
kind of just out of the air to reminding people
what he can do when he's uh smooth. And then
(07:22):
our guy Bryce.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Tremaine had a rice Tremaine.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Bryce and Tremaine had a couple of different catches today
where you just kind of raised your eyebrows and you're like, wait,
who was that and you're looking at the roster and
it was Tremaine.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Bryce and Tremaine's not a household name by any stretch
of the imagination. He spent some time with the Washington Commanders.
Old Stanford got big target. He was injured for a
little bit of botas and wasn't really out there on
the field during the spring, but he's such a big
target and he's got some ability in special teams too,
and that's why, you know, Canalis keep saying when it's
time to cut this roster down, special team is going
(07:57):
to be a big part of it because you're gonna
need gunners, you're gonna need, you know, people to cover kicks.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
You're gonna need a lot of different guys.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
So people who aren't necessarily what you think of as
like a Fantasy football type wide receiver candidate are very
important to this team because you've got to figure out
who's going to be active on Sunday because they're gonna
cut to roster to fifty three, but they're going to
carry forty six, forty seven into games, and that's where
you got to start filling out those kicking teams.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
And then to your point as well, also still some
other udfas that Canalis has talked about before that he
really likes and then I'm just double checking a number here.
Yeah it was jacolby George Jacoby. George had had a
really good catch in traffic today, just kind of knowing
where the coverage was and how to use his body
(08:46):
to kind of create his own little window. Nice little catch.
I mean again, it wasn't for a long pass, but
it was in red zone. So that's all he did,
exactly what he had to do. Yeah, and so things
like that stand out.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
And all, by the way, there's still this Adam Thling guy, right, Yeah,
adorable story about Adam feeling. And if you've ever seen
pictures of Adam run around with his kids, I mean adorable,
I think is a fair word for it.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
They are very adable.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
There are an adorable an adorable family. And Adam has.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Figured out this secret to playing in the NFL for
a long time obviously, and that comes from being good
at football, but he's learned the more you can do.
So today Sam Martin, the punter is out. Uh, he's
got a little hamstring. He'll be back soon enough, which
means during kicking portions of practice, Andy Dalton is serving
(09:36):
as the holder these kickers, and Andy wants to do
a good job, and he troves really hard at it
and is pretty good at it. He's done it before
in NFL games. He held for Mike NuGen in Cincinnati
a time or two when Andy was out there practicing feeling,
goes to Canalis and says, hey, you know, if you
need me to do this, I probably can't ask the kickers.
(09:57):
And he's over there talking to the kickers saying, do
you mind if I do this with gloves on? Right,
you know, because Adam's not going to go to the
length of taking his receiving gloves off. Those things are
very particular. But he's like, hey, man, I'm happy.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
To do this and work.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
But everybody's sort of like, no, Adam, you stay over there,
you catch passes. Andy's got this. We believe in Andy.
And also Sam Martin's going to.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Be back soon, right pretty soon. And you know, I
spent so long in the college space, and in the
college space, it's pretty much always a quarterback that it's
the holder, right because you can run trick plays off
of that, yep, And so I get excited. You know,
it feels comfortable for me to see a backup quarterback
be the holder. No doubts and you never know what
(10:39):
could be possible when you do that.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
And I want to tell you Andy, maybe one of
the snaps yesterday was or one of the holds wasn't
great for poor matthew Wright.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
But Andy takes this very seriously. Andy is like weirdly.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Competitive about the holder, about the ability to do about
the thirty seventh thing on his job description that he
might be asked to do in any particular day.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
But JJ Jansen has told this story before.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
It's like last year in practice, Johnny Hacker was out
one day at a little back thing. He was gonna
be fine for that week's game, but to get through
practice they needed.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Somebody to hold.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
And Dan He's like, oh, go hold, and uh, it
wasn't great at it that day, and like beat himself
up about it and was going to Tracy Smith asking
for film and can I work on this some more?
And asking JJ if he'll stay after practice to snap
more balls to him so he can practice it. So
he cares about this stuff very deeply.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
You know what the number one rule of holding is?
Speaker 1 (11:37):
What's that? Oh come on, Darren, Oh you're gonna go
a Sventura, aren't you?
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Of course, laces out Dan, that's the important part of it, Dan, No,
And to your point about like going to ask for
tape on holding, but sometimes you just remember, like football
players are a different breed. Athletes are a different breed,
you know, to care enough about that to go get
(12:04):
tape to figure out how to be better at it.
But you know what, that's what got him here.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
There was a question about Andy in the mail bag
last week and somebody referenced a podcast that called him
the prime Meridian of quarterbacks basically, you know, which is
a nice way of calling somebody mid I think is
as the kids say.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
But I have to remind people all the time.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Andy Dalton is twenty sixth all time in NFL history.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
All of the people who.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Have played the footballs, only twenty five of them have
thrown more touchdowns or thrown for more passing yards than
Andy Dalton.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Yeah, that's not bad.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
That's why he's in the nesting Doll back there in
a very prominent place in the nesting doll. By the way, Andy,
in case you're watching this podcast, you're in there.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Could you are the center of it all?
Speaker 1 (12:50):
You're the center of it all?
Speaker 2 (12:51):
And you know Dave Canalis was asked a question today
that was really interesting, and he gave a great answer
on how having Andy in with the two who allows
him to better evaluate everyone because he's like, the ball
is going where it needs to go, where it's supposed
to go, so now you can better evaluate the receivers,
(13:11):
the safeties and corners on the other side. And he's like,
you know, that's not always the case with a backup quarterback.
And he gave credit to Jack Plumber as well for being,
you know, being able to trust him with that situation.
But he said, you know, that's not always the case
at the backup quarterback. You have to kind of take
into account, like when you're evaluating those backup receivers, you
have to take into account who's throwing them the ball.
(13:31):
And he's like, you don't have to worry about that
with Andy, and he's like, you know that that's a
pretty good situation to be in for a team.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yep. You know who else showed good hands today?
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I'm sure I'm supposed to know this, but let me think.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Pat Jones did.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Oh yeah, Pat Jones not only quite a fisherman, but
he reeled in a big one today on the practice field.
There's a segment where he fades back in the coverage,
gets his hands on makes a difficult catch, and I
love the way the defense rallies around guys. Somebody makes
it play in practice and it's a party all of
a sudden, and they surrounded Pat because you know, it's
(14:05):
one thing for a Demani Richardson to get a pick.
He does stuff like that. He's a dB, he's little
and he's back there. Pat Jones is a big man
who lives on godly amounts of weight. Yeah, and you know,
got up in the air and made a catch with
his hands.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
It was like, okay, this guy. You know, I'm sitting
here thinking trick play for Pat Jones. What do you think?
Speaker 3 (14:27):
But Pat Jones got an important role to play on
this team. I mean, we've talked a lot about Nick Gorton,
princey Umamiel and who was exonerated today, by the way,
more on that in the moment. But they not only
DJ Wantam and Pat Jones have to mentor these two rookies,
but they are also players in their own right.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Pat made a.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Bunch of plays for the Vikings last year. DJ came
on strong second half once he got back on the field,
in Germany and had four sacks in the last eight games.
I mean, he's he's capable of making plays. So they
need the those guys to be influential and be mentors
to the draft picks that they brought in. But if
you start Pat and DJ Wantam, you're in pretty steady
(15:10):
hands because both those guys have been good, silid outside linebackers.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Two notes on that real quick. I don't know if
you did you see the video from the other night
where Prince Lee and Nick were calling their veterans.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Where did that video live?
Speaker 2 (15:23):
I think it started on TikTok then.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
I did not see it.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
It has made its way to other social media platforms.
Go check it out if you haven't seen it yet.
Where it's this TikTok trend. But like I said, they
posted it at other places where you call somebody to
tell them goodnight, like it would be like me calling
you and being like, I just wanted to tell you
good night before you go to bed.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Yeah, if you and so, if you do that during
training camp, do it before dark before that.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
And so it was Princely and Nick calling DJ and Pat,
and I think they caught a couple of other guys
just to be like, just good night, We'll see you tomorrow.
And also on that note, Turk Wharton had some criticism,
constructive criticism for Pat Jones after that interception. Yeah, he's like,
he's got to hold on to that ball tight because
(16:07):
the offense punched it out.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
It did get smacked out.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Yeah, and he's like that he's got to hold onto
that ball tight. And Turk made sure to let everyone
know that he had two touchdowns in college that he
returned and he had an interception off of Taylor Heineke
when they played The Commander's his second year with the Chiefs.
So he's like, I know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
That would be Panther's legend Taylor.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
But then Pat saw Pat downstairs later and asked him
about it and he was chuckling. He's like, yeah, I
gotta hold on to it better. But that was a
fun one.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
So yeah, there's a lot of energy and things are
going to ramp up. I mean, these early days of
training camp are always a little tricky, and I always
giggle when people in social media is to blame for
a lot of this, but people will take a little
kernel of information and try to extrapolate it into a
great big thing. This is very early a right, these
guys are still running around in shorts again. As go
(17:00):
on next Monday, it starts looking like actual football again
before the Browns preseason game and the joint practice with
the Browns. But they, uh, they are moving at a
pretty high pace right now.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Now it ain't got truly hot that's coming.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yeah, I have to check that trip to Houston.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
I have to check in with my main man, Brad Panovitch,
to see if it's ever been over one hundred degrees
this many days in a row is what they're forecasting.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
For next week.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Yeah, but uh, you know, we're used to hot, we're
used to humid here in the center of the universe, Charlotte,
North Carolina.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
But anytime it's got three numbers, that's too many.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
That's two numbers too many.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
That's too many when it comes time to practice football
or even be outdoors. I mean, I you know, my
job involved standing around watching people practice football and then
talking to them and writing stories about it. The people
who actually work out in this mess, I've got nothing, But.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
I don't understand how they do it.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Yeah, I don't know. I went to the power to
I went to college so I could avoid it. And
also I'm a very lazy person. I don't like doing
hard work. But you know, it's it's gonna be warm
out here tail end of the week and next week.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
You know, Dave Canelis, if that's what he wanted, you
got to play week one in Jacksonville. You gotta be
ready to play in the heat and humidity. Well, buddy,
they're gonna get it.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Well congratulated.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
You know what else is next week?
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Darren?
Speaker 1 (18:20):
What else is next week?
Speaker 2 (18:22):
This has nothing to do with Panthers training camp.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Still Love Island reference. I'm out.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Oh it's not. But that's the Reunion's coming next month.
Next week we get our first NFL game back on TV.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Hall of Fame game, Hall of Fame. The calendar far larger.
The calendar falls really weird this year, where everything seems
to be up a week than it normally is. Like,
for example, you know NFL always starts what the weekend
after Labor Day, Well, the weekend after Labor Day this
year is September seventh. I think our first game is
September eighth, that's normally Labor Day. So everything, if everything
(18:57):
feels sooner this year it is.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Well, three hundred sixty five isn't divisible by seven, So
days of the geek or often you.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Know, I know it does this every few years. This
happens to be the year where it's weird.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Yeah, it does seem early. I mean when people are
going to Canton for the Hall of Fame game in July.
In July, that's tough, that's tough to process. But also
a big weekend next weekend, a Hall of Fame for
Panther's legend Jared Allen.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Allen, here's a little tease.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
We got some cool stuff coming up next week. We
went to Canton to talk to Jared earlier this spring.
We've talked to a ton of former teammates, coaches, executives
involved with the decision to bring him here for his
last season, and I can't wait to unveil some of this.
There's some really cool stories about him and his time
here and what he brought to a team. He wasn't
here for a long time, but he was here for
(19:46):
a good time.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
I heard a cool Jared Allen story the other day.
One of the guys downstairs was I believe it was
JJ because he would have been here. He was here,
and he was talking about Jared Allen and said, you
know what was cool about Jared? And he said what
was cool about that entire twenty fifteen team, but he
was using Jared as an example, was that you had
some veteran guys come in like him who didn't try
(20:10):
to change how they were doing things, but just adapted
himself to what the Panthers were doing.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Right.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Well, it was like that makes all the difference.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
One of the things Jared told us when we were
up in Campton visit him with him earlier this spring,
he was like, I was just coming to be part
of Luke Keigley's defense and.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
That is its official government name.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
That's right, So it's it's really neat. So we'll bring
all that to you next week. But we'll be we'll
be out there tomorrow. We're gonna talk to some dudes.
We'll bring you another happy half hour tomorrow. It's Friday,
it's daily. We're gonna take Saturday off.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Podcast.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Math's been working really hard this week and with unusual schedules.
Thanks to me calling at unusual times and saying, hey,
Matt can't get there now. Yeah, I picked up the
banana phone. That's a Marty Brenneman homage for the young
kids out there in the audience. We're gonna bring it
to you tomorrow. We'll take Saturday off and then we'll
(21:05):
get back after it next week once pad's are on
and we really got all kinds of cool stuff to
talk about, So until tomorrow, we will see you. Then
we will crank out more stuff on Panthers dot com.
There'll be stuff on the YouTube channel all day and night.
Tune in for all that, and we will see you
tomorrow here on the Happy Half Hour.
The Happy Half Hour. Hello friends, welcome to our latest edition.
What day is this? I don't even know anymore.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Think Google tells me it's Thursday.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome to the in this world. That's right.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Welcome to the Thursday edition of The Happy Half Hour
Training Camp Daily Special. We have hit that point in
a hurry. There's always a moment in training camp where
I lose sight of what day of the week, what
time of the day it is. And we're there and
it's day two. But there's been a lot going on,
and we are going to tell you all about it.
We're gonna bring you all the pictures in video at
(00:35):
Panthers dot Com, the Panthers YouTube channel, check it all out.
But there's actual football practice happening again, and for the
second day in a row. You know, that first day
is always such a first.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Ask Y is so excited?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Yeah, the second day is always like, yep, that's football practice,
all right. But one of the things that's immediately apparent
to me and I touched on this in the observations
after practice earlier this afternoon, the.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Job J C.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Horn does getting a good group of receivers ready is
going to.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Make this football team better. I mean a j C.
Horn one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
I think we established that last year when he played
fifteen games and went to a Pro Bowl, But seeing
him match up on a day to day basis, whether
it's outside against Teoa McMillan up in Xavier League, it's
face I mean, two big, physical guys going at it.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
He is the test all of those guys.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Need exactly and he takes great pride in that he
knows that is his job and he makes it as
difficult for them as he can on the field, mentally, logistically,
he's gonna make sure that by the time they get
to Sunday, they're like, thank God, I can play a
different corner than j. C.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Horn, Right, Because there are not very many weeks on
this schedule where you're going to see somebody as good
as or better than j. C. Horn that you get
a chance to see every day. Today was one of
those plays. It was kind of a deep ball and
it wasn't one of those things that was dramatic to
look at. But it's not like a big diving pass
breakup or anything like that. But Jac was on Team
Mac to the point that it wasn't nobody catching that ball.
(02:09):
I mean, he just basically boxed him out and kind
of kept him from getting to a spot where he
could make a play.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
And it's just an education.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
And Canalis went on and on after practice talking about
that play and what t Mac learns from it and
if he continues to learn those lessons from it, and
every indication is he's willing to. He's got a good
opportunity because that is, as we said, as good a
test as you're going to see in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
And you know, there are times that team at gets
his on JC too, and I'm sure that's got to
feel pretty good to get that one under your belt.
He had one again today. It was kind of a
drag right there across the middle. Jac's chasing him. It
was good defense. He was making sure he didn't get
a flag. He was, but he was also ensuring that
Tea Mack had little to no room to work. He
was pushed right up against the sideline. Ball was a
(02:59):
little high, just to give Team AC a place to
go get it, and he did. You know, he's got
such great like he's such a good hands catcher. He's
got such soft hands and he's you know, don't forget
a six eight. I don't remember how tall he is,
but he's tall. He can go up there and get it.
He made it what is actually a difficult catch look
(03:21):
pretty routine.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Yeah, I'm sure a lot of you saw on the
social media's yesterday the very casual one handed catch during
individual drills where he almost runs into a training in
turn carrying a crate full of water bottles and it's like, oh,
by the way, and.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
It just sticks sticks there.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
And that kind of goes back to what we were
talking about the other day with Canalis when they drafted him.
Dave's like, I love him because he catches it here,
and he catches it here, and he catches it here,
and he.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Catches it here.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
You know, he has this very nonchalant way of doing things.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Other people have to be very chalant to try.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
To do very chalant. What actually a word or I.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Think it is and I and that's how you pronounce
it too. No shots fired podcast, that's all right at homeschool, Yeah, no, great.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
At any great battle between the two of them every day,
And I feel like people are probably maybe not tired
of hearing us say it, but they're like, really, that's
that's all y'all are seeing. It's a really good battle.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
And the other thing that's become a parent in two
days of practice and again second day in shorts and jerseys.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Basically they won't put on pads.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Until next week, so it doesn't start looking like actual football.
So what we're watching now is glamorized seven on seven,
And when you're in that situation, you can tell a
lot more about receivers and cornerbacks than you can't offensive
lineman and defensive lineman. I kind of laugh today somebody
asked Canalis about the run defense.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
And it's like, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Yeah, you're out there in Schwartz. And by the way,
Derrick Brown's out again today. He's got some personal stuff.
Bobby's on the side, he's still on the NFI list.
Having the two Browns and getting in pads is probably
going to tell you more about the run defense than
what we're finding out right now. But that receiver group
is really good. If you go back to yesterday's highlights,
(05:13):
Hunter Renfro just keeps catching football.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
And he doesn't give up on a play at all.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
He's got this ability to make plays at different angles.
He's willing to throw himself into spaces. Hunter Renfro is
going to make it very difficult to cut this roster
down because six is kind of the general number of receivers.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
A team will.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Usually carry seven if you're really really deep, and a
couple of them are really really good at special teams.
And when you go through Adam Thielen excel Tea mac Okay,
there's your starting three. Then you throw in a Jalen Cocher,
who really impressed last year and came on and showed
a lot of promise for an undrafted rookie. And then
(05:57):
you added David Moore, who all he does is make
plays for Dave Canalis offenses and late in the year,
whether it's here in Atlanta, whether it's when he was
with the Bucks, whether it was with the Seahawks, David
Moore is a known commodity, right, And then you go
through guys like Dan Shasena. They've got some undrafted rookies
that they really like. That's a really deep room, and
(06:19):
they've got a bunch of dudes who could conceivably make
this team or somebody else's. And that's not necessarily anything
we've said about receiver groups here in the last couple
of years. Nothing against any of those other guys, but
the difference in talent and production based on what we're
seeing in practice is night and day.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
I'm just kind of looking through some of the notes
I jotted down today, and I think, other than Adam Thielen,
who obviously you know what you're getting with him, you know,
great production every time, I think I wrote down the
name of pretty much every other one of those receivers
you just said, McMillan, Cocher, renfro More. You know, they
all had a moment at some point today. David Moore
(07:01):
was during red zone period, I mean, just caught something
in a tight window, guy all over his back and
then turned and just out muscled the guy to get
in for a touchdown. Cocher with a nice, nice snag
kind of just out of the air to reminding people
what he can do when he's uh smooth. And then
(07:22):
our guy Bryce.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Tremaine had a rice Tremaine.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Bryce and Tremaine had a couple of different catches today
where you just kind of raised your eyebrows and you're like, wait,
who was that and you're looking at the roster and
it was Tremaine.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Bryce and Tremaine's not a household name by any stretch
of the imagination. He spent some time with the Washington Commanders.
Old Stanford got big target. He was injured for a
little bit of botas and wasn't really out there on
the field during the spring, but he's such a big
target and he's got some ability in special teams too,
and that's why, you know, Canalis keep saying when it's
time to cut this roster down, special team is going
(07:57):
to be a big part of it because you're gonna
need gunners, you're gonna need, you know, people to cover kicks.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
You're gonna need a lot of different guys.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
So people who aren't necessarily what you think of as
like a Fantasy football type wide receiver candidate are very
important to this team because you've got to figure out
who's going to be active on Sunday because they're gonna
cut to roster to fifty three, but they're going to
carry forty six, forty seven into games, and that's where
you got to start filling out those kicking teams.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
And then to your point as well, also still some
other udfas that Canalis has talked about before that he
really likes and then I'm just double checking a number here.
Yeah it was jacolby George Jacoby. George had had a
really good catch in traffic today, just kind of knowing
where the coverage was and how to use his body
(08:46):
to kind of create his own little window. Nice little catch.
I mean again, it wasn't for a long pass, but
it was in red zone. So that's all he did,
exactly what he had to do. Yeah, and so things
like that stand out.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
And all, by the way, there's still this Adam Thling guy, right, Yeah,
adorable story about Adam feeling. And if you've ever seen
pictures of Adam run around with his kids, I mean adorable,
I think is a fair word for it.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
They are very adable.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
There are an adorable an adorable family. And Adam has.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Figured out this secret to playing in the NFL for
a long time obviously, and that comes from being good
at football, but he's learned the more you can do.
So today Sam Martin, the punter is out. Uh, he's
got a little hamstring. He'll be back soon enough, which
means during kicking portions of practice, Andy Dalton is serving
(09:36):
as the holder these kickers, and Andy wants to do
a good job, and he troves really hard at it
and is pretty good at it. He's done it before
in NFL games. He held for Mike NuGen in Cincinnati
a time or two when Andy was out there practicing feeling,
goes to Canalis and says, hey, you know, if you
need me to do this, I probably can't ask the kickers.
(09:57):
And he's over there talking to the kickers saying, do
you mind if I do this with gloves on? Right,
you know, because Adam's not going to go to the
length of taking his receiving gloves off. Those things are
very particular. But he's like, hey, man, I'm happy.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
To do this and work.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
But everybody's sort of like, no, Adam, you stay over there,
you catch passes. Andy's got this. We believe in Andy.
And also Sam Martin's going to.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Be back soon, right pretty soon. And you know, I
spent so long in the college space, and in the
college space, it's pretty much always a quarterback that it's
the holder, right because you can run trick plays off
of that, yep, And so I get excited. You know,
it feels comfortable for me to see a backup quarterback
be the holder. No doubts and you never know what
(10:39):
could be possible when you do that.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
And I want to tell you Andy, maybe one of
the snaps yesterday was or one of the holds wasn't
great for poor matthew Wright.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
But Andy takes this very seriously. Andy is like weirdly.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Competitive about the holder, about the ability to do about
the thirty seventh thing on his job description that he
might be asked to do in any particular day.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
But JJ Jansen has told this story before.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
It's like last year in practice, Johnny Hacker was out
one day at a little back thing. He was gonna
be fine for that week's game, but to get through
practice they needed.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Somebody to hold.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
And Dan He's like, oh, go hold, and uh, it
wasn't great at it that day, and like beat himself
up about it and was going to Tracy Smith asking
for film and can I work on this some more?
And asking JJ if he'll stay after practice to snap
more balls to him so he can practice it. So
he cares about this stuff very deeply.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
You know what the number one rule of holding is?
Speaker 1 (11:37):
What's that? Oh come on, Darren, Oh you're gonna go
a Sventura, aren't you?
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Of course, laces out Dan, that's the important part of it, Dan, No,
And to your point about like going to ask for
tape on holding, but sometimes you just remember, like football
players are a different breed. Athletes are a different breed,
you know, to care enough about that to go get
(12:04):
tape to figure out how to be better at it.
But you know what, that's what got him here.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
There was a question about Andy in the mail bag
last week and somebody referenced a podcast that called him
the prime Meridian of quarterbacks basically, you know, which is
a nice way of calling somebody mid I think is
as the kids say.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
But I have to remind people all the time.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Andy Dalton is twenty sixth all time in NFL history.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
All of the people who.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Have played the footballs, only twenty five of them have
thrown more touchdowns or thrown for more passing yards than
Andy Dalton.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
Yeah, that's not bad.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
That's why he's in the nesting Doll back there in
a very prominent place in the nesting doll. By the way, Andy,
in case you're watching this podcast, you're in there.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Could you are the center of it all?
Speaker 1 (12:50):
You're the center of it all?
Speaker 2 (12:51):
And you know Dave Canalis was asked a question today
that was really interesting, and he gave a great answer
on how having Andy in with the two who allows
him to better evaluate everyone because he's like, the ball
is going where it needs to go, where it's supposed
to go, so now you can better evaluate the receivers,
(13:11):
the safeties and corners on the other side. And he's like,
you know, that's not always the case with a backup quarterback.
And he gave credit to Jack Plumber as well for being,
you know, being able to trust him with that situation.
But he said, you know, that's not always the case
at the backup quarterback. You have to kind of take
into account, like when you're evaluating those backup receivers, you
have to take into account who's throwing them the ball.
(13:31):
And he's like, you don't have to worry about that
with Andy, and he's like, you know that that's a
pretty good situation to be in for a team.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yep. You know who else showed good hands today?
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I'm sure I'm supposed to know this, but let me think.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Pat Jones did.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Oh yeah, Pat Jones not only quite a fisherman, but
he reeled in a big one today on the practice field.
There's a segment where he fades back in the coverage,
gets his hands on makes a difficult catch, and I
love the way the defense rallies around guys. Somebody makes
it play in practice and it's a party all of
a sudden, and they surrounded Pat because you know, it's
(14:05):
one thing for a Demani Richardson to get a pick.
He does stuff like that. He's a dB, he's little
and he's back there. Pat Jones is a big man
who lives on godly amounts of weight. Yeah, and you know,
got up in the air and made a catch with
his hands.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
It was like, okay, this guy. You know, I'm sitting
here thinking trick play for Pat Jones. What do you think?
Speaker 3 (14:27):
But Pat Jones got an important role to play on
this team. I mean, we've talked a lot about Nick Gorton,
princey Umamiel and who was exonerated today, by the way,
more on that in the moment. But they not only
DJ Wantam and Pat Jones have to mentor these two rookies,
but they are also players in their own right.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Pat made a.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Bunch of plays for the Vikings last year. DJ came
on strong second half once he got back on the field,
in Germany and had four sacks in the last eight games.
I mean, he's he's capable of making plays. So they
need the those guys to be influential and be mentors
to the draft picks that they brought in. But if
you start Pat and DJ Wantam, you're in pretty steady
(15:10):
hands because both those guys have been good, silid outside linebackers.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Two notes on that real quick. I don't know if
you did you see the video from the other night
where Prince Lee and Nick were calling their veterans.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Where did that video live?
Speaker 2 (15:23):
I think it started on TikTok then.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
I did not see it.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
It has made its way to other social media platforms.
Go check it out if you haven't seen it yet.
Where it's this TikTok trend. But like I said, they
posted it at other places where you call somebody to
tell them goodnight, like it would be like me calling
you and being like, I just wanted to tell you
good night before you go to bed.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Yeah, if you and so, if you do that during
training camp, do it before dark before that.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
And so it was Princely and Nick calling DJ and Pat,
and I think they caught a couple of other guys
just to be like, just good night, We'll see you tomorrow.
And also on that note, Turk Wharton had some criticism,
constructive criticism for Pat Jones after that interception. Yeah, he's like,
he's got to hold on to that ball tight because
(16:07):
the offense punched it out.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
It did get smacked out.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Yeah, and he's like that he's got to hold onto
that ball tight. And Turk made sure to let everyone
know that he had two touchdowns in college that he
returned and he had an interception off of Taylor Heineke
when they played The Commander's his second year with the Chiefs.
So he's like, I know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
That would be Panther's legend Taylor.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
But then Pat saw Pat downstairs later and asked him
about it and he was chuckling. He's like, yeah, I
gotta hold on to it better. But that was a
fun one.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
So yeah, there's a lot of energy and things are
going to ramp up. I mean, these early days of
training camp are always a little tricky, and I always
giggle when people in social media is to blame for
a lot of this, but people will take a little
kernel of information and try to extrapolate it into a
great big thing. This is very early a right, these
guys are still running around in shorts again. As go
(17:00):
on next Monday, it starts looking like actual football again
before the Browns preseason game and the joint practice with
the Browns. But they, uh, they are moving at a
pretty high pace right now.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Now it ain't got truly hot that's coming.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yeah, I have to check that trip to Houston.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
I have to check in with my main man, Brad Panovitch,
to see if it's ever been over one hundred degrees
this many days in a row is what they're forecasting.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
For next week.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Yeah, but uh, you know, we're used to hot, we're
used to humid here in the center of the universe, Charlotte,
North Carolina.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
But anytime it's got three numbers, that's too many.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
That's two numbers too many.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
That's too many when it comes time to practice football
or even be outdoors. I mean, I you know, my
job involved standing around watching people practice football and then
talking to them and writing stories about it. The people
who actually work out in this mess, I've got nothing, But.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
I don't understand how they do it.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Yeah, I don't know. I went to the power to
I went to college so I could avoid it. And
also I'm a very lazy person. I don't like doing
hard work. But you know, it's it's gonna be warm
out here tail end of the week and next week.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
You know, Dave Canelis, if that's what he wanted, you
got to play week one in Jacksonville. You gotta be
ready to play in the heat and humidity. Well, buddy,
they're gonna get it.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Well congratulated.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
You know what else is next week?
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Darren?
Speaker 1 (18:20):
What else is next week?
Speaker 2 (18:22):
This has nothing to do with Panthers training camp.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Still Love Island reference. I'm out.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Oh it's not. But that's the Reunion's coming next month.
Next week we get our first NFL game back on TV.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Hall of Fame game, Hall of Fame. The calendar far larger.
The calendar falls really weird this year, where everything seems
to be up a week than it normally is. Like,
for example, you know NFL always starts what the weekend
after Labor Day, Well, the weekend after Labor Day this
year is September seventh. I think our first game is
September eighth, that's normally Labor Day. So everything, if everything
(18:57):
feels sooner this year it is.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Well, three hundred sixty five isn't divisible by seven, So
days of the geek or often you.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Know, I know it does this every few years. This
happens to be the year where it's weird.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Yeah, it does seem early. I mean when people are
going to Canton for the Hall of Fame game in July.
In July, that's tough, that's tough to process. But also
a big weekend next weekend, a Hall of Fame for
Panther's legend Jared Allen.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Allen, here's a little tease.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
We got some cool stuff coming up next week. We
went to Canton to talk to Jared earlier this spring.
We've talked to a ton of former teammates, coaches, executives
involved with the decision to bring him here for his
last season, and I can't wait to unveil some of this.
There's some really cool stories about him and his time
here and what he brought to a team. He wasn't
here for a long time, but he was here for
(19:46):
a good time.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
I heard a cool Jared Allen story the other day.
One of the guys downstairs was I believe it was
JJ because he would have been here. He was here,
and he was talking about Jared Allen and said, you
know what was cool about Jared? And he said what
was cool about that entire twenty fifteen team, but he
was using Jared as an example, was that you had
some veteran guys come in like him who didn't try
(20:10):
to change how they were doing things, but just adapted
himself to what the Panthers were doing.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Right.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Well, it was like that makes all the difference.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
One of the things Jared told us when we were
up in Campton visit him with him earlier this spring,
he was like, I was just coming to be part
of Luke Keigley's defense and.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
That is its official government name.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
That's right, So it's it's really neat. So we'll bring
all that to you next week. But we'll be we'll
be out there tomorrow. We're gonna talk to some dudes.
We'll bring you another happy half hour tomorrow. It's Friday,
it's daily. We're gonna take Saturday off.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Podcast.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Math's been working really hard this week and with unusual schedules.
Thanks to me calling at unusual times and saying, hey,
Matt can't get there now. Yeah, I picked up the
banana phone. That's a Marty Brenneman homage for the young
kids out there in the audience. We're gonna bring it
to you tomorrow. We'll take Saturday off and then we'll
(21:05):
get back after it next week once pad's are on
and we really got all kinds of cool stuff to
talk about, So until tomorrow, we will see you. Then
we will crank out more stuff on Panthers dot com.
There'll be stuff on the YouTube channel all day and night.
Tune in for all that, and we will see you
tomorrow here on the Happy Half Hour.
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