This week on the Happy Half Hour. This is a thing that's going to be built over the course of years, and I think if you want to get to a place that's sustainable, if you want to get to a place of regular playoff contention and stuff like that, you're going to have to go through times like this. That's just the way it is. That's out how right, right, I know it's time for the Happy half Hour with
your friends Kristin Balboni, Augusta Stone and Darren Gannon. All right, everybody, welcome to the Happy half Hour here on Thursday, September twenty First, I don't know that I can promise you happy. I don't know that I can even promise you a whole half hour. But we're going to talk about football and whatever else comes to mind in the next little bit before we have to go do the press conferences and all the other stuff. Because there's stuff happening. People
are worried, it's owing two, how's bry? Is it all gonna be okay? And I don't have those answers for you here today, but I can try to offer a
little perspective. I was just having a conversation recently with a player from another franchise, and we were discussing certain things about rookie quarterbacks for a story that'll be coming up at some point soon, and I referenced Peyton Manning and I said, I mean, people forget that Peyton Manning went three and thirteen and through twenty eight picks his rookie year, and this guy's like, WHOA twenty eight? Was it really that bad? I guess Bryce's start doesn't seem
so bad, does it? And we sort of laughed. But that's kind of where we are. I mean, obviously the Carolina Panthers are not off to an ideal start to this season.
Exactly exactly well, I mean we talked about it before we started. But it's not necessarily about being happy, but it's about finding happiness, and what you.
Can perspective is a good place to start.
I think, you know, taking a long, longer view is never a bad thing. First of all, you know, out of your little where you're here, you can't see me because we're on audio. But I'm making like a little thing with my hands where you can have a narrow view, close your eyes, or you can broaden the perspective. And I mean, right now, I think with as few answers as we have, as you said, and I wonder you know when those answers will come and if we won't
get them until the long trip to Seattle. But like you mentioned, you know, it's just it's one of those things where there's not much to be had that is one answered and too awesome in this small little view.
So let's expand it out a little bit.
And I think it's it's probably important at this point to kind of remind everybody. I mean, this franchise was in a point when they hired the previous coach that they acknowledged a rebuild need to happen. That rebuild did not work, they change coaches again, and they're kind of
back at the same spot. I think probably some of the angs that's going along with the so and two start this season has to do with playing moderately good football the second half of last year under interim coach Steve Wilks, and it was like it was almost a taste of what the other stuff felt like. But whether that happened or not, all the stuff that's happening this offseason, the go get a quarterback, the bring in an offensive system,
that stuff needed to happen one way or another. And so I think regardless anything that happened three years ago, two years ago, or the second half of last year, I think a reasonable expectation of what was going to happen this year was it was going to take a minute. You don't bring in half a dozen coaches from a half a dozen different offensive systems, get in the room and put together one playbook and expect everybody to be
cooking from it immediately. And I think you don't expect a rookie quarterback to walk into that situation and fire on every cylinder immediately. So this is going to be
one of those things. And this is not me making excuses or anything like that, but I think you try to look at in a situation like this, the things that you can pick out, Okay, what's what's happening that's good for the Carolina Panthers, not just in twenty twenty three, but in twenty four, twenty six, Because this is a thing that's going to be built over the course of years.
And I think if you want to get to a place that's sustainable, if you want to get to a place of regular playoff contention and stuff like that, you're going to have to go through times like this. That's just the way it is.
Well, it's tough too, because as you mentioned, there's it's not all horrifically bad. Now, I say this with a caveat because against New Orleans, the defense held its own and kept it extremely competitive till I mean, look at the final score, but up until you know that second New Orleans touchdown, it was it was close. Now there's the shadow of the Shack Thompson injury, which was really tough for the team just to lose kind of the.
Heart of that defense. A veteran leader, Frank.
Craik has talked a lot about how it's more than just the production on the field that they lost.
But at the same.
Time, you can look at how Kamu Grugey Hills stepped up and it's kind of, you know, showing what he showed throughout training camp. You know, a lot of time training camp performances you don't really see them translate. He came up with a really big stack against New Orleans and it's looks like he'll be the guy going forward, at least you know, as of right now. With what Frank Craig told us yesterday.
So that that's a positive.
You know, not only did the defense look good and they seem like they're really gelling under EGI Everro's new scheme, but they have at least enough depth not seem like one of the biggest holes that you could possibly create with such a such a tough injury to go with not be as major as it could have been in that circumstance because they weren't expecting to lose him, and
obviously you played a lot. I mean, Derek Brown is having a great season right all the usage that he's getting, all of the conditioning he's obviously put in.
I think that's something that you could think of.
Obviously that doesn't necessarily translate to wins yet, but seeing what they've built there and seeing how, you know, the three to four transition and the new coordinator and the new pieces, and how it's all really come together in a good way.
I mean, von Bell looked great. Yeah, he came up with that pick doing things that he did when he was in Cincinnati.
So there are individual parts of this thing. But again I don't want to get away from the fact, I mean he was in the first two weeks that defense has lost j c Horn. Yes, who are Shaq Thompson for the entire year. That's a real kick to the front of the shorts. All right, there's no getting around that. That's that's bad. And you could tell there was almost
a shell shot quality amongst those guys. When you talk to Derek and Dante and Burns after the game Monday night, you know, it's like, oh God, we're doing this again. We just had this conversation last week about jac and now we're talking about it again. And then to realize that Shaq is out for the year. I mean, that's going to be tough to overcome. The good news is, as you mentioned, they are continuing. They continued throughout the
second half of that game to hit their car. I mean really, the two plays downfield the Saints made were about the only times all night he wasn't being pressured or wasn't getting hit. So they have shown that they can get after quarterbacks. I mean, Burns justin Houston the tour made more plays Monday night than we've seen out of him in quite some time. So they can get consistent pressure. And Frankie's running around with his hair on
fire like Frankie does. It's just going to be a matter of making that stuff last and kind of being able to patch work it together until maybe JC gets back in a month or so, whenever he's healthy again. You know, there's not going to be replacing Shack this year. You know, even if Kamuu plays at Pete Kamu levels, it's not the same. So they're going to have to adjust.
But this is the this kind of spot therein. I think the other thing, if you were looking for things to latch onto at this moment about this football team, I think some of the personalities of the people are suitable for the task at hand. I mean, if you're in a situation where you know you're building, where you know you're trying to do something long term rather than this week, Frank Craig's kind of guy you want in charge of that project, because Frank Reik's not a guy
who is going to flip out. I know you probably weren't born when this game happened augustin but once upon a time, Frank Craik's team was down thirty five to three at a halftime in the playoffs, and maybe you heard about it. The Bills came back and won that game. You know, Frank Reich has been in a situation where a team's been one in five and it's easy for people to freak out and worry and panic and all
this kind of stuff. But Frank always says the only thing he said Monday night when he was talking about Shagby and heard, he said, all we can really worry about is Seattle. And that's the mindset you want in a coach in a situation like this, because if the coach projects this project is on track, where we're doing the right stuff. I see this and this and this. I think that calm filters through the entire organization.
And it's more it's more I guess, definite or he's able to pinpoint different things.
I think too.
He does have that sort of commanding at it. We talked about it when he got hired here. But he is one calming, but two also very much so a leader, and I think that leadership is going to be paramount right now. Like you mentioned, with the experience that he has in tougher situations, He's dealt with a lot of those things, and he also has a lot of veteran leadership still in that locker room, even without Shaq Thompson.
I mean, you look at the offensive side, all of the pieces that they've brought in, a lot of them are more mature guys that have seen a lot of ball. Adam Feelin for one who gives a lot of perspective. When we talked with him in the locker room today about all the uncertainty, really solid.
Head on his shoulders.
I mean, a guy that's been over a decade in the league, so he kind of knows what's going on.
Same with Hayden Hurst, the guy that's been around for a while in his thirties.
I think just kind of leaning on that you're not gonna have a ton of panic when there a lot of guys have seen a lot of things and bringing them in not only whenever they were they came in in free agency and you're like, oh, here's some some people with experience on field to pair with, you know, a younger, newer staff and all these new pieces, but also in times like this, whenever the morale could get down to have those those uh, I guess those calm heads,
cool heads prevail in those situations and be the leaders and also the ones kind of talking and setting tones.
You know, when we ask them questions.
I think that's pretty pretty big for the at least the face of the organization, and Adam Feelin, I think is a really solid face for that.
So he was He's a grab in multiple ways.
He also is the most productive receiver last week, but also kind of the one of the coolest heads you can talk about whenever it looks like you know, you could see you know, crashing and like you said, but he's a really good pair with kind of Frank's mentality.
You can kind of hear it from him as well.
Ye, big dad energy, Absolutely, big dad energy, no doubt about that. And you need that this week because oh, by the way, and this is the not happy part. We don't know who the quarterback is going to be on Sunday. So the one thing I do want to clear up and I'll let this be our little island of sanity and a sea of overreaction. Bryce is actually hurt, y'all. This is not some phantom injury that's part of an elaborate plot. If this was a plot, it would be
the most elaborately staged. You know. Yes, Bryce is actually injured. Bryce is in the training room. I've seen it. Source my two eyes point. Yeah, we really are at that point. And I've already you know, I have learned, and I truly am trying as I get older, to pay less and less attention to the comments and spend far fewer amounts of time reading the notifications on Twitter and stuff like that. I just it's no good for you a this situation. I don't think there's a lot to be
gained from it. I mean, again, Rice is actually hurt. He's actually got an ankle issue that's getting treatment. You know, these are things that are actually happening gang, So they're not just trying to acknowledge a mistake or anything. Come on, it's it's an injury. It's football guys come up sore after games all the time and realize they need treatment for stuff that is an actual thing. And that is actually what's happening right now.
And it kind of goes back to what I was talking about with the veterans. I mean, you know, when you don't know and you have to assess all options.
We wrote about it.
I wrote about it yesterday after the locker room and after talking with Frank, But yesterday I walked through It was Andy Dalton and he has a ton of experience in the league. He knows how to how to lead, how to keep you know, calm, calm heads. And you know, it's not like they're trying out someone who hasn't been here before. He's been here here quite a lot. And uh,
it's you know, part of the reason. And it was another thing that Adam Fieln said, but it part of the reason they brought him here wasn't necessarily to send him the whole time, you know, it was to train up Bryce. But in a worst case scenario, you have a guy that knows what to do, and and if that's what they need to do, I mean, there's there's worse positions to be in for sure, and you know, obviously we don't we don't know, and that's part of it.
But when you don't know, you do have to assess all options.
And that's the that's the other option if if Bryce's ankle doesn't he will buy a Sunday at Seattle, which is another It's kind of a tough week for this to happen because of the quick week, because of the longest uh, the furthest trip according to the game preview, and uh, just a lot of kind of bad factors into that. But when you hear yours says both options, he kind of gotta kind of gotta look at it.
This, listen. This is why they went and got an Andy Dalton anyway, m you know, because a you didn't know if a rookie quarterback would be ready to do this and if he and if he wasn't, he's the kind of guy you want in charge for a little bit. Andy Dalton started one hundred and sixty two games in the NFL. He has started a baseball season's worth of
football games in his career. So and when we were I was actually talking to Frank yesterday taping an interview for The Huddle TV show, and oh my god, you should absolutely tune in for my television debut on The Huddle ah this week on all your local channels. It's gonna be amazing. I'm sure a television host, I am not.
But Frank was very kind. But Frank said when I mentioned the one sixty two, he kind of sort of made that Frank face and he said, I know it was a lot, but I didn't know it was that many. And it kind of it brings it back to the idea that you know, Andy Dalton is not. There's not a situation where Andy Dalton's gonna freak out where Andy Dalton's going to be like, oh my god, I've never seen this. He's seen all of it. And here's here's the other thing to remember about Andy Dalton. He was
actually pretty good last year with the Saints. I mean, his numbers were good. You know, he was a ninety five point two passer eight quarterback. He you know, one of my pet stats with quarterbacks you look at accuracy, but I put a lot of stock in yards for pass attempt, you know, and are you getting the most out of those past attempts? And his was up over seven and a half. And Andy Dalton still moving the ball down the field? Is he almost thirty six years old?
He is? Is that still very very young from a comparative basis to some people in this room? It is? But Andy's a guy. I mean, he's got a career winning record. He's three and one all time against the Seahawks. If you get in a situation on Sunday where Andy Dalton runs out of that tunnel leading the offense, it ain't the worst thing to happen in the world, exactly.
And they're they're preparing us such or they were yesterday at walk through. We'll have to see what happens at practice today. As we filmed this since Thursday morning, the team has one hundred percent rallied around him if it needs to be him, or rallied around whoever it's going to be.
Spoke with Miles Sanders.
He said that his job doesn't change in that he's he's very focused when you talk with him. I talked with him after the game and on Wednesday, and you know, he's always focused on just finding the best ways to protect the guys. And that's kind of the message he had about Bryce after the game, like we just got to protect Bryce and you know, elevate Bryce. And he
had the same the same message about Andy. So it's not one of those things where again, like if we're just taking the temperature check of the locker room, we don't wanna don't want to mischaracterize and be like, oh my goodness, everyone's so downtrod and everyone's so sad, Like it's tough. There's a lot going on, especially after the shock injury. And but but they're not they're not panicking.
As you mentioned, they have the leadership in place to not do that, and at the same time, you know they they.
Know that either way, they gotta judge for it. Either way.
They're flying to Seattle this weekend. Either way, they're gonna have a quarterback back there. And if it's Andy, then they know what to expect from Andy. If it's Bryce, they've played two games with Bryce. There's just there's a lot of there's nones in the unknowns. You don't know who it is, but you know that it's gonna be somebody. They're gonna play the game. And that's just kind of how they're moving forward. So nothing you know, catastrophic in that room.
There you go, it's Augustus Stone the Donald Rumsfeld of this podcast, Ladies and gentlemen. But wait what Donald Rumsfeld? You don't know who that is?
Should I own?
He's a historical figure. He was former Secretary of Defense during the Iraq War. He talked about the known nomes and the unknown nomes. Yeah, at any rate we press on people younger than Andy Dalton. At any rate, I bet Andy knows who Donald Rumsfeld is. At any rate, we should probably talk more about you know what, you want to really make this thing depressing. We should talk
about my fantasy football team. That'll really kill me. For the first time in twenty one years, the men's group in my church wanted to do a fantasy football league, and so I agreed to join up and sort of be part of this effort. I have not played fantasy football in twenty one years for a reason, and you might ask me what is that reason, Darren? Twenty one years ago in two thousand and two, I had a revolutionary strategy that was going to change the way people
played fantasy football. Steve Spurrier was in his first year as the head coach of the formerly Washington football team, and after putting up incredible numbers across the SEC with all manners of different quarterbacks, I said, I'm not just going to draft one Steve Spurry or quarterback. I'm going to draft all of them. So I walked into a season and my quarterbacks were Patrick Ramsey, Shane Matthews, and
Danny Wirfel. And I was convinced I was going to finish that league in one of two places, first by a mile or last by the same distance. And I was right, and that scarred me sufficiently that I was willing to take a twenty one year break before doing this, and after two weeks of doing this again, I realized that might not have been a terrible decision. Yeah, because I talk like I know something about football, but the numbers do not necessarily bear that out.
I have played one season of fantasy football entire life, and I was actually pretty good at it, but I took a very I didn't get into it as much.
As some people do.
I have so many friends that love it, and I will say it's a really great catalyst for people who aren't super into the NFL. I have a darling friend who is an opinion writer and she's one of the best people I know, and she wanted to get into football, and I tried to, you know, show her some games, especially during the playoff last year. You know'd invite her over to my house. We'd have some snacks and enjoy it. She couldn't really get into it. They decided to have
a fantasy football league within her friend group. I decided not to do it because I have more than enough on my plate here football related. So I was like, you know what, y'all have fun. I can, you know, give you some advice if you need you know, just like who's a good running back in the league, or who's you know what I mean, And bless her heart, she is having a ball. But I will say it's been two weeks and the panic texts I get from her about you know, Patrick Mahomes in the first half,
or you know, where's Travis Kelcey stuff like that. She loves the Chiefs, So I mean, it's very very cute.
It's very fun.
And I tell her all the time, I said, this is you're going into week three. You gotta do this for a lot, and I know this is your first go round. But she's so fun and it's very very sweet. But yeah, she was very invested in last week's Thursday night football game. I was receiving a ton of texts about the Eagles defense, so she's she's really getting into it. It's it's a pretty cute thing to see. But I
remember my fantasy year. I think it was twenty twenty one, I do believe, and I had Kyler Murray, Tyreek Hill.
Who else did I have on that team? It was a good team.
I got second out of eight people, so not too bad. I didn't make any risky decisions. I wasn't one of those people that's always like watching the waiver wire changing out my teams. Now I do know people like that, and it's a whole full time job. I have someone in my life who has five leagues. That's too many, that's that's wild. So yeah, but I know a lot about it. I do not participate, but I love watching it all unfold. It is so it's it's like free entertainment for me.
So if so, if you've got fantasy football question, send them to Augusta. Not me.
Absolutely, I'm I'm I'm aware of at least seven different teams, like very intimately, just because I ask a bunch of questions. And I know a lot of people with leagues, so I have like at least someone with some sort of you know, uh skin in the game in every single game just about So.
That is really something. Yeah, it's now. It's fun and it's good. It's good banner between the guys and and your friend group and all that kind of stuff. But I, uh, yeah, it is a rather humbling experience for me because I I even joked with these guys in this league I'm in. I named my team the Alleged Experts because it's uh, yeah, this is not going well.
Gang oh man oh man. No, I don't know.
I think about all the time, like what it's a clever fantasy name. Whenever I had it, I was on burrowed time, Joe Burrow.
That's not bad.
You're right. I did steal it from Reddit, but I thought it was pretty funny.
I have seen a number of variations of people with Adam feeling on their team, you know, more than a feeling, more than a feeling.
I got a.
Feeling fos on a feeling that kind of stuff. That's that's pretty good.
I wonder which one would be his favorite.
I'm feeling it. Maybe we should ask him.
I know, right, what's the best pun with your name in it for a fantasy team? I wonder if he has a preference.
Let's see I mean DJ Charks, I mean Chark week chart week.
Oh no, now the listeners are all turning it off.
Yeah, I'm talking fantasy football and singing children's songs. Maybe that's the best place to call this. No, it's and it felt like the right note. It felt like what we needed is a little DJ sing it with me, Matt DJ Chark.
No, No, I think we'll say, we'll say a no for that one this week.
That's a no for me dog. It's a no for me dog. But that's that's a rap on this week's happy half hour. There's no more that can be done to make you happy than me singing into a microphone. We do it for the people. We'll see you next week.
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