This week on the Happy half Hour.
It doesn't feel, you know, rash.
It feels like it came at a time where okay, we see what we're building, and now we want to make a change because things aren't perfect and there are issues to kind of work out, but let's let's make a change.
There's no reason to keep doing the same thing over and over.
So an exciting opportunity for Thomas Brown, and I'm excited to see what it looks like for him. Talks.
It's time for the Happy half Hour with your friends Kristin Balboni, Augusta Stone, and Darren Gannon.
Welcome to the Happy half Hour and how happy are we all?
Or something?
At any rate, it's by week, everybody. The Carolina Panthers are zero and six not ideal. Obviously, we will talk a little bit about what happened in Miami and what has happened in these six weeks behind us, but obviously most of today's episode will center on yesterday's news. Frank Craig did the thing he was gonna do. He just did it sooner than he might have anticipated by making
Thomas Brown his play caller. And now the Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator will be calling the plays the rest of the season, and that's obviously a pretty significant shakeup.
Thomas is a guy who is.
Who was brought here with an idea that he was going to do this eventually anyway.
But I think at zero to six and when.
You I don't even want to say struggling on offense necessarily they're not doing great, but you were coming off the best quarter of football you had played all season, and I just think it was one of those things where it was time to do something, to make a change,
to freshen things up. And since this was a move Frank intended to make always anyway, this felt like, in his mind, a good time to do it, just since they are in a bye week and they can go out and practice on Tuesday, practice on Wednesday, get a little head start on what the Thomas Brown era is going to be like.
I mean, it's something, as you mentioned, it had been mentioned since Frank's and maybe not his introductory press conference, but definitely before.
Any players got here.
You know, though, had asked that question about play calling, and he said that he would be open to kind of expanding and seeing what could you know, how how it would look to give those up, so not, you know, something that was completely unforeseen, something that had never been talked about. He had definitely mentioned it, And yeah, Thomas Brown, I mean rising star as you wrote about in your story and has talked about a lot yesterday by Frank
and Bryce. And I think it was the kind of thing where you're not placing him, you know, at the start or at the head of an offense that was completely just miserable at Miami.
I mean, like you.
Said, that first quarter was about as efficient and doing everything that they had talked about and looking like they could do multiple things and having Cuba Hubber running and Adam feel and doing Adam feeling things. Who is absolutely emerged through those early stretches the guy which they brought him here to be, and he's very efficient and he's honestly close to top of the league in a lot
of categories. So they're bringing him in and a point when they're not completely miserable, they have plenty to build off of of that, and I think it's a situation we're off the buy that he could be primed to have some success here. I don't think it doesn't feel you know, rash, It feels like it came at a time where Okay, we see what we're building, and now we want to make a change because things aren't perfect and there are issues to kind of work out, but
let's make a change. There's no reason to keep doing the same thing over and over. So an exciting opportunity for Thomas Brown and I'm excited to see what it looks.
Like for him, right And I don't think this is necessarily a revolutionary change. I think Frank is There are a couple of layers to this. To me, Number one, Frank is walking into a new situation that obviously, you know, nobody wants to talk about rebuilds or anything like that. I mean, that always makes people in the NFL uncomfortable when you.
Label him that way.
But I think realistically, this season they were starting a brand new project with brand new people, a new system, so there was going to be some degree of adjustment, some degree of growing pains, if you will.
I don't even know it was a.
Great sitcom, it's less of a cliche, but anyway, I think they were always going to go through some of this kind of stuff. Anyway, And after Frank and Thomas spent the off season basically together putting this thing together. As Augusta you wrote about it early on in the process. You take a guy who is running a variation on what he did as a Buffalo quarterback, what they did in Philadelphia when he was coaching with Doug Peterson, and he's putting that together with a very Sean McVay style
Rams offense. So these two were blending this thing already. And now that's why I don't necessarily think this is going to be this big seismic change. I think, to me, the biggest impact is it gives Frank an opportunity to be the head coach, to do the head coach, to oversee the entire project. I mean this just and the defense has been leaking points at a pretty high light high rate lately, so it's going to give him an opportunity to cast an eye over there and help out a little more.
He had discussed the collaboration, even with play calling with Thomas Brown, so it's not one of those things that will be completely different. Also, Thomas Brown has called plays before in the preseason. They were trading off haves, so it's not even like it'll be a brand new thing
for him. I think one of the benefits that again it won't make a seismic change, as you mentioned, but something kind of cool of it is the pairing of a very young offensive coordinator, offensive mine, offensive play caller with another very young offensive weapon and the future and that is Bryce Young and having them kind of work together.
I know they've been collaborating and that was something that Bryce made very clear that it had been, you know, the kind of thing where he and TB were very close, and now it kind of gives them more I guess, just kind of more ownership of the product or just more of a reason to collaborate even more closely. And that's a really cool pairing to make I think, from like even an off field aspect, just the conversations and can indications and and Frank mentioned it yesterday, just as
you talked about. You know, he will still be in most of the quarterback meetings but most of the offensive meetings, but he has more time now to be freed up to go to those defensive meetings, to go in the special teams meetings, to look at more things going on, and I think that's an opportunity that excites him at this point. I mean, just being able to look around and take that CEO type approach. I think that's something
that that'll come of this. It's he's not necessarily taking his foot completely off the gas, but he has more of a wavelength and more kind of viewpoint at the whole thing as a whole versus kind of staying focused in this shell and then this tiny little.
Place that he had been.
And I think the pairing of Thomas Brown and Bryce Young is not insignificant. I think it's a really cool thing to have kind of going on the two minds, see what they're creating, and also just having them together from the.
Start, right. And I'm kind of fascinated.
And that's why I was interesting getting on Sean mcvay's press conference last night and asking him about Thomas because I am fascinated. Frank's talked all off season about diversity of thought. Thomas Brown exists in a room full of former quarterbacks and current quarterbacks with Bryce, with Josh, with Frank. I mean, Jim Calwell played defense in college, but he was a quarterbacks coach. He coached Kerry Collins at Penn State. He was Peyton Manning's quarterbacks coach. For God's sake, So
he knows a little something about this position. I like the idea of Thomas having a different perspective and there's a couple different ways to offense.
Yeah, and it's not just it.
It all runs through the quarterback, but it can't always be quarterback driven. And having that perspective. One of the things i'd find most interesting about him is when he was on mcvay's staff, what did Sean McVay do with him. He took him from coaching running backs and gave him tight ends. Guess what Sean McVay did right before he became a coordinator for the first time, he coached tight end. So I mean, giving this guy that different perspective. Okay,
now do this, I'll do this. Thomas kind of walks into the job as they see the whole field.
Guy.
I mean, it's not just laser focused in on one player at one positions perspective.
Now, do I think they'll run a little more? Maybe? I don't know.
We'll find out in Week eight when they get back after this thing against Houston Texans. But I think more than that, it's just having the kind of broad perspective on this thing. And McVeigh was so good talking about it. I encourage you to check out the video and the story on Panthers dot com about it because hearing the guy who does the thing better than just about anybody in the NFL explain why Thomas is good at this is interesting. So it's he's coming at this thing with
a lot of credentials. He's a fast riser in the business. It's it's kind of hard to believe that he's only thirty seven years old, given what he's done already in his career. But Thomas is a bright guy, and as Sean said, he's still a g Well.
Yeah, I wanted to get into that.
We heard some stories from Austin Corbett that you got to write about in your article, but also from Sean McVay, I mean the Achilles Starah, I actually have an interesting.
Perspective on that.
It kind of hit me while I was reading your story fun random Augusta being a student journalist story, but I was writing an article about two thousand and seven Georgia, I believe a game, and I was trying to get Thomas Brown's perspective. The rams PR department was super awesome to a senior in college, Augustin, and I was trying to interview him. And the day that that injury happened to Thomas Brown was the day I was actually scheduled
to talk with him after practice. And what's funny is that I had been I was also editor in chief of the paper at the time, so I was waiting on my phone touring at I think it was nine thirty local time in Athens, Georgia, and writing this look backstory was gonna be so cool. I got to talk to Mark Rick, I got quotes through lions pr from Matt Stafford when he was there.
I mean, it was a whole thing, and I was.
Trying to talk to him, and if I remember this correctly, they messaged me and they're like, well, I assume you saw the news and I was like, oh, I haven't, because I've been so in depth. I mean, there was election, there was so much going on and I was looking at it, so I was like, oh, I didn't. And then they were like, oh, he he was injured too. I said, the coach was injured. So funny story. I actually could have talked to him before he got here, but you know, other other events happened.
We were actually on the books to talk that day. I'm pretty sure that that was what happened, so that's amazing.
It's a funny little story, but I remember that and I was like, oh my goodness, that was him. So yeah, he uh, I mean gives it as all. I mean, Austin Corbett was talking about how he might be among
the fastest coaches. I mean, I'd love to see him and Sean Jefferson get at it because I mean, you talk about all the guys on the staff that looked like they could just suit up, but no, his energy is unparalleled and that's something really exciting to have too, with all these young players along offense and having all the excitement. But yeah, that's I think that if I remember correctly, I remember when that happened.
Sonny Dee Hall can probably still run, and he's torn an achilles or two in his life, but I think he could probably still move. It would be an interesting, interesting race. But yeah, Thomas looks and I'm not saying that there was necessarily a generational gap between Frank and what was going on, but I do think there's a different level of communication. I mean, it's not peer to peer, it's still player coach, but I think there is at
least an opportunity. If you're looking for something positive that's going to flow from this is that Thomas's communication style, I think, for lack of a better word, puts him in a better opportunity to be able to talk to not just Bryce, but those backs and the offensive lineman and just he's a little bit closer to that former player's perspective than Frank is. I mean, Frank's experience is a benefit here. It's the reason he's got the job.
It's having these contacts and knowing all these people that he brought here, including Thomas Brown, is the reason he was appealing. They wanted to build an offense. They wanted to put together a staff where you could turn to Jim Calwell, Thomas Brown, Josh McCown and all the way down the list, through all these guys, And I think it's going to be interesting to see how this thing develops. But I do think and we saw a little bit of it last week, especially in the first half against the Dolphins.
You saw the.
Emergence of Cuba Hubbard a little bit, and part of that I think was game plan, specifically to Cuba, knowing you're going to be without Miles Sanders. Cuba's the big back, He's the physical back among this crowd here. So there's a little bit of let's lean on the Dolphins a little bit, let's move that way, Let's see if we can push the pile forward and be a little more
on the front foot. And you know, they were gaining four yards on first down pretty often that you know, Frank's talked about staying in second and six is a good thing because it gives you so many options with the rest of the offense. And I think when Cuba's getting those regular carries, he's shown he can produce. And certainly there were signs of that last Sunday. I mean, I will never and I was it's very careful to write, you know, on the website over the weekend it's like, hey,
it was a great quarter. Unfortunately they had to play the next forty five minutes and those didn't go well at all.
And nobody's in the moral victory business.
But I again, my focus has always kind of been on what the long view of this offense is, what this means for Bryce Young moving forward. So having that run game kind of reignite a little bit. Knowing Austin Corbett is coming back soon. Maybe you can stabilize things a little bit. It's not going to be just like last year. It's not the same kind of offense, not
the same kind of run game. But having four of those five blockers back, can you get competent play on the out of the other guard spot between Savallah, Throckmorton, K Mays whoever it happens to be coming out after the buye. We'll see how that thing comes together. But I just think there's an opportunity with Austin coming back to sort of stabilize it thing run a little bit more.
And be able to brea the second.
I think that's as important as anything for this offense for the next little bit.
I was gonna ask you, Darren, just kind of looking ahead.
I mean, we have the bye and they're gonna use, you know, the early part of the by to kind of start getting acclimated to the way things will look.
But when we come back here and Hall of Honor, exciting weekend Texans are here, I wanted to ask you what you mentioned that you don't expect to see more runs necessarily out of a Thomas Brown lead offense, and then it won't look super different is there anything that you think tangibly will be something that maybe fans could notice, or something in the game where you're like, Okay, that's a different touch. Do you think there's anything that you
can see from from that? Just sort of knowing that, knowing his style and knowing the way that he and Frank like when they make this change, is there something that we're gonna see tangible?
One of the things I'm curious about, and we'll ask Thomas about this at his press conference later the day.
You can see all the video and Panthers dot Com.
Of course, Thomas will be asked at some point today whether he intends to remain on the sidelines or move upstairs to the box. And that's what I'm curious about, because Thomas had talked about early on being down on the sidelines gave him an opportunity to have that immediate feedback from players and kind of see it from ground level. I'm curious to know if with this change, if he'll come upstairs and sit at the same level we're sitting on, taking up space in our elevator.
I'm just kidding. I'm curious to see if Thomas will do that.
I think, you know, again, he is a guy with a pretty broad perspective of this offense anyway, So if he sees it the way he sees it and is comfortable staying on the field, maybe he'll stay down there.
But that's something I'm.
Curious to hear from him later today. I think there is a possibility. I'm curious to see how the communication moves because as they continue to you heard a lot of talk about simplify, simplify the last couple of weeks. Now as they get to a point where okay, we know this works, we know this works. As they zoom in on the stuff that they're good at, then you have an opportunity to build back. So I want to see, you know, early on, how the communication part of it goes.
It looked like the Panthers had kind of gotten some of that pre snap communication stuff ironed out.
There weren't the big issues early on.
I mean, anytime you see Bryce with his hands on the side of his helmet, you know, when he's standing in a huddle, that's not necessarily a great sign because that means he's trying to process something and get the call in from the sidelines. So there was less of that last week, and again last week's game got away from him, as I think any reasonable observer would have
expected it to. And playing the Miami Dolphins, for God's sake, those guys are good at the offense, and they offenced all over the place from about the second quarter through the third, and it was and it was on.
Here's another thing I learned this week.
If your team has more of the fast people that other people can't catch than your team, that's bad. So the Dolphins got that Tyreek Hill guy. He's pretty good at this. So it's to me that game showed sort of where you want to get to.
And they're still very early in this process.
So seeing how Thomas communicates it and makes it look early on, it's.
Going to be interesting to me.
I agree, I agree, and I wonder too, And I think it'll be a gradual build up process. Like you mentioned, you know, they kind of simplified it bringing things back. I think we saw a lot in the last two games, and especially at Miami, a lot of the no huddle
sort of tempo that they're going with. I'm not sure how much of that will continue when they have someone new kind of given the calls to him, but that was something that they found a lot of success on that I wouldn't be surprised to see them go back on, just kind of moving quickly. Frank was very proud yesterday at the press conference to mention that they had no pre snap penalties unlike all the other games.
I think there was a question asked.
And the wins where you get them from?
Yeah, the question was asked like, oh, there were fewer, and he goes there were none and looks very smug and it was very but but like things like that, and I think it goes back to what I was mentioned, and then that they're giving it. He's given it to He chose to give it to Thomas Brown at a time when things are getting more steady, more stable, I mean,
the little bitty mistakes aren't happening as much. It was Bryce Young's cleanest game in terms of turnovers, no no interceptions, and no fumble, so he's obviously getting a little bit more comfortable. And they were in Miami on the road, so that's something to be kind of thinking about. But but no, I'm excited to see kind of kind of how how they as you mentioned, when they deconstructed, simplified
and now build it back up. Where do they start in the building process when it's someone new giving it to Bryce Young and when there's someone new kind of here and hearing the hearing the cadences of them.
And and again, like like.
I mentioned, you know, this isn't the very first time he's done it, because they were handing it off in the preseason, which I think could have been a tell that maybe you know, he was looking into seeing whenever it felt right, when it felt most comfortable, hand it off, because it wasn't something that he's.
Just barred him from doing and had been very collaborative.
So that's something I think on the on the outside that maybe if you weren't listening to every press conference or reading every single article, that maybe you didn't notice.
But although if you're not reading every single article, what are you doing?
What are you doing?
We're in here doing it for the people. And if you don't appreciate our efforts read the preseason, we love and value you all just like family.
But he was he was calling it in the second half of preseason, So that's something important to note too. This isn't even gonna be the first time he's done it operationally, and I think I think the collaboration that they've already shown, as Frank mentioned, you know, is one of those things that he would bounce it off of them and parks Fraser and all the other guys in the room that you know he trusts and relies on. And I think it's a I think it's a change
that it's it's it's cool that it's happening now. It's cool that it's happening for a bye so they have time to adjust to it. But as you mentioned, on the surface, it's not going to be It's not some sweeping, rapid, crazy, big thing. It's just something that was already going to happen, and now the time feels right for Frank to do it.
Dam we will see, and they've got time to bed this thing in because as we mentioned, and as you may be aware, it's bye week. Many times, it's my favorite week of the NFL season. It's a very very long NFL season, and we love our jobs here, but it is important, I think, to step away, and I do think there are a whole lot of people downstairs in this building that need to take a breath, catch themselves up a little bit. People are going to see family members. People are going to see relatives play a
football game. People are going you know, there's guys scattering the four wins, and this is an opportunity. The last couple of years this team has had week thirteen buys and that's a long haul when you add in training camp, preseason and all the stuff, and then to get to week thirteen, it's like a land war in Asia.
It just keeps.
Going and going and going, and you wonder if you're ever going to get there. So I think there are a lot of guys. Again, we've talked about the injuries and from a health perspectives, you'll.
Hear it many times. It's a good time to have a bye.
But and I love my football cliches, but it's a good time, I think, just to catch a mental break. More than anything else. Things aren't going well. Change has been made gives them a chance to get themselves right going into a stretch of the season that I think is against teams that are a little closer to the stage of development that they are. Obviously, the Houston Texans are playing well with c. J. Stroud right now, their rookie quarterback and brand new coach. The Colts are coming up.
They've got quarterback problems, Anthony Richardson probably out for the year alongside their new coach, you know. And then you get the Bears and God only knows what's going on with Justin Fields with his injury.
They've got problems of their own.
So the Panthers will get to all that after the bye, but before that, we're all gonna take the weekend off. And I don't know about you, Augusta, but I could use it.
I was gonna ask what your plans are.
I'm very excited to go back home and see my family. My mother has told me that she's redone my entire childhood bedroom, and she told me she wasn't gonna see me pictures because she wants to see my surprise in person. So I'm very anxious about that. I cannot lie the whole six hours I'm driving home and be like, what do they do?
What are the extreme makeover Augusta's bedroom?
Aduke Extreme makeover? But and I'm so grateful. You know, it's awesome, and I love my parents. But I can't say I asked, you know, was it like, oh, let's change my room up from everything I know and love my whole life.
But we'll see.
She she knows I'm deeply sentimental and even if the room needed a little bit of a facelift, because I hadn't been fixed and probably well over a decade.
I think my last extreme makeover was when I was in sixth grade. But I loved it. I mean, it did me well. And she's coming back.
She told me all the colors, they got a new bed, they changed like the bookshelf situation. It's gonna be shocking. So I have that to look forward to. Gonna go to my old high school and see a football game, see the band, spend time with my grandmother and my mama and my aunts and uncles.
I'm very excited.
I'm gonna get to spend like three or four days down there. So it's gonna be a blast. What are you gonna be.
Anytime you have a chance to see Mama, you should. Yeah, as are the best.
Uh. We I am probably gonna we might head out and I don't know if we're gonna leave Wednesday night, Thursday, Friday, whenever, but at some point we're heading to Raleigh to see some of the kids. My son's in college down there. Uh, We're gonna check out Raleigh. I think for a little bit point this week or weekend, I may go to.
The State Fair. I vaguely believe that.
My parents took me to the State Fair when I was a small small child.
I have this.
Memory of what it looked like outside Dorton Arena and the Midway and all that kind of stuff.
But I could be making that up. I don't know if it happened.
It was before I was five or six years old or something like that, so the memory is a little foggy when you get to my age. But you know, I think State Fair is valuable because it's One great contribution to society is food on a stick. So here's my question to you, Augusta Stone, Vegan correspondent. What is the ultimate vegan food on a stick?
Oh my goodness.
So if we're talking fraud on a stick, my go to fraud is if a frying batter is vegan, which I know is annoying to hear and annoying to say. But if it is oreos are accidentally vegan, They're perfect. They're my go to dessert fried oreo. You can get them at so high school fotball games in Georgia. Apparently that's really weird up here. I've told my Carolina friends and they're like, what are you talking about? But that was a thing where I grew up. So I'll deep
fry an oreo all day long. You're putting things on a stick, I me, and you can skewer vegetables all day long.
Put them in a nice little dip, right.
But yeah, fried foods, frieda oreos, I'll make them at home.
With in my air fry, with these little crescent rolls. I'll make them all day long. They're real good.
So Oreo's accidentally vegan, so you can pretend like you if you think veganism is inherently healthy, which I have an opinion on.
I don't think it is.
But if you think so, then just eat oreos and then you'll feel healthy all the time.
Yeah, there's nothing that screams health like eating a sleeve of oreos when you get home from work and sit on the couch and watch football. Now I am I'm curious to see what delights the State Fair might have in store for me. I as you know, as you've heard me talk way too much about, I am a huge corn dog guy. Yes, I love going to cookout, even though they're not a sponsor of the Carolina Panthers.
I do enjoy a side.
Of corn dog every now and then, and I'm looking forward to seeing if there are variations on a theme, if there was a way to turn other food products into corn dog like substances.
I am here.
I am all about exploration, I'm all about curiosity.
I'm ready to learn new things and.
Broaden my horizon. So we'll see what the weekend holds. We will report back on fried Oreos Mama's House, Georgia high school football, possibly fried food on a stick, and a football team on the other side of the bye week when we've talked to you next week or sometime on the Happy half Hour