What is that?
Is that the breaking sound effect? Now my alarm sounds actually, duck, that is the breaking news siren.
Because ladies and gentlemen, it's.
Parts of the world.
It's Tuesday.
This is not the day we normally do this. This is an emergency edition of the Happy Half Hour because you're Carolina Panthers have a general manager.
How about that woop woop.
Yeah, that's not a breaking news.
That's just a whoop woop. That's just a whoop whoop. You're just that excited about Dan Morgan. I hear you.
One big higher down one to go.
Yeah, it is. It's such an interesting time.
And listen, I know that fans are waiting to see what's next, because when you come off of a season like that, when what's next is the thing you think about, and for the first two weeks of the off season, it's like because nobody really knows, yeah, something like that. We need the sound effects board. Where's Jim Salane.
Need a breaking new sound effects But.
Yeah, that one't ain't it.
But anyway, so yeah, now there's at least half a bit of clarity about the direction of the Carolina Panthers moving forward. Because former Carolina Panthers linebacker Dan Morgan is now you're a President of Football Operations slash general manager. So it's a big title for a guy who was assistant GM a year ago.
Let me ask you a question about this, Darren, because I know that there's a mindset or I don't know if i'd say consensus, but a line of thinking, if you're going to let go of Scott Fitter or why not clean house? Did those two come part and parcel when they were hired or were they hired separately?
They were hired separately, Yeah, I mean Scott was named GM in January February of twenty one. Dan actually came in the summer of twenty one after that draft, because you know, scouts typically move post draft because their contracts run through June, that kind of stuff. So Dan came in that summer. After that, they had work together in Seattle.
One of the things that's interesting to me and watching the reaction to this, is the people who make them the same person, right, And I'm sure you know you have friends who you are close with who are not just like you.
You know what it reminded me of, or what it makes me think of if you go back to this is going to be such a random example, but if you go back to the way America used to elect the president and the vice president, and the vice president was just the second runner up for the presidential race. So you have two people that are probably different parties who are going to approach everything from a different point of view, but they have to find a way to
work together for four years. And so I kind of think of it as like that, where you know, you might have two people who are vastly different who can have a good working relationship, But that doesn't mean that the next person that him stepping into this role is going to be the exact same operation that the previous regime did.
Oh and that's the thing, and I think it's important to point out. I mean, I always tell people this time of year, when people are you know, going to the streets with their torches and pitchforks, wanting change.
Change.
On every one of those changes, somebody's family has to move, you know, dad or mom just lost a job. So let's be human beings about this for a second. But no, I mean, Scott and Dan are friends and remain friends, and I have no doubt that they will continue to be close friends, but they have very different outlooks in life. I mean, Scott Fitterer was a consensus builder and Scott fitter you know, had a lot of strengths that they
were looking for at the time they hired him. But what's what they're looking for right now in Dan Morgan? And I think it's what Dan can really bring is the perspective of somebody who's a done it at a high level. I mean Dan's career was cut short by injuries. He didn't get to play as many games as anybody would have liked him to play, especially Dan Morgan. But when he played him, he played at a high level.
I've said a couple times around the building here the last few days, he was Luke Keigley before Luke Keighley was cool. He was that medal walkout right. I mean he saw things before they happened. He diagnosed, he re react, hit and that was Dan Morgan. And he was unfortunate with injuries throughout his career. It cut short. I have no doubt he would have gone to more than one Pro Bowl had he stayed healthy, but he did not.
So but even beyond the playing stuff, and we can get into more of that in a little bit, even beyond the playing stuff. The Dan Morgan they're getting as GM, and on shorthand and on second reference, I will probably say GM rather than saying President of Football Operations last GM. But with Dan's GM, what they're getting is a guy who started as an evaluator at the very ground floor when he was an intern in Seattle. He literally was
the guy who picked people up at the airport. And you laugh when you say that.
Take some good connections that way.
Not every former first round pick who was the Bednarik Award winner in college and a unanimous Al American at the University of Miami is going to be willing to be the guy who picks people up at the airport. So Dan was willing to start at the bottom, work his way up, and here he is. He did it through Seattle, he did it through Buffalo, worked in really good front offices in both places, and here we are.
And he learned from to what I think a lot of people would consider two of the better gms in the league, from John Schneider and Brandon Bean. And you know, especially when you think about when he was coming up through Seattle and the positions he held in the years that he held them. He was kind of in the room, a part of the room, a part of the staff that put together, Darren what I think we would arguably consider the greatest defense of this generation, the Legion to Boom.
No question, I mean, and he saw it's a little bit like what they were trying to do offensively last year, with a lot of different perspectives. It's cool to be out there in the Pacific Northwest and see how John Schneider and those guys do it. And then you come to Buffalo and see Brandon Bean and those guys and Joe Shane who he worked with up there before Joe went to New York again, both former Panthers interns who
were around Dan when he's a player. You see a different way of doing it, and you take a little bit from here and a little bit from there, and all of a sudden you get to this place. Listen, I know there are people who just want to paint Dan Morgan with this brush of AH two and fifteen. Everybody must go. Dan Markan's a really smart guy. He was smart on the field, and he's learned how to evaluate.
We'll have more on Dan's progress from talking to people who have been around him on Panthers dot Com later this week. But I just think it's kind of shortsighted for a lot of people who said, you know, you were part of this, therefore you must be bad, because that's not how football.
And if you're going to buy that scene rule by that in that same vein, if you're going to say, well he was a part of two and fifteen, he was also a part of one of the better defensive turnarounds that this team is ever seen and leading them.
To its if some of these things are about more than one thing.
And I think what I take from it as maybe the biggest positive is the timeline by which he got to this job, because there's a lot to like about
the fact. And I know we keep parping on the player, and I know the player is different from a GM it's a different approach, but he's someone that has been here, that was here for a long time, that was a part of a turnaround, so he knows what that takes and he's been in on the ground floor of it, and he understands this franchise, this culture, this fan base that's really really important. And you see guys that sort
of go back home, it means more to them. They're going to put more into it, They're gonna put their heart and soul into it. But you also run the risks sometimes when you quote unquote bring a guy back home too early of them and they're going to lose their dream job. But he went through the process. He spent a long time in Seattle, He's spent a good
amount of time in Buffalo. He spent time here, you know, sort of learning a little bit of the rains and the franchise of where it is now before stepping into this role. And so I think when you marry the background in him both knowing and loving this franchise, and then you and you marry that with the process he took to get here this and I know we're looking ahead, but this seems like the right time for this hire, for this team.
Well, the one thing I will say, and we don't know, and again, so many other factors besides one person will determine the course of this franchise in twenty four and beyond. The one thing I know is that no one I've talked to around the league and other cities, other reporters, people who work for other teams, absolutely no one has texted, called me and said what a bozo Dan Morgan is. And usually in the scouting business, there's somebody out there who hates you no matter who you are, and Dan
is kind of that universal, universally respected figure. It's easy for you to say Darren, but yeah, I am not. But Dan Morgan is. I mean, he's just a guy who carries a credibility with him and part of that's based on playing, and part of that's based on the work he's put in post playing career, which has been voluminous. So I just think that it's a it's a right now, it looks like a solid move or a franchise that needs to make some more solid moves off.
How long do you think a GM should be given a honeymoon period, I'd say two. I'd give him a full draft class to get into starters, so three years.
Either that or a coacher too. I mean, I think a lot of times. And that's the other thing that I think is for two us about this hire right now is now the first Now the coach and the GM are on the same timeline for the first time since two thousand and two, and last and the last time you weren't around here for that one, but I was. And the last time they did that in two thousand and two, they went from the worst defense in the NFL to the second best in one year, and the
next year we're in the Super Bowl again. Not saying that's what's about to happen here, but I do think lining those guys up and bringing Dan in at this point, a new coach is on the way. Probably in the next couple of weeks. I'm sure we'll know who that person is and we'll do another emergency podcast, maybe with sound, maybe with effects, maybe with sound effects that time. But
it gives them a chance to find that alignment. And that's that's the new buzzword around coaching cycles and GM cycles is can you find that alignment in your organization? And that means speak the same language. That was the problem last year. We did not speak the same language personnel to coaching, coaching, to coaching coaching, to play or any of it. It was just all a jumble last season,
as is evidenced by the record. So allowing Dan to come in here, bringing in another coach, making other adjustments to the front office creates at least the condition for that to happen, and it.
Puts them on the same timeline, not just like the timeline of when they were hired, but the timeline of what they want this team to be. You know, that's something that can work in what's the word I'm looking at, looking for a good thing? We don't work in words congregity. I can like I got half of the word.
Floting around them all on the same page, right.
Of Okay, this is what we want to do with this drift class, this is where we want this roster to go, and this is how long it's going to take to get there.
Right.
And sometimes you have opposing forces where the GM is ahead a draft or two and the coach is thinking, I've got enough with this roster now, and obviously you always want to like win now, but it puts them on the same timeline of where they think this team can go.
Yeah, and here's another secret of the business that I've learned in almost thirty years of doing this. Coaches always want to win today, right, every rep in practice, every period in practice, every game, every season. GMS have to think not just about this year and winning this year, because that's the ultimate goal. But he's got to have his eyes out on the horizon, and what does this look like two years from now, three years from now. So it's it's gonna be interesting to see how it
all comes together. Again, I'm I am not saying this because of the room I am sitting in or the name on the bottom of my check. But I just maybe I'm just too old for hysteria. But I do not believe this Carolina Panthers team is five years away way from competing for anything.
I just don't.
I mean, there's too many dudes on defense. Bryce Young was still the guy who every team in the league would have picked first overall last year, and so I think there's an opportunity to do some things. It's just a matter of creating that alignment and getting everybody on the same plan and then going out and executing that plan.
I mean, Dan's job is going to be to go find some good players, that's the first thing, and I think that's going to be a combination of free agency and the draft this year, even without that number one pick, thirty three don't look so bad.
He's lucky. Maybe that the biggest need on this team is also arguably the deepest position in the draft. This year at wide receiver.
Or agree or disagree, No, I think that's you know, supply and demand kicks in at wide receiver. I mean, with the college game going the way it has, all of a sudden, everybody's got three or four starting wideouts now, so there's more guys coming into the league, better able to contribute immediately, and so picking thirty third is a
good place. And based on every conversation I've had with scouts here in other places, that receiver group is the thing this year where they're a number of guys and you're heading down to Mobile next week.
So I hope the coach.
Doesn't get hired next week or Nina Ank just kidding there, but you're gonna be a Mobile for the Senior Bowl. That's to me one of the quiet advantages of Dan being named general manager right now, because the scouting staff that's kind of working on draft and has been for four months, four or five months can continue to do their.
Jobs as they were doing them already.
You know, obviously with change at the top, there's going to be some degree of change, But I think those college scouts are so deep into this process now and you'll see them down in Mobile next week, and they are kind of intrigued by this draft class in general because there's a lot of there's a lot of underclassmen at the Senior Bowl, so that makes the Senior Bowl a little bit better, which makes East West a little bit better, and all these games down the line a
little bit better. So I think it's going to be interesting to see how that shakes out.
Yeah, and especially to see what they prioritize where, you know, behind receiver, is it guard, is it edge rusher? You know what are they sort of prioritizing and feeling like we can get this maybe later in the draft, or they don't really have a ton of capital to move around. So I feel like they're they're kind of stuck where they are with the six picks that they have and
where they are. But like we said, there's this is a deep class at a couple of different positions, and luckily those work out to be the Panthers positions of needs this year.
Kind of works out that way.
So anyway, Yeah, I'm excited to get out to the practice field and kind of see what some of these guys do, especially some of these guys that maybe just through for whatever reason, you know, didn't get to kind of show everything they can do in college this year? What do they do when they're facing the best of the best and they've got every scale and a lot of coaches all looking at them. What do they do?
Because those one on one drills at the Senior Bowl practices, those are where guys make or break their name a lot of times when starting off in this draft process. So those are going to be fun to watch.
How many Senior Bowls is this for you? Cass Ooh?
As a reporter, I think I have done probably like five.
Or six, And as a child growing up.
In suburban Albama native, I've probably also been to an additional five or six just as a fan. Every year when I go to the Senior Bowl, I think to myself, this is the coldest I've ever been in my life. For whatever reason, that weekend is just frigid.
In Mobile.
You're on the water, so you've got the wind coming off of the water. It is just miserable.
It feels like it's always raining in Mobile? Is it always rain in Mobile?
Rainiest city in America?
Is that?
Right?
Suck?
At Seattle, I did not know that I learned something new here.
Okay, friends, Seattle rains longer like over the calendar, the course of the calendar. Here. It rains longer in Seattle, but it's more of a drizzle, whereas in Mobile you get it may only rain for an hour a day, but it rains two and fifty days out of a year, and in that hour it is a complete deluge. So as far as inches measured, it is the rainiest city in America.
How about that? I do remember the last time I was there it was raining cats and dogs. One day I almost stepped in a poodle. Ah.
We should have a note, We should have a sound effect for that, maybe like the sad trombone Wah wah podcast.
Matt's giving me the thumbs down.
In a soundboard. Matt, can I be the one to press it?
We're not leaving Darren in charge of the toys. I know that much.
That would give me so much power.
Oh boy.
So anyway, on that note, we've got a lot to discuss in the coming weeks.
Maybe by the.
Next time we catch up there will be a coach. Certainly, by the next time we catch up, you will have come and gone from Mobile and brought us back all the news that's fitthprint on panthers dot com. So until then, thank you guys for joining us and we will see.
You next time on the Happy half hours.
Send us out with a sound effect, oh y.