All right, folks, I feel like I should be very excited when I say welcome to the Happy half Hour, because Dave Canalis is here, and he brings the excitement with him wherever he goes, including now to Bank of America Stadium. So I think everybody was kind of picking up what he was putting down last Thursday during that press conference. And you know, when a new coach comes in, there's obviously all kinds of enthusiasm, but he brings an
extra amount, doesn't tea. So it just from being at that presser, and we'll go through all that during this episode. But Cassidy, you were down in Mobile, got a chance to see him early on with Dan on that first day of work, and then slid over to Orlando for Pro Bowl. So you've got all kind of good Dave Canalis anecdotes, don't you.
I have to first ask, is this excited Darren? I don't know if I've experienced this to his full extent.
Yeah, it peeks out pretty early. I think over time, you know, my edges have been softened a little bit. It's it's harder and harder for me to reach peak excitement and stay that way for terribly long so yeah, I need.
To prepare myself better for this.
Yeah, I should have. I should have gone radio DJ Boys Sunday, Sunday Sunday, Good Morning. Yeah, exactly.
Yes. I did get to spend some time with Dave Canalis last week in Mobile, and he wasn't in Orlando, but yeah, I got I took a little tour of the Gulf of Mexico last week, but got to spent about half an hour with Dave on Monday, and that was really cool. I don't even think he had made it to Charlotte yet at that point, or if he had, it had been a fly by night situation and they.
Actually had not. He went straight from it. He connected in Charlotte and got on the same plane as Dan to fly to Mobile. So his experience in Charlotte at that point was limited. Where Charlotte Douglas internationally right.
But got to spend some time with him and see not only just you know, interact with him, but see how so many other people sort of interacted with Dave Canalis as well, and how sort of you know, beloved he is amongst those those scouts and those coaches that have been in this league for a while, because you know, he spent a long time in Seattle and he spent the one year in Tampa Bay, so he's only been with two teams. But you go to these events, you're around folks, you get to know them, and a lot
of people wanted to come up. He was also the only new head coach that was Inmobile for the Senior Bowl, or at least on Monday, and so I thought that was interesting as well, you know, especially because the Panthers don't have a first round pick, so they're looking at guys that are going to be taking in the second and third round. But I think more than anything, he just kind of wanted to hit the ground running, see this draft class up close, and get back into the
groove of working with Dan Morgan. I think they shared this on Thursday in the press conference. But you know, there's a two guys that offices were a door down from each other in Seattle and now they're going to be working right around the hall from each other again as well. So I think they're excited about that. But enjoyed getting to visit with him Memobile and kind of
just see what he's all about. He's an infectious guy, but uh not sometimes when somebody is very personable, it can almost come off a fate, but I don't get that sense at all with Dave. It's it's really genuine. And I thought it was interesting when I did get back in the building on Monday to kind of see him bouncing around the hallway, and he remembered just about everyone's name, and if he didn't remember it, he stopped to make sure he got it and made sure to
stop and speak to everyone along the way. So that's, you know, right, he's trying to set a new standard, I guess. And not to say that the last staff didn't do that as well, but whenever you've got a new head coach to come in and have guns of blazon, that gives a jolt of energy.
No doubt about it. He absolutely has that Pete Carroll vibe. I think they both like bounce because they're so like Tigger. I think I've used the phrase always on more in the last week and a half than I've used it in the previous twenty years. And he's just got that energy. And you know, again, one of the I thought it was interesting. Somebody commented on one of the links we sent out for something, and there's a segment of the fan base that has heard a lot of this before.
This is the third coach in a short period of time, and everybody's like, Okay, yeah, great excitement, I love it. Show me something and listen. That's the bottom line on this thing. If Dave Canalis can get the Carolina Panthers to score a bunch of points and win a bunch of games, all that energy and enthusiasm would be justified. And right now, based on the way the last five six years have gone, I think there there's reason to
be skeptical of everything. Remember who it is now. If they would have hired Bill Belichick, it would have been he's too old. If they would have hired whoever, there was always going to be something because I think people are a little jaded based on what's happened around here in the last few years. But man, he has gotten a lot of people's attention. And when you do that,
you know you need too. Honestly. I mean, I think after the way last year went, energy was something that was in short supply, especially coming down the stretch, and so when you walk into a situation like this, how are you going to attack it? He's doing it up on the balls of his feet and leaning into it every day. I mean just from talking to people he's working with. He's rolling in here at four forty five five o'clock in the morning early, Yeah, and he is.
He is getting started because he's got a lot of catching up to do. I mean, he's learning an entirely new set of personnel, he's hiring a staff, doing all that kind of stuff, and so I think getting those guys in place is it's obviously a huge job and getting to know this this roster really before he makes
some pretty important decisions on it. And he is able now now that he's here, now that he's in the building, now that the media car wash has been taken care of, he's done all the radio interviews and the press conferences and all that kind of stuff. He's digging into the football and trying to learn all these people. So that is a full time job. So it doesn't surprise me that he's attacking this thing early.
There were two things he said last week that I think stood out more than anything else, at least to me, and it was about the things he wants to kind of work on with Bryce, and one of them was getting the ball out in two point seven seconds getting it out much faster. That makes me curious because I want to know, Okay, what do you do to shave off a hundredth of a second here, a tenth of
a second here? What are you doing especially behind you know, an offensive line with a younger guy, Like, what are you doing to kind of shave off that time here and there? To add up to shaving off enough that he's getting that ball out in two point seven seconds?
Yeah.
And then the other thing he said was, you know, he'll know when when Bryce is there, so to speak. But you know, he said, we're going to grow to the capacity that he can handle. There's got to be a commitment and a discipline with that. When I see that back foot planet in the ground and that ball rips out of there without any hesitation, I know we got something.
Yep.
There's a lot of You can come in and just be justified in your opening press conference to give a lot of sweeping platitudes.
Mm hmm.
Those are two very specific things that it's like, Okay, I'm coming in right away with a plan to focus at least on these two things, and then we'll go from there.
And that was one of the things that stood out to me at the press conference on Thursday. I mean, he was very specific about two point seven seconds and not two point eight. I used to have a buddy in college who would say, Hey, we're going to the waffle house in thirteen Minutes'd be like, what are you talking about? But you know it's easy, like you said, I mean, the easiest thing to do is say, oh, we want to be aggressive on offense and that kind
of stuff. But to walk in with that kind of detailed plan I think speaks to the job in front of him and what he intends to do. I mean, he knows. When I had the opportunity to catch up with him on Wednesday for the story we published Thursday morning before the press er, I mean, he was very specific about things he wanted to go through with Bryce,
and that begins with getting to know him. And that's going to be an important first step to build that relationship, because like it or not, these two are now going to be linked together and Dave Canals's success will be based on Bryce Young's ability to channel what he's trying to do out there. So getting those two on the same page them getting to know each other will be key.
But again to say not just hey, we want to be aggressive, but to have it at two point seven seconds shows you how granular an approach he's bringing into this job right now.
And you know, when I was in the in Orlando for the Pro Bowl, I talk to a couple of guys that had played which for Tampa Bay and Seattle, Tristan Wurz and DK Metcalf, and they both mentioned the detailed part of what Dave Canals brings to the job and said he's very, very detail oriented. And Metcalf went on to say, you know he's also going to do he did what Rust did well, he did what Gino
did well, even mentioned Drew Locke. I think the death kill for a lot of coaches is forcing a player into their scheme instead of adjusting their scheme to their players. And so that's going to be I think the most important thing to watch is does this get adjusted around what Bryce young, these receivers, this offensive line can offer and sort of elevate what they do.
Best, no, no question, And that's the thing. And I thought it was interesting seeing the stuff you were sending back from Orlando. I mean, you get a lot of that same stuff. I mean those guys talked about the level of detail in addition to the energy. I think that's the thing that kind of jumps off the page and its easiest to see, but it came through and talking to those guys about just how detailed, how he
comes into every interaction with a plan for it. That kind of thing that Dave Canalis was in their experience.
Right, So I know we keep going back to it, but I'm I'm very interested just the logistics behind how he's gonna shave that time off that throwing time. Yeah, because you hear a lot of people too talk about like three seconds. You want to throw under three or around two and a half. But to have that specific number, I want to see how that comes about.
Well, and again we've talked about this before on this podcast. They're basically going to be starting from scratch because I think everything Bryce Young did last season, you remember the experiences, and Dave talked about that. He said, you know that experience is valuable because he said, I go back to my evaluations of Bryce from Alabama, which he was doing when he was in Tampa, but he said, I get that guy, plus sixteen games of having seen it in
the NFL but the specifics of the offense. Everything that was happening here last year was just so fundamentally broken that I don't think you kind of keep the scars, but you throw everything else away because it's starting fresh. None of that stuff worked. The routes were never timed up with his footwork, you know, the depth was never in line with the protection, all the things. It was just it was the most sideways offense I think I've ever I've ever seen, honestly, and there's you know, a
lot of reasons for that. That probably not worth dragging back up right now because there is that fresh start and he gets to come in with his plan start over with Bryce and a brand new staff on that side of the ball.
I like that phrase, keep the scars and get rid of everything else that was. You know, we got to talk to Peyton Manning and Orlando as well, and that was something he mentioned, Yeah, you know, I.
Needed I'm back. I'm back here at the office last week and I'm talking to Cass about what's coming, and she's like, oh, yeah, I talked to Peyton Manning too, and I said, yeah, do that now, right right that one. Now, let's just go straight to I've got the opinions of probably the one of the five greatest quarterbacks ever to play the game, who, by the way, also stunk his.
Rookie right, He won what three games through twenty eight interceptions.
Three and thirteen twenty eight picks.
And then the next year he went thirteen and three.
Yep, So uh, not to say that's what's going to happen here this season.
Time is a flat circle. History will repeat itself. But you know, we've here, we hear more and more the past couple of years about the importance of letting a guy sit and I think there's I think there's some credibility to that, but then there's also something that can be taken from going through it the only you know, the only way to it is through it. And boy did he go through it, right. And it's all gonna for that to work, though, it's going to depend on
the attitude going into that second year. Okay, am I gonna let that first year knock me down and kind of mess with my mindset? Or am I gonna take everything that went wrong and learn from it? And that's what Peyton Manning did, And you know, he said, you know, you go back and watch what Bryce did at Alabama. He's he's got the capability to do it. So it's as long as he can learn from that rookie year, and to your point, kind of just flush it all away, but keep the scars that could end up being in
the long run. This is gonna sound crazy to say, but in the long run, the best thing that happened to him.
Woof you. You do not want it. You do not want to have to get your education that way, but you can get an education that way. It's maybe not exactly, it's kind of like my college transcript, probably not the way you'd have drawn it up, but there was a degree at the end. I guess exactly.
He's getting degrees. You told us that.
Earlier this week, no doubt, no doubt, And I got too many of them. But she was a good day some years. At any rate.
You know what they call a doctor who got a d in medical school and a doctor of got to a doctor.
Yeah, that was an old John foxism. One of these days this is gonna be my book. I'm going to write the wit and wisdom of John Fox. He was he was famous for. I used to tease him about being a phys ed major from San Diego State, and he was like, well, you know what they call the guy who finished class in medical school, don't you? Doctor? Who's very proud of that. So it's uh, I can do John fox'sm's all day long. But why would we do that when there's a new coach and a Super
Bowl and all this stuff. Oh the other thing on your travel blog, you got to visit with our guy Derek Brown down in Orlando. Since Derek is an actual pro bowler now and not just a guy who bowls. He is a pro bowler. And was there anybody in Orlando having the kind of fun he was having?
I don't think there was. He was having the time of his life. He helped them win both the help the NFC win the relay by doing the sled push at the end. I think he was pushing to Marcus Ware. Yeah. And the Chug of War, I mean he was an anchor on that thing. A lot of attention got put on Aiden Hutchinson because he was at the front of the rope. But anybody who's ever been through second grade can tell you the importance in Tug of War is the anchor.
Yeah, and you got Dexter Lawrence and Derek Brown at the back end of that rope for the NFC, it was it was going to be hard to move those two cats.
And they not only did they win, they won like bat both back to.
Back pretty convincingly. But yeah, it was It was good to see Derek be rewarded for the season he had. We talked a lot about it coming down the stretch of the season. I mean, he was the bright spot. He was the thing that was going well. So I just think from a human standpoint there is it was good for him to be recognized. It was good for people to see it, and you know, he's going to
be one of the people they build around here. And when you know, when Dan Morgan talked on Thursday about the kind of people he wanted to see, he wanted to see dogs. He kept talking about dogs. Somebody asked me, would you spell this dawg or are you going d og dawg? See, I'm a traditionalist. I guess I went d og when I wrote these stories and somebody asked
me about it and I looked it up. And when the Godfather of funk, George Clinton, recorded Atomic Dog on the album cover, it was dog and I was like, if George Clinton says it's dog, I'm going with dogs.
I just think that actually reminds me. I had a dog growing up that we called him dog like Italian when you say it slow yeah, d og.
Yeah.
Anyways, d g versus dawg, that's two completely different people. Like a dog, dog that's somebody who you know can can stand up for themselves. But a dawg that's somebody who's like gonna go out there and fight the fight every time, no matter like he'll he'll bring the fight to you.
Well, we'll continue this debate throughout the years. I think it's situational their time for dogs and their time for dogs. But you know, Dan talked about needing more of them and and specifically you know, when I asked him who those guys are here, the two cats he mentioned immediately were Derrick Brown and Frankie Lou And Frankie is almost like, having been around and watched Dan play his rookie year and beyond, he always played that way. I mean, hair
on fire, running around one hundred miles an hour. Dan was a more analytical player. I mean Frankie is another one of those energy guys. But Dan had that kind of Luke Keekley type of recognition, read and react ability coupled with just burning hot and one hundred miles an hour. And Frankie is that guy. Now. Frankie was put in a position this year without Shaq Thompson around, where he was forced into more of a call the play leadership type role. But when Frankie's at his best, it's just
wind him up and let him go. And that's what Dan talked about needing more of. And they're gonna look to add some of those guys on both sides of the ball, honestly, and they're gonna need it, and we'll we'll have opportunities to get into the offseason plans and
all that kind of stuff as we go. But you know, I just early on when I think about what they're trying to do here and create a new start around a bunch of existing parts and to change the tone you know they they went to in fifteen last year, and nobody wants to think too much about how that happened, but creating that kind of mindset, creating that culture is the word that gets thrown out a lot at introductory
press conferences. They were very intentional about that. I mean, I went back and looked at a transcript to that press conference, and if you search the word dog, I think the only word they use more often was alignment. And they just talked about speaking off the same page, everybody kind of following the same pattern and creating something new here. That's the challenge for Dave canalist Dan Morgan, and it's a big one. It's not going to be
something that gets fixed immediately. And Dan was very careful about talking about that with me. He's like, this might take a minute because we have to do this right and be very intentional about it. But right now, at the point they are at, they have checked that box. I mean, they've kind of locked in on what they're looking for. Staffed there, trying to hire all the stuff
that's going on. So so far, so good. There will be a lot of ground to cover in the days and weeks to come, and we will get to all that here on the Happy half Hour. But the other thing we have to get to this week is, oh, by the way, super Bowl, Yeah, Vegas.
Yeah.
I should probably pack some clothes or something, because I think I have a flight in the morning. I'm heading out there for a lot of stuff going on this week, But yeah, I should probably get ready for that. I mean, all I really know is she's forty nine ers Taylor Swift are playing in the Super Bowl. I don't know how the scoring works, but yeah, Taylor Swift will be in Vegas, and so will I.
At a certain point, if you meet her, then you're my hero.
I remember. I remember being at Super Bowls and you see certain people and it's like when you see Beyonce walking down the hall of the Media Center, It's like, yeah, and Beyonce, how about that? You know, you kind of have those moments where, oh, yeah, I don't know that we're gonna have that kind of interaction with Taylor while we're there, But I.
Don't look right behind me one time.
Yeah you know what, may maybe we will, because we will be in Las Vegas to chronicle the events to see if our very own Julius Peppers is announced as a member of the Hall of Fame on Thursday night. It'll be exciting to see if that comes to pass, and everybody will be on the edge of their seats Thursday night, probably around ten ish, midway through the honor show, which you can enjoy for yourself and watch that moment
with us. But I don't know. Maybe if she hears we're hanging out with Julius and we know Julius Peppers, that'll be enough.
Yeah, she'll definitely run over there to that. But that's that's going to be an exciting time for Julius Peppers to just to kind of see what happens, and you know, well deserved if he does get in either way, Do you take a gold jacket with you?
Yeah? I don't get I don't get a gold jacket.
It's like a Donnie Osmond black sequin jacket.
Yeah, you know, that's the thing. I need to call my tailor to see if we can get something cranked out. I don't have enough sequence in my wardrobe right now.
But are you gonna go see the U two show?
I don't know what I mean. I truly it sounds insane, but I don't really know what I'm gonna do when I get to Vegas. Yeah, planning is not my strong suit, as my wife will often inform me. But we're we're trying to investigate some tickets. Maybe go see a show if Wayne Newton's playing. I'm a big Donka Shane guy, as you well know, so.
Go see Adele if we could.
If we could get Wayne Newton tickets, that would be a good day.
Cool. Have you ever seen Certain Discile in Vegas?
I have not seen anything in Vegas because I've never been first in Vegas. I am. I have been on the earth a lot of years and have never been to that fine city. But so I feel like everything's gonna be brand new. I almost don't want to know a whole lot going into it, just to kind of see it with fresh eyes. But I understand that you've got a perception in your mind of which you think Vegas is supposed to be. So I'm looking forward to seeing what it's all about.
Here are my three things I tell people to do in Vegas if they have time, and then, well, I know, we gotta wrap up. Go see something like Certain Disilay or a show like that. It's really worth it. It's incredible. Go see the Greenhouse and the Bellaggio Lobby. Everybody talks about the fountains. The fountains are incredible. Go inside to see the Greenhouse.
All right, it's really really row plant.
If you've got a day, drive to the west southwest entrance of the Grand Canyon. It's about a two and a half three hour drive there, and if you go to the National Park entrance, it's gonna take you two days.
But if you go to the.
Reservation entrance, you can get there in about three hours. And it's incredible.
It's I'm trying to figure out with all the events we've got to hit this weekend, don't know if I'm gonna get to the Grand Camp. There's other two I feel apreci Oh.
Ride the roller coaster in New York, New York. You can do that instead of going to the Grand Canyon.
There you go roller coasters. I feel like canyon. You know, I would have to pack my boots in my camping gear and stuff like that. I don't know that that's necessarily happening on this trip. But all right, so you are our swifty in chief around here, our residents swifty badge I wear proudly. Yeap. Is she going to be enough? Is she going to lift the forces of her boyfriend's team to victory?
You know, Darren, I get kind of riled up about this because I think that he played perfectly well before her. He'll play perfectly well if she's not there. He does, though, play better when she is in attendance. That is statistically proven. What I'm most curious about is how quickly she makes it there from Tokyo the night before. But she can
do it because the international dateline exists. What's really funny is this exact conversation about getting from Tokyo to the middle of America over one night happened years ago on the West Wing, and it's like West Wing actually already figured it out. Taylor Swift can totally do it. But I'm excited about her new album coming out. It's a birthday present to me because it's right before my birthday.
There you go, so happy birthday to you. Coming up in April with a brand new album. How many albums does she have? I don't know, like thirty, a lot of albums. I think this will be like titter Lovin many many albums. So hey, good for her, good for him, young love.
Who are you taking in that game?
I you know what, here's the thing. It's hard for me. I mean, I'm like everybody else. You enjoy seeing Taylor and Travis do their thing, and that's fun. But San Francisco's where all our friends are, you know, Yeah, I mean all our old friends. I've told people, you know, when your parents tell you your dog died and they say it's gone to a farm in the country where it gets to run around in the grass and be happy with all this friends. That's like the forty nine ers
right now. So whether it's Sam Darnold, Christian McCaffrey, Steve Wilks, all those people we got to know well here are enjoying themselves right now. I think, I mean not, there is plenty of football content in the world, and we're not going to dive too deeply into it. I think that the forty nine ers are the better team. I think they are set up to win a game like this on both sides of the ball. And I think based on what Kansas City does, you could imagine Christian
McCaffrey having a big game. You know, he's going to get the ball a lot. You know. Run defense is not a strength of the Kansas City Chiefs, but the thing about it is. And I kind of reached this point with Tom Brady and the Patriots at a certain point in my career. I just got tired of being the idiot who thought this was the year Tom Brady was going to fall apart. No way he can do this again. He's getting too old. It'll never work. I
just can't. I'm a little I heard a little bit of Jake and Jordan as we were coming in here, and I'm a little bit like Jake. It's just really hard for me to look at Patrick Mahomes and the way he's playing now and yeah, that'll.
Never work, exactly Like, it's really really hard to count out Patrick Mahomes in the postseason, especially this time of year.
You know.
For that matter, it's hard to count out Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelsey what they can do this time of year. And then you look at Chris Jones on that defense. What I keep coming back to. On paper, the forty nine Ers should win this game, but I've seen almost this exact forty nine Ers team lose to this Kansas
City team. The biggest difference is going to be I think, you know, Christian McCaffrey can take over a game a little bit more than Raheem Moster could, and so ken is Christian mc It is very rare to say a team is a running back away, but the forty nine Ers were truly a running back away, and now they have that run.
This was the moment, and they are loaded up with guys on the defensive side of the ball. They've got the best back in the game and Christy McCaffrey. And again my head tells me that the forty nine ers are the best team. I just don't know that they're going to win this game because again, the way Patrick Mahomes has played, what he's done in the postseason in a short amount of time, He's one of those guys. We were talking about Hall of Fame with Julius Peppers earlier.
Patrick Mahomes is going to be one of them. Short conversations based on what he's done already. I mean, you wouldn't say this about very many players, but even if he did nothing else after this season, Patrick Mahomes going to Hall of Fame, kids, He's that guy. So it's going to be a fascinating week. I'm looking forward to seeing all the events in Las Vegas, looking forward to seeing what happens Thursday night, and then when we get back,
it'll be straight into combine prep. Right, you know, the offseason never really is off, not around this place. But we will get into it all next week and we'll break it all down for you, and I'll tell you if I actually got on to that roller coaster, war saw Wayne Newton or what we happen to do. We'll hit you next week on The Happy Half Hour. Firefour