All right, everybody, welcome to a busier than normal middle of March version.
Of The Happy Half Hour. I'm Darren Yanhn.
She's Casidy Hill and we and we had a week last week.
We did.
I think that week is still going on or you know that thirty rock beam where it's like, oh, what a week and he goes lemon, it's Wednesday.
Yeah, that was last week. I mean they you know, obviously, going into an off season after a two and fifteen year you expect a lot of movement and I did. I don't know that I expected it to the degree and intensity of last week, because not only did they do a lot of stuff, they did a lot of big business. And the three right off the bat on you know, Monday, effectively during the negotiation period, bringing in Robert Hunt Damian Lewis to fortify that offensive line and
trading for Deontay Johnson. It's like, pooh, okay, all right, three big swings, and you just took care of a couple of the very biggest problems Bryce Young and that offense had last year.
Two of them literally big swings.
Yeah.
Robert Hunt and Damian Lewis are some big guys, as we saw when they entered the building this week. And you know, I think that was proof, at least for fans, definitely for me, that Dave Canalis and Dan Morgan haven't just been offering lip service. They laid out at the combine pretty clearly what their priorities were set, and you know, spoke the words. It wasn't just coach speak. They didn't tabbets around it. They said, we need guards, we need
interior guards for Bryce. And then they went out and did it well, two of the really, really really good guards on the free market, right.
And you know what I mean, All the numbers this time of year are always subject to a little closer scrutiny once you see what the actual contract. But in terms of the reported value, you're talking about one hundred and fifty million dollars worth of contract for a couple of guards. That should show you how serious they were
about solving this problem. And you know, you go through last year where you play seven left guards eight right guards, Bryce takes sixty two sacks six most all time in NFL history, tying the franchise record set by poor Steve Berlin back in the day. But they had to get that fixed and they went out with intent and did it. Yeah, I think, I mean if you just depending on whose metrics you believe, whether it's PFF or anybody else. Robert Hunt was one of the top guards in the game
last year. He excels as a past protector. Also, he's mammoth. Robert Hunt is that special kind of big that even big people are, you know, dwarfed by or eclipsed by. I mean when you saw him roll up on Taylor Moten, who is a fairly gigantic human being the other day, and it's like, oh, that new one's much bigger than.
He was, And that's that's so so important, especially for what they want to do with Bryce this year. You know, get the ball out quicker, give him a clean pocket to kind of see through, which sounds of course, yeah, of course you want that, but when you see it didn't necessarily happen last year with the rotating door at guard.
The rotating door at guard is also interesting when you think about the fact that Damian Lewis has hardly ever missed a game in his career, like high school, college, NFL has hardly ever missed a game, and so something like that's important, and you know Darren as cliche as it sounds to say, Okay, well, you've got to have a good line for your young quarterback. You especially have to have a good line in today's NFL at every position.
It used to be once upon a time, the most premium position on the offensive line was what left tackle.
Left tackle.
Now you've got guys coming from every angle. They can blitz off the left, they can blitz off the right. I mean, you've got guys like Derek Brown coming straight up the middle for one hundred and three tackles. So you've got to have just absolute like studs and horses at every position, especially those interior positions.
Well, and that's the thing is I think cass about this reconfigured offensive line. And you know, with Bradley Boseman being released, Austin Korbet kicks inside. He's your center now, ladies and gentlemen. And Austin was kind of a He's an interesting piece in this whole calculus because Austin's played all five in his life. He's been at every spot on the line. He was drafted as a tackle, played some center, settled in at guard, won a Super Bowl ring with the Rams at guard, and.
Played really well here.
But Austin in a lot of ways fits what they're trying to do because a he's the communicator of the bunch and is always, you know, kind of that. He was almost the veteran of that line the last couple of years, and you know, directing a lot of traffic. But he's also stout and Austin's a smart guy, has experienced and has done this before. So we'll see how
it goes. I mean, they still haven't ruled out. You know, as you go through this thing, when you go through a busy free agency and you fill all the lines in the depth chart, you know, then you get to a spot where if you get to the draft and at thirty three or thirty nine the right center is
sitting there, nothing precludes you from taking that guy. But they wanted they had to make moves to stabilize this thing in the short term before they can worry about the long And I think when you look at Ikiakwanu, Damian Lewis, Austin Corbett, Robert Hunt, Taylor Moten, not only is that a pretty good offensive line, that's a massive offensive line. I mean Austin's littling out of the bunch, and Austin is not small and he plays bigger than he actually is. So I think it's it's the step
they absolutely had to take after last season. And you could say you overreacted and you overspent on guards or whatever, but that was an acute problem last year, right, and if you've invested what you've invested in Bryce, you have to do that. And you know they feel like these two guys, you know, both the personality and the player are fits here.
Damian Lewis, And this will be in a story this week on Panthers dot com. But he told me last weekend or last week Darren that he wants he, Austin and Robert Hunt to be known as mean, tough and nasty soul, and he broke down which one was mean, which one was tough, which one was nasty? Off to check out the stories, to check out the story this week.
But I thought that was fun too, especially because they are kind of the typical offensive linem where they're a little bit more docile off the field and you know they're going to turn it on on. But I mean, I thought also to your point, I mean, if you're sitting there now that you've got that extra pick in the second round and for some reason a guy like
Jackson Powers Johnson falls to you or something. I think that's a good problem to have, is to have someone like that come in and work with Austin Corbett for a little while. I mean, ideally you've got what eight nine deep across the line.
Well, and that's the thing.
Now, Brady Christiansen becomes your sixth man basically, and you know, I think because they're built at this moment, Brady's probably your swing tackle and your top back up at guard across the board. Now, you know, I could see them going out and finding another veteran tackle. You know, somebody like David Sharp was here last year, but Sharp got signed up early I think in Houston.
Or like Gabe Jackson.
Yeah, as a guard, I mean, somebody of that ill Okay, I think it tackles. Probably, it's reasonable to think they're looking for something like that at the moment because they want to make sure this thing is is buttoned up and to protect Bryce, because it's the priority of what's going on around here this offseason.
So no matter what a quarterback does, if he's on his.
Back, no doubt, no doubt.
But it wasn't just offensive lineman, although it felt like it was just offensive lineman.
Well, they take up a lot of space, and it feels.
Like with the sheer mass of transactions that happened last week and almost got lost, but it's like, oh, by the way, they trade for Deyontay Johnson, they have what could be a number one receiver. Now for Bryce Shawn to go out there with Adam Feeling and create some stuff that they didn't have before.
I think that it depends on your definition of a number one receiver. But yes, I'm agreeing with you, just expelling on it. I think in terms of sheer touches, Adam Thielen's still gonna get the most touches of this group. But what Deontay Johnson can do for you is create
those big plays you know he has. He's ESPN calculates a number of things, and one of the things they calculated this past year was that from twenty twenty through the season's twenty twenty three, so four seasons, Deontay Johnson creates more space than any other receiver in the National Football League. And the other players that rounded out the top five were guys like Davontae Adams, Stefan Diggs, guys that just that.
Jefferson, Yes, guys that are good.
Cool and they are known for creating space like that's their thing. And to Johnson creates more space than any of them. You know, he spent his first year with and now that I think about it too, I think one of those years he wasn't even in the league.
So it's like he has he's doing it with less time he's been his first year with Ben Roethlisberger and then he went to He kind of went through a carousel mister Bisky Can Pickett, and so he's kind of seen both sides of that coin, you know, a Hall of Fame veteran quarterback and then a young first round quarterback. He's kind of seen it from both angles. It's it's gonna be interesting to see what approach he takes with this receiver room, you know, is it sort of like
defer to Theling. I think that he will, just based on talking to him last week, and so that's why I think we still see Theling maybe get the most touches. But what Deontay brings you is something that can not only take the top off of defense, but just le a defense in their dust and that's that's going to be exciting for Bryce. That depends a lot a lot
on chemistry. So it's gonna be really paramount that the two of them spend a whole lot of time together this offseason to kind of get that timing down together, because if you have a receiver like that, that, like I said, more than anything else, depends on chemistry.
Yeah, no doubt.
And the other thing that it's important to remember about that receiver room is I don't think it's completely yet as as has been widely reported. Michael Gallup from Dallas is in here today. Mike Williams is scheduled to show up here later on this week.
Those are both too like like, oh wow, those are guys.
Yeah, those are guys.
And the thing that's interesting about both of them is they are that if you want me to be football nerd guy and describe things by their positions, those are those exes that get outside and can win one on one and get downfield. And both those guys are plus fourteen I think fourteen and fifteen respectively in career yards per reception. I mean, these are the guys who make downfield plays. Both of them got some injury stuff on the back of their football card that you'll have to
check out. Medicals are a part of every one of these visits. That's going to be a thing. But I think when you consider the possibility of adding somebody like that, it's almost like we're in off Chinese menu. You get your starts, you get your protein, you get your vegetable. You know, they've dealt with this part over here, this category. Now they're on to this one.
And if you.
Can add somebody like that, somebody that can stretch the field, get vertical to create, to create that space underneath for two cats and Feeling and Deontay Johnson, who've shown they know how to work in that space. That's where you create opportunities for the offense as a whole. So, you know, Dave Canal has had that last year obviously in Mike Evans, he's had that guy when he was in Seattle and a DK Metcalf and working with different kinds of receivers.
But you know, we'll see how the following week goes. You know, it's as we're sitting here taping this podcast at ten twenty six am time, stamp it for Posterity.
Eleven twenty six. We changed time last week.
Did it?
Yeah?
Come on, mad updateure clocks in the studio. What are you're killing me? You're making me look bad out here.
Mister trivia man. Who won your trivia this weekend?
Yeah, we are the champion.
You know who first suggested daylight savingstone?
I do not Benjamin Franklin. Yes, of course, it's win in doubt. Who invented thing in America? Guess Benjamin Franklin? The Almanac?
Sure?
Or why not?
He did? I think he did start the Almanac?
Yeah, I know he did so anyway, it's yes in matters that are not trivial. On the other hand, as busy as they were, or rebuilding an offense which needed to happen, all of a sudden, you look across the ball on the other side and there's a lot of holes to fill between Brian Burns being traded to the Giants for picks.
You got into that a little bit.
I don't think we talked about on the podcast last time, but that one had kind of reached its inevitable conclusion. It was gonna be hard to do a deal Dan, you know, Morgan and those guys talked at the combine a little bit, but it was just becoming obvious there wasn't a deal long term. So you get to a point where you just have to get what you can. And in a situation where a guy doesn't have contract, you know, every so much gets made out of that
old Rams offer of the two and two ones. And I kind of got into this in the mail bag the other day, but that is probably that's a little bit of a roar shark test. That's gonna be what you carried into it. You're gonna believe because you can say you can scream and Highland and say, oh my got two first round picks in a second at the time of that offer. It's a twin you know, which happened in October of twenty two. You're talking about a
twenty four and twenty five first rounder. And when NFL teams start negotiating trades, you know there's a discount applied to future draft picks. You know, a year outs one is a two and two years out one is kind of a three. So there is a little bit of a discount, like.
As soon as you drive it off the lot, the value.
The depreciation on a Brian Burns.
But you know they kind of just got to that point where they felt like they needed to move on, make the decision, get what they could. They make the trade for a two and a couple of fives effectively, and now they've got two picks in the top forty. They're on thirty third and the thirty ninth coming from
the Giants. But now all of a sudden, you look across the ball and there's no Brian and there's no Frankie, because Frankie Luvu signs with Washington pretty quickly, and they signed all the linebackers in Washington.
They go. Not only do they.
Dan Quinn's going to be running like a two.
Yeah, get after it. But you got guys who fill a lot of different roles up there. I mean, just to think that Bobby Wagner and Frankie Luvu roll in the door, your defense changed pretty considerably pretty quickly up there in Washington. But Frankie creates a hole. They cut von Bell creates a hole. Dante Jackson goes to Pittsburgh in the trade for Deontay Johnson. This place is rich in Djas, by the way, and so all of a sudden, you've got a lot of blanks to fill in on
defense much the same way. They kind of went at it systematically. They bring in Ashawn Robinson to be the big run defender up front, pair him with Shy Tuttel and Derek Brown, and you're a lot more solid upfront than you were a year ago. Ayshawn's kind of that old head who's been around the league, good at what he does and has filled in a lot of places. And Bonus knows the gero Evera played for him previously with the Rams, knows about what's going to be expected
of him. Same thing with Josie Jewel, played linebacker for Eja out in Denver. Same with Fuller, the new safety who's coming in town, Jordan Fuller from the Rams. These guys bring familiarity. Dan Jackson was signed away from Buffalo and he's a guy Dan Morgan was around for the drafting of in the seventh round a couple of years ago. As he's developed into a much more consistent player for those guys, So they've filled in all those gaps and as you look at this thing right now, you can
put a lineup on the field. And that's been the biggest thing about the last week is you went from wondering what it was going to look like to saying, okay, I see twenty two. I see twenty two guys on either side of the ball, something resembling a depth chart. So it is it complete by no stretch of the imagination. Because as much as they're looking at those receivers, you know, they've also had Chase Young and Davian Clowney in here
for visits. And as you're trying to replace Brian Burns, you can't do it with just a DJ want.
I'm a cleavon Chasin.
I mean that's a flyer on a former first round or see if you can get anything out of him. Wanham's been a pretty productive guy. I mean he's South Carolina product. A lot of people know him from his days with the Game Cocks, A lot of people know him from that touchdown he scored in this building last October.
So he's going to be He's going to get a lot of opportunities to be that guy in terms of the pass rusher at that position because other than last year's third round pick DJ Johnson, not a lot of there there and so they're continuing to monitor that market. Stay tuned for all the latest on clowny Young, et cetera. But still very much under construction at that position. But otherwise this thing's starting to come together.
And I also think too, it's important to point out daring. You know, it's easy when some of these pieces start getting traded and different things like that, to go, well, wait, the defense wasn't the problem. What are we doing? But the defense wasn't really a problem. You kept your two corners. You're probably gonna supplement some more there in the draft
as well. The run defense was an issue, and then you so you bring in someone else like Ashan Robinson to kind of fill in the middle of that line. And then Josie Jewel is just a tackling machine man like he is everywhere, and and he's just a roaming linebacker there in the middle of the field. That's gonna be a And this is probably getting ahead of ourselves, but that's that seems like a purposeful signing for the run defense. And Josie Jewel and you mentioned he played
for ever Ro had his best year. Yeah, and he's had some pretty good years. His best year came under ever Row.
I think one of the one of the subtle things about Josie jewel also is he he can wear that green dot, he can call signals. And last year when Shaq Thompson goes down in Week two with a broken leg, there was a minute where that defense was sort of looking around like, okay, what are we Who's calling this thing? And they tried, they tried Von Bell at points, Frankie
did it and then didn't, and then did again. They were running Camu and Dion Jones in and out, and there was just never that consistent Okay, this is who's calling this thing? Because and again Frankie Luvu's great linebacker here made a ton of plays. But Frankie is more of a seek and destroy guy than it get everybody in the right place guy. I mean, that's just not a role he had ever been called to do, and
it wasn't instinctive for him. So I think having that other guy, having that old head at linebacker other than Shaq, who can call a defense, who can get everybody in the right place, you know, it's just a lot more stable up the middle than it was a year ago. Because you know, we talked about Ashean Robinson and nothing against these guys, you know, Nick Thurman, Lebrian Ray came in and played dutiful snaps last year for a decent Carolina Pan. There's defense, but they are guys who were
signed out of an August tryout. They were on the street when training camps opened, so it almost felt like anything you got out of those guys was a bonus. Now you've got three legit defensive linemen in a three four taking up a lot of space, you know, and that's gonna help a lot of things. So I just think they're a lot more stable up the middle. Obviously there's work to be done on the edges. They could probably use another corner. They definitely could use another outside linebacker.
But hey, it's now eleven thirty. Now that I've learned which of my clocks I should look at in this studio, I'm still holding that against you, Matt.
This one's wrong over here too.
It's just I have no shot.
I'm like the old newsrooms where I need a clock for every time zone.
What time is it in Tokyo right now? Matt?
I have no idea. Do you know there's a town in county in Indiana that doesn't avert observe the changing of daylight?
Savings set the one ron Swanson works in No.
But is the one if you watched the West Wing that Toby and Josh got stuck in because they didn't know that the town didn't observe daylight saving.
Yeah, I do remember that.
But anyway, here we are and we do know what time it is. So what comes next?
They're going to bring in Yeah, a couple more this week, as Darren mentioned, Yeah, Darren, what if they trand Kate Middleton through here?
Yeah, that was the one thing. And I'll give you guys a peek behind the curtain when we're spitballing content ideas when you sign a couple of guards. I really wanted a picture of Damian Lewis and Robert hunting Beefeater costumes with like Kate Middleton photoshop behind him.
We found her.
She's being protected America Stadium.
It's okay, everybody, the Queen and the Queen City.
Yeah, but it's yeah, there is going to be a lot of movement around this place. I mean, so stay tuned. Unto Panthers dot Com, a lot of stuff coming on. We're gonna be introducing you to all these new guys. We had a chance to visit with them as they came in last week and that'll continue this week, So stay tuned to Panthers dot com for all the latest that it's.
Gonna be exciting a lot of good stories, a.
Lot of cool stuff to share with you, and probably the next time we catch up with you on the Happy Half Hour will be a little more draft focused because by then they will filled in some more blanks and we can really dig into what's coming at number thirty three and number thirty nine, and we will do that on the next episode. Don dun Dum Happy Half Hour,