This week on a Happy Half Hour.
You've seen the connection with Bryce and Deontay Johnson developed this week through Mini Camp and canals are saying that they've told Bryce Deontay is going to make the right football move. Deontay's going to make the right decision, trust him. So that'll be a fun connection to kind of watch continue to develop.
To'sdow cow Wha. It's time for the Happy Half Hour presented by Southern Star, an official bourbon of the Carolina Panthers. Here are your hosts, Darren Gant and Cassidy Hill.
Hello friends, And if I sound more excited than normal, it's because it's the summertime edition you just get of the Happy Half Hour. Yeah, me being in a good mood scares people. Welcome to it. If you've been listening to The Happy Half Hour, you know that already, so welcome to it. This is a very special episode of The Happy Half Hour presented by a Southern Star, an official bourbon partner of the Carolina Panthers. Celebrate the spirit
of the Carolinas. And we're celebrating because we're about to get some time off for a little bit tier in a little bit. But before that, we had a lot of football, and we got a lot of football to get to. But yeah, it's definitely got a feeling around the building today. It is now Thursday afternoon, and this place is cleared out pretty good. There was initially a walkthrough on the schedule for the Panthers after yesterday's final
practice of mini camp. That walk through got canceled and so dudes were bolting out of here after the last team meeting before training camp, and I heard a couple of them saying, hey, win's your flight winds your flight Well, it was gonna be nine, but now I'm gonna move it up.
So everybody was. Everybody's excited to just take a break. I mean it's not that you know.
They hated it or anything like that, but as with any school year, when you get to the end of it, everybody's in a little bit different mood, you know. I remember back in the day, I would call into a radio station and request that they would play Freebird, which was stupid and self defeating because every radio station I listened to played Freebird all the time anyway, didn't.
Have to request it. But nowadays you request, like do you ever have you ever heard the vitamin c graduation song. It's like, as we go, oh yeah, that feil. That's what that song says to me that schools out because radio stations start playing it at the end of the at the end of the school year to like say goodbye to all the seniors, and that means it's summer.
Yeah.
Well, and in my day it was either Leonard Skinner
or Alice Cooper schools out for summer. But anyway, before we get everybody in trouble with copyright music violations, we should probably we should probably go ahead and talk about the football because I think in this kind of way I tried to write it yesterday at the end of practice, was now that we've been through an entire offic season, now that we've met the cast of characters, after watching these guys for the last three months on the field, what have we learned about this crowd and cass as
you go through this thing. I know you've spent a lot of time on the Dave Canalis Bryce Young relationship, the two point seven second release time, that kind of thing when you think about what you've seen and where they were in March and where they are now, kind of what's your big takeaway.
Ooh, so many takeaways. Let's see what's the big one. I think, more than anything, it's just how comfortable those two have become in their relationship with each other, and how trusting they've become. And the fact that you know, Canalis is always in Bryce's ear dear in practice, he's right there next to him. He's, you know, changing little things here and there. Of course, you have Will Heringer the quarterback coach, Nate Carroll the passing game coordinator. Brad
is like the offensive coordinator. But right now, Bryceshong is Dave Canalis's pet project, so to speak. And there's a lot that they're just kind of working on here and there. And it's more than anything, it's helping Bryce understand you don't have to do everything. You don't have to be superman. You don't have to play hero ball when you get out there, which is what it kind of was becoming by the end of last season, you know, as much as I could.
Ball, yeah, because there was nothing else to do other than it became kind of yellow ball at a certain dame.
YOA. That's a better way of putting it.
And nobody wants to go back to those days.
And I think just in conversations that I've had with coaches with players here and there, it's a lot of making sure that this offense is built around what they want to do, but more than anything, what Bryce does well, which sounds like that should be a given, like let's build it around what our quarterback does well, but that's not always the case for whatever reason. And you know, when he was coming into the league last year, there's a caveat there. He's a rookie coming into the NFL.
You don't necessarily know how the skills from college are going to translate. It's a little bit of figuring it out as you go. But this coaching staff has a pretty good grasp of what they think Bryce does well, and they're making sure to do that. You know, Dave can Al has talked this week about how much Bryce has been scrambling in practice, and he was saying, you know, I want him to be first read, second read. If
there's nothing there, he needs to be moving. And that was something that Nate Carroll and I talked about as well, and that story is up on our website about kind of building from the ground up and starting with Bryce's footwork and the footwork has been the biggest focus this offseason.
You can't do anything up top until you fix your foundation, and so they've they've kind of been tueling with his footwork and making sure he stays on the move because that's where they feel like Bryce Young is at his best. You know, Nate Carroll gave me a really good example about, you know, certain quarterbacks and I won't make names because they're still in the league, but he was saying, certain quarterbacks can only roll left and they can't necessarily roll
right or vice versa. And it was a, you know, it's a very like Zoolander sort of situation there, and he said, Bryce has the ability to throw while rolling left or throw a throw while rolling right. That's a tongue twister, hm, he said. And that's not every quarterback can do that, and so when you have a guy that can do it, you want to be able to
take advantage of it. And so it's not so much a scramble drill as it is just getting Bryce on the move where he can kind of feel free to move the pocket if he wants to, and he's not standing in a pocket and taking sixty two sacks.
Yeah, one of the things I've noticed, and I mean I think early on and we've been in the business of new coaches a little bit around here, is you might be aware, but when a new guy comes in, you get kind of caught up in the personality. And it's good they want to do this and they want to do that, that sort of stuff, but you never it takes a minute, I should say, to figure out what they want to do on the field.
And for a couple.
Months, all we ever heard about, all people talked about with Dave Canalis was positivity, personality and that kind of stuff. What I've found out about Dave in the last little bit is he is still a very granular football coach.
He enjoys, you know.
The hands on on the field practice, you know, repetition, do the drill, do it right, do it the way we talked about in a meeting. If not, let's bring it back. You know, I think we talked previously there. There was a scene at one point during OTAs where they were doing two minutes stuff and he had instructed them, Hey, listen, the way we want to do two minutes. Run the ball back to the center, give it to Austin, let him spot it. So the referee can get it going
and we can go. Well, somebody, there's no use calling anybody out because everybody is learning each other. Somebody just kind of chunked the ball back toward the huddle.
Little lax days.
Yeah, it was.
It was a little casual and a little more casual than Dave wanted. So he basically blew the whistle and said, Nope, that's not how we want to do it. Remember we talked about in a meeting, and it wasn't a big scream and yelling, holler and cuss and anything like that. It was just very matter of fact. Hey, listen, we talked about this, we want to do it this way.
And he just kind of read down the script of how they wanted to do it, and then he blew to whistle again, bring it back, let's start his segment over the next time they did it correctly, and all the times after that they did it correctly. And I think that's the kind of coach Dave Canalis is. It's easy to get caught up in some of that thirty thousand foot He's trying to bring positivity, he wants to build a culture. What he is is kind of a ball coach. He enjoys that part of it and he's
really into it. And I think people who've had conversations with Dave knows that Dave Canalis is an extreme eye contact guy, and when you're having a conversation, you get every bit of him. And he coaches that way too. I mean he's very involved, you know, from talking to Brice talking to a bunch of guys on offense. I mean, he is not afraid to get down in the weeds of what he wants to do offensively. And I think that's been good because it's safe to say this is
kind of a fresh start for everybody. I mean, last year, let's just pretend didn't happen and kind of move forward, and I think everybody would be happy with that.
But they're building this offense from scratch.
The other thing I've kind of picked up on from watching these guys over the last couple of months is Dave Canals hain't lyin when he talks about running the football. That's what they You know, we should have known that when he said it to begin with. We should have figured that it was going that way when they spend one hundred and fifty million dollars on six hundred and fifty pounds a guard in free agency, and then when we watch them practice, that's what they.
Want to be gang.
I mean, he talked about running stubbornly in Tampa because they weren't particularly good at it. You just keep beating you ahead against the wall. There are signs that this could be a pretty good running team. Now, again, they're not in pads, it's not full contact. They're not exerting their will and pushing defensive lines back or anything like that.
But when you see Robert Hunt, Austin Corbett, Damian and Lewis move inside, and pair that with what we know about Cuba Hubbard that Cuba is a very able, a very willing to run inside and get dirty yards kind of back. When you pair that with Miles Sanders is pretty good coming out of the backfield as a receiver and has got some speed when you get him out
in space. When you pair that with the eventual contributions of a guy like Jonathan Brooks who's coming off that acl in college and may not be ready to go, it's start a training camp, which we kind of knew already. You can kind of imagine this being a productive running game, and as you're trying to rebuild Bryce from the ground up, including confidence after a season that went so sideways, that's a pretty good place to start.
And you know, Darren, I think they've even got four backs and Canals has talked about wanting to keep that room, you know, flush, and I think they will because you also got a guy like Raheem Blacksheer who can be used the return game. But remember he had a pretty solid end to last season and he's been the fortunate recipient of Miles Sanders sort of just nursing some injuries here and there, and it might also be fine. It's
just you know, taking some precautions. Raheem's been the recipient of those extra snaps in practice and he again there's not pads, they're not full on hitting. It's not full speed, so there's always that caveat that goes with it. But he sees the field so well and he's got such a such a burst when he takes off, and that's a nice little weapon to have in your back pocket, like, oh, hey, here's our returner. Let's pop him in there to the running game as well. Use him if we need to
flex him out and you've got that. I think you could legitimately see them use all four of those guys.
Yeah, And I think Raheem's an interesting cat. I mean, he's got he's got some pop. That's why he's good in the return game. I mean he and I could see him being the beneficiary of these new kickoff rules because he is a very decisive runner. He hits the hole with intent and he's quick to it and can push through. I mean we've seen him. He's good in two point situations. I mean even in even in weird situations, he's shown that he's got some skills. So I think
it's an interesting room. You know that've got a bunch of guys. And Dave talked about the running back room and the tight end group at length when he was talking about particular position groups yesterday. But this thing, I'm not one of the things that I think happens reflexively
when there's a new coach. New coaches get to places because things went poorly previously, so everybody assumes there's an immediate reflex of, ah, now we fixed it, we figured out the secret sauce, this is all going to be better now.
And I'm not.
Suggesting that this offense is going to go from what it was last year, which passed the Southern Star.
To a good offense now.
But there are times out there on the practice field over the last couple months when you can sort of see between the cracks and it's like.
Okay, I can see how they might score points this year.
You know, I mean, you sort of see things coming together in a way that makes sense. And I know that sounds almost patronizing, maybe insulting, but that's where I think you've got to start with the Carolina Panthers. This offseason is Okay, we're beginning at zero. You can sort of see some tangible steps, and again, none of this is going to matter to you getting a season. I think people, based on what they saw last year, are going to want to see a little more in the
preseason than they did, which is reasonable and fair. And I do think there is some degree of burden to build on some of those positive results and justify some of that work to say, Okay, yeah, that's what it's supposed to look like.
But I can sort of see some of that.
I don't think this is gonna be one of the top five passing games in the league any stretch of the imagination. There's still a lot to be figured out on that side of it, but I can imagine this team ought to be able to run and run well over the course of the year, and.
The running game opens up the passing game.
It always does, and you know, it's.
Just speaking of the passing game. Something that Dave Canalis said on Wednesday that stood out to both of us was that they've kind of been telling Bryce and you've seen the connection with Bryce and Deontay Johnson developed this week through Mini camp, and Canals was saying that they've told Bryce, Deontay is going to make the right football move. He's going to make the right football decision, Trust him
to be where he needs to be. And that kind of goes into as well, you know, just helping Bryce understand you don't have to play hero ball do your part. But I thought that was telling that Canal has said that part out loud. You know, Deontay's going to be Deontay's going to make the right decision, trust him, and so that'll be a funn to kind of watch continue to develop it.
And again because of you know, Deontae was off doing his own thing.
For a little bit.
I'm sure everybody saw the social media video of him out working out on his own, but when he's been here, you've seen a pretty significant difference in that passing game because he's a different kind of receiver compared to what they had on Ham previously. And you know, Adam Feeling was the target last year by default, he was the
one thing that worked in the passing game. I don't know that it would be realistic to expect the same kind of production out of him this year, not because of anything he's doing or not doing, because they got a few more guys that it's possible. And you know, Xavier Leaguett was in and doing some things, and you see him running around in OTAs and it's.
Like, oh, well, he's big and fast.
We kind of knew that based on South Carolina, but when when you see him out there on the field, you understand the difference between him and all these other kids, and then you know, looking at the rest of the passing game. Canal has talked about Ters Marshall having a good spring. I don't know that Jonathan Mingo is a guy that we should count out of the mix here either, because you know, with legat out the last couple weeks with that hamstring. I mean, he's taken a lot of
those reps and he's looking pretty comfortable. I mean, Mingo is another guy. He's not as fast as Exavier, but he's got a similar kind of skill set, similar kind of frame, and I think he's learning a little bit. And we'll have some more on him and all these guys over the next couple of months. But things are ratcheting back a little bit. We're easing into the training camp mode coming up soon here. It'll be honest before
we know it. But you know, just seeing that first impression of that offense, I feel reasonably safe saying it's going to be better.
Let me put the car before the horse here and ask you a question. Do you think they have a thousand yard receiver again this year?
I don't know.
That would be nice. It would certainly be helpful if there was one of those guys. I think if they're gonna have one, it's probably gonna be Deontae.
But we'll see.
I think, you know, in a perfect world, you would see a situation where Feeling's still getting his Now, you know, eighty catches for Adam Thielen might turn into seven hundred yards but in a normal situation, but I don't know exactly, and they're still they're still putting a lot of this
stuff together. I kind of asked one of the offensive coaches the other day kind of a granular question about what the offense was gonna look like, and he said, honestly, we're gonna find that out in training camp because they've got all the stuff installed now, and now it's gonna be getting out there in pads, running it at full speed and seeing what it looks like, and that's gonna.
Determine a lot of it.
I think you're gonna see, you know again, You're gonna see a lot of run game, which means Bryce is probably gonna be under center a good bit. We know he's good in the shotgun based on what he did in college. But I think they're still trying to see what some of that stuff is going to feel like once they're out there, almost said Spartanburg.
Once they're out.
Here, happy outside Bank of America Stadium, on the practice fields here on this property for training camp details to come. Stay tuned to Panthers dot com for all the latest on that. But they're still working through that thing. I could see it, but I think Deonta's obviously the best shot at it, just based on the way they've been running around and kind of the quick connection they've had in a little bit of time they've worked together.
Yeah, and he's you know, people talk about his ability to create separation. He's opened more often than not when Bryce has throwing him. It's not a contested catch. It's easy to pick up an extra ten twelve yards when there's not a defender in your hip pocket.
Yeah, I mean that's how that was probably one of the first signs last year we should have known we had entered the upside down when Adam Thielen was among the league leaders in yards after the catch, right, because that ain't really his jam he was. He was up there early in the year simply because he was the guy who could move in space and get himself open
among those guys last season. So anyway, but there's you know, we spend all our time talking about offense because that's the thing that went so spectacularly wrong last season.
There's lots to dissect.
I mean, there really is.
But on the other side of the ball, it was almost it was almost funny to hear Shaq Thompson talk about it yesterday because.
Shack's like, you know, there's a lot of new over here too, But it did.
I think we got so many it was so easy to say, Okay, well, the whole defensive coaching staff returned, so the defense is going to stay the same, right, The scheme may stay the same, but there's a lot of new faces.
Yeah, I mean, say goodbye to Brian Burns, Frankie Luvu, Dante Jackson, Jeremy Chen, et cetera, et cetera, E Tour, a lot of different guys. And in their place, they brought in a bunch of dudes who already knew EJ. And these defensive coaches, a lot of former Rams and Broncos, you know. A'shawn Robinson gives them that third big body up front next to Shy tut On Derrick Brown that
ought to stabilize things from front to back. Josie Jewel gives them that second true inside linebacker who can wear green dot call of defense, get everybody lined up and know what's coming alongside Shaq, and then you go through Jordan Fuller, Nick Scott, and they bring in all these other guys and and Shaq said, they're new, but they're not really these They know what we're supposed to do.
So he said, I'm still getting to know the people, but it's it's interesting to see those kind of pieces come together and listen, I'm not gonna deceive our listeners.
I respect them too much for that.
We don't know one hundred percent how any of this is gonna look once they put on pads and start playing games. But just in in watching the communication and seeing them work through this stuff again, I don't know that it's going to be this calamitous drop off on that side of the ball, even though the turnover in terms of personnel was pretty massive, and we were talking about front end contributors and guys like Brian Burns and Frankie Luvu walking out the door.
And it is June, so we can we can play a little bit of you know, have fun with it a little bit. All of those new faces that have played in this defense before, Jordan Fuller, Ashan Robinson, Josie Jewel, Nick's Gout. Especially Fuller, Robinson and Jewel had their best years in that defense. And so when you're looking at that especially a guy like Jordan Fuller and Josie Jewel and how important those positions are. And you realize that not only do they know this system, but they have
flourished in this system. It's hard not to get a little bit excited about the possibilities. And then you've got someone like you know, Dan Jackson who kind of it took him a while to get his footing buffalo, but once he did, really kind of it showed up to be a good turnover guy. And that's something that you know, Canalis and Shack Thompson mentioned it on Wednesday as well. Is there massive focus on the offensive side, it's if it's all about getting the ball out quick and moving
it down. On the defensive side, it's definitely about getting it back. That is something that Canalis has not been shy about saying out loud that the turnover ability is going to be their biggest focus this offseason for the defense. And you're looking at guys that have turned it over well before in their previous stops, and like we said,
in this defense as well. So you see definitely what they're doing and the pieces they're putting into place, and why they brought in who they did and how they kind of see this defense unfolding on the field.
And listen, this is going to have to be a different kind of defense than it was a year ago because Jadavian Clowney coming here is a big deal.
My gosh, how are we not even talking about Clowny?
And Clowney is a guy who is central to what they're going to do defensively, because when you think about all the production Brian Burns had in terms of sack and sacks and pressure and quarterbacks, Clowny's coming in to be that as close to like for like replacement as you can find. Obviously, it's very different around him, but those two are different players, and it's not like they are you can expect the same kind of stuff out of Jadevion that you got out of Brian because they're
different players. I mean, Jadavion is much more of a run defender. He's gotten sacks, you know, primarily. I mean when he was in Baltimore, he's surrounded by studs. Okay, it was easy to get numbers there because you were around a lot of dudes. It's gonna be a lot more pressure on him to produce because that is not a deep position. I mean, we still haven't seen DJ want I'm on the field since coming over in free agency from Minnesota. He's had some complications after some offseason surgery.
Hadn't been out there yet, and Canal said he might not be ready for the start of the tramp. That obviously complicates things because when you watch this offseason, Calevon Chason wasn't a round much through OTA's. DJ Johnson leaves with a knee injury the other day. The good news is doesn't seem to be that bad and he should be ready for the start of training camp. Ekugliota was getting a lot of snaps and people. You know, we're getting down to that point where people are like Ekugliota, who
is that? You should know Eku? He's a remarkable fellow.
Do you know what I love about Eku? No one is happier to be here than he is.
That guy is super positive, brings great energy to the room everywhere he goes, and he can play a little bit. We saw that in spurts last year when he had to when he was out to run around as an undrafted rookie. But listen, that position is unsettled to say the least, So I I think it's going to be interesting to see how that manifests itself. But they're gonna EJ Is going to have to call this defense a
little bit differently. I think you might see them just blitzing more than maybe they want in a perfect world, simply because they don't have the same kind of depth at that outside linebacker position as you would prefer to go into a season one.
You say blitz moren Do you know what I immediately think of? I should maybe I should ask Podcast mass since he's on TikTok and more and vi age. What do you think of when you hear blitz.
I don't know.
Blitz game No, no, no, I just.
Think it was blitz Bama blitz.
I'm sorry, I don't know that one.
Yeah.
It's this Alabama fan that like he got famous on TikTok because he was always like Blitz Bama Blitz and it became such a big deal and they brought him out to an Alabama practice a few months ago and the defensive coordinator put him on the megaphone and he's like, tell him what we're gonna do, and he was like, Blitz Bama Blitz.
This is like the opposite of the dare and dated pop culture reference of the week here on the Happy Half Hour.
So, uh, the the what is it? You're You're not even millennial? Are you are?
Firmly I am?
I am?
There is no way, you know, like some people will be like, well, I'm a fringe millennial, I'm I'm millennial gen Z or I'm gen X millennial. I am firmly millennial. There is no which way for me to go to be anything else.
Well, now Darren will know what it's like when he makes the references. He's on the other side of it.
Now, Yeah, it's I'm now in the area. I'm in the age where my millennial references are becoming the dated ones, which is just that serves you a sobering reality serves you.
Right now, you see what it's been like for me the last thirty years. But anyway, before we start talking about Mash or something like that.
Mash the TV show or Mash the game we used to play in elementary school where you were figuring out what you were going to do with your life.
Oh god, what are we doing?
At any rate, maybe that's the point at which we need to clear summer break on this podcast.
We've we're having a good.
Time any summer breaks, Darren.
Yeah, I don't know.
I mean, plans are kind of hard to make sometimes, but I'm spectacularly bad at it. We're trying to go out with some friends tonight. We're gonna go see a show tonight, and it's like, where are we gonna meet beforehand? And I literally created a group text with me and my friend, who are ostensibly the ones who will be making these plans, but I included the wives on this group text. I was like, I want y'all to figure this out. And my wife looked at me this morning.
She said, you know, it's more likely to happen if you and will just talk, And I said, but I would rather you do it. So that's how plans get made or not made at the Gant House. And uh so we're still working on that part of it. But uh yeah, I'm gonna go see some shows. There's a I'm going to see a bunch of concerts in the next couple of weeks really, so yeah, I'm digging it.
We're going to see Drive By Truckers tomorrow night.
Actually, I got Frank Turner and Willie Nelson and Robert Plant and Bob Dylan Wow next week, so that's a bit two separate concerts. Frank Turner and Willie Nelson would be an interesting pairing, but the English punk rock crowd with Willy would not be anything.
You know what.
I think he'd have a good time though.
Yeah, he would.
They come from similar, similar philosophical places, let's say it like that. But yeah, a lot of shows coming up this summer. I can't wait to get to a lot of summer I can't wait to get to how about you.
I've got my godparents coming into town next week and We're going to take a day to go over to the Biltmore. Love going over there whenever I can and just exploring and take a day to kind of bounce around Ashville. Because anytime I've gone to Ashville, it's been to go to the Biltmore. I've never actually explored the town.
And I'm a big fan of the Last of the Mohicans and it was filmed right around Ashville, So I kind of want to take that little hiking tour to see all the lives the Mohicans spots, and then gonna probably go to Alabama for a little bit. Nieces and nephew and the rest of my family, but the nieces and nephew are really the important ones. There you go and just kind of relax, go home tonight and watch the second half of Bridgerton. I was downstairs earlier and
I was trying to commit Derek Brown. He needed to catch up on Bridgerton to join the worldwide phenomenon.
How that go?
And he was like, He's like, it's a big deal. And I was like, yeah, it's a big deal. And he was like, I don't know what's it about. And I was like, I don't think he's gonna watch it, but if we come back for training camp, we should ask him. Yeah, Derrick Brown, give us a recap of Richerton.
I can.
I'm having a vision in my head of Derek Brown in Victorian era garb.
Yeah, no, that's not a thing. I should have a picture.
Yeah, but don't forget too for fans. We do have a couple of players on the Keep Pounding tour next week, so we'll have footage and recaps from that.
Yeah, there's a chance.
Don't don't check out on us completely for the next month. Ors, because here's what I can tell you is coming. You're gonna get announcements coming very soon about things like training camp, which, as we mentioned, is going to be right here at Bank of America Stadium. There's some exciting stuff alongside training camp that you'll be finding out about very soon. You got a second episode of Blueprint coming next week, which
I think everybody's gonna enjoy. That's gonna be that deep dive into the draft and free agency process, kind of take you behind the scenes on how some of that stuff came together and a lot more. I mean, this is not just me being a shameless corporate shill, which I am. Have I told you have I told you lately about Southern Star, an official bourbon partner of the Carolina Panthers, which we enjoy very much. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff coming up, and we're gonna take a
little time. This may be a brief hiatus. I don't know when we will convene again for another happy half hour, but when we do, there's gonna be a reason for that. It's gonna be because football seasons right around the corner. So we appreciate y'all hanging with us this offseason. We will see you again soon.