This week on a Happy Half Hour.
Brice said, you know, hey, it's great to be able to work with the same set of people, but we also know we don't get to start from there. We've got to continue the work, continue to be able to continue to grow. But Dave talk about with Rice having that kind of attitude, they're able to open things up in the opposites.
Tot's down, 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 welcome back to the Happy Half Hour. Of course it's Masters week, so am I supposed to say hello friends, welcomes you. No, we're not. This is football. This is a football podcast. We'll get there.
I've been talking about the wrong thing this whole time.
I know what we're we are going to do the footballs here on the Happy Half Hour. And you know we hadn't done this in a couple of weeks. I feel like I feel like we've let our sponsor down because this is, in fact the Happy Half Hour presented by Southern Star, an official bourbon of the Carolina Panthers
celebrate the spirit of the Carolinas. And while they're doing their little golf thing with the azaleas and whatever they have there, I think I could sit on the porch this afternoon with a glass of Southern Star and just unwine.
I was about to say, we might not have done an ad read, but something tells me you weren't truly letting them down as a consumer.
It's you know, it's quite a product. I am a fan of the Southern Star where they are a friend of the program and a friend of the Carolina Panthers, so we celebrate the spirit of the Carolinas together. So anyway, anyway, it is draft time.
It is draft time. We are knocking on the door. I think we're let's see today we're recording on a Thursday.
We are Armani Edwards days away from the NFL Draft, fourteen fourteen days away, so it's.
Uh coming on down the pipe.
We were Marvin McNutt days away yesterday. Today we are Armani Edwards. I don't want to give it all away, but I do believe tomorrow we are going to be Ken Walter days.
I wonder every day I do, is that your list right there. I have a list of I won't spoil it for the listeners.
That's right.
I am peeping at your list.
That's right, no peaking. It's just like draft boards. Don't peek at my don't peek at my draft board of days until the draft ideas. But yeah, it's that time, two weeks from the draft, and it's gonna be it's gonna be an exciting time for starters. We can reveal this is a Panthers dot Com exclusive. You cassieg Hill will be on the scene in Green Bay for this draft. That's that's kind of a home game for you.
It is. I get to a friend texted me and then he was like, can we go get dinner? And I was like, I just want to go get coffee from this one place. That's that's my highest on my priority, behind of course talking to our new draft pick. But very excited we'll get to be there with the first round pick, whoever it may be, wherever they may be picked, get to talk to them right after they hear their
name called by the commissioner. That's always an exciting moment for a guy, you know, It's like, that's the moment I think when they walk out on stage and the commissioner holds up the jersey with their name on it, which I watched a little vignette yesterday. Did you know they have that done in less than ninety seconds. Oh yeah, yeah, it's impressive. They're a well well oiled machine back there
with those jerseys and hats. I think when they finally see their name on the jersey, that's when everything hits them. So to be able to talk to them right there in that moment afterwards is going to be special. To be a part of something, to be there when they
realize their lifelong dreams. And we're gonna have a lot of content for you on Panthers dot com coming from Green Bay, and I believe some people stick around for the second and third days as well, because you know, the NFL always tries to make those special to keep people watching.
That's right.
So got some play former players, fans announce and picks, and so we're gonna have all the coverage for.
Our international fans of the year who we talked our last episode. They were Ki and Martz are gonna be on the scene. You'll have to connect with those guys while you're up there. Now, have you been on site for a draft previously.
You've never been on site for a draft? You know, we were. We had Trevor Sickaman this week to do some draft coverage and I asked him that too, because he's been doing draft stuff a lot longer than I have, and he said, no, I've never been, never been on site. Because here's what I think a lot of people don't realize.
The site of the draft is where the attention goes for the media for the length of a pick, and then everything else happens in a stadium, right, And so you know, whoever is picked in that first round Thursday night, they'll be here in Bank of America Stadium by late Friday morning, and from there every everyone that's picked day two,
day three. You know, usually Day two people are guys that could have been first round kind of were friends and they're still around people that are on site, meaning for Day two, and so everything really kind of happens here at the stadium, right.
That's why I tell people, and people are always amazed. In thirty years of doing this, I've never once been to where the draft is. And I don't know that
I want to because they're cool as a fan. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure it's an incredible event, but in terms of the work, I'm just kind of conditioned to somewhere about middle of the day Thursday, after I've got up early done my morning stuff, taking a nap sometime middle of the day Thursday, coming into a windowless room, and then leaving on Saturday, Saturday night exactly just kind of never seeing the sun for a couple of days and immersing yourself in what's going on there. And that's
just kind of been my experience about this thing. So it is, it's gonna be a wild time. I'm looking forward to. Hopefully the Carolina Panthers selection is among those players. We're anticipating that announcement from the league any day now. This is kind of the when that usually comes out, but I'm hoping our guy is there in Green Bay, so you'll be there and be among the first to greet them, because you are, of course, one of our great ambassadors here of the brand.
I have a T shirt that says that the brand no great ambassador.
I was gonna say, I actually don't.
I feel like I should though.
Yeah, it's okay, but it is. It's going to be a fascinating weekend because it's going to be a busy weekend. Carolina Panthers have, of course, as you know, nine picks in this draft, eight in the first five rounds. And if we learned anything from Dan Morgan and Brandt Tillis's first draft together last year, is that those nine picks might not be the same nine or amount they execute.
What are the chances I'm gonna give it like a one and one thousand odds that they stick with all nine exactly where they're at.
Yeah, that seems like the least likely scenario. Of course, there's no gambling here at bush Wood, and I never slice. Yeah, they just they are going to move around the board. I you know, I think, uh, the one thing I've picked up in the you know, having known Dan Morgan from the time he was drafted, I mean basically twenty five years ago almost. It feels like, god, it has been twenty five years. How old am I? The answer is one million. Dan is very direct into the.
You've known Dan Morgan longer than you've known your children.
It's true. It's true. My children didn't start showing up till O two. Dan Morgan showed up for my life and oh one and uh, you know when he met his wife, Ashley. I remember Dan's dad telling me, uh, Dan's wife is from you know, the North Carolina Mountains, a high country up there. And I remember Dan's dad telling me one day in Spartanburg. He said, you get a kick out, Ashley. She sounds like you, you know, and Dan's dad's got a great Philly accident. But uh yeah,
Dan is very direct and to the point. So when he tells you, oh yeah, we could trade back, I mean Dan is prepared for all these scenarios, because, hey, nobody like disappearing into that film room and watching tape of prospects quite like Dan Morgan does. But He's worked this in his head to the point where he knows what he would want to do at eight pending what
happens in front of him. He knows what he would do at hypothetically fifteen twenty five, at all these different points through the draft, because he's kind of worked through the values of these things. And I think that, you know, in a perfect world, would they have something between eight and fifty seven? They would you know, they're without their on second rounder, but they do have the rams. Would they like to find something between point A and point B maybe.
So, but I kind of capital there to play with.
I think there's a world of opportunities. But the one thing I think people anticipate out of this thing is this is going to be a defense heavy draft for sure. Maybe not all defense, because if they don't come out of this weekend with a wide receiver, probably somebody who is fast, that would be a little bit of a
surprise to me. But this, I think it's reasonable to suggest it's gonna lean heavily defense because you know, they were last in the league and and Dan has told us that, I think, and he's been very upfront about saying that. He's so direct, and that's, like I said, that's the thing you know about Dan when he tells you, yeah, we got to fix this defense, believe him because he's not a bs or. He is very direct and to the point.
So and it works in his favor that this is such a defensive heavy draft, Like so many of the defensive units are deep. I mean, gosh, that edge, that edge unit is deeper than we've seen in ten years.
Right, no no doubt, And and you know it hits at a lot of the positions they need, you know, if they come out of this thing with multiple pass rushers, with another defensive lineman, with another safety. You know, these are all things that aren't going to surprise anybody. I think there are needs across the board that they're gonna look at a couple of different areas, but that's obviously the priority. And you know, this week one of the things,
it's been reported. You know a lot of places, this is the week they knocked out all their visits.
Right, all their thirty visits.
Yeah, and somewhere along the way, I don't know how this happened, but somewhere along the way these started getting called top thirty visits. I think people were getting nostalgic for Casey Kasum or something, or it's.
You know what it sounds like is in college recruiting, you have top five visits and those are your officials, and then you can take an unofficial, which is a kind of I guess the equivalent of the zoom calls, and with an official was so a top visit, the school completely pays for you to come visit. An unofficial you have to pay to go visit, but you're welcome to come visit. So I think people when people say
top thirty. In my head, I'm hearing top five right, And I think people got it confused with college recruiting visits. But it is a little different.
As someone who has actively avoided all high school recruiting coverage in my life.
That's smart. Don't put that juju.
And you're like, yeah, I did not know that, So I've learned a new thing here today. But no, this is if you look at and a lot of the names have been reported, many of them have not. But if you looked across the board at the guys who were here in the building, it's all over the board.
It's first round guys, it's second round guys, third round guys, and on deeper end of day three of the draft because a lot of what they're doing, I mean, yes, you want to find out if it's somebody you're curious about with the number eight pick, you want to know more about that guy. You want to get them on the board, see how they learn, see how they retain information.
You know, teams will do things like introduce material to a guy at the combine and then when they come in for a visit, say hey, remember when we call it Jen Indianapolis were talking about this, this, and this part of it is just seeing how people retain information and they want to see what makes a guys tick
a lot. I mean, this is a very important interview opportunity in terms of the you know, they had their local pro day this week as well, and there wasn't a lot of on field stuff other than some punters and you you caught up with one of those guys, and we'll have more on that later, but mostly this was an interview opportunity, a chance to get to know some of these guys better and figure out what makes them tick.
Because at this point you pretty much know everything you need to know about this guy from from film. What is I mean, that's football player's favorite saying, turn on the film, turn on the game tape. And so it's it's more about how do they jive with our coaching system, how do they jive with how we like to to
coach guys. You know, this is a chance. A lot of times, I don't know if people realize how much the players are in the building this time of year too, So this is a chance to see them walking down the hall and run into Derek Brown and you know, do they listen to him?
Do they do.
They understand, you know, the respect he garners as a locker room leader. It's a chance to see all of those little things that you're never gonna see on film.
No doubt, no doubt. And and you know we're having an opportunity. We're going to get deeper into that as we get through into next week. I mean, the other thing that's going to happen coming up soon is start of the off season program. There are, first, there are some guys knocking around the building. You mentioned Derek, he's here practically every day working out coming back from last year's knee injury. But on the twenty first is when the off season program begins. In earnest guys will be
back in here working out and stuff. You know. That's uh, it's why day.
After my birthday, if anybody wants to bring me a cupcake and we'll celebrate accordingly.
There you go, happy, happy start of the new league year, new off season program. Cassidy.
We'll get new Cassidy, new panthers.
Well, we'll get everybody to sing for you or something down now, Oh, don't do that. But it's wild because last year this started two weeks earlier. Yeah, and it's because Dave Canalis is a second year coach now, and only first year coaches get those bonus two weeks. That's been one of the things in the last little bit that's kind of it's almost dawning on you. You realize the passage of time. They're going into that second year and listening to Dave talk about that last week at
the owners meeting down in Florida. You know, he talked about the lessons learned from year one to year two and how you carry over certain things. Bryce talked about it a little bit if you saw in Panthers dot com we had some comments from him out at his camp in Los Angeles. You know, Bryce said, you know, hey, it's great to be able to work with this same set of people, but we also know we don't get to start from there. We've got to continue the work,
continue to build, continue to grow. But Dave talked about with Bryce having that kind of attitude, they're able to open things up in the offense, and if you look at it, Bryce is really working with the same set of people. I mean they brought the entire offensive line back intact, turnkey, same as last year. Receivers, Receivers check tight ends check. I mean Tommy Trimble's back to work with J. T. Sanders, our old friend I and Thomas is now a Raider. Best of luck to Ian. But
other than that, all of those are the same. And you swapped out Miles Sanders for Rico Daldle and brought in one thousand yard back to pair what you be Hubbard in the backfield. So there is a consistency about this offense and gives you a place to build from, which kind of allows you to have that defensive draft like we talked about previously.
I've always heard too with quarterbacks that the biggest jump quarterbacks take in college in the NFL is the summer between their second and their third year, because they've now had two off seasons under their belt. They've had a rookie season, which is usually wide eyed, a season where they see things actually start to come together. And so that summer between their second and third years when they
can take the biggest jump. And then you also have the summer between your first and second year and this offense, coaches have had a year under their belt to see what works what doesn't. And so I'm not saying I'm not going to get out here and make any predictions, but I think it's going to be perhaps a noticeable difference in the comfort level of how this offense practices, maybe even as early as that Monday, the twenty first.
Yeah, and you can just tell, I mean, you can sense from Bryce there is a comfortability for lack of a better word, in him this offseason. I could see it at the Super Bowl when we were down in New Orleans and he was doing radio row. The simple fact that Bryce was doing radio road is step one, but just seeing how at ease he was and is comfortable in his own skin was kind of one of the eye openers. And that comfort with his surroundings, with the offense, with the things Dave Canalis was asking him
to do, was evident his last year went along. So it's going to be interesting to see how they build and develop on that over the course of this season.
Yeah, we're excited to see it. And then of course they'll they'll roll right from those off season workouts into draft. Yeah, So you know, things don't slow down.
No, they do not. Now, of course we have not covered the biggest news of the week, of course, and that is the signing of one college ranger baby. He is America's tight end all of a sudden, former basketball player at Ohio.
You Western basketball player a month ago.
That's right, and you talked to him the other day. I think this story is so cool because this guy practically came out of nowhere and suddenly has an NFL contract.
Yeah he does. George Fant, another friend of the programs, a guy that a lot of these Panthers offensive coaches general manager drafted or not drafted. I'm sorry they signed him as an undrafted free agent, but a guy a lot of these these coaches are familiar with. He also made that transition from basketball to football. He was at Western Kentucky, played there for four years for the Hilltoppers. The whole time he was there, football coaches asked him
to join the football team. He never did, and he never did, and then realized he might have a little bit more of a steady future with football than he would play in Europe and basketball. By that point, he was married, he had a kid. So he played, you know, for five minutes in a bag of chips on the
Hilltoppers football team with his fifth year of eligibility. Had such an impressive pro day there were a bunch of scouts there to see Tyler Higbee, and it was George Fan who ended up pulling a lot of their attention. Such an impressive pro dace, Seattle signed him. Pat McPherson was the tight end coach of Seattle. He's, of course now the tight ends coach here. He called their GM. There's some of their other scouts. It was like, check
this guy out. They signed him based purely off that pro day, and by the fifth game of his rookie season, he was They converted him to the offensive line. He was the starting left tackle for the Seattle Seahawks, a guy that ended up being a starter for a while, was used as a hybrid tight end. Dave Canalis was familiar with him. All of that to say, George knew it could be done. I mean, Jimmy Graham's done it.
He's seen other people do it. And so he decided to start this program, and this was his first year where he finds these guys that have certain basket ball skills that might not be transferable to a long term basketball career, but have these certain skills that could be transferable to football. And he dug up Colin Granger out of Coastal Carolina. Yeah, and uh, Colin moved into George Fance House on Thing on March sixth, and by April
seventh he had signed an NFL contract. They put together a workout with about five or sixteen showed up, including the Panthers. Again, a lot of trust in George and what he was, what he was preaching when that he's developing. Got down there and realized, I mean, this guy is six eight to forty. I think through thirty five to forty.
He's a big boy.
He is a big boy and he can move. I was standing in the hallway the other day talking to Pat McPherson and Colin was standing right there and Todd Wash. Todd Wash walked by and kind of just looked up because he had to look up at him, and kind of stopped and looked up, and Pat was like, you can't have him tied. You can't have him. He's mine.
That's funny and it is a cool story. If you haven't read Cassidy's story about Colin Granger where she talked to Colin and George Fan about this, I highly recommend it Panthers dot com. Basically, George Fan slid up in this man's DMS and offered him a chance to work out, and Colin, once he googled George Fanton, realized that this may actually be Legit went along, but such a cool story, I think gets incumbent upon us to say Colin Granger
is an extreme long shot to make this team. This is a let's see what we can do with a raw lump of clay. Can we mold this into something we can use? And I mean in a situation like that, it's you know, anything you get out of him coming down the road is a bonus. But you've seen stories like that before. I mean, Chris Manhert's former Panther was a college basketball player at Canisius. Had only the only football experience he had was playing Madden. He's now going
into NFL season ten. So it can happen. It's not exceedingly likely, but that's the time of year.
It requires a certain kind of athlete to make it happen.
You're signing a prospect, you know, for a ninety man roster, and let's see what happens. It's no risk, potentially some degree of reward, but it's that time of year we are going to shift. I mean the next time we do this, this is going to be all draft all the time. But we got a little bit of time to mess around a little bit. It's Master's Week. I understand many people are excited about that. It's not really my deal.
You don't sit down and watch the Masters now, I.
Don't sit down and watch golf routine league. You know, golf on TV to me is kind of somewhat less exciting than watching paint dry or grass grow.
You know, I'm not usually a golfer. If usually if golf's on, that means I'm taking a good nap. But Masters, the moving day. Master Sunday, like Master Sunday, always delivers. There's always drama, there's always excitement. I'll never forget where I was watching Bubba like pop that little ball out of the woods in the pine straw. As someone who grew up in Central Alabama, I know how slick pine straw is. I still don't know how he got that
ball out onto the green. I mean things like Tiger went coming back and winning a couple of years ago. So there's so many I can't even think of them all. Master Sunday always delivers. My favorite part of watching it and This is something I feel like you, as as a proud curmudgeon, would appreciate. Ah is they're not allowed to have phones at Augusta. And so when you watch the Masters, especially on Master Sunday, when you know Rory hits a shot that actually keeps them in contention for
a little while and everyone is completely in the moment. Yeah, and that's always fun to watch.
That's pretty cool. I remember the first time I ever experienced that. I took my son when NBA All Star Game was here this week and Chappelle came. I took my son to that concert. And that was the first time I went into an event where they said, put your phone in this locked bag, we'll unlock it for you later. And I would say, I love this. Y is like freedom for me next two hours without a cell phone. Tell me more. But no, it's you know. I'm pro azalea, I'm pro egg salad. I'm pro h.
Most waffle losses per capita in the country.
All good, all good things, all things I can get behind. I also like the idea of the Champions dinner. Whoever gets to uh, whoever wins the year before gets to pick them menu h. What would be your champions dinner meal. I brought this.
Subject up thirty minutes ago, and now I haven't even thought about what it would be. I think I would go with a steak, some really really good like garlic, mashed potatoes, maybe sweet potato cast role, which I know doesn't necessarily go with those things, and as you've already got mashed potatoes, but I love sweet potato cast role, some really well done green beans, key lime pie, or maybe tear a sou I guess the world is my oyster, but we wouldn't have oysters.
But no oysters, no oysters. You don't like oyster.
I don't. And I grew up in the oyster capital of the world, which is Mobile, Alabama, which is strange.
I grew up in North Carolina. I guess if I was gonna do this, I would serve barbecue, vinegar based sauce, Eastern North Carolina style.
Of course, I think it'd be obligated.
I think for appetizers, though, what I would serve, I would serve North Carolina hot dogs, really hot dogs with chili. You can see wall mustard onions for ingredients. That's it all.
Makes it sound like Chicago dog coleslaw.
Chili mustard onion. That's the that's the North Carolina style. Okay, you can't find it. There's a shrinking universe of places to find good dogs like that. Any anybody's got any recommendations, I will happily receive them. Uh. We will go through hot dog recommendations. We will get into the draft a little more heavily. We will talk about god knows what, maybe basketball again the next time we meet on the Happy half Hour