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It's time for the Happy Half Hour with your friends Kristen Belboni and Will Brian presented by Morris Jenkins. That's right, it's that time of the week, The Happy Half Hour podcast presented by Morris Jenkins and Mr Jenkins told me his plumbers and a c text secretly where panthers jerseys under their uniforms. When you're plumbing or air conditioning is acting up? Called Morris Jenkins or visit Morris Jenkins dot com.
Kristen here with Will and Matt and guys. I feel a little silly because at the end of the last episode last Wednesday, I was like, gosh, who knows how different this next Wednesday's podcast is going to be We're going to have all this breaking news with with the GM search. But um, there's still kind of in this holding pattern. Yeah. I mean it's it's interesting and but but by the time you hear this today, there there
may be something new. UM. But you know, as we're recording here at nine am Wednesday morning, you know, there there's uh, we haven't haven't inked inked to deal yet, but I think there there are some reports out there that that are kind of leaning some certain ways, so we can certainly look at some of those absolutely. So what we know for sure is that the Panthers have interviewed fifteen total candidates. Um, they have continued interviews into
this week. And well, as you said, are various reports out there and we might know more by the time this episode airs. Various ports out there from from the likes of Ian Rappaport and Adam Schefter that it seems like, um, they are kind of honing in on this group that might include Monty Austin Fort, Scott Fitterer, Adam Peters. UM. And that's just that's just what we know. That's just what's out there. By no means is that um confirmed. I mean, I don't I don't believe any news until
I see it straight from the tweets of panther stats guy. So, um, we don't know for sure yet, but but that's a good direction to kind of look into. UM and will Montie austen Fort was one of the first candidates that was interview while Adam Peters kind of in that middle group, and then Scott Fitter a very recent Yeah. So that since last Wednesday there have been kind of more interviews done at the end of last week and then at
the beginning of this week. UM. And you know, according to some of these reports from from Schefter and rappaport Um, it sounds like the group that you just mentioned they're kind of looking at for a second round or some follow up things. UM. So I think it's really interesting because so much of what I was saying last week was that, you know, with with Dave Tepper, with the way this organization found and then really kind of signed Matt Rule last year, you know, things happened really quickly.
I'd be curious kind of what kind of the anatomy of this process, because you know, this really is this is uh the new owners first time hiring a general manager. You know, Marty Herne was here. You know, he talked so much about the way that Marty Herney kind of helped him learn about this process, learned a little bit about the year a year in football and kind of the way things go. And this is also you know, this is just Matt Rules second year as an NFL
head coach and working with the GM. So I think there's certainly wanting to make sure they're really doing their due diligence. They're really examining um options, really examining the people that they're looking at, and making sure they're they're making the best possible decision um, which is I think maybe different from last week where it felt like you just kind of had to race and get the first
person that really felt good. UM. And So I I will certainly admit I think my hunches about how this would go we're completely wrong. Um And I'm pretty okay
with that. Yeah, I don't mind this at all. You Know, something uh Dave Tepper said to me previously was that for him, he sees it as a much more um, time consuming and tougher higher than a head coach, because, as he put it, there's a lot more information out there about head coaches, and I think you can look at that, you know, just on its face in terms of win loss record and what they've been able to
do UM with the program. And that was evident with with Matt Rule, and then he flew down there to to Waco last year and that's when Matt Rule said he knew that it was the right thing. So but that's interesting that you know, it was. It does seem like it was very quick last year with Rule once that in person meeting happened, But he also had all this data to go on in terms of what Matt Rule had done it previous stops, the type of coach
he wanted to bring in. And I thought it was interesting that he said, you know, the information just not as readily available on GM candidates, and I think that's led to UM talking to so many and then you've got to analyze fit and then you've got to analyze, you know, how do you think they would come in and what their role would be in the Panthers organization. And and Dave Tepper has also said, you know, he he doesn't necessarily just want to look at it as
the way a GM role is traditionally always operated. So I think it's great. I think it's great that they've interviewed so many and I would guess will when we talked about last week and how quick they got into the interviews. You don't want to lose out on someone, you know, Um, so you don't want to not interview Nikissario and then he goes to the Texans and you go, Okay, well that could have been our guys. So they had
a chance to interview someone like him. So to me, I order, if that's it, which is like, we want to meet with everyone immediately so that someone doesn't get taken out from under our nose. That could have been our perfect candidate. But at the same time, you know, once we've gotten those initial meetings out of the way, we've scheduled interviews with everyone we want to talk to, let's really make sure that we're making the right decision. It's one of the most important jobs in the organization.
So I say, take as long as you need to make sure that that you're getting this right. Yeah, And I think that that might have there might be a larger view at stake here, you know, think of this group of you know, of the fifteen. You know, obviously they're not necessarily looking at all fifteen in the same way you know them. But there aren't there aren't that many GM positions that are getting filled quickly around the NFL. You know, you think of Houston, and that's the only
one right now, isn't it the only one? So I think maybe somewhat of the kind of feeling out the pace of everybody else and feeling that out and saying, okay, we we might have a little we might have another day or two. Well, what do you think of have a little bit more time? What do you think about the fact that the interviews thus far have been on zoom not in person. Now, I know everything has been on zoom since March, and certainly we're all used to it.
I've done all my interviews, and you can certainly get the sense of who a person is um and and create that um that bond with them, get a sense of of how they want to operate. But maybe it just takes a little bit longer when you're hiring for a role that is this important to the franchise to just really make sure when you've never met this person
in person before. Yeah, and I would imagine that while there certainly have been zoom interviews with the candidates themselves, you know, you would think that there'd be some background, there's going to be some other conversations going around that kind of, you know, try to help fill in some of those gaps. One thing I would caution our fans, you know that might be worried about, oh my gosh,
fifteen you know, what are they doing. I think that there's at least with the zoom, you know, the numbers this year versus what you would think like a normal amount of interview candidates would be are gonna be inflated because of how easy this is. You just roll through exactly. You know, you don't necessarily hear that many in terms of other searches. When in the past, in a different age in time, you were flying people in or you
were flying out, you were flying around. You know, when you can go four interviews in an afternoon, just one by one by one, you know, everything becomes a little bit easier. The candidates, maybe you can interview with more people because they can do it by zoom. Um. So I do think that, you know, we kind of have to take take that number and take these circumstances with a wider view of you know, what's really going on
in Yeah, I personally like it. I know that may not be the popular opinion, as you said, among fans, but I like it. I think turn over every stone or whatever, all of the you know, corny ways of saying that kind of thing is, but I really do believe it. It's it's such an important position, will impact this franchise for for years and years to come and talk to buddy UM. Like you said, you got you got an hour and a half, two hours, whatever it is,
and you roll through zoom calls. I think it's great that they are really searching far and wide for this UM. But as you said, we may know more UM even by the time this podcast comes out, as as the list inevitably starts to narrow, and you know, the official word is that they will make a decision by the end of this week, so we'll know something soon. Yeah, hold on and hopefully come back next week to get the exclusive inside interview. I'm just clicking refresh on Panther stats. Guy.
I want to see. I want to know the Kristen Balboni YouTube. That's what I want to see. We just break it. We just break the news. Also, more news this week is that the Panthers staff was picked to coach in the Senior Bowl, which is exciting. It's something that Matt Rule is very excited about, very enthusiastic about, especially this year when there are so many unknowns leading up to uh, the draft and leading into this season.
You know, what is the combine gonna look like? Is it going to happen at the normal time, is it gonna happen at all? Um. So it's a great opportunity for the Panthers to to get in front of a lot of these prospects and I get to know them. Yeah, And I think that it's funny because I was kind
of trying to draw into the GM conversation too. I think sometimes even in my head, you seem to think that because we've been doing people have been doing mock draft season since November and everyone thinks they know everything about every college football player. And the fact that the last game was on Monday and that was what everything you need to see from Mac Jones and that was that, you know, was the definitive statement on Davonte Smith. You
know all these guys. It's amazing how much. Guess what, at the end of the day, you still need things like the Senior Bowl and whatever the combine ends up being this year. You know, those things really do make a difference. And being able to actually sit in a room or sit socially distanced from a guy and talk to him. You know, all of the stories last year about Derek Brown where that you know, meeting the guy made the difference. You know, it wasn't just looking at tape.
It wasn't just seeing what he did in a bowl game, you know, or seeing what he did against Alabama or whatever. It was meeting Derek Brown that really made the difference, you know, and and potentially meeting some maybe some other players you might have thought were great fits and then realizing, you know, maybe maybe that isn't as much of a fit. So I think that being able to go down there to be the ones that are that are directing these guys.
You know, when you're out in the field and you know you're running guys through drills and you can see the way that they interact with you, they react to your direction, um, all of that stuff, you can get a really good feel for, um for for how these players react to coaching for for who they are as people. And I think that's been so much of what the bet uh. You know, the bedmark of this UM franchise is going to be moving forward is you know, who are they as people? So that they can grow into
really great football players? Absolutely, and how can you develop
talent that maybe other people don't see. I was talking to to coach Rule on the one year anniversary of his hiring, which was on January seven of last year, and um, you know, we kind of walked through the season and how crazy everything was and how different and unique, and um I asked him about the draft and drafting from home, and he said the thing that stood out to him the most that he'll take away from that draft is just what great players they got and you know,
really uh and he said, you know, if we can, if we can do that this year, and if these guys can all play and really contribute with no O, T A S, no preseason, just imagine what we could do with more time. And then he even talked about some of the undrafted guys Joe Charlton, Um Miles Hartsfield, like those guys as well, and so this is just more of an opportunity for this Panther staff that can develop young talent quickly, um, to to get in front of of more of those guys. As you said, well, yeah,
I mean, and it's gonna be tough again. You know, I think the Senior Bowl is going to be even more important this year with so many question marks around what the Combine may or may not be. So, oh, that's a great point. I might have just said that about three minutes ago. Okay, I'm teasing you. I'm teasing, but you're absolutely right. Um, you're absolutely We're both absolutely right. But let's let's talk about the Combine versus the Senior Bowl.
Do you have a preference? I would say in a normal year, I would say the Combine because there I think there might be a little bit more time in terms of like the one on one interviews with guys.
But at the same time, I think that I think that maybe for a coach that's within, you know, an actual coach that's coaching, that's out in the field rather than you know, maybe in the stands or something, I think you can see a lot with some of the drills and some of the actual football things versus a cone drill or you know, when you're when you're going up against another really really good lineman in blocking drills.
You know, I'm not going to write a guy off because he got beat by the really good lineman from Alabama. But you can see maybe more than just let's compare tents of a second on a cone drill um. And so I think there's there's some different things that each
each set of activities gives you. I think traditionally the combine has really been important for for interviews with players, and because there's a there's something about the combine where this collection of player personnel, staff, coaching staff, media, they all kind of create these narratives that kind of feed into each other, and it's this interesting sort of wave of information that kind of comes out of the combine that are you know, some of it's a little bit
false to throw somebody else off, but for for the most part, it's it really drives the narrative towards the draft, and it kind of drives the way that the draft sometimes ends up happening. You know, just all of those late nights in Indianapolis, there's a lot of interesting things that kind of start spurring interest one way, or spurring interest a different way. Um that I think is unique to what the Combine has been is there was it, right Thompson that wrote an article, a really in depth
article for ESPN on it a few years ago. Was that what was it? Just a fascinating That's what it reminds me of. If anyone wants to to read more into what we was talking about. I still remember that article being just really incredible in terms of, like you said, all of the I don't want to say wheeling and dealing, but all of the different stuff that happens at the Combine every single year, what it's like behind the scenes,
very very interesting stuff. All right, let's take a quick break and we'll be back in a second with more. Mr Jenkins told me. Mr Jenkis told me. Mr Jenkis told me to always make it easy for the customer. That's you. A lave person. Will always be here to answer the phone. We're here till midnight, seven days a week, so you never have to take off work, and it's the same price as in the daytime. We're the ones you want to call. We're the ones you want to call.
We're the ones you want to call. You're gonna love these people, I guarantee gotta Morris Jenkins dot com. All right, well, I don't know if you've heard, but there's plenty of other football stuff going on outside of the world of the Panthers. A little something called Super wild Card Weekend, a little something called college Football Playoff Championship game. So what is your level of interest in all of those things? How much of everything did you watch over the weekend
and then Monday? I was very upset that my current subscription plan does not include Nickelodeon. That's that's why had we had it at my house. Oh my god, I'm so jealous. The I mean just there's just something about our entire generation, like this group from of like twenty six to maybe like thirty eight year olds, of all of us engaging in football and then having Nick bring back like all of this to us. I think it
was so much fun. Oh yeah, all the slime and everyone doing their Top five Nick shows and just just a lot of nostalgia over the weekend. Matt, you're younger than Will and I were you a Nick person or not? Yeah? I didn't watch Disney Channel. I watched Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, but I was with my father in law this weekend and I had to settle for the CBS broadcast or the whichever. I think it was CBS. But yeah, I was a little disappointed. I wanted to watch Nickelodeon, but
I couldn't talk I couldn't talk Wayne into it. Wayne not a big nick fan, understandable. No, I thought it was great. I remember when the news first came out about, you know, the simulkust on Nickelodeon. I was like, that's that's strange. You know my husband I was like, what is this? And then when you get into it, I completely agree it was. It was so fun and what a great way to to bring young kids, potentially young
fans into the fold in a different way. Absolutely. I thought Sean Payton was a pretty good sport after the game for getting a bucket of slime dumped on them too. I was surprised him, of all people to be such a good sport about that. I mean, look, who's gonna say no to the slie? I would I would definitely
get slimmed. Oh absolutely, It's like a it's everyone our age is dream I think, right, well, I mean that and or watching your team from your basement and having the very first play from scrimmage be hyked over Ben Roethlisberger's head and having your kids go nuts seconds behind them. I mean, this it was an incredible weekend. You go straight from Nick into the Browns being this ridiculous underdog and having the type of game that they did nothing
at the before it was nine o'clock at night. I mean, it was nuts and and and to not even have your head coach there, and to have Pittsburgh, you know, feeling like it was potentially at the end of an era after starting undefeated for so long, I mean, it was just it was an incredible weekend of storylines. And how about former Panther Taylor Heineke absolutely bawling out That was incredible that that robe he dove from like the
five yard line and made it in. That was incredible. Yeah, really, I mean and then you have you know, you have Buffalo that you know, holding off Philip Rivers and potentially what could be his last game and a fantastic opener on Saturday, and you know the Bills and Sean McDermott and Josh Allen and Mario Addison, you know the obviously the huge list of Panthers up there, um, seeing what they're doing. I mean, it's it was a really great weekend. I mean, after all that, just the the snooze fest
on Monday, to watch Davante Smith just run by. Everybody was like, okay, Alabama, what was that? They did not cover him at all? You'd think you would want to cover the Heisman Trophy winning. I don't know how you cover him. Yeah. I think that might have in it. I think they might have been trying and it just didn't work out. Um. I love Yeah, I mean everyone loves wild Card weekend, but Super wild Card week and it's just great. You just roll into the next one.
It was, it was awesome. It's so much fun. But well, you brought up a good point. Um, as you said, it's already mock draft season. It has been mock draft season, um for a while now. Um, but you brought up a good point with the Super wild Card weekend about the eighteen draft and how many of the guys represented in that draft or were out there this weekend. Yeah, I mean you think of Lamar Jackson. Oh yeah, I
forgot about the Ravens. Of course, you have Lamar Jackson, you have Baker Mayfield with a big Win, Josh Allen, you know, really kind of three of the five major quarterbacks from that draft, which also included Sam Donald and Josh Rosen. But you know, to have three of those guys advanced to the Visional Round was is pretty amazing.
Um And you know, that draft is an inch interesting kind of first round to look at because while you had so much debate over which of those quarterbacks was going to be successful or not, then kind of the back end of that draft you still have this kind of little, like many narrative of the Ridley versus More uh storyline, which I think, you know that his will continue to be something I think for the rest of their careers for people that don't necessarily know, you know,
I think Carolina was certainly focusing in on a wide receiver dressing. I remember the draft as a fan, Yeah, you knew it was. It felt like it was going to be one of those two guys, you know, DJ More Calvin Ridley at so yeah. I mean with those two guys, they've had pretty similar careers over the last three years. I think Ridley jumped out to having more receiving touchdowns this first little bit. DJ kind of struggled
to find the end zone. But the thing about DJ More was he was always the guy that you could count on after the catch. In their three seasons, DJ has eleven eighty seven yards after the catch and four hundred ninety seven yards after contact compared to just one hundred yards after contact for Calvin Ridley. Ridley has way more touchdowns to ten in receiving touchdowns, but overall, like the receiving yards between Ridley and More, I think they're
divided by like ninety three yards. It's three thousand, one fifty six two three thousand sixty one between the two of them. So I mean, I would venture to say you probably couldn't have gone wrong with either one of them. Both of them have been really, really good these first three years of their career. Certainly guys you'd want on your receiving corps um as leaders. But I think the Panthers are still going to be pretty happy with d J. Moore.
So we're gonna leave that right here, because we've got a fun game to play here on The Happy Half Hour podcast presented by Morris Jenkins, and Mr Jenkins told me that he loves football and he looks forward to the show all weeks so when you're plumbing or air conditioning is acting up, call Morris Jenkins or visit more Jenkins dot com. Alright, so instead of a weird question
of the week, we thought we would. I thought, I'll take full responsibility for this, this game about um, it would be fun to do a little mock draft since will, as you said, it is mock draft season. I thought we had good success with this and Thanksgiving the Thanksgiving foods mock draft, so I kind of thought, stay with me on this one. You know, it's January, it's the start of a new year. Everything's fresh, so much possibility in front of us. Why don't we mock draft months
of the year. Al Right, everyone seems enthusiastic about it, dead silence. Matt was nodding his head. But that's what we're doing, because I say so, So, how do we go about quickly? Who's gonna pick first? Here's what I thought? Why don't we go alphabetical order middle names? Because I don't know you guys middle names? Okay, that's a well, what's your middle it's McFadden? Yeah, okay, So here am I'm Edward. I'm Elena first. I went first last time, though,
so Why don't you go first? Why don't we go reverse, We'll goes first. All right, we'll go We'll goes first. Oh yes, okay, my first pick of the month draft goes to March. What that was? That's a bus to me alright with people? Literally, the greatest two weeks of the year are the Thursday and Fridays of the beginning of the tournament. That's the only reason it's not last on my list. That's fine, that's fine if that's what
you if you want to take March first overall. Okay, wow, this is gonna go really yeah, that's why it's so fun. Everyone has you know, everyone has diverse opinions on months. Alright, So it's my turn next. So with the second overall pick month draft, I'm going with June. That was my third one. What June one? June is a great month. It's the start of summer. It's my birthday month. Yeah, it just it feels nice outside. You got a whole
um summer stretched ahead of you. People are a little more laid back, you might be going on a vacation. June is great. Well, I picked last, and I'm going to get my first pick. I'm gonna take November. Okay, okay, okay, the winner, You've got Thanksgiving, you got the Christmas feeling kind of coming up at the end of the At the end of the month, football is in full swing and games matters. So I'm gonna take November. All right. I'm just making sure I write all the stat I'm
taking this very seriously. Alright. So off the board are March, June, and November. Those are our first overall picks. Will what ridiculous month are you going with next? Well, I mean, because you guys are ridiculous. I get two first round picks in my first two picks, so my Tier one was March, November, December, so I still have December. I'm taking December. That was okay, that's where That's where, um, I was going to go next. Yeah, So I mean
it's similar to November. You still have football in the South, it's still not freezing, it's you can have risk, no nice days, you have all of the holiday parties. You know usually you get see family, um, and then you know you kind of have bull season, you have end of the year, uh NFL, you have everything. Alright, Well, December was gonna be my next pick, but since it's no longer on the board. I'm gonna go with October for all of the reasons that you guys said, Oh
I just Matt's face just looks so dejected. Just it was like a nod and a smile of um, you know, you're resigned to it. So I'm gonna go that. You're still going to get your guy, all right, I'm gonna go October for you know, all of the sports slash um holiday, uh reasons that you guys have already mentioned. Wish wish, November, December, we're still there. But I feel good about where October is going to slot into my team. Well, I'm gonna get September. It's the best two weekends in
a row in my opinion of the whole year. You get the Labor Day weekend or yeah, Labor Day weekend where you get all the college football. In the very next weekend, it's NFL red zones back with the Octobox. So I'm a big fan of those two those first two weeks, and it's it's like kind of the end of summer, beginning of fall. It's just it's great. So I'm gonna get September to go with my November. Alright, so we're through two rounds, two rounds left to go.
Here's what's still on the board January, February, April, May, July, and August. Will where are you going next? All right? This is tough because I have a I have a Tier two. But I think I knowing you guys now, I think I might be able to save it for my fourth round. I don't know. Um, I'm I'm just gonna use it. I'm gonna go with July because it's
my birthday month. It's July four, and usually in a normal year, it's kind of the last It's kind of the last month of summer because training camp always starts at the end of July, so it's kind of like your last chance to to really get out there and enjoy summer before like August becomes working again. Um. So there's a little bit of Sunday scar eas to it, but there's also some you know, kind of you savor it maybe a little bit more. Yeah, I'm not gonna lie.
I was gonna. I was looking at July for this next pick. Um. All right, all right, I'm gonna I'm gonna go August for my third pick. I got too strong summer months there. Oh, like August, it's still summer. But then you start to think about fall. Then you've got preseason. It's a good time. August is Watford. That's all I can think of when I think of August, someone who's never been to Watford. I enjoy the month of the worst because if you're getting so excited for football,
it's right around the corner. Yes, but it's the anticipation, all right. You know what you already made your third round pick, Matt, who you got January? It's the beginning of a new year, and it's winter. Like I said, I love winter, So I get December, I get November and January, two pretty pretty good winter months. I'm very happy with my board so far. Alright, let me fill this in, Matt. I think the way it lines up, I hope we all have what I have last. I
think I think it might happen. I think it's going to happen to all Right, Well, your last pick, you so far have drafted March, December and July, and still on the board is February, April and May. M hm. Tough, but you know sometimes your your seventh round pick, can you know, can can get onto the field, so you have to make sure it counts, even if it feels like a throwaway pick um. I'm still I'm gonna go with April. That's the one. I hate. That that's the
one I hate. I don't hate anything that has a grudge against April. I don't like April. Really, it's just nothing. There's nothing going on in April. So we have you have like the college basketball National Championship to start the month, like in the Master's usually in April. Yeah, yeah, usually in my years you have you have the Masters, Like I get it. College baseball hasn't finished yet, so like that's still kind of happening. So there's not really that
many great sports going on. But I mean May in February, I don't It doesn't always have to be about sports. It could just be like what months do you like? If you know me, it has to be about sports, all right. I mean that's that's what makes the months I like. I'm sorry, that's fair. Um, I will go with May for my fourth pick um. Now, guys, I gotta be honest. My birthday is in February. I don't even want it, Like that's just the last one you know it's well, I'll take your birthday months since you
took my birthday month. Is that where you Is that what you thought would be last? Matt, No, I thought April would be last because April is the worst. I don't mind April, but April is a nice little month. I ended up getting four of the top seven, so I'm very happy with four of your top seven. All right, So let me just make sure that I've got everyone's um bis September. I'm doing this in real time. I'm making sure that all of our picks are right. It
does matter, all right. So this is what we've netted out with. And I think it's important to note that this is an important draft to have. You know that that good draft position that Will had, absolutely so you know, he gets stocked a few points just because, like, man, what great draft position. But Will came away with March, December, July, and April. I'm not gonna lie. That's a that's a pretty good draft to me, even though Matt hates it. Whiffed.
He whiffed on March. That was that was, But then he got December in July. Yes, he got December in December is the only one that I'm jealous. I got June, October, augustin May, not gonna lie, not feel don't feel great about it, but you know, we go with what we got. At least you didn't get in March, in April, and Matt, you've got November, September, January, and February. Absolutely all right. I think we all feel okay. I feel great. I
feel really good about March. I don't care what y'all say, all right, I gotta develop some prospects, so yeah, let us know, let us know what you guys think, who had the best draft. I'm already making excuses for mine. I don't I don't feel like I had a great showing. Uh. This is the Happy Half Hour Podcast presented by Morris Jenkins. Thank you all so much for listening, Will Matt, thank you guys. To see you next week