Happy Half Hour Episode 43: Oh, By The Way

have been coming, what feels like fast and furious. Over the last few days. The front office has been busy, which means the two of you and the Panther's website have been busy. I have the Noty Gang on they call it the Noty Gang and on the internet, so Darren is very much at the top of my noty Gang. I get notifications from Darren a lot, and that means I have to drop everything. If you see, if you see when I see when I see Darren, I message incoming, it's a year ago. It's uh yeah, it's been that

kind of week. I mean, I I left, I walked out of the house this morning with my shirt on inside out, and it's just the way this week's been spinning. I mean, it's just that kind of week. I mean, but there's a lot of stuff going on. I mean, you know, you wake up and it's like, oh, by the way, Robbie Anderson three year extension. Oh by the way, you know they've traded, didn't sell Peraman. It just keeps coming and it's going to be that way for the

next couple of days. Absolutely so. So there were cutdowns if we go back to to this week, in addition to the team practicing on the field coming off of the second preseason game on Saturday, getting ready for the third preseason game on Friday, the moves that have been made as the roster was cut down slightly, as you said, Denzel Peraman traded to the Raiders, that happened Robbie Anderson

contract extension. And then also another move of note that we're certainly paying attention to is is bringing in a kicker. So there's a lot, there's a lot of stuff going on, and I mean, you feel terrible for Joey Slide because you can just hear it in talking to Matt Rule and the guys on the staff. I mean, everybody likes Joey. Everybody believes that Joey has the ability to be the guy, but he hasn't been the guy lately. And it's like, as much as we love you, you gotta go make

some kicks. And he's been struggling with that a little bit lately. It was interesting to me yesterday here in Matt repeatedly refer to it as a slump, this little role he's in, it's a slump, and it's almost like

they're trying to talk Joey out of it. Do you guys think I always think about pro sports and the positions that are so dependent on on being even keeled or so mentally taxing, right, and every position I just of course goes without saying, if you make it to the professional level, every position is has demands in its

own way. Right, But when you think about an NFL kicker, where does that rank with like hockey goalie or or soccer goalie in terms of when you get into as as Matt Rule referred to Joyce, I slump, You've really got to dig yourself. It's almost more of a mental thing.

He knows how to kick, So we're where does that rank in terms of all of the pro sports in terms of pressure filled positions, it's got to be as high as anything, because if you think about a golfer when his putter leaves and for a little bit, it's just him. And when you're a kicker and you miss a field goal, all of a sudden, you have twenty one other people out there on the field who hate you suddenly because all the work they've put into it, and that just adds to the pressure that's on you

in that moment. And if you go out for the field goal or extra point or whatever, it is like there's nothing else going on, you know what I mean, Like it's the moment that that everyone in the stadium is looking at you, that everyone on on both teams are looking at you, and I just anybody, because that just is like that feels like a bad dream to me. Anyone that can do it at that level, it's it's incredible,

And it's a numbers game. You know. If you're a quarterback or if you're alignment, you go out, you make a bad throw, it's just awful. You know, Yeah, Okay, now it's third down. You know this guy you're when you're a kick or you got maybe one, two or three shots during the game. There's you're not going to get a lot of chances to make a mistake and then to correct the mistake and make a good play after it. You're just you only got a couple of times.

Chase Blackburn said, Yesterday's like we're expected to be at our very best every time we walk on the field. And I mean there's literally no margin of air for those guys that to make miss business. And you know, when you get below that eighty percent line, people are going to start looking for replacements. And you know, it's a it's a cold business, but it's I think part of it too. I mean you talked about Joey's approach. I talked to him back this summer about working with

sports psychologist in the middle approach to it. He's a meticulous guy anyway. I mean, Joey Size is kind of kicker who can tell you, well, I was all four centimeters on my you know. I mean, it's just so granular the way he looks at this. So when one thing goes wrong, I think there's sometimes a cascading effect that just kind of builds and builds and builds and and it's a shame, and you you would hope for

the kid's sake. I mean, Joey's a good kid. You hope he gets his problem worked out and gets back cone track. Whether it's here someplay sales, but you know they're they're not gonna wait around forever. So we'll likely see Joey sly in this third and final preseason game. Feels still feels weird to say third and final preseason game.

As well as other position battles. We're gonna see the starters play in the first half, and then we'll see the backups and some of the guys that are fighting for spots, whether it's on the Panthers roster or potentially, you know, maybe another team, we'll see them more so in the second half. At least. That's the latest that

we're hearing. What have you guys thought of the first two preseason games and than anything else from training camp that we haven't gotten to, you know, I think, and it's been kind of it's almost to take away from those joint practices as much as the games. I mean, we saw in Spartanburg against the Ravens, we saw in Indianapolis against the Cults. Panthers just aren't as deep as those guys. But those two teams are a lot more

stable in the front office. You know, they haven't gone through the kind of changes the Panthers have gone through the last year and a half, So they're a couple of years ahead in terms of the roster building. And that shows up when the twos are practicing against the twos and threes against the threes. You know, both those teams had advantages there. But I think you know when I've seen when you watch the Panthers starters, they were

playing even on defense. I mean, the Panthers starting defense was having a day in Indianapolis and had a real day against the Ravens that second day of the joint practices there. And I mean the five picks on the final day at camp, I mean it was just like whoa, there goes another one and another one, and a lot of those were with starters on the field. I think that's where they've made up the margin a little bit this year, and and it's getting closer now. I hesitate

putting too much into preseason results. I mean, I love the fact that the Ravens have one nine team straight preseason games because obviously they're outstanding. But uh, that to me speaks to that depth that they've build over the years. And when you've got twos and threes that can actually play football, it helps you in situations like that. But yeah, I don't think the Panthers are right there yet, but there are at least tangible signs of progress, especially on

defensive side of the ball. And I think you look at this draft class and you know that that's where it starts. You know, you have a really really good draft class, at least on paper so far from what we've seen. You know, from top to bottom, you've got, uh, you know, guys at the top of this draft. Brady Christensen's played the most naps of any one. Um, you know, obviously j C. Horns a guy out there, Terroris Marshall Jr. You know, down to Cuba, down to you know, even Philmy,

Tommy Trumbull. You know, all all of these guys kind of end to end in this draft class, and that's where you start building that that depth of all. Right, now, your second team guy is a legit dude, you know here from the six or seventh round. Now you're your practice squad guys are are ready to go, you know,

as you kind of build year over year. Well and and just talking to Joe Brady earlier today, he was talking about the ability of having this preseason and being able to get those rookies comfortable and to show them that, hey, I can play in the NFL, you know, and he said it's just been a point of pride to to see the games that terrorists has had to be able to get Tommy going, you know, see how he's doing out there, and for as much as evaluation purposes for

him and the coaching staff, but also for these young guys. And remember now they were all defensive players last year, but but no opportunity for those guys, uh, those rookies last year to come in and and be able to feel confident. Um. And I think that that's something well, as you said, that's really developed in this preseason with a lot of those rookies. And I mean you can hear it. I was talking to Shy yesterday here in his voice. The confidence is building because of what they've

been able to show in these two preseason games. That's been another one of those big takeaways. I mean, you think back to eleven draft picks, I mean that's a load and out of that eleven, probably nine or ten or kind of make the fifty three man roster, and five or six of them have just jumped off the page in the preseason. I mean, Taras Marshall and Cuba

have made those big splash plays. And those guys aren't going to be starters in the regular season unless somebody gets hurt, but they, you know, having that kind of ability and reserve, it's like, okay, you can work with that. I mean, Brady Christians and Deonte Brown have looked really good in the first two preseason games, and you know,

Tremble has a touchdown. There's other guys here and there that stand out, and it's kind of like, and oh, by the way, J. C. Horne, you know, it's nice to have a no. By the way, yeah, it's good to have that. But that just speaks to where he is a player too, because it's like we don't even think of him through the lens of oh, yeah, rookie cornerback because from the day he walked in the door,

it's like rookie doesn't really imploy exactly exactly. I mean, because when you look, starters played essentially a series over the last two preseason games, and I've thought the same thing from time to time. I forget to put j C. Into that rookie class mentally a couple of times, because he's you know, if the starters aren't dressed out, he's not dressed out, he's he's you know what I mean. It's just, Um, you're right, it's he came in with such a high bar and from everything we've seen, has

lived up to that in a big way. And it's also the way he carries himself. And of course you know his dad's in fle but it's like, Okay, he is a rookie. We actually haven't seen him play in a in a regular season game yet, but boy, he could fool you with his poise and confidence and what he's been able to do um against the other teams in those drain practices. Um, will do you have a stat of the week for us? The times every time of the week I do. While we're talking about rookies, Yes,

how about my man Cuba Tuba. That's the new, that's the new, that's going to be the new bank of the channel in there. Well, Mick, Mick wants it to be like tub thumping, you know, like Chumbawamba. He's like Cuba Hubbard. And then every time that he gets knocked down, he gets back up again because he's never gonna do I see, I see where it's going. Yeah. I didn't wake up this morning expecting a Chumbawamba reference. There, Cuba Hubbard.

So Cuba got a couple of stats for him. He currently leads the NFL with six point oh yards after attacked per rush. I like that, you went six point oh. I imagine someone's at like five nine or five eight, but like atle six point out. Now, a lot of that had to do with that one big run in Indie where he just emerged at that pile to gods. But I mean he is making people fall off of him. He's he's initiating contact and he's bursting through it, you know, and a three yard run becomes a six yard run.

Those are those are qualities of an NFL running back. And with Christian not you know, probably not playing much at all, on Friday, you're gonna see Cuba again. And I think that he's really emerged of kind of like who's who's the guy behind Christian elite? I mean as of right now it feels a lot like Cuba and now that way, especially with this Manna has heard at that position. It's one of those worst of the football cliches.

But that whole best ability is availability. You know, Ronnie Smith, Reggie Bonfen has been dinged up and not been practicing or or playing much lately. So it's like, all right, Cuba, you get more reps and he's made the most of them well. And and we you know, had the opportunity to see going back to the ability to have these preseason opportunities. Um, you know, trying to get into the end zone last week and not being able to quite do it, And I feel like that's the kind of

thing you want. And of course you would prefer him to be able to power his way in there, Like that's kind of stuff you want to happen in the preseason. You take it as a learning opportunity. We'll see what he does with all of this time that we assume that he's going to get in this third preseason game, and then and then how it translates into the regular season. So he's ninety scrimmage yards away from the Panthers preseason scrimmage yards record. Now who keeps the Panthers preseason scrimmage

yards records. This guy, he's raising his hand. This is an audio medium. Will, I would like to remind you. I love that you have the preseason scrimmagar. Everybody's usually four games. Yeah, for everybody listening, Will was like jumping up in the air for the Theater of the mind. He was up up to hands pointing at himself. Yes. So the previous record holder was some guy I've never heard of. I think his name was Christian something scene.

Actually the name doesn't ring about and that was mostly just because he bursted at for like an eight yard run on the first play against Miami and then sat for the rest of the preseason. But anyway, he's ninety yards away from breaking Christian scrimmage yards record that he said that preseason, and you can do it in just three games. I feel a tweet coming on from Panther stas I think if he has a big game, I think there's some sideline reporting to be done on the

stats that don't matter. You gotta send me, you gotta send me the actual I want to make sure I get the six point oh right, you know, I don't want anyone to think it's a six point one or anything like that. You have to write down those numbers for me so I can make sure to report them. I do want to to talk about that a little bit UM with the preseason, because I feel like we haven't had a chance to get into it. You have a new broadcasting crew, UM for the TV preseason broadcast.

Hope you all are able to watch them or listen on the radio if you are not here in person. Um, I'm working with Taylor's Arzer and Steve Smith, another name people may or may not have heard of in this building. UM, and I just thought, you know what we try to do here on Happy half Hours, take people behind the scenes. And I thought, I was like, gosh, I haven't really talked about getting to work with Steve UM And I mean, guys,

no surprise, it's it's delightful. It's just delightful. What h just what a great guy you know growing up Panthers fan and then not being here. I got here last year April of last year, so of course we did not overlap, UM, whereas well you might have and Darren certainly you have in your career, so I did not know him aside from UM you know, we briefly did something for schedule release um and you know, just here and they're saying hello, and it's just been an absolute

pleasure to work with both Taylor and Steve. And I gotta say I know that this I'm not trying to say this as a cliche at all, but like the most professional, hard working wants to you know, wants to be early, wants to know that the nitty gritty of everything is like, hey, we should do a you know, a dinner for this, and then how how about this? And I really wants to know all the ins and outs of every little thing. So prepared kind Um has great stories, as as we all know or might assume.

But man, you would think, I guess maybe this is the best way to say it. I should have gotten around to this in a more succinct way earlier, but I'm processing it all as well. We just came from a meeting. You would think he was an analyst trying to break into the business. With the way that he works, and that doesn't surprise anyone that watched him play or

followed his career. You would not think he was a future Hall of fame or with the way that he approaches everything because it's just he's so meticulous and consistent and professional and um and just a delight to be around. And and he I've always loved about Steve that he's so curious. He wants to learn about the world, and he wants to learn about whatever he gets into, whether it's broadcasting or finance or football or whatever it happens

to be. Steve just goes all in and wants to bore down to the bedrock and see every granular piece of the business and figure it out. So that's what I mean. I hope you know we've we're in a position where we can see Steve behind the scenes. I the people on the other side are picking up on how much fun he's having. Yeah, I think they are. I get the impression that people are digging this as much as he's digging doing it. But he's just having such tremendous fun right now and just being eighty nine,

which is a pretty cool thing to be. If you had an opportunity to be Batman, I guess you would, but if not, eight nine would be an alright thing to be. But he's just having a blast, and you can tell on the broadcast. But I mean, he could come in and and read the phone book on the broadcast and everyone would be like, that's amazing. But he just he works so hard at it, and like he said, he's he's enjoying it so much, and just so what a what a delight to get to work with him

and to get to know him better. How many times have you just laughed out loud on the sideline when he saw quite a bit? Yeah, why is Kristen laughing over there on the twenty yard line? I also have a bad um. This might be a little too inside baseball, but I have a bad our. Executive producer David Linclon is sitting in here as well, so he'll he'll know that I do this. I don't want to laugh alone, so some times I'll hit my producer button on my microphone and I'm like, that was so funny. You know,

they're your producers working as well, But I don't. I'm down there by myself laughing and I need someone to sell. Oh my gosh, how funny was that? You know the most of it. You know, there's a it's a second and whatever out on the field, But I just I need someone else to Maybe I'll text you. Well, the next time it happens, there's there's like some false started. You know, everyone's like, all, how funny, that was hilarious.

I don't do it all the time, but every once in a while you just need someone, You need someone to to laugh with. But yes, plenty of times. Um, Darren, you said you had a thought about the preseason schedule, and I don't know what it's going to be, but I'm assuming that it will qualify for your get off my Lawn Moment of the Week based on the way you sold it, and I think it's probably fair. I think it's probably just time for preseason football to go away.

I mean, it's not until they can replace the revenue and the games have a utility, and I get it, and this is where some guys make roster spots and all that kind of stuff, but for starting players in the NFL, it's just useless anymore. And I mean, I've heard so many people carp about, Oh, Sam Donald's only played seven snaps, So what Sam Donald's played probably a hundred and twenties snaps of practically live football against the

Colts and the Ravens. So he's gonna go out there Friday night against the Steelers, who aren't playing starters because they've played four preseason games already, and it's like, what does this actually mean? So, I mean, I I think people have gotten hung up. The NFL is such a it's such a creature of habit that people are used to four preseason games. Now all of a sudden, they are three, and nobody knows what exactly to do with them.

And if you look around, I mean, listen, Matt Stafford is not going to take a snap in the preseason and he's on a brand new team in Los Angeles, and all these other quarterbacks are just not going anywhere close to the field. And I get that Sam is not the same as Tom Brady, but I just think it's so overrated, the different between what happens on the field and a joint practice and what happens during a preseason game when the lights are on and it happens

to be on TV. I think if there was a way to monetize joint practices and broadcast them to people, I could see those taking the place of preseason football because the work that teams are able to get done it's so much better. Well, I was gonna say so your commissioner, Darren Gann, what is your ideal solution. We go, We're gonna We're gonna televise joint practices. Everybody gets to quote unquote home appearances. You get to have a joint practice in one of them and then build a concert

into it. Have a portable stage and like Darius Rucker comes out in place for forty five minutes after the joint practice is over. It's gonna be huge. People would come out and watch that. And the other one is, you know, more of an inner squad sort of thing, you know, almost like a fan fast situation, and same thing. You gotta build entertainment to it. You gotta do something to create revenue. You know. Again, the Darius Rucker have a concert idea has always been in the back of

my head for this kind of thing. But you know, the stuff we saw in Indianapolis, the stuff we saw in Spartanburg against the Ravens was so much better than most of the stuff we see during a preseason game. And you see guys flying around and stuff, I mean the dave On Nixon two interception day and training camp. I wish more people would have been able to see that and how those guys reacted and how you know, excited and jumping around that defense was seeing those guys

make play after play after play. And we've bore and we've gotten to the point where fans can be there, fans can watch it, and most of this stuff gets filmed and gets posted on social Like, you know, we're expanding that kind of you know, practices, this thing that you're not supposed to see, and you're expanding more and more into this is entertainment. This is this is a

much bigger thing. And if you go to Panthers dot com you can read a recent article by Darren where he tells you where Darius Rucker can play his concert in three in the new rock Hill development. That's right, man, look at that he could get out there in the park. They could open up the pavilion and have that d foot sliding glass door opening up to uh backstage area and that kind of stuff. Yeah, rock Hills pretty amazing. I I'm a big kid. I like walking around looking

at giant construction equipment and construction hat. Yeah, I warm my hard hat and my yellow vest. Thankfully there are no photographs of that, um, but yeah, it's a huge I mean, you walk out there and a you see the size of the structure itself, and it's like, Okay, this thing's massive. You're gonna be able to see this from the interstate as soon as they cut down a few more trees or and they've tried to leave as many trees as they can and have a little bit

of a buffer. But when you just pulled through that clearing and it's like, won't It's like this death star coming up out of the ground in rock Hill. It's gonna be a massive complex and once it's finished, it's gonna be it's gonna be the kind of thing that rock Hill's never seen. I mean, and Mark Haart talked about it the other day. Rock Hills always build itself

as football City USA. When now you you're going to have a world class NFL facility there that's got all the extra bills and whistles to add to their local tradition. I love it. I absolutely love it. I haven't been down there yet, so from getting all my news on rock Hill from Panthers dot com, I want to wrap up with a quick weird question if we can. So. In the second preseason game, I was talking to Jermaine

carter Um and asking about him. You know the young guys that have impressed you, and we're talking about J. C. Horn and he said, um, he said, he's great. And I have started calling him Big Straps because he does the seatbelt And I said, do you mean like big seatbelt straps and he said yes, and I said, well that's now his nickname. That that's now his official nickname. They want to know a do you guys like it? And be what's what's your official nickname? I like, put

him next to Big Snacks. That's so yeah, there you go. There you go, Big Snack. I like it. I see what you did there. But I mean yeah, And the other thing about that is with him, the seat belt thing has caught on. I mean you see other guys in practice doing it. And he's infectious. Man, he's got an energy about him. So yeah, I'm I'm I'm down with big Strap. That works for me. I like it. So what's your nickname? Darren? I don't know, can one give oneself a nickname? Have you never called? Have you

never been called a nickname? I highly doubt that. I don't know. Maybe that's for another episode. We've already got one. D G in the department Daniel Goldfarb, so I can't be you know, I told him he was the O G d G. So we'll let him have that one for now, all right, Maybe we'll get some some users submissions. Yea, how about that tweet the commission apparently your nickname for Darren. Yeah, well, I said the commission after the new he's got the

whole preseason figured out. Well, you got one before we go. I used to be called Chucky Will. Yeah, I remember that from from podcast season two. I think, yeah, Chuck you will. Yeah. I'll leave it with that one, all right, And I'm kalk k it's the it's the it's the easiest. It's just the initials. But yeah, let us know your suggestions for Darren's nicknames. We will definitely get to those on the next episode. Thanks so much for listening to The Happy Podcast. We'll see next time.