It's time for the Happy Half Hour with your friends Christin Balboni, Will Bryant, and Darren Gamp. Welcome to the Happy half Hour, the official first one of two. We're gonna call this the first one of two. It feels like it now. Page has been turned and we've since retired mcmixon one month on the on the podcast, and he just decided that was it. That was enough to make him walk away from football in general. Is hanging
out with us from us? You guys, gotta tell you, you kind of jacked me up the other week when you referred to something as the two NFL season, and I read and I reject that out of hand. I am not going to accept that construction, even though the league keeps pushing it back, pushing it back, they get to the President's Day super Bowl that they so desperately want. But even though the last couple of weeks of the season in the playoffs happen in twenty two, that was
the season. That is how I will refer to it. I'm still writing one on stuff. I don't know what I've messed up in some sort of thing online by writing the wrong year on it. But I have not been able to do you sent me something I put it in an email or something about the season. I was like, no, no, no, I'll take that, I'll wear that. I would ask you if you wrote it on one of your checks, But what's the chance of millennial like you writes checks anymore? What is that? Do you own
a physical checkbook? Uh? Yes, but I don't know where it is. I think it's somewhere in my drawer. I haven't used it in a long time. Do you balance your check book or do you just look online and hope the magic money fairies have left you with more than you've spent. They're not fairies there, it's it's they're little pop up things and they tell you you're doing great. I have an app for that. Yes, I have a
check register that tells me exactly how much. But see, if you're not writing checks, balancing a checkbook is it's a daily thing. You get up in the morning, you make yourself a pot of coffee, you do the wordle, you balance a check book, and then you move on with your day. I haven't tried to expose you, but I've had three straight wordles where I got them online. Three and I didn't I didn't. I didn't want to
just throw you off. Do you have a singular word that you always start with on the world, you just go with whatever. I read a story I think it was on the Ring or the other day, and I admire this guy and I hate him because he's funnier than I am. But he said his first word on word is always farts. And you know it's probably not the It's not a bad word because the A, the R, the t V S. I mean, it's like we are fortune, you get right off the top. But so you get
most of those right off the bat. But it's probably not ever going to bear. But if, but if it ever, that's a weird first letter though. Yeah. So I don't usually interject, but I have to ask. I don't know what the I don't know what word will is. I can't find it. Can someone explain it? If you google wordle w R d l E, it'll send you to the website and it's a daily word puzzle. It's like the game Mastermind with the colored pegs and you had to you would get credit for right color, wrong spot,
that kind of thing. And it's and it's that except with words. All five letter words and so you get credit for right letter, wrong spot green if it's right letter, right spot, and then you kind of go down the line. You've got six tries to try to get the word all right, we'll no longer left out then thank you. Yeah, it's super fun. Darren reminds me every morning of his word al he starts his day with a word'll post on Twitter, at least for the last couple of days.
I'm not gonna be that guy who does it every day. But I did a couple of them and then I got one wrong. I didn't get it correct a couple of days ago, and it really angered me in the old day. Not really, So Darren, let's talk about this football team. Yeah, I guess we got uh um at least one last time that didn't go right. That was not what anybody was looking for out of the Carolina Panthers.
And you know, I mean it's we have talked over the course of the year about all the things that went wrong, and I think there were surprises along the way. There were disappointments along the way, but a lot of the stuff that went wrong with stuff you could reasonably have predicted going into the year. I mean, we knew based on what they spent or didn't spend on offensive lineman and the fact that they this franchise over the last decade hasn't invested in offensive lineman, that offensive lie
was gonna be a problem. Surprised They gave up fifty two sacks, fifth most in the league and played thirteen different combination and dudes in seventeen games. That was a problem and they're gonna work on that. Um, we thought the defense was gonna be pretty good. It was for the most part. There are things you don't love about it. It was a little light in the seat of the pants upfront. People ran on them over the course of the year, but that's what happens when you got five
hundred pounds of pass rusher at your two end spots. Um, there weren't particularly deep at you know. Rule talked about this a lot. He talked about playing in the n FC South, you want to be built to rush the passer and defend man to man. So they had a bunch of corners and they were good, and that secondary was really good until they started ding ding ding getting
hurt all the way down the line. And then by the end of the year you're out there playing with Stanley Thomas Oliver and Madre Harper and Keith Taylor and wondering why Tom Brady's putting forty one on you. Well, that's why because Stefind Gilmore's out with COVID and Dante Jackson and J. C. Horn are on I R. And so's a J. Boyer. I mean, it's you know, a lot of stuff. And it was cascading stuff. So the defense was good. Then erosion sort of happened and it
was less good down the stretch. And I mean, honestly though, it was just a defense that got worn out, grying the load for the whole year. I mean that offense was bad, and it was bad because the offensive line wasn't sustainable. It was bad because Christian McCaffrey got hurt again, and it was bad because of those first two things. None of the quarterbacks, none of the three quarterbacks they started this year, and anytime you use that sentence, that's
a red flag. Uh. None of the three quarterbacks were enough to overcome those first two things. And I think that once you got into December, you know, there you can look at or people may look at this stat or that stat over the course of the season or
this game in December or January. I mean, I think once once the playoffs were out, and once it was just obvious this offense wasn't going to be able to play and score at the level they needed to to and to necessarily look at you know, this happened on defense, or that happened. I mean, I think at some point you're just it's not really relevant, it didn't really matter. I mean, looking back on this thing, the season ended
in Miami. Yeah, the season ended in Miami when you got your heads beat in by a Dolphins defense that is built on that same Patriots platform that beat your head in here and you're five, you know, five and seven. All the good feelings from Arizona feel like a hundred years ago. You fire a coordinator, and then the last couple of weeks we're just hanging on for dear life and trying to get through it. I mean, there were individual things you could take from the last month of
the season. Oh look, Brandy Christiansen, he looked, okay, um, little stuff like that. But you know, for the historical scope of this thing, the season ended in Miami, and then now it's just onto the next thing and it is onto the next thing, right, So as you look at that, there's a you know a little bit of a timeline that we're going to be a part of here, and I think maybe the first chapter of it, the first step is, you know, who are they going to hire?
Offensive coordinator? And then sub sequently these kind of positions, offensive line, defensive line, special teams, and I think it's all gonna flow from there. But I think the first step is the guy doing the hiring, and it's Matt, and it's I know a lot of people, you know, the people who live online, um and I live to be angry online aren't thrilled about it. And a lot of fans aren't thrilled about it. We've heard him, uh all over town and all over the radio and at
basketball games and stuff, and Matt rules. Not horribly popular, but Matt rules here, and you know that was you know, I think I will. We haven't heard from Temper yet. I assume that at some point this offseason we will. And I think what he's going to say is some version of I told you Rome wasn't building a day. I told you this was gonna take a minute. I told you we were looking at a couple three or four or five years to get the organization where we
wanted to be. And I and I think there is you know, in in people who it's like political opinion. People made up their mind early on on this and they're never gonna change. But I think, you know, there is something to be said, whether you like the particular parts of it or not, there's something to be said for I don't want to be the guy that fires
coach every two years. Don't want to be the Jacksonville Jaguars, don't want to be the New York Giants, don't want to be the Jets, don't want to be those teams down there in that range of the NFL. And certainly it hadn't go on the way anybody anticipated um for a lot of reasons, and we could chop it up a hundred ways. But you know, I think now it's
on Matt to find an offensive coordinator. And you've heard me joke over the years, will the number one ruling coaching searches is if the last guy was fat, the next guy I'll be skinny. The last offensive coordinator was Joe Brady. The next offensive coordinator is gonna have some skins on the wall. He's gonna be an older dude who's called plays in the NFL before. And it may not be a name that's sexy or you know, whatever lights up the phone lines at the sports talk radio station.
But I think they need to add some degree of NFL experiencing credibility to that offense as they begin to build. Because we've talked about it over and over. They are going to spend money in draft picks on offensive linemen. They are going to continue to look for an answer at quarterback. Now. I don't know if that answer looks like and Andy Dalton or a case Keenum or whatever
fill in the blank. You're you know, you're faceless NFL veteran to come in and lend some stability to this thing along with Sam Donald, or it means drafting Kenny Picket or whatever it happens to be. But I know step one is going to be free agency, where this thing's gonna look different, and it's absolutely coming. Brace yourselves for it. You know, somebody you love on that defense
probably and gonna be here again next year. Uh, somebody they really need is going to walk in the door pretty early in free agency, and and you expect it. I expect it to be one of statement of intent signings. I think something's coming on March. Whatever the Wednesday is, um, look at me, whatever that Wednesday in the middle of March is, because I already know what my spring is
gonna look like football calendar. Somebody's coming and it's gonna we're gonna hear about it during the legal tampering period because it's going to be that level of signing and they're gonna be able to say, see this what we mean, We told you we're going to do this, and here it is. And I don't know what the particular name
is gonna be. I got a couple of ideas, but it's I think it's reasonable to anticipate they're going to prove to you they mean it when they say they're going to fix that offensive One does that in line? Need it both in free agency and the draft it's
one or the other. I think it's both. I mean, honestly, if you go out and you know right now they're picking six, if you go out in free agency and signed a left tackle act Toron Armstead, boom, then you take Brady Christiansen and he's your left guard, and now what you've got to do is find a right guard to go with the right tackle, and Taylor Moten, who we already know is pretty good, and then this thing
looks all right. And then you get to the six pick in the draft, and if you have a chance to draft and Evan Neal, you draft him anyway, and you figure out where people go. Then he goes at left guard for a year while Brady plays right guard. And you know, you put those pieces together after the fact. But I think they gotta consider using them both. Whether it's Evan Neil, Charles Cross, ikey I kwanu kid from Charlotte, UM NC state guy, any of those tackles I think
is gonna be in play. We're gonna write about them a lot over the next four months. Um, you know. And A in those free agents, I mean there are big names out there. I mean I just mentioned Armstead, Andrew Norwell, the Great White Buffalo is going to be a free agent, um, Brandon Shurf. I mean there are big ticket guys. I think when people think of splash signings in free agency, you think of a big receiver, or somebody's gonna score touchdowns or get a bunch of sacks.
But a guard who can keep the flies off, whatever quarterback it is, make you a little bit stouter in the run game, fix things around Christian and you know, beefing up the running game around him. I think all those things have to happen. What do you You're heading down to mobile sound? Maybe Mailor's ours are probably gonna yell at me for saying it wrong. I think it's is it mobile or mobile? Mobile? Mobile? Whichever one I say, it's wrong And Taylor always likes to correct me on
that because it's not mobile, it's mobile. Well, it's mobile. It's either mobile or mobile. Uh okay, it's not mobile obviously or mobile. But I can't I can't remember if it's mobile or mobile. I think it's mobile. Who are you? Uh? Have you? You probably haven't gotten there yet. Where it's It's it's Thursday. We're still just doing the word. Is there? What do you what's the difference from a scouting standpoint, from a Scott Fitter stound standpoint, what's the difference between
the Senior Bowl and the Combine? For those that may not be all that plugged into, Well, the Senior Bowl practices are the key. I mean, the game doesn't matter. Nobody pays stench to the game. They just games there because we've got to have television inventory. Um. The practices are the deal. And and you can watch people do football. Um. And it's one of those corny things scouts say you can feel their size. You can, you know last year
for instance, last year it's a Senior Bowl. You watch Deonte Brown practice all week and it's like, my god, this man is massive. Uh. And you've got a sense for how he moves as a massive person who you knew if you drafted him. You want to be less massive. And just seeing the way he moves at that size and all the stuff he can do. I think that's part of it. I mean, the combine has become like a lot of things in the NFL TV inventory. It's
it's it's the HR department for the NFL. It's the place you go and fill out your forms and everybody feels out highway forty time, arm length, hand size, love hand size. Um. And we're gonna find out a lot about hand size. Can he pick it? Does he have small hands? Um? You know, we'll do all the measurements and and it's just a place to go to collect the measurements. I don't think you, you know, fall in
love with anybody based on the drills. You see. People do it to combine and it's just a place where you go to get the standardized information. The medical is the most important part. The interviews are the next most important part. Then you get down to everybody filling out the form, you know, your job application with all your forty times and bench press reps and that kind of stuff.
How how much do you put on some I mean every year you get those like one or two stories that come out of those interviews where it's just like, ah, this guy said this or you know this on this you know on the test that he did. He thinks he's a cat instead of a dog, you know, or doesn't like football, or you know, enjoys playing the wordle and Moroy loves playing a quarterback or anything. The good
news is the league doesn't wonder Lick anymore. And that's one of my little pet things because I believe that people learn differently, and that intelligence is not a thing you can measure in only one way and only one lay. And some guys learned differently. Some guys are visual learners, special learners, test takers. It's a hundred different ways. And the thing we mean by intelligence means a million things
to a million different people. Um. There are people who scored low and wonder licks and got shamed by it, who were incredibly smart football players. Um, we've seen that here without getting into names, because again I hate it because it got used as a scarlet letter on guys and in a way to shame people, uh, for reasons I don't really understand why people get a kick out of doing. Um. So, I mean that's going away. I mean all of that, all of that stuff is just
part of the equation. I mean it's it's one more thing and you get all those measurables down. Sorry, I got on my wonderly crazy I forgot that. I I like it. I didn't really, I mean that's good for me. I didn't know that it was gone. So I'm I'm glad to hear that. Um. Obviously, we we have a lot coming up. There's you know, we're just getting started. It's it's just early January, so it is, you know. So I'm not going We're not gonna go too far
into every single day off. Yesterday and it was glorious. You should take all day off tomorrow too. You you've earned it, and I know we'll see. But I mean, I thought about this actively in the middle of the day and I was doing some I was doing some foot all adjacent stuff yesterday, but I didn't write a word for this website about the Carolina Panthers for probably the first time since the middle of July. I like that it was pretty neat, gonna lie, Yeah, they needed
a day off. It's I think I'm gonna go home today and roast chicken or something. So okay, it's yeah, this offseason is good. So I want to end this for for this offseason, um or at least today's podcast. There's a there's a great little tweet going around that a bunch of your friends and are verified friends are quote tweeting with your goofiest sports take. This is from Mina, your goofiest sports take that you actually kind of believe
is true. And there's any number of crazy things that are out there that are around this, so I was curious what may fall into your into your There's a couple. I mean, the one thing I believe is true that sounds kind of crazy is that Ted Williams Head is frozen in some cryogenic bank and an underground lad in Florida in hopes of reanimating the greatest hitter who's ever lived.
You know, I've seen that debunked, but I want to believe that that's true, because I want to believe that, oh my god, I could do that, that we could reanimate tidis Um. The sports thing that I believe in my heart is that half court shots and basketball should count four points, and that any field goal longer than fifty should also count four points, and anything over sixty
should count five. That's incredible. I think it would be super fun, you know, because you've seen coaches try to freeze kickers and try to draw in the difference between a forty nine and a fifty. If you're confident your guy can hit a fifty four yard or and you're lined up at fifty four, he take that delay a game, back him up five for the extra point. Let's have some you know, people think analytics has gone a little overboard.
Put something like that in and watch Brandon Staley's head explode speaking of a game that was going to be one of mine. That that someone from somewhere made a call down to the sidelines with about fifty seconds left and said, all right, guys, enough of this. We've got all the ratings. This game needs to end in a win. We're not ending this thing in a tie. That would imply centralized planning of a scared scooter commodity that never happens. What about this? I would have been all for it. Now.
You know, people were joking online about both teams should take knees the entire game, and I mean, as an agent of chaos, I would have enjoyed seeing that at a personal level. But UM, I understand why it can't happen.
You have to have integrity of the game because reasons. Um, But I do think there was a point and it certainly looked like and I kept my miss help up way too late the other night in Tampa, stuck watching that the end of that thing, because I believe the Raiders were content to take that right until Staley called the time out. And then it's like, alright, big boy, fine, you you want to play it like that, We're gonna kick this ball and win this game. But weren't they
still going to run a play? Yeah, they were still going to run a play, But I think they ran it differently. They were running that same little goofy you know run that you know, it wasn't really designed, and then I think kind of got their attention. It's like, all right, let's do this, and then they make a play and then it's a makeable field goal, so you go ahead. But I the Raiders certainly had the posture of a team that was content to take that tie
both of them slide on into the playoffs. I mean, it's it was incredible, incredible drama. Yeah, unless you're Mike Tomlin who slept through it. Who admire because Mike Tomlin not only fell asleep on it, but admitted falling asleep. It's incredible that man securing his own skin. Yeah, that's for sure. I was also going to say I hate the fumble out of the end zone rule, you know I I think I think the diving with ball outstretched for the pylon is one of the coolest players in football.
And the idea that we're you know, saying that this is a this is a thing we don't want people to do because it's you know, you're disincentivized from doing it. I don't know. I I think if you had to create the five most indelible images of the Carolina Panthers history over what twenty seven years now and seven? I think, uh, Deshaun Foster in Philadelphia in the playoffs in the know three season, even though it was um Deshaun Foster breaking nineteen tackles and flying to the pylone with the ball
out like that. That's one of the coolest pessers in the world. So yes, I want to see more cool stuff like that. And then a week later he did it again in the Super Bowl when he kind of flew with the ball outstretched. I mean, think of I don't know. I think it's one of the coolest players in football. And every time that you say, oh, that's not what we do, you know, like whatever, it's fun, is fun, it's sports ball. Let's have fun. Yeah. Anyway,
well this has been fun, Darren. Yeah, we'll have fun. Yeah, we're gonna keep trying. We're gonna keep going at this thing. Here's a thing. And I believe this with all my heart. We take what we do here seriously. But this is not serious. This is football. And I know there are a lot of people angry about the way that this thing went down this year and yelled and hollered invented on Twitter and online and called radio stations and little
message boards and all that kind of stuff. But it's ball, and you know, it's good that people have a chance to come together. I think it's one of the great I think it's one of the truly neat things sports can do is bring a community together. But it needs to be part of your community. You know, you also need to be in a bowling league, or go to church, or volunteer or take kids to Scout meetings, or adopt a dog and petted every now and then before you
rage tweet at somebody at ten thirty at night. Um, you know, do all these those things. This can be a part of it. It's a fun part. It needs to be a fun part. And that's not to say it's always gonna be fun. It's life. It doesn't always go your way. You don't always get to win, not everybody does. But I do believe that, you know, there's a time and a place for yelling and hollering and honest accountings of things, And there's time and a place to remember all I didn't work. What's next? And that's
kind of where we are right now. That note thanks for listening. Everyone