Happy Half Hour Episode 71: Baker Mayfield

Happy Half Hour podcast. Christian Balboni here with the Panther's incredible team of writers. Everyone knows Darren Gant. Everyone who listens to this podcast or read Panthers dot com. You know Darren. He is here and Will is out this week because he is getting married. But special assignment, that's right. But in Will's place, we are introducing our newest writer. She's amazing, Augusta Stone. You may have already he read some of her work on Panthers dot Com and I

know she's got great stuff coming everyone's way. Augusta, how's it going going great? Kristin, thanks so much for having me. This is so exciting. I was I was telling before we hit record. This is my first time in front of a microphone since the pandemic stuff. So I'm getting the real podcast feel right now. It's not just on Zoom. It's kind of chill, so I like it. I'm excited, very excited. Well, it's the perfect time to do it because we have big breaking news. Will is getting married

now I'm just kidding. Baker Mayfield is now a Panther. So we all had to get together. And speaking of Zoom, I am at home. I plan to be at home watching my little one today. Darren is just recovering UM from COVID and is back in the swing of things UM, and we had to all get together in whatever way we could to talk about this Baker breaking news. So, Darren, without further ado, you are the man that knows everything. You've been following this and following this, so tell us more.

Baker Mayfield is now a Panther. He was he was traded for what seems like a very good deal for the Panthers. What what can you tell us of? Yeah, and and and that's one of the things that I think now that this thing settled in for a few hours and we've kind of absorbed it a little bit. One of the things to me that is the biggest deal about this trade is didn't cost nothing. I mean, he Baker took a pay cut to come here. The

Browns are paying part of the fright. The Panthers are on the hook for this and five million dollars worth of the salary, and only gave up a conditional fifth round pick in twenty four, not twenty five. So while there's been criticism in the past if deals they've made or this or that or cost too much or this amount of money, this one's basically a free shot at a guy who is a quarterback who has one a game in the playoffs, and if you can get one of those for no cost, you might as well give

it a shot. That was one of the things I was talking to Jake Delome, who has a little knowledge about quarterback competitions in Cleveland and the Carolina Panthers, and Jake was like him, for the price, you can't you gotta do it. I mean, that's just the bottom line. And while this is going to be a competitive situation and Sam is going to have a chance to hang onto this job that he's the incumbent at Uh, they are going to go to camp and they're going to compete.

And when you've added a guy, if Baker Mayfield goes back to being twenty Baker Mayfield, I think the reasonable expectation is he's inevitably going to be the guy. But

it's not free and it's not being given. So I think considering you're really buying low, uh, coming off the injury, and Cleveland didn't need him anymore, and they were worried about it being a toxic situation up there because he he wanted to get out and they didn't know how that was gonna work when people go to training camp without knowing that other thing that's going on up there.

And so it was an opportunity for Carolina Panthers to really buy low and add somebody to the room who's got a lot of talent and can do a lot of things. And so it's going to be a fascinating um training camp this year, no question about that. Yeah, it sure is. So right now, there there are four quarterbacks that the Panthers are carrying. We'll go down the training camp will actually five. Don't forget David's cheek from Ellen.

That's right, that's right. My apologies. David's five. So we go down a training camp and that is a couple of things that I wanted to to just talk about off the bat. Is that it will be a quarterback competition, which you got. I mean, I think it makes all the sense in the world right to go down. Why why would you not have a quarterback competition? Right? And and you might as well. I mean, there's no you know, the whole point of this was stabilizing the room, and

that's what I wrote about yesterday on the website. Kind of the the why of this trade is you had done so much other work to stabilize every other area of the offense. They knew they needed to shore a coaching staff. They go out and hire a bunch of veteran assistance. They knew they needed to fix offensive line. They signed starters and drafted Ikya kuanu Uh. They did all this other stuff in the off season, including extending d J. Moore, But making the quarterback room better makes

all that stuff matter a little bit more. So now you go to training camp and we see what these guys can do, and and we don't know, we don't know what it's gonna be like. We don't know what Baker's physical status is gonna be. How healthy is we assume, you know, based on the physical he's gonna take later this afternoon if he passes that, and everything's cordin to plan, and then he'll go into training camp ready to go. But we're dealing with a lot of unknowns from that standpoint.

So it's while Baker Mayfield is good and Baker Mayfield has some credentials, it's not like they trade for Aaron Rodgers. It's not like, oh my god, this automatic, so go to camp, let him compete and listen, Baker's got a vested interest in this deal too, kind of like Sam. He's got one year left on a contract and then he's said to be a free agent. So it's worth it to Baker Mayfield to bring his best game to

the Carolina Panthers. Well exactly. And it's kind of like you mentioned in your story as well, all of the pieces around him. He's not going into a bad situation necessarily, and is it an unknown situation partially. I mean there's a lot of pieces, especially with the reworked offensive line. But I think it's good that he's going into a situation where there are pieces in front of him. I think D J. Moore is a huge piece. Christian McCaffrey. I think he works well with a good running back.

I think that's something that's very good for Baker. I think the way he plays, I think that's a good chance for him. Like you said, it's an opportunity for him. And I think when you have the pieces around him, he's he's stepping into a situation that could in theory, it could be way worse than I think when you have that piece. Of course, it's a bunch of unknowns, but there's just an element of that where there's a reason for optimism. And like you said, I think it

was a good choice for Baker. I think it makes sense. I mean, he wanted out, but I don't think the Panthers are necessarily one of those last ditch you know, I wanted out. It's honestly, the way it's written in the stars, it's not that bad. It's it's pretty solid.

I think, yeah, it could definitely be worse. And I've kind of laughed over the last twenty four hours watching the national reaction UH to this trade, and and part of one of the things people say about Baker as if it's a slur, is Baker Mayfield's a league average quarterback? A really long time since Carolina Panthers have had league average quarterback play. Nothing wrong with the league average quarter And if you're in, if you're among the fifteen to

seventeen best quarterbacks in the NFL, that's okay. Uh, that's pretty good. And honestly since t J Wytt cam Newton in the shoulder, Uh, we haven't seen that level of play around here in a long time. So I think it's good. You know, it's good to add to the mix. And that's what they wanted to do. That's what they did at so many other positions. Now they did at quarterback. Yeah, and as you said, it was in your article you touched on it, and as Augusta said, there's they've improved

where they have said they were going to improve. And you know the offensive line, which is what you mentioned that in great detail in your article. In addition to everyone that Augusta just talked about, if if if Baker Mayfield wants a shot, if Sam Donald wants a shot, the pieces are in place, like Augustus said, in order to to go out there and give it all you can and and try to put together a great season

for the Panthers and for themselves. I think to another thing about the Baker situation is, you know, I think one it was the non shoulder throwing shoulder injury, wasn't necessarily a great year for Baker. But I think we're kind of sometimes, like you said, with like the national things I've seen, it's short term memory lossy wasn't bad for Baker. His first year wasn't bad. So it's it's

almost like a back and forth sort of pendulum. We've seen ten you know, decent, really good Rickie debut twenty nineteen, a little bit down, broken offense. Good year for Baker. One he was you know, dealing with the mechanics issues with the with the broke, with the with the shoulder, with the arm non non throwing shoulder injury, which was good.

But it's like I think it's a solid you know, you can go in with Baker in a competition optimistically, because it has almost been this up and down sort of flow of the ocean almost kind of thing with him, where you know, I think saying, oh he had a bad one, you know, he's average, you know, bow value mid whatever I've seen all over. I think it's almost like having this this short term memory thing where it's it's Baker wasn't that bad two years ago? Right, you know? Seven?

And again seventeen months ago, there was a lot of projecting going on when the Panthers traded for Sam Donald, there was a lot of well, he hadn't been in a good situation. And frankly, Sam came here and Christian McCaffrey gets hurt and end up firing an offensive coordinator in the middle of the season and starting fourteen combinations

aliment in seventeen games. Wasn't a good situation for Sam last year here either, Uh, either Sam or Baker is walking into a better place than they then Sam walked into a year ago. And also, I mean, let's be honest, what the baseline is higher on Baker Mayfield. Baker has has one a playoff game. That's a pretty big deal, and and people are going to keep going back to that. But winning a playoff game, period is a big deal. Winning playoff game in Cleveland for the Browns, who hadn't

done that in a long time. That's a thing he did that's still pretty good. So I think while last year when Sam comes in, there was a lot of projecting of what it could be or what he could turn into in a different situation. This guy has at least already done the thing. Yes, yes, if he could get back to that, then Panthers would be in pretty good shape. So I want to ask you guys about what you're hearing about Baker Darren. You mentioned that he

is going through a physical later today. We are recording this Thursday, right around noon. Um that aside, I know you'd like to you poke around, you call, you talk to people. UM, what have you heard about where he is physically or have you heard anything. I have not heard any indication that would suggest he's not going to be ready for training camp. That being said, I I don't know that the physicals necessarily a lay up. I mean,

they do want to look at that left shoulder. They do want to know what's going on in there and how ready this guy is. So everything is pending. Physical deals not done, deals agreed to, you know, all those kind of things. And and my understanding is he's flying into Charlotte, UM later today, he will take a physical and then immediately leave. So it's not like he's gonna be hanging around town. This is also the dead time

of year when he can't do stuff. One of the things I did yesterday, uh afternoon, right after we got the news out, I made a lap through the football side of the building on the second floor here and Bank of America Stadium, and there was literally no one on the side of the building where coaches and scouts and personnel people all see it. It was just a ghost town because those guys are all out on vacation. Half of them are in other countries or out with

their family or doing different stuff. Scott was on the road, so um, and we should just clarify for anyone who doesn't know. Even me working in sports wouldn't know this off the top of my head. This is a designated time these up until training camp, where the players leave the building, the coaches leaked the building. Almost every NFL team, the coaching staff, front office are are out of the building at this time because it is a very small

window where people get to take breaks. So that is not saying that they weren't in the building and could have been or anything like that. They probably have these vacations planned out. But six of my year in advance six months in advance. I think Augustine College. Don't they call at the dead period when you can't recruit. That's effectively what's going on right now. So there is a ceiling on what they can do. I think they can

send him a playbook. But it's not like he's doing eight hours worth of zoom calls every day with Ben Macadoo or anything, because as far as I know been Macadoo could be sitting on a beach with his feet in the sand enjoying a coal one right now. I mean, so it's not like there's a lot he can do until he gets on the ground in Spartanburg. Well, it's one of those things too. I've been thinking about it myself. How much is he coming in, you know, starting up

right at training camp? Is he coming in with any sort of uh, I guess behind on anything right? And then, um so I'll admit I got here toward the Tale and of O T. A. S. And I saw the three days of Mini Camp and that was kind of my start. But I did see Mini Camp and something that um I found interesting where that's weren't really participating, you know, that was like what Rule said, it was one of those things that they were doing where they were letting them rest, you know, kind of seeing where

their depth was before they headed into training camp. Um. Obviously it would have been more ideal for Baker and for you know, getting to know Bien Macadoo system and everything to have been here, but at least from what I've seen. Again, like I said, I was here for four practice days when I started my job, so I'm also very fresh. But I think it's one of those things where he's not He's not coming like is the

dead period. I think a lot of the quarterbacks are still getting a grasp of what's going on right now. Matt Corral was very open about that when he met with the media about how he was, you know, still learning. I think Sam Donald's still learning. Everyone's still learning, so that learning atmosphere sets him up for a more even competition than like even though he wasn't here through even

though he wasn't here through many camps. It's one thing if he would have arrived in April and had all of O. T A s to work through this thing. But this thing has been lingering for a while and it could have happened practically at any time. So that I think the difference between happening on July six versus

happening on June is probably pretty negligible. Yeah, completely agree, And I want to touch on that Darren, that this has kind of been out in the ether, But before we do, I just want to follow up on on what Augusta was saying. And Darren, you have been to how many training camps Ballpark? All of them, all of them, all of the training cants. You're the perfect You're the perfect person to ask about this, and I think it's something for it that that fans would want to know,

and certainly I want to know. Um it will of course day one will be a big deal with Baker, Mayfield, Tim Donald competing. Day two will be a big thing, but we can already see what it's gonna look like and how everyone will cover it. Will all be looking for the tiniest things. The national media will be doing the same new offensive coordinator as Augusta was just talking about, he said a little bit longer with some of the

other guys, Baker's coming in. What do you want to see from these guys, and that let's say that first week down in Spartanburg, if you're Ben Macundo. What's realistic and what might be overblown? Yeah, I I think what's going to be overblown at first, obviously is snap counts. It's gonna be oh my god, Sam. Sam took the first snap and he's out there with Taylor Molten and Pat elf Line and Austin Corbett and the you know and all that kind of stuff. That's gonna be a thing.

And Okay, Sam got seven seven, seven snaps with the ones, and then Baker came in and got six snaps with the two. Yeah, that's gonna be our life for a couple of days in July for sure, and probably the entire training camp. But uh, you know, I I think it will. Early on, it's just gonna be learning the language. Baker's going to have that book, He's going to know what things are called, but he's gonna have to go into a huddle and call umn with people he's meeting

on the fly. So I think it's going to be interesting to see how much he's actually doing early on, and how much he's able to do exactly, and what the progression looks like as we go through the practices down in Spartanburg up to joint practices, Um, do you think that they'll come out of the let's say, by the joint practices of New England, that will have a sense of of who this might be, which way they're leaning.

I know there's no way you can answer that. Competitive situations, Yeah, I think you'd like to have an idea sooner rather than later. But again, I think the fact that this is all the first insult and all these guys who have been around for O. T A s have gone through this book three times now and Baker has gone through at zero times now, So I think that's going

to buy them time to make a decision. I imagine it would drag on for most of the UM, for most of the preseason leading up to the Pompompomp opener against le Brons. The NFL scheduling crew is is truly visionary, that's for sure, Um. But but I want to talk about, as you said, this has kind of been out there in in the ether a little bit, UM, what has that been like for the both of you? And how surprised were you, Darren, that it happened yesterday and that

happened at all? I am not surprised that it happened at all. Uh, it was always a bit of a surprise whenever it happens. But I was a boy scout when I was a kid, and be prepared as kind of part of my life. So, uh, you should see some of the stories that I have written that I have not been published. Um now, I mean this has been kind of percolating really since the draft weekend, and it was pretty known that during the second round of the draft they were talking to Cleveland and the hang

up then was compensation. It was how much of the contract are you gonna pay? How much of the contract are you gonna pay? What are we getting in return? What's going back the other direction? And so that never got worked out. So that's just kind of on me. I mean, listen, I've been around here for a minute and and know that quarterback transitions are part of the deal here and until they find the quarterback, they're gonna keep looking. So I've got a file with a lot

of available quarterbacks. Um, you know, different things prepped and ready in case. But it's like, you know, it's a whole lot of premp as much as you can and then be ready for the phone to ring and say, all right, this is coming this afternoon, so it's you never really know. But I I was genuinely afraid because I am pretty obsessive about preparation and pretty obsessive about stalking my pantry with enough groceries to get me through a snowstorm even in July. But which my wife hates

because some people call it clutter. I don't know. I mean to me, it's preparedness. But UM, yeah, I was afraid I had scared poor Gusta all phone or first day, I honestly did. That's what I was going to say. My very first day here, early June. I I don't remember the date, and I should I should have it, you know, committed in my heart to memory. I think

it may have been June eight. I'm not sure. Um, but one of those very early June days, I walk in and I'll never forget Darren telling me the day before my first day, you know, telling me how to get to the building and everything, and then he goes, you may be walking into a fire. And I mean I felt like until yesterday, every day, you know, it's all it could happen. Maybe I don't know, maybe, um maybe not. But um, like you said, with the preparedness

side of it. I mean I've known about it, you know, being a possibility since i started, which again not that long ago. But it's it's fun to be able, I will say to kind of have I know, like the burst out. You know, it's like when you shake up a can of cola and then you let it go and it bursts out. But then you don't have to worry about it. You know, it exploded. It's over like well, you know, at least the the anticipatory waiting element of it. Um. But it's fun to walk into a situation like that.

I mean, I've I've had a great time. But I remember that very vividly from my first day when when Darren told me it could it could be you know, a normal day. I think it was o t a still, you know, we went out to practice. Everything was normal, or it could be an explosion. Who knows. And listen, I am a very used to that, Augusta. I am a very old person and I've been walking these halls for a minute. And when Augusta Stone and I walk into training camp, we will know Baker Mayfield exactly the

same amount out. It's awesome. I'm so excited. Yeah, same here same here we all will, you know, which will be a lot of fun um and certainly will be covering all of this throughout training camp. I'm gonna have to let you guys go soon because I know that you've got articles to write, people to call halls to walk um. But before I do, I you know, it is the Happy half hour. Of course, we had to talk about Baker. But in these last couple of minutes,

I want to do a little impromptu segment. I'm calling tell me more. Okay, writers, As we all know, I think everyone knows you have the best Twitter accounts, right, and so I just went back as a way to get to know Augusta a little bit better and as a way to just get to ask Darren questions like I love to do. Went back and found one tweet of each of yours from the past few days, and I just need to know more. They're fascinating, all right, So Augusta, I have yours here first. Okay, okay, this

is from July five. You said today I tried cold brew with a splash of lemonade with a half off drink deal from the Starbucks app, and I can't stop thinking about it. My coffee drinking life will never be the same, Augusta tell me more. I would never put those two things together. Oh my goodness, I'm so glad you asked me about this fun fact. My mother called me yesterday asking me about that tweet, going, Oh my goodness, is it actually good? You sound out of your mind.

So one of my best friends, actually we interned in Charlotte together a couple of years ago. Her name is Laurel. She works in Kentucky. Now. She told me about this thing that she had been doing with Colebrew lemonade. One of her barista friends made it at their local coffee shop in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and um, I was just so intrigued. And it tastes like iced tea when you take iced tea and you put lemon in it, but

it's it's just slightly stronger. And I also got it with two pumps of the liquid cane sugar, and I've got it three days in a row. Now I love it. It's really really good. I I honestly wish I could put everybody on it just to try it, because it's not an overpower ring taste. It's not overly acidic. That's something I've heard. Is it not just heartburn in a glass? No, it's excellent and great, and I'm so glad you asked me about it, because I am quite passionate about it.

So I think everyone should give a shot. I was on the fence until you made the tea lemon reference. Darren, what do you think? Are you going to try it with me? I will try it with you. I I do not leap eagerly into new things often when it comes to coffee. I'm kind of a truck stop black guy. Um, but I will give it a shot. Let's go. I

love it. I love it all right. And then the last tweet from tell Me More Darren from July two, Uh feel safe saying if not for COVID, I'd never have watched The Summer I Turned Pretty, get vaccinated and boosted gang and then in parentheses, although Belly, who is the main character of that show, would be wise to steer clear of that entire Fisher family. They're all messy, she could stand to lose the Damsel in Distress bit as well, So Darren, I popped in on the Summer

I Turned Pretty the other night. I only got through the first twenty minutes before my my son started crying. But for anyone who doesn't know, it is very much. We are not the target demographic. Augusta might even be a little old for the target demographic. It is like a teen show and supposedly very good. So, Darren, how long did it take you to watch this entire show?

And should we be watching it? Well? Now, with the modifier that I was laid up with COVID not exactly doing a lot else, I had a lot of screen time. Last week we plowed through seven episodes of the Summer I Turned Pretty and about I don't know, a day and a half. Um, it was a lot to take in it once, but fortunately after after a couple of days when we were no longer contagious. My daughter was home from college the summer. She was hanging out with this.

She was like, are you actually gonna watch this with me? And so we we started watching it and she was like, you're starting to get into this. This is a little scary. You are a little too into it. But yeah, it drove me crazy because Belly is a young woman of promise and I feel like she's self limiting by locking herself into a choice between the two Fisher Boys, which shouldn't be a choice at all. They're both bill um right. Yeah, I don't even get me started on Conrad. He's just way, way,

way too much. UM. But yeah, I wish that young lady would lean into her agency. She's coming into her own. She got through the debutante ball phase of her life thanks to her mother's dear friend, UM, who kind of put her up to it. But now she has agencies. She's blooming in front of her very eyes, and I just want her to make better decisions with her life. Oh I love that, spoken like a dad with a heart of gold. All right, well, thank you guys for

indulging me. I know we were here to talk about Baker, but I just you know, I love Writer's Twitter accounts. They're the best tweets, hands down, pound for pounds, So I had to find out more about both of those. Um, and thank you guys for doing this. Uh, this was a lot of fun, and we are going to of course be bringing you updates from training camps. So until then, everybody, thank you for listening to the Happy Up Hour. We'll catch you next time. M