Happy Half Hour Episode 74: Reasons For Optimism

Darren Gant. Guys, what's up? Happy end of preseason? Happy almost regular season. It's great to see you both. Good to see you. We're so close at September December one. It is September one. Somebody asked me this morning in the office if I knew what today was, and I said, what do you mean? Do I know what today is? Thursday? And he said, no, what it's the anniversary of And I said, mm hmmm. And he's like apple Chian State beat Michigan on September one. And my response was today's

September one. I'm impressed that you know it was Thursday. I gotta be honest, I'm still not My days are still not right from the preseason. Yeah, it's when you go through that schedule and you get on football coach time and Monday's a Wednesday, and you know, and so forth, that it gets a little confusing. But we're here. We made it. We have we've made it. And not only are we on football coach time, we were on front office time. And Scott Fitter has been busier than ever.

And that's saying something because we know this man likes to wheel and deal. He has done plenty of that. We've had some trades happen. We've had the roster cut down to what some might say is the final fifty three, but we know it here at the Panthers is the initial fifty three because we know that it will change much more over the coming weeks. But I would love to get just your initial thoughts on the roster cuts,

starting with you, Darren Well. One of the most amazing things to me to consider from where they've been and where they are now is the sentence the Panthers traded an extra offensive lineman because they had too many. Can you roll that around in your head for a minute. What is the what is the time point that that would have sounded ridiculous six months ago, eight months ago. Yeah, I mean it was insane. Last year. We were talking about fourteen lineups in seventeen weeks, bringing guys in off

the street who were playing on Sundays. It was just alarming. And to have a surplus that you could send Dennis Daily to Tennessee for basically a fifth round pick. Uh, Dennis in a seven for a five um and he was drafted in the sixth round three years ago, so it was basically a free three year rental on Dennis, who was a serviceable player. I mean, Dennis was, Um,

he had done some things. I mean, he has value for somebody in the NFL, but he just got caught in a numbers game here where he probably wasn't going to make the roster, at least in its current incarnation, because they're going along at a couple of position. So nine was the number of offensive linemen they were going to keep. If they'd have kept in it had probably

been Dennis. But um, Yeah, it's just alarming to me to think that they are at the stage after bringing in Ichy, after drafting Cade Mays, after Um going out and signing Corbett and Bozeman that all of a sudden they have too many offensive linemen. Yeah, not a bad position to be in Augusta doesn't even know those days. This was the before Augusta time. They were dark times. Sometimes they were Yeah, it was a mess every now

and then. But yeah, that to me was kind of the move, even though it wasn't the biggest move of the week. It's like the thing that signals how far they've come as a roster and putting this thing together. I mean, last year that offensive line was a liability.

I think it's fair to say that, and that's probably charitable, and now all of a sudden, I'm not going to go so far as to say the strength of the roster, but it is not a place where you're like, oh my god, they've got to do something about the Yeah, absolutely, because there are so many other blanks that they're still working on. So, Darren, you said that was not maybe the biggest move of the week, So I would love to know in you guys mind, what was the biggest

move of the week. The biggest move of the week, Augustin. You think it's Levisco Chanel. I think it's a he's a very well put together receiver. I think it was interesting how many wide receivers they kept, you know, and that's something we've talked about. But it's depending on where where do they see Andre Roberts, you know what I mean. Like, obviously he's more of a return guy. He's being counted in the numbers at least in our articles, you know,

seven wide receivers. But in theory, you know, you bring in Chanel and then you think, at least I thought, I think a lot of people thought, you know, okay, so what's going to happen here, like attrition wise to the receiver room, And there wasn't a ton you know, I mean, there was like the people we thought, but they kept Shy Smith and or Schard Higgins both. They kept Andre Roberts and Chanel at least on the initial

fifty three. Yeah, and once now that they're down to fifty three, the next thing that's going to come up is who's on that game day forty six and trying to figure out inactives that receiver room is gonna be really interesting. Tune in the Panthers dot com at eleven thirty am on September eleventh, because at first in active list of the year will be curious because they can't keep all six of I mean Andre will be up to return. I mean you almost have to consider him.

It says wide receiver on the roster, but he's down here with j J and Hecker uh and the specialist in their little category. But on on game day, you know, between shy terrorists, Higgins, Um, Robbie, Leviska DJ you can't keep all six of those guys up on game day. And where it becomes a little complicated is with a guy like Brandon Silstra no longer here. None of those guys are really known as special teams players or people we even think would contribute a lot on special teams

at least for right now. For the past two years, has been that person you are describing. Yeah, he's been that guy. And there's no more Brandon on this roster. And and we'll miss Brandon. He was a great human being in addition to a very good special teams player and the best backup kicker in the NFL. Um But at the same time, trying to figure out how all those guys fit is going to be an evolving thing. And they talked about that yesterday with channel coming in.

You know, they see all these different roles for him and he could do a little of this and a little of that and a little of this. He's walking around meeting people, He's trying to figure out who his coaches and where the practice field is and my locker is where? And how do I get there? Do I need a key? You know, he's still in that phase of becoming a Carolina panther. So trying to say that, you know, they know what the roles are for all these guys is kind of crazy to think about right now.

Is it a good problem to have that you have all these different configurations that unfortunately you're going to have to leave at least somebody out on game day or do you wish you had it more set, more guys that can do more things, Darren? You know, I think it does. There is a question to be asked about, you know, if they show up in this personnel all

the time and do this, is that a sign? But I think that a couple of those guys, I mean right, and I think a couple of those guys, especially DJ and Chenault, because they can do so many different things, and Robbie can play multiple positions. People People see Robbie is just a straight lane speed guy. But Robbie caught a lot of balls across the middle two years ago, so I'm in a lot of different situations. He's not afraid to go across the middle. He's got some toughness

about him in that regard. And now I say little and in the Chanuld experience is just when you see him out there next to Robbie, it's like, whoa, those two are different. Um, because Robbie's legs are about as big around as my pin and channel. It's got these big tree trunk leg But um, anyway, I mean having

a couple of guys who can do different things. At least at the top of that, I think Shy is still trying to figure out where he fits in tears, still trying to figure out and and they talk about those guys being able to learn how to do multiple things, but I don't think any of them are are there quite yet? Still young guys yea, yeah, still with plenty to learn and improve on, no doubt about it, although

they have great potential. I also want to talk about what I think is incredibly significant move, which is that the Panthers have their kicker, Eddie Piniero. At least it seems that way right they have they have signed a kicker. Um. Certainly, just awful, awful news about Zane Gonzalis and his groin injury. I was standing very close when it happened. It's just something you just never ever want to see. Zane just

incredible guy. Really provided stability for the Panthers at that position, and um, it's not the Panthers have also you talked about the offensive line struggles over the last two years until Panthers were able to find Zane Gonzalez. Um, that position was one where there wasn't a lot of stabilities. So so Augusta is also not able to remember the dark times at kicker. You know, the Joey Slag experiment, the Ryan Santo so era which gave us a great

name if nothing else. Mustache, fantastic mustache. Um, I'm not sure what I was more impressed with his mustache or discussion alts three trunk legs. Um at any rate, I digress Um, that's what we're here for. Yeah, but they they had finally sorted that thing out and saying, you know, not just provided stability he was hitting all his kicks. He had made seven team straight field goals prior to that Buffalo game. Last year, NFC Special Teams Player of

the Week several times. And when you when you find that stability and somebody's playing really well, and then you have to get back into the revolving door and bringing guys in. And you know, even even though Panero is a guy for right now, I would be surprised if they don't continue to work out kickers and just keep the list up and and see what's out there in case he's not the answer to that position. But yeah, we'll see. He's at least got some background with Chris Taber.

I'm looking forward to talking to him a little bit about that when we catch him later on. But he's um. You know, when you're looking for kickers in the first week of September, that's kind of the spot you're in. Okay, So this has been your first time where you come from, you come from the college world. This has been your first time when it comes to um cuts, which is an emotional process for a lot of guys. It's um

your head spinning around a little bit. So what have you made of this whole process in order to get the roster down to the initial fifty three. I was I will say, like, even though you know you're prepared for like the emotions of everything and everyone tells you you know it is, there is a mood. I think that's that's the biggest thing, you know, And even in the days leading up to it, there's like almost attention.

I think the jan mood is one of those things that's very different again from covering college where it's like that level of intensity. It's where I've heard it's so many times this week and it's so true. It's like you realized this this is a business, you know what I mean, And that's it's you know, it's football and

it's fun and it's passionate and everyone loves it. But I mean even talking with the coaches and the players, it's like you see, you know, hey, that was my buddy and now you know he's heading to Seattle or you know this this this Channault story, you know, whenever he came up, Darren wrote it so well, but um, you know he drove up with his mom five hours from Jacksonville in his electric car, and it's like you think about five hours, but turned into what eight We

had to charge the electric car, which was incredible. Yeah, apparently no superchargers along the corridor through South Carolina. But you just, I don't know, you just realized, like, there's these are these are people's lives. I think that's the biggest thing. And it's in their lives are being uprooted and changed, changed and shifted and all these different things. Um and you know, you know that you read it on paper, but to see it play out, you know,

it's it's been fascinating. And I try not to get, you know, my heart into it too much. I'm like, Okay, this is just the way it is. It'll be fine. But oh, learning from Darren a little bit. No, I'm just kidding. Darn darn portrays himself as a tough guy, but he's a softy inside. I know it. Don't let him tell you different. Don't tell anybody got imaged uphold,

But no, it is. It is bizarre. And when you when you are in the building, when you're around these people on cut day and you see somebody getting on an elevator or you see somebody going downstairs to grab somebody, it's like you cringe because you know, what's coming, and you just you know, you try to keep your eyes down sort of avoid eye contact a lot of times on a day like that because it's awful. And I mean for every even the undrafted rookies. These guys always

dream to get into the NFL. And if it's somebody who no one imagined ever had a shot to make it, they thought they had a shot to make it. So um, it's always a tough day. And that's we talked about the fifty three, but eight d sixty four dudes became unemployed all at once the other day, like yikes. But the flip side of that that is because the business does go on. There's also an excitement among the coaches and the personnel staff because it's like, okay, you've got

your fifty three. This is what we were building towards. Now we know what it looks like. Now it's a little more tangible. Now it's real, and you know, you start looking at the way that things put together now and it is far from a finished product because, like we said, seven wide receivers, six defensive tackles at the moment, I mean, that's probably not the way they're going to go into the leveland game. Uh, we'll see how that goes.

But they're short onlinebackers, only five linebackers, and that kind of you know, going back to zel Strick kind of leaves you a little thin on the punt team because Brandon was such a core special team are on all four of them, and now you've got to figure out, Okay, what do you do with that? Because Frankie Luvu's regular on the punt team, Frankie Luver is probably not gonna be running down every punt while starting at linebacker and

playing a bigger role this year. So there's a lot of moving parts and it's gonna be curious to see how those things shakes out in the next couple of days. Yeah.

Talking to Baker during the preseason game, I said, what are you most looking forward to in the next two weeks and he said, you know, as hard as it is, knowing that some of the guys here at the time are not going to be with us having that initial fifty three and just being able to start putting the plan together, being able to start really getting comfortable, um with who my guys are on that offense, is it a really really exciting time, right This is it's now,

we're now, we're preparing for the things that matter. So so I cannot wait to see that. So I'd love to know Darren from you and you know, Augusta, this will be your first time going through it as well. Can you tell everybody what is what's the coaching staff, what's it gonna be doing the next couple of weeks, Like what starts now that you have your initial fifty three and then also front office besides linebackers, what are

they focused in on? Yeah, I think for the coaching staff, I think Matt used the phrase it's a weird week because they're not completely getting into Cleveland game plan. They're doing a little bit of that stuff. The coaches are working on a lot of game plan stuff behind the scenes, but on the practice field they're using Wednesday Thursday is just kind of teaching tools. It's a day to polish

up their own stuff. They did some extended team periods yesterday, did a lot of work on two minutes and situational stuff. Um and I think they tried to use it as almost bonus practices because when they finish up Thursday afternoon or this afternoon, Yes it's Thursday, Um, I already forgotten. You said it very clearly earlier today, this Thursday, September, absolutely Thursday, and it will be all day to day. When you said Wednesday and Thursday practice, I could have

I was like, yeah, today's Tuesday, right to practice. But they they've tried to hold off on installing a lot of game plan and stuff like that. They'll get that next week after the players get a weekend off because Friday, Saturday, Sunday off days for the guys and for us, and and really the last until week thirteen, when the bye hits it. You know, that's gonna be our next three

day weekend. We don't have to be in this building and look at football and deal with football, although it will still be dealing the way Darren is holding his temples right now thinking about that, Joe, how many weeks to thirteen minutes? Zero is thirteen? That's right? Um yeah, but anyway, it's um that's the coaching staff personnel is

going to still be polishing this thing. And and I was talking to uh, some folks down near this morning, and it's still moving and and they're still trying to figure out how to get this guy, this guy, this guy, you know, what do you do here here here at this position. You know, there's a lot of stuff happening and and it will continue to They've got to practice squad. You know, you want to talk about uh Laviska's travels, jacobieson the new quarterback who's coming in on the practice squad.

H I Gustin knows a little something about him. He went to Georgia for like two minutes. He's probably going to be a little bleary eyed because he just got cut by Seattle and I think he was in on a red eye. Aren't we all bleary eyed? So no, I'm not trying to take away from Jacobson's trouble. That is a that is a long flight. Yeah, that's a long flight. So he's gonna probably catch a nap somewhere in the stadium before practice today. We're gonna walk past

him out of the podcast studio just with a pillow. Yeah, be laid out in the hall, hiding in the press box. Um, but yeah, he's here, new quarterback on the practice squad, should be out on the practice field today. So there's a lot of stuff going on and just it's almost like you set that board and then you look at it and say, yeah, we need one of those, We need a little bit more of this, and they were just trying and Scott's whole thing throughout was keep the

best fifty three and there were guys. Again, they've got six defensive tackles on the roster. But you know, it sounds weird, but they really like markwa McCall, the undrafted rookie from Kentucky. They like what Phil Hoskins has done. They have seen the promise of Davey on Nixon and and what he can do. And he's another guy who

can do different things. I mean, he can probably play defensive end honestly, um because of his length, but he is you know, they've got a bunch of individual guys that they wanted to keep, and so you keep the ones you want and then figure out how to put the pieces together. And that's sort of where they are

this week. I wonder, if you're a fan and you are not following this as much as we all are, how confident should the fans be feeling about this roster, knowing of course that it is going to change before we get to Week one with Cleveland, before we get to Sunday, September eleven and then even after that as well.

Um and Augusta, I know that you can't compare it to the last couple of years that that Darren and I have been here, but I would say, for me, I think you feel pretty confident as a Panthers fan from everything that I've seen in the building. It is a very different UM team, and it was constructed very differently, and there are opportunities available because of the draft, because of certain trades. This feels like a team that is

way deeper than it's been the last two years. And as both Matt ruland Scott Fitter have said, we're you know, we had to cut guys, which has not been the case. You know, we've been looking around at the fifty three man cuts UM in the past two years. So you're in a position, like you said, where you can can trade at Dennis Daily, where someone like Justin Burris, who has been a starter the last couple of years, is now on the practice squad. I'm feeling optimistic, Augusta, how

do you think the fans should be feeling? I feel like I think you explained it so well, especially with like I think the decisions before cut day. You know, trading, Dennis daily, getting lebiscussion all here, and then like you mentioned, you know, uh, justin Burris to practice squad all that, even though he was a starter. I think there is a sense of optimism in the willingness to make moves like that, you know what I mean, like to be to be willing to Okay, we're gonna try this. And

it's not you know, scorched earth or anything. You know, it's like they're they're like they're but they're exciting moves, and there their reasons to be like okay, you know, like like like Darren said, you know, they're looking at the board right now there, they know kind of what they're looking for. They're not settling for things, you know, just because oh we need to do it by now,

you know. And I think there's a level of patients and also a level of quick movements with movement, all of that together I think is a reason for optimism. And they have a good start right now, you know. I mean there's like different pieces obviously that are going to change, but there's a solid basis here. I think there's a lot of reasons to be optimistic really beautifully. But I can tell you're a writer in the way that you said that, that was just really, really beautifully eloquent, Darren.

One thing that we haven't actually talked about when we're talking about all the moves and and all the questions is quarterbacks. So a couple of weeks ago when we did this podcast, we had four quarterbacks in that room. Now there are two healthy quarterbacks in that room, Baker Mayfield and p J. Walker. Of course Matt corral with the list. Frank injury a couple of weeks ago in the preseason game against the Patriots, and then Sam Donald the high unkle sprain in um the third preseason game

against the Bills. The other nights. Are we worried about that? Is? Uh? You know, it's it's it's not ideal for your backup quarterback to be missing the first month of the season, but it's better than your starting quarterback. So on the scale of things to freak out about, you know, it's bad, don't get me wrong. And and Sam, you know, say whatever you want about Sam, he's handled this situation well

and with grace, and he's actually played really well. And and if you saw practice the way we did the days after the decision, you you understand why people want to have Sam Donald on the roster and want him in the locker room. Sam can make throws and Sam can make play, so, um, it's gonna be an adjustment. I mean, p J is a guy who PJ has

seen some stuff man in his career. He he was basically he knew on a tlee that he was probably gonna be on the outside of looking in of this roster because they trade for Baker, they draft Mat Corral and he's looking at the numbers saying, well, you know, they're probably not gonna keep four. So um, I think PJ had some awareness. But PJ was also with the Colts when Andrew Luck retired at the end of training camp, so weird situations are nothing new for p J Walker.

And you know, I think when you go out, um, people talk about quarterbacks a lot because their quarterbacks. But PJ having been around here, he's had the five months with Ben McAdoo whatever, So you know, I think when you start thinking about who your backup might be, a lot of people would be tempted to go out and

bring in a guy from outside. But then you're training someone on the fly, and could you go out and find some vet, I guess, but you're not gonna find anybody on the street immediately who's going to be more helped you today than p. J. Walker is. It's a great point, great point, and uh, you know we've already got to bring leviscussion up to speed. Baker Mayfield did just get here two weeks before training camps, so everyone

is is still learning. But I think that's just such a great point, Darren Um And uh, I think you know, hopefully Baker Mayfield stays healthy, with no reason to believe that he won't. And as as you said, Darren, the initial assessment with Sam was sixty eight weeks and now they're thinking it's more four to six weeks. And that was from after the preseason games, and so the news

was better than maybe they anticipated. And if you saw him go down and be carded off in that game against Buffalo, which was just a nightmare third quarter by the way, Zane and Sam having a bang bang just like that, it was reasonable to wonder if it was going to be longer than that. But fortunately for Sam it's it's not as bad. Matt said that yesterday. You know, we we were afraid it was gonna be six day, we get in there and look around, maybe it's gonna

be four to six now, so that's good news. Um. But and you're happy for Sam. He's he's still Sam. He's walking around in his boot, he's on the by, you know, just being Sam. I mean that's the thing that I respect about the guys. How steady he is. I mean, he's in a you know, nobody enjoys being injured. But Sam's not showing any visible signs of you know, distress or anything like that. He's still good to good

guy to have around. I was just thinking, I mean, if you didn't see the boot, if you just saw him from like the torso up, you wouldn't think there's anything wrong. Like he just walks in. He's in a great mood. I was. I was just when when Darren was talking about quarterbacks, I mean, think about personalities, especially you think about Sam and PJ. I mean, these are just two guys that are just they're very steady people.

PJ when we talked with him, I talked to them in the locker room after the game, just gracious, just you know, I mean, you know, he I asked him, I was like, you see half the quarterback room get hurt. You know, what are your emotions And he was like, man, I mean, you know, it's it's awful to see, but you know, I'm here and this is my job, and

like I mean, just be able. Like like Darren said, you know, he saw the riding on the wall, you know, with Matt Krow coming in, with Baker Mayfield coming in, but he still stayed steady. And now he's back up week one probably you know what I mean, Like you have you create, you have these personalities in this room, creating this atmosphere of like good senses and good vibe. I don't know, I just it's it's a good vibes.

They're they're good people. I think that's good. I think you both said it really well throughout this episode, and I would bet producer Matt will make it the title of this episode, reasons for optimism. It feels like the theme of this week, even though we don't know what day it is. We don't know if it's Thursday, if it's Tuesday, you know, and we're not even on the field. But I think there are a lot of reasons for optimism. So I appreciate both of you guys coming in and

sharing that with the fans. This has been a lot of fun and we'll see everybody next week on the Happy Half Hour podcast.