This week on the Happy Half Hour, when Sam Donald and p J Walker become better options, it's like, what do you do? And he wanted to see if a different place could give him an opportunity to reset going into free agency again next year. And it's sort of like when your third quarterback wants to be somewhere else, you say, okay, texta, it's time for the Happy Half Hour with your friends Kristen Balboni, Augusta Stone, and Darren Gannon.
That's right, it's that time of the week. It's the Happy half Hour podcast and the podcast is brought to you by Prowling Vineyards, Napa Valley. It's the official wine brand and wine club of the Carolina Panthers. These premium selections celebrate the great people of the Carolinas and the Panthers hunger to achieve excellence on and off the field. Learn more at Prowling Vineyards dot com. You're here with your friends Darren, Augusta and Kristen and guys, it's it's
been a couple of weeks. We had Thanksgiving which fell on a Thursday, of course, our normal recording day. How dare Thanksgiving do that? And then we had the bye week, So it's nice to all sit here in the warm and cozy podcast studio and catch up. Augusta, how did you spend your bye week? It was excellent. I went back home, celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas all at once, which was overwhelming and exciting and joyful and wonderful. So it
was really great. I will say I drove six hours both ways, so twelve hours total, and I felt every second of that long drive. But I listened to a lot of music and a lot of podcasts got through it. So happy to be back in Charlotte. I love it. I feel like it's like home. I was like, I'm going back home, like coming back to Charlotte, which was a good feeling. Yeah, I love it. It's a great feeling.
How does that sound in your head at this point after you've been a Charlotte tean for all six months now? I mean it feels great. I I've I feel like I have done everything I can to to embrace the city, and I feel like the city has embraced me back. I love the Carolinas. I feel like it's like, if of all places to build a home, it's a great place. So yeah, I mean it's been It's been quick. I moved quick. I guess the contractually obligated to say all
those things on the microphone. We know the real Augustus check the box. Yeah, don't run into her on the highway. That's all. That'll be a whole another podcast series, how about y'all. It was good, my folks. I'm fortunate. My parents are about an hour up the road in Hickory, suburban Hickory, and you know, I got to go see them a couple of times. Um, it's just good to
be that close and have that availability. I you know, always think about you having to do twelve hours in the car this time of year, and sometimes you know, I'm the one who moved away to the city and I'm an hour away, and it's like, so the prodigal
son has returned. Yeah, but it's great to get back and just slow down for a weekend, because when you've been going for twelve weeks of regular season and then the six weeks of preseason and all the stuff that led into this season, you know, with Hall of Fame and everything else, it feels like you've been spinning. Oh my gosh, we were just talking before we started rolling about you know all the things that have that have happened this season, and Hall of Fame feels like, um,
years ago, three or four years ago. Yes, yes, it's yeah, it's been. It's been a year here for the Carolina Panthers in a lot of ways, a lot of stuff has happened. So it's uh, but this is why we do the thing. The news business is exciting for exactly that reason, because you wake up in the morning you never know what you're gonna get. Well, let's talk about all of that. Then let's talk about the news that we got this week. I mean, of course we got
to start with the quarterbacks. News came out on Monday that Mayfield was released by the Panthers. Darren, do you want to talk us through you know how it all went down, and it feels like the best thing for both sides. Um. But I think the cool thing about this podcast is that we kind of get the behind the scenes a little bit, a little bit more context than is out there just in a tweet or in an article. So walk us through it. Well, I mean the long and short of it is, they gave it
a shot. I mean they effectively, when you pull back from this thing, they bet three million dollars in a fifth round pick in on a former number one overall pick, and it didn't work. And that's the short version of this story. The much longer version is Baker came in. He looked good at times, especially in training camp, and there were moments where you think, okay, yeah, I see
where this works. But when the regular season started, it was almost like when Cam came in after the Arizona game last year, after that brief flash, you look at it and it's like passing offense not really working, and the inability to complete passes, as it turns out, is kind of a big deal for quarterbacks, and he wasn't. Yeah, he wasn't able to pass the ball at all effectively, and so at a certain point is insane as it
sounds when you say the words out loud. When Sam Donald and p J. Walker become better options, it's like,
what do you do? And he wanted to see if a different place could give him an opportunity to reset going into free agency again next year, and it's sort of like when your third quarterback wants to be somewhere else, you say okay, and again that's all perfectly normal until you pull back and realize Baker Mayfield, former number one overall picking Heisman Trophy winner who came here in July, was then released in December because he was the third best option behind Sam Darland p J. Walker. Make it
all makes sense. And that's the third craziest thing that's happened to the Carolina Panthers this year, after firing a head coach in October, and then trading Christian McCaffrey, oh, by the way, which was three years ago in October, and and by the way, um not out of the playoffs in this season. And despite all that, we could have an actual conversation about playoff chances this week. And
it's not as as as insane as it sounds. There are two games behind the Buccaneers, but the Buccaneers still got a forty nine ers game left on their schedule and a little bit tougher road according to strength of schedule numbers than what the Panthers do. But it all, but it all starts this week at Seattle, it does. And what what a season. As you said so far,
it's what a season. It's going to be exciting the rest of the way with with all of that going on, I think one thing, you know, we're talking about how this podcast gives a little bit behind the scenes as well. And one thing I was talking to Wilkes yesterday about, um, you know, releasing Baker, and he started with this and he said, you know, I just want to say what a good person he is. And we heard Sam Donald say that as well, and I think we can all
attest to that. Fans, of course, you you like or dislike players a lot of times based on their performance on the field, and we all forget the human aspect of it sometimes. And of course it's more noticeable when Darren, as you said, you have a number one overall pick who gets released. There there are guys who get released all the time, practice squad guys, you know, their trades that are made. There so many things that are out of these players control. And what they can control is
is who they are. And I just want to say, for the record, for anyone listening, uh, Baker Mayfield, his wife Emily, Uh, great people and I wish them nothing but the best. And I think sometimes that gets lost. And I mean that's not to say that there's I mean everybody here that we work with. I think on the players side, there are really really good people and we're lucky to work with them, and so I I wish them nothing but the best, because, um, I've just
always enjoyed my interactions with both of them. And that's the weird thing about Baker. He did. He comes in because he's Baker Mayfield. Because he has been a celebrity for the last seven or eight years, going back to Oklahoma, going back to his days in Cleveland. He's been in commercials. We feel like we know him. These are great commercials, by the way, commercials, but we feel like we knew him. And there was a certain image in everybody's head when
he walked in the door. What I saw in the five months he was four and five months he was here, he did everything right other than played the football, which is an important part of being a football player. But from the way he operated in the locker room, the way he built relationships with guys he had never met before on the fly, the toughness he showed I was and again you want to talk about behind the scenes when he sprained that ankle and was trying to come
back and play the next week against the Rams. That Friday afternoon before we got on the plane, to l A on Saturday. He worked out in the bubble and they were about seven or eight people in there watching, including Steve Wilkes, and I was standing about three paces behind Steve watching Baker rolled out, watching Baker do the things, watching him throw on the move, take drops, and you know, Steve just kind of shaking his head because a guy with the injury he had wasn't supposed to be able
to do all those things. The toughness he showed all that stuff was exemplary. And I remember running in Baker in the hall after that work out that day when everybody was reporting, you know, that he was going to be out for a month or six weeks, and he just walked by me and he kind of laughed and he said, six weeks, my fill in. And that's just kind of who he was. He lived for the fight.
And that's why I think people believe that players are just saying the right thing when they say, like Shaq Thompson was talking about all he's always going to be a brother's when you've been in this locker room. I like him, I'm gonna keep up with him, support him whatever. That's real because he did all this stuff correctly, other than play the football exactly. I think about the human aspect of things. Um. It's it's funny. It feels like we're just having like a like a post mortem on Baker.
But he was really nice. I remember like all the way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, he I just UM, I think, especially talking about the locker room, just how quickly he was able to build
those connections. I I really was surprised almost by Um, especially early in the season, and how like on the practice field it felt like there wasn't a guy on the team that he wouldn't come up to and be like, you know, hey, what's up, or like shake hands or or bump helmets or just everything about it and Um, and that's one thing when christ and you're talking about the human aspect of it. I feel like so many locker room interviews. We got the open locker room on Monday.
We talked to a couple of the guys after UM Baker was released, and it was, you know, it the amount of times that they've been like, well it's a business, but like he was my brother, and all the things like they've had. There's been a lot of coming and going from people who were very prominent figures in the locker room, people who made an effort to talk to everybody,
get to know names. I mean, Baker new names on the staff, Like he would always say hi to me by name, which I thought was really nice and polite. I mean it was. There were just so many different elements. But they've been doing that all the year. They've been like, oh man, you know, it's the business. It's business. Things have been going in and out and and that's a that's a lot too, that's a lot like And that's why it feels I think like five six months has
felt like a year because so much has changed. And yeah, you keep that core and you keep that kind of you know, I guess when you go through so much with so many the same people there, there's something about the great point. They've been through a lot. Locker room has been through a lot together this season, and they seem to just all really care about each other. Past present members included you know, um, which is that's that's
a really good point, Augusta. And one thing, you know, I talk a lot about it on the radio broadcasts and sometimes you go like, I know, you guys have heard this before, but as we have a different quarterback starting, so so stop me if you've heard this before, but I do think it's important again to to tell people that that aren't here every day. That quarterback room now as it should be. Every quarterback room should be supportive of each other. But gosh, they really care about each other.
And you know, when Sam got his first start, PJ was like beating his chest. You know, He's like, oh, let's go it. You know, it's so cool. All three of them, Um Baker included when he was here, just really rooted for the other two. And it's fun to watch each of them um as they've started, like their different styles pregame warm up, like Sam is you know, he's laid back, right, He's he's nothing. He's not gonna
get too high, too low. I was just thinking what you guys were saying about when he's I don't you know, it's a business. Want the best for him. Like every day he's you know, I'm living my dream, whether I'm um hurt like he was earlier in the season, like he just got that real California cool, real steady. Baker of course has the the fiery personality and PJ is kind of in the middle, right, Um you know, he
gets really fired up for things. But it's it was just fun to watch the three of them support each other all throughout training camp and um through the regular season. And I know that that's going to continue with Sam and PJ, who are the starter in the backup, respectively for this game. UM and and that's where the Panthers
are at quarterback right now. And I gotta say it, I feel pretty good about it, right Fan Shapfield, pretty pretty good about I mean, and again a month and a half ago when they last played a football game against the Broncos in here, you know, we got good Sam. We got first four games of last year. Sam. He was careful with the ball, He hit a shot or
two downfield, got to d J Moore. Uh And even when you know, the finding characteristic of his career has been whether he makes the turnovers or not, whether he's throwing interceptions or putting the ball in the ground. And against the Broncos, even when the ball ends up on the ground, it kind of works out and it turns into this new Holy Roller where where Sam falls on his own mistake and and takes it into the end
zone just because nobody's touched him. And you know, if you can keep Sam from that big disastrous game, change the mistake. Now, if the Broncos fall on that ball on the one yard line, everything might have been different. The other night, everything might have been different for Sam. Uh you never know. Maybe PJ is starting again this week, who knows. But the point is he was able to
avoid those big calamitous mistakes and turnovers. And when Sam Donald does that, as we saw the first three or four games of last season, they've got a shot and things are very different now. I mean, there is no Christian McCaffrey now for Sam Donald, but there's a better offensive then he's probably ever played behind in his life. And last year it was a revolving door. You know, we joked about it throughout last season. Fourteen different starting
lineups in seventeen games, which is ridiculous. And this year it's basically been two and those two lineups, other than swapping out pad lf Line for Brandley Boseman, those five guys knock on Wood have played every snap of every game they've played in, so things have been stable up front. They're running the ball well with Deonte Formant. It's a good situation for Sam to walk into because the things
he needs to succeed are all right there. And we've seen some some creativity with that offensive line, especially the last couple of games of something we've talked a lot about on the radio broadcasts with Thomas Davis for the TV show. We're seeing that unbalanced line, you know, camera ving at at tight end, reporting as eligible cade May's fullback extraordinaire and uh and they've been able to keep defenses on on their toes with with that kind of stuff.
And as you said, it's it's helping Sam Donald. You know, we are calling on the radio broadcast, Jack Deloom, Luke Key Clear calling for a cad Mays touchdown as soon as possible. They have been um lobbying Steve Wilkes several times that I have heard to to make it happen. I don't want to give away any game plan secrets, but that is something that we on in the broadcast booth would would very much like to see. You talk to Kate about that actually before the bye and he
was like, your boy can run with the rock. Don't get my goodness. I mean, Caid's like got some confidence about his own ability. But I sort of joked with a lot of those guys on the line and and other than Bradley Bozeman, they all kind of deep down in their hearts believe they can be a playmaker with the ball. Um. Although Corbett Austin said, you know, yeah, I topped out as a running back at seven years old.
After that they were like, you're too big, go be alignment. Um, but all those guys deep down their heart believe they can be a playmaker. And and you know what, it's almost this sounds flip, but what do you got to lose? Yeah, game? Um, well, you know, I mean, in all honesty, when you can't, when you haven't had a lot of success passing the ball, what do you do? You stick an extra offensive lineman on the field and you run and then maybe you mix it up. So it's uh, it would be something
to see. It would be another wrinkle in this season to see the ball in cam Irving or cade May's his hands. Why not I know, I asked him, I said, who do you think we'll get the touchdown first? He's like, well, I'm gonna say Cade because then maybe it'll be me right, Like it's trying to put like the reverse jinks. I guess out there. Um, a little Bertie, this will be
something fun for you guys. A little Bertie to tell me that cade May's um in the offensive line room recently during a meeting, got fined because he was bragging too much about his I believe a Little League World Series stats went on way too long about him and he got a fine for that too. Maybe that'll be an article on Panthers Dot comment somewhew. And if we do content about a rookie offensive lineman, that's another fine I can come up earlier in the years. Let's talk
about Seattle. We are all headed out there on Saturday for the Sunday game. First things first, most important things. First, how are you guys occupying yourself on a five plus hour flight? Don't say Darren's gonna say work. I was writing articles, which I think is like a cardinal. I don't do that. But I'm going to catch up on sleep. I can almost guarantee I'm going to catch up on sleep. I will probably nap on that plane at some point. Um, I wish I'm not a good plane napper. I wish
I was. I do I am. That's one of my superpowers. It is absolutely a superpower and the one that I do not possess unless I'm very, very tired. I will carry a book along with me. I will attempt to read that book. I will inevitably get drawn into a conversation by Rob or Bill or Ryan or somebody on the plane, and which keeps me from reading that book.
And so it's I always have goals of just relax, read a book, sit back, take a nap, and it never quite works out that way, because there's always the one thing I'm going to be doing on the plane, honestly is looking for the WiFi so I can watch England France in the World Cup quarters on Saturday. Game you have? Are you rooting for one over the other? Um? England tends to be the second team of most American
soccer fans because we watched Premier League. We're familiar with most of those guys, and and plus Harry Kane's a Tottenham guy, so I have to I have to root for him. Of course I'm gonna I sit behind Darren usually on the plane, so I'm just gonna be, you know, shout at go France in a year and just a few times, like I gotta occupy myself on this flight too, So that's what's gonna happen. So Augusta is a big killion inbop a fan and she's so she'll be who
is it? Yeah? Huge, huge, can tell you I made a very off colored joke about the real football yesterday in front of Darren and I gotta react and it was pretty fun. I'm not a soccer fan. I'd love to be. I think it's so fascinating. I love like I'm almost like a fan of the soccer fandom. That makes sense. It's so cool. They get so excited, Like I know when USA played, which I get, I know what happened, but like there were people going out to like breweries at ten am. I'm like, man, what a
culture Like? That's not I was at home and we were just chilling out. My family's not into it, but I was like my friends were texting me from you know, They're like, oh, we're getting free beer tickets like it's ten can I tell you? Um So that first game, I want to say it was maybe the weekend of Thanksgiving, right, um and we there was also um U NC n C State playing. I went to un see uh my dad did, my husband did so we decided my dad said, well, hey,
you wanna go watch the game. You're home my hometown. We said, all right, and we decided would be a great time to take my son, who was almost one, to his first restaurant. Now we knew that USA was playing, but didn't think about, you know, just that the random ace that we decided to go watch the game would be filled with I mean, we had the US a chance and my my kid had never been in an environment like that. So we walk in and his eyes are like saucers because it's it's it's USA World Cup fandom.
Like you said, it's like it's like twelve, it's it's noon, and we're like, oh, just give him some lunch, Like it'll be a great way to use him into going to a restaurant for the first time, you know. And then we had and then we had you know, football going on, and I mean, the little guy held up well. But I know exactly what you're talking about, Augusta, because I was like, oh, I did not expect this level of just you know, there were chance he's like his
head's I decide, like, you know, he's watching tennis. It was it was a great definitely unforgettable being born there like that story when he's older, a lifelong aversion one of them two, you know, depending on how it settles in there. Let's talk about this Seattle game. Um So, I was talking to Steve Books yesterday and you know, he just said, they're look, they're trying to build that playoff mentality from here on out. Everything. They need a
view everything as a playoff game. And I said, well, what does that mean to you? What is a playoff mentality? And he said, look, it's all about execution, you know, not beating ourselves going out there, which is which is a great coach thing to say. But but Darren Augusta, you know, as you guys dive in and talk to the players and and look at this game, what needs to happen from here on out, because, as we said, not out of it right, I mean, they've got to
tighten up on defense. I mean, the Seahawks can throw the ball around, believe it or not. Of all the insane things that we've said during this podcast, Gino Smith, m VP candidate, is playing really good football right now? And are you laughing? Because it's just so beyond me. I just like a picture of a World four months ago where you're saying this, and I'm like, this is the point of the NFL season where things just I was saying this before we started rolling. It's like every
year about this time I'm watching the NFL. We got to say. I sit home and watch Red Zone last week and I'm going, what is going on in some of these games? Or you know, you look at the headlines and for year, I think this is this is crazy, like what's going on? And then I forget that this happens just about every time this year, Gino Smith being one of those stories former Jets Geno Smith and Sam
Donald playing against each other with NFC playoff implications of course. Um, but you've got to be able to shut down two pretty productive receivers. And the Panthers have We've talked about all year, pretty deep at corner. They've done some different things in the secondary. Miles Hartsfield's coming back this year. This week it looks like he's back on the practice field after missing sometimes, so that helps a little bit.
But you gotta be tight. You gotta run the ball, and the Seahawks are not very good at run defense. They've you know, blown some tires against teams. I mean, if you can look back at what Oakland did to him over two yards on the ground, including the big run, and over time, I mean, it's just they've sprunk some leaks. So it's a thing that kind of plays into the Panthers advantage and you see some of those little things where you think it could work. But I think to
me mentioning that playoff mentality. Watching yesterday's practice, they were in the bubble because it's been Seattle weather here all week. Um, I think I'm on the injury report with mildew um, but it's it's just been damp and cool and gray.
So they went in the bubble and there was a little I don't want to be corny, but there's a little extra something in the air, a little I don't know how to explain it, but guys were locked in and J. J. Jansen said after practice, he said, I had a couple of guys come up to me and say, this is different. This is you know, they know, they understand that if they want to keep talking about playoffs, if they want to have something to play for the
rest of the year, it starts this week. They haven't won a road game yet, they need to do that. They need to put two together back to back for this to be anything with any legs. So I you know, I think they've got guys attention. And when Steve talks about playoff mentality means focus, it means attention to detail. Seeing those guys has kind of locked in as they were, it kind of speaks to that. I mean, he's gotten their attention, They understand the message. Now they just got
to go out and do it. Was one of the things too, that I find so interesting and kind of building off of that. The playoff mentality, like you said, is like kind of like attention to detail of those things. But one thing that Steve Wilks has talked about a lot is not letting it get in the way. And this seems like a really big it game. You know, they have all the playoff stuff going on. They're going up to Seattle. It's a long trip. The weather is
going to be Seattle weather. I think I was looking like thirty eight and rainy, So it's gonna be lovely and wonderful there. It's gonna wait to be out there for five hours and I'm just getting perfect perfect. But like you have all of the nous of it, you know not and then even like you know, oh, two
wins in a row, went on the road. And I think, what, while like those big storylines are like what we talk about, I think the what Wilkes is trying to instill in the players and what they're kind of giving back to us is that like all of the the it nous for lack of a better word, is like that that has to kind of go to the wayside, and it's like, just play the game, even though they'll be in the
hostile environment. I was talking to a lot of them yesterday about kind of playing in Seattle and how loud it is and and a lot of them haven't played there before. Some of them were trying to relate it back to college college experiences. Um Brady Christians and I talked with him. He went to b y U and he was like, I haven't really played in a lot of places that were super loud, like you know, when I was in school. He's like, I went to Tennessee
in the SEC and that was different. And he like looked over to cad Mazes Locker and it was kind of funny. But um, there's just all sorts of different I think that's the biggest thing. It's like the not letting it get in the way. And that's such a big Steve Wilkes thing, and he has a lot of them bought into that, so like you try to ask them about the trends and things like that, and and I really do think like that kind of like translates
into like the snappy practice. I feel like snappy is a good way because it felt like everything was moving very quickly, very efficiently. It was almost like a very well oiled machine. Not that every practice isn't like efficient, but there's something different. I agree, like something in there was like boom boom boom, boom boom, and it's a
it's a good point, Augusta. With professional athletes, there's this this fine line of you need to focus in and be UM, be attentive, UM, have great execution, know the stakes, but not so much that it gets in the way of your mental thing. And it is that it is this tightrope that you're walking, which is I think what both of you were just saying. It's to know how important this is to do your job, to be tightened up, to to execute, but also to not let it get
so big that you. It gets in the way of everything, which is why they're professional athletes and I'm not because I couldn't figure that out. N wouldn't say be quick, but don't hurry. Yes, exactly. Well, that's a perfect place to leave it with some of Darren's wisdom. Take no credit who I'm saying. It's all you Darren. All right, everyone, thank you so much for listening. We'll see an next week on The Happy Half Hour podcast. Wow