Happy Half Hour Episode 90: On The Clock

I guess emergency makes it sound bad, but this is a great time to be having a special edition of the Happy Half Hour podcast with your friends Kristen and Darren. Augusta is out on special assignment at Pro Days. Even though augusta fan favorite, can't be here, we decided to get in the podcast booth to discuss some of the news that has been happening in the Panthers world. Darren what news news? Someone should Yeah, Darren got some things to update you on. So as every NFL fan, certainly

every Panthers fan knows. Friday afternoon, the Panthers, let's say, according to reports and probably the safest way to say it, according to many, many, many reports, which will become official in about twenty six hours at four o'clock on Wednesday. Yeah, the Panthers entered into a huge blockbuster trade with the Bears, which resulted in them trading up to the number one

overall pick in the draft. And just to explain for everyone who has questions or maybe you say, okay, why does some of this news look different on Panthers dot com or why are you guys saying according to reports? As Darren just said, the official new league year starts Wednesday at four pm. It is right now Tuesday afternoon, so at least in this building, right as Panthers employees, we will be saying according to reports until the new league gear starts, which is when these deals are allowed

to go through and be official. Yeah, I think we've now said it enough times to give ourselves blanket immunity. We're okay. From this point we can just speak about it as if it is one blanket according to reports for the entire podcast. I like it. Yeah, that covers

us from that. So yeah, big move and number one pick in the draft hadn't had that in a while since oh twenty eleven can seem to remember that that was a thing back then, and this one took a little I mean, they earned that number one pick in the organic way, which wasn't necessarily fun for anybody in two thousands one way to say they earned it in the organic way. Oh, this one was a little bit

harder to come by, and the price was steep. I mean, to go the ninth pick in the draft, the sixty first pick in this year's draft, which was one of the twos you got from the Christian McCaffrey trade from San Francisco, and then next year's one and a twenty twenty five second rounder plus Dj Moore. And that's the part that I think Scott everybody feeling some sort of way about it, and I think it would probably be celebrated even more. I mean, it's an incredible thing to

be in position to take whatever quarterback you want. But because Dj was included in it, I think that's giving some people pause. But you know, honestly, when you look at what the market rate was to go from nine to one, and it's not just trading up for the first pick. You had to convince the Bears, you know, who ostensibly had opportunities to go to four to seven, to different places in the draft. You had to convince them to make it worth taking your deal as opposed

to someone else's. And that's why DJ became a thing.

I mean, effectively, the Bears aren't interested in doing this if the Panthers don't throw DJ more into the mix, because they've got a young quarterback of their own in justin fields and they want to see if he's good at football, and so the best way to do that is given up oportunity with someone we know is a top shelf wide receiver as DJ is m and again not to throw in another according to reports, when you said that we had the one blanket statement, but it

does seem like, uh, you kind of just alluded to it that for the Bears, DJ Moore was almost a non negotiable that was certainly not initially part of something the Panthers wanted to do, nor did anyone certainly in this building want to see him leave. He is such a part of the fabric of this team and has been since twenty eighteen. But that was part of it. And it's a it's a steep price to pay to go up to number one overall, and it's the cost of doing business. I mean, we've talked about it around

here for the last couple of years. And it's interesting that in bringing in Frank Wright to be a head coach, part of the reason he was available and part of the reason he's here and not in his previous place is a couple of teams who couldn't get off that wheel of veterans and just constantly churning and looking for that next guy in line. And you could tell both the Colts and the Carolina Panthers the last four or

five years have been desperately searching for an answer. And everybody kind of knew the best way to get off that we always to draft one. And when you end up picking ninth in the draft, then you look around and start doing the math and start looking at the map ahead of you, and it's like, oh, no, Houston, they're gonna want one. The Colts at four they're gonna want one, The Raiders at seven they'll probably want one. The Falcons, God only knows what they're doing at eight.

And there was an uncertainty, so you knew that sitting at nine, you were either going to take the third or fourth quarterback on the board, whoever that may turn out to be, or not get one at all. And that wasn't a place anybody had to be. So you swallow hard, you make the move. And is that why you mentioned the Texans because we had heard some things, Well, they might look to trade up to three, they might look to get up a couple of places, but you

think it just had to be number one. Well, I mean that gives you the control over the process more than anything else. And there have been some allusions to, oh, maybe they would trade back. And I think if you go through this process and if you find out that Houston it has their heart set on X, then maybe you bluff the Texans out of something. I don't know.

I mean, we'll see. And I think one of the things that's interesting to me as a reporter, standing back and knowing certain things and watching the ecosystem play itself out, you hear reports in every single direction. I've read stuff already today that all the Panthers secretly love filling the blank or this, and we've pretty much covered the top four over the last couple of months. We've now seen reports that I have seen reports for all four of the right that who you would say were the top

four quarterbacks? Absolutely, yeah, you've seen. Oh the Panthers love Bryce Young, Oh they love c. J. Straut. Oh they love Anthony Richardson. Really. Oh no, actually it's will love us. And right now they're still The one thing, as I take my momentary journalism soapbox dietribe, the one thing that too many people are afraid to say out loud is

I don't know what they're doing yet. And there's a reason that that's probably the best answer right now, because I don't think they know what they want to do right now. And that's why you know they're gonna go out over the next couple of weeks and see all these guys. They're gonna sit with them, They're gonna eat dinner with them. They will probably come here for visits. They get teams get to bring in thirty guys for

individual visits before the draft. I would anticipate all four of those guys probably show up here for a meal at some point. And so I think the next couple of weeks are going to be big, because when they get out on that pro day circuit, those things clomp up. It's gonna be Ohio State on Wednesday, Alabama Thursday, Kentucky on Friday, and then Florida the following Thursday, and your hardworking Panthers dot Com staff will be there at all of those sites to bring you the latest Thursday tuned.

I mean, I think they're absolutely still investigating and still trying to figure out who they like and what they want to do. And it's a great point. It's it's hard to put that nuance into a tweet, let's say, and I don't think that anyone on the face of it, if you're a Panthers fan, without any context, you don't want to hear Darren Gan say I don't think they know what they're going to do yet. But it's a

great point. We have almost a month left to the draft, So why would you not take every available opportunity when you were in the driver's seat to make sure that when you make that number one overall pick, you are absolutely certain you use all of this time, you use every resource available to make sure that you feel one

hundred percent confident in that person. Right, and even if you might know set we don't know, we don't know, but you might, you know, feel seventy five percent convicted eighty five percent, ninety five percent convicted about a certain person. Why do you have to know one hundred percent right this second and you've got a month and you are in the driver's seat. Yeah, And I think if you look at it from a different perspective, Christen, this is

kind of an extension of the entire offseason. I mean, what was the criticism of the process that led to the previous head coach being here? It went too fast. They fell for one guy in a hurry. When they were looking for a guy to fill that role. They interviewed nine guys as head coaching candidates. They picked one, and then they were interviewing three, four or five, six, seven guys for each of the jobs underneath him. I mean,

this was an exhaustive search. So I think what you could say is they have learned the benefit of being thorough. They have learned how to, you know, go through a process in a more mature way to really investigate, to really analyze this thing deeply, to make sure you're making the right decision. And you know, I know people would love to know who's going to be the first pick in the draft on March fourteenth. We don't know to

pick it on March fourteen. We got six and a half weeks or so before we get to that point, So I think it's probably the smart play to exhaust all your time, to exhaust all your resources, to go through the process and make sure you know, because you can't get this one wrong. You've got to be absolutely You're going to hear the word conviction a lot over the next six weeks, and you've got to make sure you have that conviction about whoever it is, because it's

such a huge investments. And it's a great point too, about the thoroughness in which David Tepper has been conducting hiring of anyone. I'd say since Scott Fitterer. On Darren, I remember you and I sat with him when he talked us through the process of hiring Scott Fitterer, and you just talked about the process of hiring Frank Reich and his staff. And we've heard the jokes, you and I have heard them of just how thorough those processes

have been. As you said, they made a joke. Dan Morgan was probably ready to fall over at a certain point when they were going through the head coaching search because they conducted so many interviews. It is such a thorough process. And Scott was what one of fourteen to interview for the GM job. Yeah, and that's what Dave

told us that at that time. I remember him telling you and I, Darren, we're going to go through all of the processes that we need to go through, and it's not going to be for lack of getting to know people and for lack of vetting and making sure that we know things. And yeah, so it does make sense.

It is in keeping with the ethos that he has established with his more recent hires that we're going to take all the time available yea, and they'll probably take the full ten minutes on the clock on the first night of the draft too. We're gonna take all the time available to us to make sure that when that pick comes there are no questions. And that's what you've

got to do. Because again, and Scott even laughed and kind of admitted it when he was talking about this at the combine before they made the move, because there was so much conversation even then about what it would take to be in position. And every time he's asked about it, he says some version of you better be right, because I mean, let's be honest, gms don't get many chances to pick first overall. If you're ever in position to do that more than one time, usually some things

have gone poorly. So yeah, I mean they just they know the stakes of this thing. Yes, that was I completely agree with you listening to Scott Fitterer talk at the combine. As you said, they know the stakes. This is a very bold move. And as he said, and as Darren said, you'll hear a lot over the next month, you have to have conviction about it. And so they know that this is a big thing and you gotta get it right. So with that being said, what are they looking for? What do they need to have in

this quarterback? We've heard them talk a little bit about the traits. What are you looking for with this person who is going to be picked first overall? I mean, he's got to be a leader first and foremost. I mean, this guy's becoming the face of your friend Chase. Whether you want to put that kind of pressure on him or not, it's undeniable. That will happen. That's the thing

that comes with it. I mean, it happened to Cam Newton, and it will happen to whether it's Bryce Young or C. J. Strout or whoever it happens to be, that'll be the thing. Fair unfair. He's going to walk into that situation. Now again, does is it fair to a rookie to have that put on him? Not necessarily, but that's the landscape. That's why it's look, it's it's also what comes along with

being the first overall picking. I would think that any of those guys that it might potentially be want that right. I mean, it's it's not an easy transition to go from college to the NFL. But is it fair? Maybe not, But it comes with the job, I think. And again, I think when you look back over the last five years, there was pressure on Teddy Bridgewater being the guy after Cam Newton. There's pressure on anything. Then there's pressure on Sam when you make a trade for Sam Darnold to

come in. And then there was pressure on Baker Mayfield to revive his career, which didn't exactly work out. So there's pressure on all these guys. But I think what they want first and foremost is to kind of modernize the offense. And I think, you know, as I wrote the other day on Panthers dot Com, the part of the reason you make this move is, Okay, you didn't hire Frank Reich and Jim Calwell and Josh McCown and Thomas Brown and Sean Jefferson and du Staley to run

a pedestrian offense. Your goal was to modernize and catch up to the NFL in terms of offense. When you heard it a lot when they hired Frank, it was the very first coach in franchise history to come from an offensive background. And you know, when you back it up with that degree of assistant coaching experience, and they're over two hundred years of NFL experience on this coaching staff right now, most of it clumped up on the

offensive side of the ball. And that's on purpose. And they didn't hire old those guys to coach a seventh round pick. You want to take a big sw all right, here's the people you want to work with him. And that's the thing. While that quarterback, whoever he may be, and depending on what time you're looking at Twitter, you'll be convinced at somebody else, whoever it is, that kid's

going to be backstopped by a great coaching staff. And after yesterday's news, which we are allowed to talk about Yes, he's going to have Bradley Boseman snapping in the ball and that means an intact offensive line. I was downstairs earlier today ran into Taylor Moten and it's like, you got your guy back in. The band's back together. And Taylor's been around here for a long time of not knowing who's going to be next to you sometimes from game to game, from game to game or play to play,

and so he was kind of laughing about it. He said, it's just an opportunity to grow. It's a chance to build on something that was already pretty good and to become more cohesive and to stay together for a little bit and really be something to build upon. Speaking of building to James, Campin also did a great job with the line last year. Was retained by Frank Reich on his staff. And you're right, I mean that quarterback is coming in, at least in terms of the offensive line,

in a very good position. Which, again, if you're the number one overall pick, as you said, sometimes you don't come into that if you're a quarterback with a great offensive line, because a lot of a lot of the times, as you said, you're you're going to the team that was worse last year. So and we are going to exhaust and a lot of Cam Newton comparisons because Cam be in the first pick in eleven. Cam went through it.

I mean after Jordan Grosser retired, Cam never had the same left tackle going from one year into the next. Cam always had a revolving door. I mean, he had good lines on the interior. They were usually stronger at guard and center than they were outside. But Cam was able to make stuff work without the benefit of having anything resembling this five. And you know, I think that's going to be a benefit, whether it's to Bryce, whether it's CJ or Will or Anthony or whoever it happens

to be. They walk into a little more comfortable play. Let's talk about some of the positions that we that are not as as sure as the offensive line and where things stand. Again, this is Tuesday afternoon, so by the time you listen to this, things could have changed. But just as things stand right now, Darren with DJ Moore no longer with the Panthers, that leaves some questions at receivers. Yeah, that's a thing and they could really use and I think it even goes beyond wide receiver.

You've got a lump tied end in with this, and Augusta did a good job the other day kind of summing up what's available in the market, and I think you've got to turn over every rock. You've got to talk to all the free agents. They are not a ton of free agents at wide receivers, so I think you're going to be looking for guys who you may have to trade for, guys who may get cut in the coming days. I mean, there are certain positions, there's

certain teams. Usually if somebody signs with a team big free agent contract, somebody ends up leaving who might be on a big salary. And I think they're probably looking at around at a few of those situations right now. So I think you're curious about how they're going to fill those jobs. But they've said flat out. I mean even before they traded DJ, they were talking about adding to the receiver position. Now obviously it's it's hugely important.

I mean, you need a for Terrace Marshall Junior to become something greater than he has been, and you've got to go find help. I mean, they're going to be

multiple new faces at that position. But I think tight end is as important as a wide receiver because if you had that kind of safety blanket target for a rookie quarterback, that works out again Cam Newton reference alert first thing they did for Cam Newton when he comes here as a first pick in eleven, trade for some guy named Greg Olsen and then back him up with Jeremy Shockey. I would say, though it feels like from that time to now you're talking about not a lot

wide receivers being available. There's there's a certain number of pass catching tight ends, right, and they're not easy to come by, you know, ones that are putting up certainly not that are putting up numbers like Greg Olson, right. Greg Olson's are rare for a reason. I mean, Greg was great at what he does. But and I'm not saying they're going to be able to find a Greg Olsen caliber, but they just have to have more production out of that position. I mean, they've got a bunch

of guys who are good blockers. They've got people who are developing and may turn into something somewhere down the road. But for the most part, these are guys who haven't been big factors in the passing game. And Bryce or CJ. Or Anthony or will you know, we'll just say those four names as a as a conglomerate for the next six weeks, that guy's going to need one of those guys or a little bit more from that position. So I think it's kind of a two pronged approach to

fix in this thing. And then let's talk a little bit about what else the Panthers have, according to reports, been doing in free agency, some of the early news that has come out and where things stand, and it's kind of a ah by the way, you know, the team has reportedly allegedly traded for the first pick in the draft. They're also turning over an entire defense, I

mean going from a four to three base. You talk about always having defensive coordinators and defensive coaches in charge of the place, it's always been a four to three for the most part since the early years. Before we go into what that Personnella is starting to look like.

Can because we haven't talked about this on the podcast, we talked with a Vero a little bit about it or I have, I know you have as well, and what he has said is, yes, we are going to a three four, but that's the base package we're very multiple. So as as far as what we're seeing now in free agency and really just the philosophy, how much is this changing everything? I think it's it's reasonably, it's sort of substantial. I think Derek Brown's going to be doing

some different things. I think you're gonna see Derek Brown lined up as a defensive end in a three to four. He's going to have the opportunity to continue to try to get pressure, to continue to rush, be an upfield player, because that's what Derek's best at. I think you're gonna see Brian Burns with his hand up out of the dirt. You're not going to see him buried on the line in front of somebody. He's going to be in space a little more often, and we'll see what that means

for him. Obviously, this is a big year for Brian for a lot of reasons. But I think as you go into that process of converting to a three four, there were a couple places where you needed more of something or needed a little something different. Keeping Shack Thompson around on a different contract was important because without him, you're basically remaking the entire linebacker corps with guys who either haven't been linebackers or aren't exactly suited for this role.

But I think the big one is, according to reports, Shy Tuttle coming in from the Saints. That's your nose, you know, that's the guy who's there to take up a lot of space. And again, Averro's defense is complicated enough. It's hard to you know, give it a Twitter description. I want you to explain the whole thing in thirty seconds or lest Yeah, exactly, it's a complicated thing. But Shy is good enough at taking up space and creating Uh.

I don't know that taking on the doubles inside that it's going to create opportunities for the guys behind him. If you remember back to the early days, and you're so young, you probably do not remember the nineties, Kristen, But back in the old days, when it was Mike Fox and Greg Craigan and Gerald Williams upfront, those guys were there to take up space for Sam Mills, for Lamar Lath and for Kevin Green. This is a little

bit different defense. It's got shades of what Dom Capers was coaching then and what Dom continues to help jero Everau coach now. Um But burn This is going to be the guy in space doing the Lamar Lathan and Kevin Green stuff, and Shack's going to be the guy in the Sam Mills spot. And after that there's still some matching up. I think Frankie Luvu is going to play mostly inside but has the ability to do some outside stuff too. Jeremy Chen, who we haven't mentioned yet.

With the addition reportedly of Von Bell at safety to pair in the back with the Xavier Woods, suddenly Jeremy becomes another guy you can move around and do different stuff with, and I think that's place to history. Yeah, that's going to give them a lot of options in terms of how they match people up. The question also becomes, all right, who's your other outside linebacker in bays packages? Is it a tour? Is it markis Haynes? Is it somebody who's not on the roster right now? We'll see.

It's still very early in this free agent period. I just want to say, I know this is a podcast, but Darren has looked at his imaginary watch a few times to emphasize it's still very early, so he's not wearing a watch, but he's doing the glance and we are not recording on camera. But I like that you're emphasizing. You're like, oh, still really early, let me check my wrist. Here's here's a parenting story for you, Kristin Balboni, Um, I stopped wearing an actual watch on my wrist about

twenty years ago when my daughter was born. And when baby girl was, you know, being carried around, I scratched her with the class the back of my watch one time early she started screaming. I took it off, put it in my pocket, and never put a watch on since. So I've been walking around staring at an empty wrist a twenty years. That is the kind of thing you get to know when you're a parent. I love that.

I love that. Is there anything else as it relates to where we are in free agency that we haven't covered? I feel like we've gotten through a lot of it. We've we've covered a good bit of ground. I mean again, when you trade for the first pick in the draft and DJ Moore is a part of it, and you bring back Bradley Bozeman and you go out and reportedly Sunshie Tuttle and Von Bill and Sam Franklin's coming, and you structure Shack Thompson's and you restruct sack so he

hangs around. I mean, so I'm saying that the front office has kept us busy on this podcast. They are certainly busy. I'm just making sure that we've ticked all of our boxes and a little bit of stuff going on, and probably a little bit more coming in the next couple of days. So stay too, absolutely well, we will be here when more stuff does come back around. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Happy Half Hour podcast. We'll catch you next time.