This week on the Happy Half Hour, there is an absolute energy about what's happening out there on the field, and.
It does look different.
And the biggest difference to me is seeing the pace at which that offense is moving, and that's a direct reflection of a new coaching staff and implementing a new systems.
It's time for the Happy Half Hour with your friends Kristin Balboni, Augusta Stone, and Darren Gannon.
It's time for the Happy half Hour podcast. And this week the podcast is brought to you by Prowling Vineyards Napa Valley, 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. All right, Happy half Hour, time with your friends Darren, Augusta and Kristen and guys were in full off season mode.
As we record this.
It is the last day of May, and I mean, really, what September is right around the corner.
It feels like at this point right, let.
Me enjoy July before training camp there.
Will be no enjoying of July. Yeah, I don't know who told you that.
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know why I ever expected that, But no, it's been it's been interesting. And yeah, they're in full Lota mode. Guys are running around and when you stand there and watch, you're just every day struck by how different this team looks. You know, a lot of the personnel might be the same. They overhauled that offense pretty well, especially skilled position guys and obviously the coaching staff. But it's just different around.
Here and that's interesting, especially Augusta from your perspective.
So you got here about this time last year.
Right, I did actually have my one year work anniversary a week from tomorrow.
Oh, happy early anniversary to you and the Panthers.
Yes, absolutely, June eighth.
So yeah, no, I mean thinking about like Darren said, looks different. I think there's there's a really there's a there's a pace that's going on that's really kind of excited to jumpy. I mean, just the different staff. I think at the end of the day, it's so funny. We came in today from practice and it's like, how is practice? It's like it looks like practice. You know, always always does. But you know, there there's there's subtle
differences you can pick up on. You know, you have the the pace of things and the different faces around and where they're moving guys, and so there's like subtle differences. And it's cool having like two very different things to compare.
And that's what I was gonna say.
Even though this is my fourth season, I still only have one previous staff to compare this new staff too.
Darren.
I know you've seen plenty, but I'm always interested too when people come in from other teams, Like I just I just as a as an employee of an NFL team and as someone who's worked in sports a long time. I love to just pick people's brains about what's different. Is your schedule the same, it is your you know,
there's just little things. So for OTAs this year, they're practicing early, and they're getting in practicing early and then meetings late, whereas in the past with the previous coaching staff, it was usually afternoon practices. Darren and I always joke as the old parents, we like that. You know, you get in, you get up early, you get in there, you do your job after that, and you guys are writing articles, are doing interviews, things like that.
And then another little thing that I saw. These are just little things.
We're gonna get into some more of what we're seeing from ots will be everyone's eyes and ears out there. But just a small thing, and again not better or worse than anything. But I just thought it was neat. Was that after practice today and on other days, and after they do the big you know, you do a quick cuddle the coach, you know, the Frank Grak says something, they break, they ready from means, and then they all
meet position groups just real quick, you know. And that may be the way every other team does it, that may be the way no teams do it, but I just thought, I mean, it was very formal, almost like everyone just goes to their little circle of your position group talk for a second, you break, you know, you do your family on three or whatever it is, and it's just, you know, it's just neat to just pick up on the little things of how things are done differently.
And may be reading too much into this.
This is not necessarily a young roster player wise, but it is a young coaching staff. You've got a lot of guys in their forties and thirties, even.
A couple of them.
Coordinators are your coordinators are young guys. When you see a guy like Josh McCown or even Sean Jefferson, who's you know, he's dad aged like me, but Sean's a former player and has a certain energy about him as well.
And it's just running. And again, I don't want to turn it into a bash anybody else or it used to be bad and now it's good kind of thing because we don't know how any of this is going to develop, but there is an absolute energy about what's happening out there on the field, and it does look different. And the biggest difference to me is seeing the pace at which that offense is moving. And that's a direct reflection of a new coaching staff and implementing a new system.
And they've got a lot of work to do to install all this stuff, so they need to keep things moving at a pretty good clip. But both the tempo and the content of that offense are markedly different than they've been in a pen.
Let's dive into that a little bit more.
I think we should go, you know, offense defense, and then of course we've got to hit special teams hard there. But let's let's start with the offensive of what you were saying, Darren, and dive a little bit deeper into what you're seeing early on and what we think, you know.
Thomas Brown's offenses.
And then also, I mean, you know, I could say it's Thomas Brown's offense, but of course you've got Frank Braig, You've got Josh McCown heavily involved at Parks, Fraser passing game court. I mean, there's a lot of great offensive minds that are coming together to put this offense on the field. So so what are we picking up on pace?
As you said, Yeah, I think pace is the big thing. And I know this is a podcast and not video, so you're just gonna have.
To use use your hands.
Whenever I talk to people, whether it's neighbors or somebody at church about the offense and what it looks like, I keep doing this with my hands.
Okay, So he's moving his hands back and forth and they're spread out far.
Apart, quick side to side experience. It's not that it's lateral, but it's everything's coming out in a hurry. And I think this thing is being built obviously around Bryce Young and his ability to spread the ball around, his ability to get the ball accurately to spots, and it's coming out quick, and it's I don't want to say it's a lot of side to side motion, but it is safe targets. It is a lot of Miles Sanders coming
out of the backfield. You'll see little crossing routes. I mean stuff with Adam Thielen that it's a quote unquote safe route for Bryce to throw, and that.
Is to be expected right now. I mean whether that's the whole mark that by the time we get to September we see tons of that, which I would it would seem likely with a rookie quarterback or whenever Bryce takes the field. But also, he just got here, right, this team just got here. He's you know, in his first NFL practice. Is so feels like the right thing to start with, which is okay, let's get you comfortable, right, Let's get everyone comfortable.
Let's connect on the little stuff.
Let's find some go to things that we feel really good about. Let's get the ball in playmaker's hands quickly. And I was talking to Miles Sanders Augusta today and I asked him, I said, what can we expect from this offense, you know, as it's being installed right now. And he said, it's going to be explosive, and he said, you're going to see the ball in a lot of different guys hands. And I think that's a great thing
for Panthers fans to look forward to. I think you like to hear that if you're a Panthers fan exactly.
That's something that Darren and I have actually talked about in the past weeks. It's not going to be one of the or it doesn't appear that it's going to be one of those things where it's like one or two guys getting the ball a lot. It really seems like it's going to be more of a group effort where you're going to see, like the stat line, you're going to see four or five different receivers getting involved and then Miles Sanders getting involved over here.
It's going to be more.
Again, like Darren said, it's not lateral, but I like the idea of the throwing the hands to the side because it's just like there's a lot a lot of different pieces out there, and that's something that we've been seeing. It just doesn't seem like there's going to be one necessarily like Bill cow Receiver anything. It seems like it's very much I don't mean it is early, but there's a ton of involvement with tons of other people, so
that I wouldn't be surprised to see that. I mean, if we're we're looking and we're picking at straws about what we've been seeing so far.
If the hand motions don't work for you on the podcast, maybe the sound effects will. It's almost like watching Star Wars content. There's that big p p P.
I mean that's sort of the effect of what's happening out there.
I'm sure that the Panther's offensive mines would love to have their offense summed up as pew peo pew.
It's better than pew as in pu Yes, absolutely bumps.
What have you seen from from Bryce in in the few weeks that he's been out there, and especially now that the veterans have you know, he had Rocky Minnie camp Or talked to Thomas Brown and he said, like, it's really just about all the rookie's just understanding what this offense looks like. So now they've had a week full week of the first week of OTA practice, we're into the second week.
Now, what have we been seeing from him as he's got more comfortable.
Well, the one thing you don't see is the ball in the ground a lot. He is accurate, and when it's going puel, peel, it's getting to the place it's supposed to go in a hurry. So it's not that he's got this big, gigantic throat over the mountain kind of arm.
But it's accurate.
And you can tell why he was he was good at that part of the game at Alabama because the ball is getting out in a hurry. He doesn't hold it, hold it, hold it, padd it, pat it, think about it. You know it's getting out and it's getting gone. One of the things that struck me, I mean, and somebody mentioned that he was almost a little frustrated during rookie minicamp because he was processing everything at a faster pace than the guys at rookie minicamp, I mean, trout guys
who are just learning stuff for the first time. He wanted to work ahead and they had to keep the reins pulled back on him during rookie Minicamp when now he's out there with the first string. A lot still rotating him and Andy. They're both getting reps with the ones that kind of stuff. But it's more and more Bryce as time goes on, because everybody knows which way this thing's pointing.
Uh, but well and it's and it's it's too it's to their advantage, to his advantage to have him get as much practice time as he can, regardless of when he starts or when he.
Doesn't, and not just throwing like Anddy.
Dalton's gonna be fine. Yeah, he's going to be.
And it's not just in Bryce throwing to Adam Thielen and and Terrace Marshall and and Mingo.
It's taking snaps.
From Bradley Boseman because those two gonna have to get to know each other pretty well. Bryce never been a big undercenter guy. Probably fewer than ten percent of the snaps at Alabama we're under center. So uh, those two got to get to know each other and they're getting they're getting a chance at spring.
What I've been again, I don't want to say surprised because I don't have much to compare it to, but being out there during OTAs you know, this is like you said, brand new staff or key quarterback and again we're gonna talk defense in a second. But you know, a lot of new guys. It looks like a team that's been playing together for a little bit. You know, I know they have this as we said, these big installs. Everyone's learning something new, but as you said, a fast pace, Augusta.
And it feels like and again, they're professionals, that's everyone's job is to be up to speed. But we're looking good. We're looking like everyone's on the same page. And you hear, you know, the guys cheering for each other and knowing,
you know, if someone messes up, we do. The four guys are jumping up, or you know, four guys are celebrating on the defense because they got the jump on the offense here, And it feels very much like a cohesive team that is all kind of, for lack of a better way of putting it, like rowing in the same direction and doing it very quickly, like you wouldn't say, okay, everyone here just met four.
Weeks ago, six weeks ago, which is a great sign.
I think, yeah, And you know, they've gone through this offseason program and they've probably installed this stuff a number of times already, and I think they're probably going through the fourth round of it now where they're giving everybody the familiarity with all the individual components, and you know, they're getting a little more comfortable. And like I said, if anything the stands out to me over the course of the last three four weeks, it is how efficiently
the ball is moving around on offense. And that's not just Bryce either. I mean Andy Dalton is a.
Guy who knows how to of course back. He has done this before.
And I think, you know, just from watching Matt Corral, I mean since I think since we last talked, you know, they're down to three quarterbacks now. Jacob Eeson's no longer among us, but he you know, that was done to give Matt more reps so he can get more of an opportunity to show himself.
And he's looked good in practice.
Let's move on to the defense now.
So certainly with the new scheme there's a bit of a I don't want to call a learning curve, but an adjustment. Right where does was where does all of that stand from what you both have learned?
You know, it looks to me that's where it's still very much under construction. I think they're trying to figure this thing out on the fly. With Brian Burns not out there practicing, you kind of are hit across the face with the reality of, oh, this outside landbacker position is completely new. You've got guys like Marquis Haynes and he Tour who are four to three defensive ends who are force to adjust, and then you've got rookies like DJ coming in here who are probably not as behind
as he might otherwise be. And I think getting those guys that's obviously going to be a huge focus throughout training camp is figuring out who's going to be starting in those spots. You know, whenever Brian is back on the field, who's on the other side.
And do we have a timeline for his return.
Every indication has been by training camp he should be back on his feet and good to go. I mean, Brian's not out there. He was only after the ankle surgery. He was probably in a cast and on a school for about a week and a half, lesten two weeks, and then he's out there moving around. We're walking between drills that kind of stuff, looking like Brian Burns. But it's gonna I think by the start of training camp. Every projection is he should.
Be good to go, Gusta. What stands out to you from the defensive side.
Yeah, so one of the things I actually wrote a little bit about it jere Michen, and this was kind of a I love this story idea because it was sort of a marriage between a lot of the transition and comfort all coming together all at once, both on and off the field. It was something I was very proud of, A very nice interview that he gave me last week. But yeah, kind of how are they going to use him? A lot of coaches have been talking about he's a superhero.
I think Peter Hansen used that word.
He's just like, oh, you know, the secondary coaches, they've been calling him a superhero.
But what are we going to do with him?
And Frank Reich after the first day of OTAs told us he said, you know, I've been talking with Jero Rivero. It's like, well, we have more I guess we might have more options for him than we thought, you know. I mean, I think one of the things that's very interesting about where they could deploy him is bringing in von bell is like another true safety. I think it gives them an option to push him forward and that's something that a lot of people have been talking about anyway.
But talking with Jeremy, he seemed very excited about all the different ways that they've been deploying him and all the different.
Options he had.
And one of the things that he pointed out to me was that a lot of the things he's doing playing more closer to the line of scrimmage, maybe in nickel, not maybe a true.
Linebacker, who knows. But he was like, I've done a lot of this.
It's like, that's kind of new, but at the same time, it's not completely fresh starting out, you know, bright eye, bushy tailed. It's so but yeah, the article that I got to write was about kind of all the things he's been doing in the off season, just in his personal life and working with his foundation, but also with the career tours and then marrying that onto the field of doing more and more things, taking on more of a role as a leader.
So it's exciting. I think it's an exciting time for him.
He definitely when I got to talk with him for about fifteen minutes the other day, he seemed like he was in a really good mental space, which I found really interesting. So I'm excited to see what they do with him, and it's been interesting to kind of see him look around. They're not hiding that they've been playing him at nickel, So that's one of the things. But what else will they do? We shall see well.
And one of the things that's interesting to me about how that's going to go for him is NFL offenses have evolved. I mean, and in the old days, your nickel was only ever a corner and Jeremy's obviously much bigger than a lot of these guys who were playing corner.
And you know, does except for maybe j Warren, Yeah, true, But.
Slot receivers used to always be little, short guys who looked like Ricky Pearl, and now teams are using big guys in the slot. People are using tight ends to occupy that kind of space, and now in Jeremy, you've got a guy who can physically cover a tight end downfield, who can physically run with a lot of receivers, especially the bigger ones, And so I do think it creates kind of some matchups that they can hopefully exploit. I mean, you know, Jeremy is a big, fast, physical guy. We
know that part. We know that he can make plays. We've seen him do it, especially his rookie year when he was playing full time linebacker. Yeah, so I think having him in there the other thing that gets a little wonky, especially this time of year when everybody's worried about, oh, we're so and so lining up, And it's like when I talk to Derek Brown about being a quote unquote defensive end this year, the base defense is probably on the field twenty twenty five percent of snaps in the.
NFL and zero.
Rivera was very He said that almost every single time he was asked about, hey, you know, transitioning into at three four defense, he said, look, that's our base, but we're so multiple that, like you said, twenty to twenty five percent at the time. So, and he's very quick to caveat with when.
You're playing nickel, you're in a four man front anyway.
So I think for the most part, you know, there is some transition for guys like Marquis Tour and those guys, but I don't think it's something they can can't overcome. But yeah, I mean, Jeremy's gonna get moved around. There are gonna be times you're going to see him standing next to Shaq back there. He's going to play a lot of nickel. He's going to be running down field with tight ends, that kind of stuff, and you know, skill set wise, he's capable of it.
Yes he is.
And he is, as a guest has said, he's someone that likes that challenge, is equipped for that challenge, has been put in many different positions over the course of his time here at the Panther, So he's the perfect guy for it. It'll be exciting to see where he ends up on any given play and what kind of place he's making.
I wanted to tell, and.
You were talking to him, did you show him that picture of our uber driver in Indianapolis? Who was his Pee football coach?
Goodness, I did it.
That's amazing that that happened.
We got in an uber coming back from the combine and our drivers like, what do you guys do where you work up or work with the Panthers whatever? You know?
Jeremy Jin Yeah, we know, Jeremy. How was this Pee week coach? Really? I think his name was Earle maybe, yeah, something like that.
Yeah, we had a photo of that.
Yeah, he got out of the car for us for a photo. I remember this on the way to the Indianapolis airport, and we're sure knowing Jeremy. For sure, Jeremy will know him and have great stories about him. He is someone that does not forget those people that are, you know, important at any given stage.
That's very different than my uber at the combine. We're we're going to the airport and our uber just broke down a couple of times on the on the way. We were like, all right, like we'll see how this goes. So we made it luckily, but it was it was tough there. We could have I mean, gosh, we could
have had Jeremy's pee wee code. Thanks could have been a lot different for us, Darren, I wanted to ask you about, you know, I was thinking about the defense and of course Dom Caper's being a great mentor to a gero Vero. I wanted to ask you about Jim Caldwell and Dom Capers, and you know, there was a lot of talk when they were hired about just what incredible experience they bring to this staff. And I was thinking about it when I was naming off all the
people that have an impact on this offense. I can't believe I forgot Jim Caldwell. So now that they are here and they we are in these roles and we are seeing them on a daily basis, what is it specifically that they are bringing and how valuable is.
That we know.
It's interesting about Jim because he doesn't really have a label. He's not he's just senior assistant.
He's like everything right if as needed, wherever.
And I was talking to him one day out there, and I said, where do you spend your time and he said, well, I'm going to be in meetings with quarterbacks. I'm going to be going over the offensive film of course when we go inside, and he said, but when I'm out here on the practice field, he said, I would rather spend my time with the defense, specifically with linemen, because that's not.
My area of expertise. You know, he was a defensive back.
In college when he played at Iowa, and he started coaching on defense before he became the quarterback mentor who I'm.
Always so fascinated by those guys that can coach almost any position at a high level.
It's so impressive.
And Jim said, he's like, I don't have as much expertise on that out of the ball, So that's where I want to learn, you know, and I kind of like the idea of Jim Calwell lifetime learner.
But that's what he's bringing.
I mean, it's almost like a thirty thousand foot view of the entire system. And he spends a lot of time watching special teams and hanging out with those guys, and so I think it's just I mean, to me, I've used the phrase Jim Calwell's like dropping a credibility bomb on the place.
I mean, he just he sues, yes, I know what I'm.
Doing, and I'm sure for Frank Reike, it's like, Okay, I've got another me, you know, someone that has a ton of experience and the great offensive mind. And I got another set of eyes, and who's a great coach with great experience that.
Is just around.
So what are you seeing? Bring it to me? What are you seeing? What's you know, that's it's.
Almost like opposition research. You're looking at it from the opposite side of the field. You're you're trying to see the little things that other people who you know, get in their little tunnel.
And stay there don't always necessarily.
And how about Dom keepers and Dom?
I mean Dom's just Dom.
I mean, he's still approaching this with the exact same energy he did in nineteen ninety five. And when you walk through the weight room and see dom In there on the elliptical or a treadmill, it's like he's still getting after it. May not be as fast as he was grinding on that thing in nineteen ninety five, but he's still I mean, he's just.
Got an energy and a presence he does.
I mean, there's just, for lack of a better word, there's gravity about this staff because there's guys like Dom and Jim Calwell who are just extra not position coaches or coordinators, just sort of hanging out over the top. And oh, by the way, that's about seventy years of coaching.
It really is.
I don't want to it's embarrassment of riches, but just the amount of experience and.
Quality coaching that is on the staff is just is just great.
One thing to have a big staff, it's another thing to have a big good staff.
Absolutely absolutely well.
We could touch on special teams, anything we want to say from we've done off its stands.
Let's get to the most important unit out.
When I grow up, I want to be a long snapper during OTAs, although in fairness to JJ Jansen, he does get busy because when they go seven on seven, Yeah, he is the center, you know, he's snapping out of the shotgun so they can run seven on seven, So he actually does a little more. Eddie and Johnny less, so I think they I still get a kick. I just want to do the day in the life of these guys during OTAs, because.
You do it during training camp. You should do it.
Oh my gosh, Okay, you should do like a seven oh seven am because I think there was a lot of sandwich competition in the cafeteria. I'd heard of maybe some ice cream competition. So I would love to see a day in the life with actual time codes.
Johnny always says the life of special teamer is about the interminable weights between feeding.
Yes, and the reason that we can say a to stuff about them is because individually they are all very good at their jobs, you know, so to be to me and an NFL player that performs at that high of a level, what did Eddie make what seventeen straight at a certain point last year, then you get to, you know, take an extra trip over to the h the ice cream machine at training camp and joke about it.
Well, this is fun.
This will actually be Eddie's first training camp in Spartanburg. It hit me because he was signed after all of.
That, so I was like, because I'm like sane Zane Gunzels got hurt in the third preseason game, so I.
Was just thinking.
It was like, oh, yeah, they're all together still, you know, the same crew, but this will be his first time at Watford.
Yeah, so I guess you can show them the ropes since you're an old grizzled vet.
Now right, Oh, your second training camp.
Oh my goodness, it's so crazy. I mean literally, like coming out on the year anniversary. I've just been thinking about that. I'm like, oh my goodness, Like I'm starting to do things for the second time. Yeah, So it's like like mini camp mandatory mini camp was my first. I think I may have been here for one. OTA's like open to like the whole media. So when that happens next week, that'll be like actually like a first full circle.
But then, like Mantoy, mini camp was kind of when I started.
Like it's nice you have a little bit when you're not going through things on the calendar for the first time, so then you don't have to worry about Okay, where do I need to be?
What is this?
How?
You know?
And you can just focus in on on doing your job, which is writing, and you're like, oh, okay, I know how this goes. This is going to look like this, and you know, so it's great exactly.
Timing and pacing the other day.
NFL players the coaches always say they make their biggest jump between years one and two.
The game slows down for you.
Guess all right, I see they always say too, that's the other NFL you know, uh whatever, yeah, clich Yeah, the game's really slowed down, Darren.
I want to ask you, so, I love your ass the Old Guy column, uh, your mail bag.
I read it religiously, of course, as everyone here should be on Panthers dot com. But I'm wondering, what are people as we were talking about what we were going to talk about, we you know, hit the main stuff from ots.
What are people asking you about?
Because I know you get a lot of questions that aren't always featured. So what are the themes you're seeing? What Anthers fans want to know?
I think right after the draft there was you know, obviously an excitement about Bryce and getting that box checked for the foreseeable future, I think. But there was a lot of I think people who read my mail bag come out a little paranoid about something. Sometimes there was a lot of concern about, oh my god, what are they going to do?
Opposite Brian Burns is.
Do you because because you are never going to give any false hope or not. I think that's just your styles, like you're just gonna say, like, this is what it is right now, right.
And so there was a lot of questions about DJ and his adjustment to it, and you know, his status. I think the other thing I can always count on in the mail bag is weekly Matt Corral questions. Yes, nobody no matter what Matt Corral is doing or not doing in what sense?
Like what form do these questions take?
You know, early in the off season there was a good bit of should we be letting Matt Corall start or And I was like, no, you trade for the first pick so you could draft.
I was gonna say, before the before the trade, before the trade, okay.
And so there's always because he's an unknown, the backup quarterback's always the most popular guy in town. And because we never really saw Matt. It's just such an unknown commodity to most fans that there's a curiosity about those guys.
And you know, he's handled all this well.
When he had a press conference the other week, I mean, you know, you could say he said all the right things, but when you watch him doing the work, he's also doing the right things. Matt walks around with a smile on his face. He's he's a happy kid. He's he can benefit from this staff, these targets the same way Bryce Young can't. And I think it puts him in a really good position. But people are always asking about Matt corral It. It's like a feature the weekly Matt Corrally.
Oh, that would be great, you could get that sponsored. What else are people asking about?
Yeah, I think there's a lot of I think now that it's all together, and that's that was kind of the theme of the last one. It's these are the parts,
this is what this thing's going to look like. You know, there's a lot of questions about whether it's reasonable to be optimistic about the sponge and I think, you know, as I mentioned to somebody the other week, they still live in the NFC South, So somebody in this division's going to the playoffs, whether it's a great team or a not great team, And I think that in and
of itself makes it a little more interesting. I mean, they've come down the stretch with playoff chances, you know, last year and when things weren't ideal offensively or otherwise. But I think there's just an optimism. I mean, Bryce has been a shot of energy to the fan base. I think a lot of people are thinking, you know, I don't want to let people get too far.
Ahead of themselves.
I'm not ready to say, oh, yeah, this is super Bowl can because the truth is.
We can't know right now.
And that's what I was saying about your mail bag, is that you're going to give a realistic interpretation of what you're seeing out there. And the truth is, we haven't even got like I guess I said, she hasn't even been to her second mandatory mini camp. We're that far for that early on in the off season process. So it's yeah, it'd be ridiculous to say this is a team that's you know, going to the seat.
We'll get there, But there's reason. I think there's reason to be optimistic.
Yes, that the offense is going to look much much different than anything we've seen from the Carolina Panthers in a long time. Really, I mean, I don't want to sound ghoulish, but since the Pittsburgh game in twenty eighteen when Cam took the shot to the shoulder from TJ. Watt, it hasn't been the same since then. And really they've been patching things together and trying to do things a
little bit at a time. And there would be a sprinkling of a Christian McCaffrey highlight, and Teddy did some nice things in twenty but there hasn't been that kind of consistency and sort of offensive momentum that you would build.
On until now.
And now this is what that group's going to look like for a little bit. So seeing Mingo running downfield, seeing Tarras running.
Down and we should also say there was a you know, a multi year build of things like the offensive line and you know, the draft and trading for some of these pieces so that when it all did come together and you have your quarterback and you have these guys that you're seeing your skilled position players, that there's a firm foundation in place to you.
But everything offensively, for you know, the last five years felt sort of piecemeal in a little bit at a time, and you're changing coordinators the way they did, going from Joe Brady to you know, on down the line.
It just it never had any kind of year to year flow.
And I think with a new staff and with a young staff and having a Josh McCown around to grow with Bryce into these jobs, I think there's the possibility to build something that can compound over time.
I agree right like I said, I think that one thing you could say is like, we don't know, of course how the season is going to play out at this point, but when you're out there on the field and watching the moves they've made and seeing the way that the staff conducts meetings, I think that if you're a Panthers fan, you can feel confident that you have a very competent, organized and some really good players out there who were all energized and working really hard, and
you should be able to, you know, take a deep breath and feel hopeful about what the.
Season could bring exactly.
I like the way Darren said that there you can feel confident and optimistic and that it's going to look different, And because I feel like that's one inevitable, but too, like just with the staff and with everything going on, with the speed of things, I mean, with the pieces on offense, Like I look, I mean, you know, you see the offensive line's pretty much intact in the same but all the rest of the skill players, I mean, there's like Terrace and Laviska and I'm like, oh, yeah, y'all,
and then everyone else, I'm like, oh, new, new, new, new, new new new, like and then Cuba and Raheem and then everything else is just so new.
So yeah, regardless, it's gonna look, it's gonna look different.
And you can I mean you can say, you know, optimistic or just realistic, but different. It's not always bad or good, it's just different. One other thing though, that you get questions about that. I didn't want to forget process blue. I see something about processed blue every time I read it. Yeah, what color is processed blue? Is everything processed blue? How do you feel about process blo?
Questions always moved the needle. Yeah, people people love a good uniform.
I hear process I don't even know what the difference is.
But process blue, that's amazing. We'll leave it there with process blue and then my personal favorite poo, poo poo.
That was the SoundBite of this episode of Happy Half Hour. Guys, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you everyone for listening. We'll see you next time.