Tuts do whoa It's time for the Happy half Hour, presented by Southern Star, an official bourbon of the Carolina Panthers.
A good quarterback can thrive in chaos. A great quarterback can slow down time to negate the chaos altogether. There's a moment before the ball is snapped, when everything is still. That's when the quarterback assesses everything around him, who is where, who is rushing? Who is his best matchup. When the ball is snapped, twenty two pieces are thrown into the air and the passer has a finite amount of time
to put it back together. Dave ca Analysis made a career out of helping a quarterback slow down that time, put the pieces back together with ease, and make the best decisions in the quickest window possible. Throughout his career, he's analyzed film and practices and the best of the best in the game to determine if a quarterback can get the ball out in two point seven seconds, he has the best chance of making the right decision and
lowering the risk of turnovers. Canalys has spent this off season thus far helping quarterback Bryce Shawn get his throwing time down to that two point seven seconds, but of course it's easier said than done. To understand the intricacies of the challenge, The Happy half Hour spoke to one of the best passers in Panther's history, Jake DeLong, to find out what it takes to lower a throwing time, what the timeline looks like, and just how much of a difference it really makes in a win versus a loss.
Here's that conversation with Jake Dolom Dave Canals has mentioned several times now, he's he mentioned it in his open prefice conferences combine he's I think he's mentioned it every week for the past three weeks. Like Karen Darren OTAs about getting Bryce's throwing time down to two point seven seconds, and obviously that means, like I would assume, get it down to two point seven in practice, so that three point one three point two in a game feels like
all the time in the world. But it's not easier said than done, I guess. Is the first question, just off the bat is what is the process to actually get a quarterbacks rowing time whittled down?
Well, I mean, listen, I love it. I love hearing that because there's something about kind of getting out your hand quick. One. It helps the offensive lineman and it helps the offense in general when you're going against the defense when you can just kind of get the ball out quick. And that's something that you know you can anticipate. To me, if I hear two point seven, I'm deading at least through my first and second read and do
I maneuver around to get to my third. Yes, we'd love to have the three and a half four second coffee, but that's not the case. But you know, two point seven to me is, hey, make the quick read, make the pre snap read, the post snap read, and go through one and two and then you can make your way to three and or four being the checkdown. So I think that's something and I truly believe that. I think that's why Baker played so well last year in Tampa.
The ball got out quick. If I went back in my notes from the games when I was preparing for Tampa, both games, that was my thing. Baker got the ball out of his hand quick. When he didn't hold on to the ball longer. When he got it out quick, they were really fishing when he held on to it longer. That's when some of the bat had passes might have happened or more favorable outcome. I guess you could say
for the defense. And that's something I know offensively, if you can get it out, and I thought Tom did a great going to Tom Brady, he did a great job of that because he always would get into the right play in essence and getting the ball out and just kind of taking what they give you. And I truly believe there's something to that and what Dave is saying you mentioned Baker.
I think actually if you look at Baker's numbers two this past season under Canalist, that was his shortest throwing time in his whole NFL career, and so it definitely stood out. But when fans here two point seven, you know, of course they're thinking, like, okay, somebody's gonna be out there with a stopwatch and it has to be out of the three seconds. What is the balance between wanting to get it out quick versus letting a play develop?
And is that going to what you were saying about first and second reads and do you just have to know about if I'm all the way on my third, it's time to let do something different and maybe scramble.
Yeah, I think that's just that's trust and a lot of times you have to marry your feet with your eyes and your arms. I mean you your feet kind of tell you where to go, and and that's that's kind of how you marry it up. And and when you start. Okay, let's say it's a five step drop. You know it's one, two three, Usually it's three big and two little, so one two, three, four five. I
mean you're back there immediately, but you're reading. You got a pre snap read and a post snap read, so as you're dropping back, you have a pretty good inclination of Okay, I just confirmed what I thought the coverage might be. Are okay, this is something different we had. We had a weak side of rotation, a strong side of rotation. They went from post safety to split safety. You confirm those things on those first three steps, and
then you want to get it four and five. You're setting your feet up to get rid of the football, meaning like, I'm transitioning my body how I'm gonna set my feet to be able to get rid of the football. So I'm going one to two and then you understand when you can make it go a little bit longer, being like, hey, they show pressure I think I haven't protected, but you know everybody's accounted for. Okay, they dropped, it's
only a four man rush. I'm gonna get an extra help on a D line and a D N whatever it may be. And that's when your mind can say, I gotta make sure I solidify everything where it's one to two, and then you know I can let me keep going because you saw it as the play went. It's it's kind of hard to explain. I think it's something you feel. But I just think that's something that
it's ingrained in you. And if you practice it at two point seven seconds and you don't take longer in practice, you get comfortable knowing, hey it's one, it's two, it's three, I gotta get moving, i gotta get my check down. What's the next best thing as a quarterback that's got to go through your mind.
So basically, you train the clock in your head, think okay, well and now I'm out, Like a decision has to be made.
One hundred percent. And that's something that I know. In Carolina, Gosh ages ago, when we were there, Dan Henning loved to take shots down the field. He didn't care about completion percentage. That He used to say, that makes no sense to me. He said, you take shots down the field, throw outside the numbers. He goes, there's too many big people inside the numbers. And we had a lot of success doing that, and it was a lot of shots. And so sometimes were they pressing Steve or Moose or
was the defense off of Steve or Moose? And so I had to make that determination as I'm going back, as I'm dropping back, and if they're pressing them, did they get a good press on the line of scrimmage or did Steven Moose beat him real fast? Just to know how you want to throw the football, those are just things that that's just that comes into play. That's that's just how you work it and do it. But it all comes back to the premise that, hey, don't
turn it over, get it out your hand. And usually if you're getting it out of your hand faster, really and truly, you're not turning it over. Yes, you might make a bad read or there's a hand that gets up and it bats a ball, but if the longer
you hold on to it. Sometimes quarterbacks have a tendency to I'm gonna try to force it in there, or you're just kind of you're a little fuzzy in your read and you want to make sure that you can kind of, I guess, prove to yourself, yes, that's exactly what I saw, And sometimes that's not the best thing.
As more and more offenses over the years have gone to like let me rephrase this, as the spread has kind of trickled up into the NFL, and you see more and more quarterbacks like in the gun for the majority of snaps. Has the throwing time gone down in your opinion or that and is a defensive ends and pass rushers have gotten even better. Has that time gone down from what maybe it used to be.
That's a great question, because you know everything was maybe it was just more condensed. You know, as the spread, everything's so spread out. But when it used to be more condensed, the tight end was attached and you had a full back or you had two tight ends, whatever it may be. So things were maybe a little more condensed, so it took a little more time for someone to come free, so to speak. I think it's we've moved our rules in the NFL to one side, and it's
to help the offense. I think we all know that we can all admit that, and so they went more scoring and things like that. So the spread is get the ball out your hand, kind of a basketball on grass type of situation, whereas maybe back when it was more of a still the run, the play action, the boots, and the things of that nature, that maybe took a little more time that added to the two point seven. So I just think a lot of it. I think
the evolution has. Yes, the spread has come in, some of this RPOs things have come in, but also just the rules have kind of started to tilt and favor the offense. To be quite honest, looking at.
Bryce specifically, I'm sure this is a guy you've watched a lot of Is is there's something to the idea of like maybe getting him out of the pocket a little bit more, And how does that kind of affect Pying back to this two point seven, I would think, if you're moving him out of the pocket that takes a little bit more time, is it worth that extra half a second to maybe move him around, which is what they seem to do a lot more with him in college.
Well, when you're moving him around more out of the pocket, that means there's a play action fake. Well, you got to run the ball effectively. First. I mean, that's what it comes down to. If we have a running game, and listen, we invested in two big time guards, and so we want to run the football, and I think
that's the most consistent way to win in the NFL. So, yes, if we are running it effectively, especially when he's going to do the boots and things of that nature, where there is the play action and you can get full flow from linebackers and things like that, it's going to
add to it. But I always felt even last year during the games, I thought Brian, in my opinion, and don't get me wrong, year one was very difficult, but I just thought he was so deadly accurate, especially in the intermediate type passes and especially kind of inside the
you know, inside the number, so to speak. And I was like, I wish we did a little more of these for him, because I just I just felt he was his feet, he could get himself in balance really really quick, and he could kind of get the ball out fast. But his accuracy in those in those areas I thought, I just thought it was great and I wish we would maybe done a little bit more of
that last year. But now, yeah, we're probably in my opinion, I think we're going to get him out more because I think we're gonna run the ball better, at least I hope we can. I mean, we spend a lot of a lot of money, a lot of capital in the offensive line, and we have a lot of running backs, and so that's what we want to If we're can
establish that, then that's only going to help. And hopefully it's more than two point seven segments, because if it's more than two point seven, it's because we're running the ball better.
This is just an assign But you mentioned like Kim throwing those intermediate passes. I feel like people look so much for the big arm nowadays that they don't realize how accurate you have to be to throw an eight yard hitch in the middle of all that traffic.
Listen, listen, listen. I understand the big arm. I get it. And the certainly there's some big armed quarterbacks, you know, Josh Allen certainly comes to mind. There's no doubt he has the big arm. But I just go back to the Peyton Mannings, the Drew Breeses, those guys, even the Kurt Warner. How accurate Kurt was the Steve Young. The arm is plenty big enough, but it's the accuracy and where's the ball placement. Are we throwing somebody that's running
a shallow cross or or a mess route. Are we throwing it and they're catching it and their feet get kind of turned, or are we throwing it on the run and you're speaking to them with the football. What I mean by that is that you're hitting them and
you're you're giving them a direction. If it is a kind of a stationary route where somebody runs in and they sit in a hole, a zone hole, are you throwing it to the opposite shoulder where the defender's coming from to let the receiver know, hey, I'm sending you this way, this is where you need a turn. I think those are the things that's I just think accuracy in the NFL is paaramount. I just you can either pass the football or you throw the football. A lot
of guys with big arms they throw the football. They're just throwing it to a spot. When you pass the football, you're kind of layering it and you're talking to the receiver, and it's just it's aesthetically it's more pleasing and it helps your team to be quite honest.
Yeah, I like that. The difference between throwing and passing. I've never thought about it like that.
That's a big I mean, that's what it is. I mean, are they a thrower? Are they're a passer? And the great quarterbacks they're all passes of the football. Yeah.
Going back to something you said earlier too about like the footwork being so paramount to whatever you're going to do, but especially if you're lowering your throwing time. That's been a huge focus for Bryce this all season rotis in mini camp so far? Is it a one off season project? Like can you change your quarterback's footwork to make to change him from the bottom up? Can you do that in an off season or is this one of those things.
As listen, it will require time, but one percent you can And I was a prime example of it my first three years in New Orleans. You know, kind of a situation where we weren't a good football team. Two six and ten teams and a three and thirteen team, so really weren't a good team. And then new regime came in. Mike McCarthy comes in as our office of coordinator and we started with Quarterbacks School in March, and it started from the base, and the base is your footwork.
And everything we did was done with rhythm and timing, and that's exactly how you went through your progressions. You trusted your feet. And I believe our QB coach Will has come from Dallas. And so that is some of the teaching that I know that I was taught. That I know Joe Montana was taught, that Steve Young was taught, that rich Gannon was taught, all those guys that go down the Bill Walsh line, so to speak. And it's how it's kind of made its way in the NFL.
I know for a fact that you can because your feet tell you so much. When you get all these repetitions and you learn your plays, your feet, you marry once again, you marry your feet with your arm, and you got to trust your feet. And that's just through repetition. But absolutely it can be changed in the off season.
How much is it feasible to cut off a whole second, so to speak in an off season? Though, Like, how much of a difference is that book making?
Oh listen, I think you can. I truly believe you can reinvent yourself from one year to the next and it's specifically less talk Rice. You're talking about the number one overall pick with a team that struggled last year. Listen, we struggled and we had a ton of what fifteen
different combinations that played the guard position for us. Last year we struggled something, and we struggled receiver wise and getting some continent and things like that, and it just and he went from Frank calling the plays to Thomas, back to Frank back to Thomas. So I think we have to take that with a grain of salt. Went on last year. He lost his quarterback coach also, Josh mccowndur in the course of the season, so there was a lot of things that were happening. So I think
it was a great learning experience for Bryce. Sacks sixty two times he got out of numerous other sacks that the number could have been a lot higher. So I just think this will be a different approach, this will be a different feel, this will be a different quarterback that we're gonna see. Just the confidence wise, what we're doing schematically and how we want to run the football to be able to help open up the passing game. That makes all the difference.
Yeah, I think so too. It's going to be fun to watch too. Thank you to Jake for his time and insight. Over the next few months, the Happy half Hour and Painthers dot Com will continue to dive into every facet of this idea of two point seven seconds. We'll talk to former players at different positions, experts in the field, and those who bring an outside academic perspective ought to better understand what it takes to change a
quarterback's throwing time. Stay tuned to Panthers dot Com and Happy half Hour for more as we strive to understand what it takes to slow down time