Happy Half Hour.

Hello friends, and welcome to the Happy Half Hour.

It's a little less happy today because it's a weird week in the NFL.

Players are getting cut.

They're reducing a roster from ninety to fifty three players.

That's always a weird, weird week.

Around this building.

You see guys coming and going and you kind of know what's happened to them.

It's always awkward, it's always tough, but it's one of those natural steps in the evolution of a football team.

So we will get to the news of the cuts in just a moment, but first, welcome to the Happy Half Hour.

This is our regular non training camp special edition of the Happy Half Hour.

We will join you here every Monday and Thursday from here through the end of the regular season.

I guess, except for the week they're on Monday Night Football and stuff like that, in which case we're not going to know what day it is.

Anyway, we'll play it by year.

We'll play it by year.

But you know what's funny, I just thought about the week they play Monday Night football is also Thanksgiving week, and Thanksgiving falls on the Thursday.

That's going to be interesting.

No matter what.

We may just take the week off.

You never know, or we may do Tuesday and Wednesday.

Who can really know.

We're kind of winging it here on the Happy half Hour.

But we will get to the news of the cuts in just a little bit.

I know everybody wants to dig into that and go through what it means.

We just got that list moments ago.

Of the eighteen moves made today, nineteen more to go tomorrow to get to the fifty three.

But I feel compelled because I am big into meaning.

I want to tell people what all these individual transactions mean rather than just the transactions themselves.

It's part of the reason I'm staying away from social media as much as I can, because I think I think contextless transaction is pretty worthless.

But the Carolina Panthers did something last week that has a lot of work.

You thought Podcast with Taylor was a one time thing, but this man's back, Ladies and gentlemen.

Taylor Moten will be in the building through the twenty twenty seven season.

Now two year contract extension for one of their better players.

And the news about this is the fact that you've now got eighty percent of a really good offensive line under contract for at least the next thirty four regular season games.

Can you imagine I can't imagine anybody in the building was happier than Bryce Shawn when this news came around.

I mean, first of all, we should all be happy because having Taylor Moton in the building makes the building a better place.

But yes, your point is valid.

Yeah, Taylor Moten, it's such a light.

It's rare that you can say that about people and it be just one hundred percent truth.

It's usually somewhat facetious or you know, relative to circumstances.

Taylor Moton is just always a light, and that's somebody you want around.

But like you said, eighty percent of that line under contract for the next two years.

That's something you can grow behind.

And as they continue to let Bryce grow and kind of come into himself.

And that's not to say it won't all get taken care of, but you know, having at least those four guys, knowing that they're going to be in front of you for the next couple of years, you can get comfortable.

You can establish chemistry, you can establish kind of unspoken things on the field.

That is huge, huge for the development of a young quarterback.

Right, and you are right when you say Taylor Moten is a light Taylor Moton.

He is.

Yeah, it's one of my favorite things too.

All those things are true.

Timo is like, as JJ Jansen said last year, he's got big dad energy.

Yeah, Timo is the dad of that locker room.

If somebody litters on the practice field, like throws a water bottle down next to the trash bag, He'll.

Be like, hey, pick that up, what are you doing?

Come on, keep art space neat.

He'll tell guys to keep the locker room clean.

He's always very respectful.

I mean, you know, when Timo got emotional early in camp, it was the first time a lot of people saw that.

But he gets like that a lot.

I mean, he is a guy who has always valued the staff around him.

I mean when Dean, one of the former athletic training in Turns, was here last year, was kind of like his personal guy.

When Dean left, Timo got a little choked up.

I mean, because these people mean so much to him, and I think you see it on.

His face when he talks about what.

It means to be a Carolina Panther, what it means to be a Charlotte Tian, which he is now become and you love to see the team building around people when it matters that much to them.

And they've done this a few different times now in the past calendar year.

Did it with you but Hubbard, with Derek Brown, with j.

C.

Horn and now at Taylor Mowton.

That's you know, there's there's a lot of things that gms can say, you know, we want we want to build a foundation, we want to establish a culture.

Da da da da dah.

But you've seen Dan Morgan put that into action over the past calendar years and identifying who their long term pieces are and making sure that that stays the case.

And those four cats you just mentioned are among They are probably four if I had to think off the top of my head of the hardest working cats in the building, they're in the top.

Five, six, seven.

I mean, they are the guys, and that's who you want to pay your money to.

That's who you want to young players to see.

I've used the example a number of times before when Xavier league it drops a pass and tries to figure out what he wants to do.

What he decided to do is go do whatchb Hubbard did right?

And what Cheba Hubbard did when he was trying to get better at catching passes was catch a lot more passes out of a jugs machine.

So when your guys, when those leaders who you can point to and say you want to get better at your job, go be like him.

Right, there's one of them, this man right here, Taylor Moten.

And we got to get an actual tailor head on a sticky to go with our others.

Not life size.

This is not life size.

And I'm glad my Derek Brown hit on a stick's not in here because it's like, take double this size and that wouldn't be fair to Taylor.

But yeah, good news that Taylor Moten is in fact going to be here for the next couple of years.

And it's just good for everybody.

And when you kind of looking at the logistical side of it again real quick, when you have lawked up eighty percent of your starting offensive line for the next two seasons, yeah, two three seasons something like that, that allows you to then put your attention because coach, most coaches will tell you build a team through the trenches.

Okay, they have taken care of the offensive line.

They've put a huge push towards taking care of the defensive line this past few months.

Now you can start to turn your attention to some of these other places on the team that might need it.

That you know, now that you've taken care of your two pillars, where can you kind of spend your money, spend your time, spend your space and yeah, and now's where it gets fun.

Yeah, And I mean it's just a problem you don't have to work with.

I mean, truly, you know what the offensive line is going to look like.

You largely know what the offensive room's gonna look like.

Because the receivers are young, with the exception Adam dealing with the exception of Hunter renfro and we'll get to that position in a minute.

You are going to see a lot of stability in that group because Tettero, Millen Xavier League at CHEWBA Hubbard, these dudes are all going to be around for a minute and alongside Bryce Young, so they've got that opportunity to build.

And when you know, they're trying to put together a defense and they're trying to put a lot of moving parts together at the same time, they need that stability on the other side of the ball to allow all the other stuff to grow.

And if you can.

Grow that side of the ball, you like when you see the progress they made last year, you like going into it that way.

But I do.

I think the other thing about Timo.

I mean, we get caught up in the intangibles because he is a great guy.

He does get emotional about this place.

He is the staff dad.

But he's also really good at football.

I did a.

Little inside the numbers, which is not really my dal always, but last year in Pro football Folks's grades, he was ranked nineteenth overall out of one hundred and forty tackles.

That's impressive.

I pulled back.

The lens a little bit to look at since two thousand eighteen, there are only thirteen tackles in the game of football with better pass protection grades than Taylor Moten since twenty eighteen when he entered the starting lineup and never really left except for three games last year, and he's taken the second most pass pro reps out of any of those.

Guys, which tells you a couple of things.

A.

He's durable, and B he's.

Played for teams that's behind a lot and had to pass, so he's not been in ideal situations.

He hasn't been into the playoffs.

I mean he and J.

J.

Jansen and the last two guys left from the twenty seventeen playoff team who knows what that's about, who've been to the playoffs as Panthers.

There's a number of other dudes walking around this place with Super Bowl rings, but they're the last two who remember the playoffs with this team.

So I just think it made all the sense in the world to get this one clear, and so you didn't have to worry about it going into the season and worry about Taylor getting emotional every time he talked, which is pretty often.

Yeah, that was a sweet moment though, just to realize how much it meant to him.

Yeah, and how much it meant to him to stay here, no.

Doubt, no doubt.

All Right, So the news of the day, obviously, earlier Monday afternoon, Carolina Panthers announced their cuts.

I am going to pull that up on my screen because I'm not smart enough.

I'm not smart enough to remember all nineteen names it once are eighteen names it wants.

The very first thing one of the headlines is the one vested veteran who was released today was kicker Matthew Right, So congratulations to f Scott.

Ryan Fitzgerald is now the only kicker left on this roster.

And I say, right, f Scott, Ryan Fitzgerald on purpose because I'm trying not to call him Ryan Fitzpatrick.

And I'm working really hard on that, which Cassidy knows very well.

Like he's not even joking.

He has legitimately called him that multi like he's called him Ryan Fitzpatrick multiple times.

Yeah, since Thursday, and.

I'm looking at cass in press box going, it's Ryan Fitzpatrick, right, No, you idiot, it's not.

Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Convinces like when you're trying so hard to remember something and then you remember it correctly, but you convince yourself you remembered it wrong, Yeah, because you had been That was Darren trying to remember this guy.

Yes, no disrespect to Ryan Fitzgerald.

It's really more so just shows the impact of Ryan Fitzpatrick.

No doubt, no doubt.

And Ryan Fitzgerald's the only kicker on the roster at the moment, doesn't necessarily mean he's the only kicker they're carrying down to Jacksonville in a week and a half.

I mean, Dave Canal has practically said it out loud on Friday.

We're gonna look at everybody.

We're gonna look at everybody that gets cut.

We're gonna look at everybody that's out on the street.

We're gonna look at all the options to see.

I mean, so, I think that's one of the cruel realities of this kind of time.

And even when you get to the fifty three man roster tomorrow at four o'clock, they're gonna be dudes who think they've made a team, only to find out tomorrow when their team claims somebody off waivers, that they don't have a spot anymore.

So there's a lot of moving parts.

But for right now, Ryan Fitzgerald did enough to meet himself the only kicker on the roster at.

The moment, and we'll see what that means.

The kid had a good summer, and I mean at Florida State, he had a big leg.

He made all the kicks in games here and got steadily better on kickoffs, which is a big part of that job idea.

And that's right.

The best part was that he remembered before we started.

That's right.

That deserves another tailor motin saying, come on, dll tighten it up.

Over there.

Don't make a mess in our studio.

He was crouching down before we started, just to be safe.

Oh my.

Anyways, to your point about Ryan Fitzgerald, that's why it's called the initial fifty three men roster.

Yeah, always add the initial Yeah.

Never say final cuts because they're far from final.

And it's heartbreaking for the guys who thought they got there and didn't.

Guys like Jalen Cocher.

Last year, Jalen Cocher was on the fifty three and then the next day when they claimed six dudes off waivers, he was not.

Yeah.

Now he came back and has made good for himself.

So all that worked well for Jalen.

But that's just an example of what this week is like.

It's like a whiplash for some of these dudes.

All right, let's run down the rest of the list, and I kind of organize these by position because that's the way my brain works.

Quarterbacks Jack Plumber and Bryce Perkins.

Bryce Old wasn't with us for very long.

He was here for last week's game, did a good job of finishing up in a really unfortunate situation.

But you know, for now, they've waved both quarterbacks that leaves just Bryce s Young and Andy on the roster, the two guys they expect to carry into the season.

We'll see what.

Happens when it comes time to find a quarterback for the practice squad, or maybe they like somebody that gets claimed or like somebody enough to claim them off keep them on the fifty three.

I don't know.

That's not the way they've done it, but we'll see what happens over the coming days.

Once you get past the quarterbacks.

Running backs of Money Bailey, Kron lynnch Adams were waived today, along with wide receivers Kobe Hudson, Jacoby George, TJ.

Luthor, tight end Dominique Daphney, offensive lineman Steven Lasoya, Luke Candra, a couple of undrafted.

Rookies who we were here in camp.

Outside linebacker JJ Weaver from Kentucky.

Linebacker Jacobe Winman, who was here last year, was claimed off the Pittsburgh or signed off to Pittsburgh practice squad and ended up playing some football here last year.

Winman was part of today's waivers, along with cornerbacks Ja Travis, Broughton, Mellow Dots and Tray Swilling, and undrafted rookie safeties, Jack Henderson and Isaac Gifford.

That is an eighteen total named list today.

If you want to see the list in written form, Panthers dot COM's got all that for you and you can get caught up on that.

But obviously it leaves a lot of questions about what's coming tomorrow.

They've got to make nineteen more moves.

There has been a lot of speculation about potential moves and what it might be, including that one wide receiver that we referenced earlier.

Adam Thielen is going to be on this roster until Adam Deelon is.

Not on the ross.

Yeah, maybe you heard about it last Friday.

I've been living under a rock.

Yeah, last Friday morning, I believe it was when the reports hit national publication saying that the Vikings had called to see if Adam was available.

And so far, Adam has not been made available to the Vikings or anybody else.

And there's a reason for that.

The Carolina Panthers value having Adam dealing around.

He's a guy caught one hundred and three balls a year ago, called forty eight last year in ten games.

But that's pace for over eighty, which kind of shows you how he is viewed within that offense and who Bryce Young trust.

So I think the Carolina Panthers, and you'll hear Dan Morgan say this a lot.

We're gonna listen to everything.

We're gonna we're gonna consider every alternative.

And if the Vikings say we'll give you two first round picks for Adam Dealing, well guess what They're gonna trade Adam Dealing for two first round picks.

But I think there's a lot of middle ground in there.

Nuance is lost in Twitter.

But the point is, for right now, Adam Deeling's on this roster because they value him and they want him to be on this roster.

So until somebody knocks their socks off, I think he's going to remain here.

Like you said, it's a disservice to not answer the phone.

It's a disservice to your team to not answer the phone and at least listen.

But Dan Morgan's in a good spot where he has all the leverage.

You know, if if the reports are to be believed, and every part of them are to be believed, he has something that the Vikings want that he doesn't necessarily want to give up.

That puts him in a good spot.

And let's keep in mind too, Adam Thinling has been a lot of his career with the Minnesota Vikings.

He grew up there.

He still has a home there.

That is where he spends the off season, where he's gonna live.

He has a lot of ties to Minnesota and too the Vikings understandably.

I mean he came on as a tryout player as a rookie and made the team, so I mean a lot of ties there.

When Adam Thielen was considering retirement this offseason, what made him decide to come back?

I mean, you talk to him.

Yea, I know you remember it was wanting to be back.

It was wanting to be a part of this offense and playing the price again help Bryce Young continue to grow as a quarterback.

So even though a player doesn't necessarily get to decide in a trade, that's up to the clubs.

I'm sure that you know Adam thing has been around long enough that there's something.

You listen to him, you take his temperature on it, and I don't I don't know what Adam feeling is saying.

I haven't asked him.

He has it shared it, but I do know that he's sat there in February and told you, like, I wanted to come back and play with Bryce for another year.

And so I don't think he's sitting at home poutin about this, not going through anything.

He definitely is not.

And it was so funny because Friday, when all this hit the national news, they were in the building working.

I mean it's day after a game.

They're doing their normal thing.

Players usually come in and get a workout in and he's out there running around at the head of the line with all the receivers and DB's doing their conditioning work the day after, just to get the legs moving.

And then he's standing around drinking coffee.

Yeah, as he does.

And if you know Adam Thieling, if you're ever looking for him in this building, go find a coffee machine and just look around in like a twelve foot radius.

Yeah, it's going to be close to one at all times.

You know, Adam will sit there and look at you and like, if you couldn't drink coffee, what's even the point?

Why would you?

Are you really enjoying life if you're not having a cup of coffee?

And Adam was just standing around drinking coffee, telling stories being Adam Thieling, and every big kept looking at him.

Like, oh God, this is awkward.

Is this supposed to be awkward?

Should we make eye contact?

Should we avoid him?

But Adam was just being Adam.

Yeah, and it's kind of it's kind of neat to see a guy when you're in the NFL as long as he has been.

You learned that this is the business.

You learn that a lot of this stuff is out of your control.

Because again, Adam can want to be here and playing with price, but if Dan gets an offer, then he is good for the organization.

Then guess what, you know, Adam might be someplace else.

So it's he understands it's part of the business.

So he's going to enjoy his friends, and he's going to enjoy this cup of coffee and he's just going to enjoy being Adam Thieling as a Carolina Panther for another day, but with today's moves, we mentioned the rookies, uh loo are technically not a rookie.

TJ.

Luther has been around in the league, he was a one, but Jacoby George Kobe Hudson will let go today.

That leaves the Panthers with nine receivers nine.

How many is that, Darren, I've been counting for how many years?

Now?

Less than ten?

Yeah, one, less than ten.

Nine receivers left on the roster, you know most of the names, and that's gonna be one that's an object of fascination to a lot of people.

And I think it's very much to be determined what the final roster's going to look like.

Dan Morgan sat on the broadcast with a Niche Rof and the Boys the other night and said, listen, you know sometimes you keep five, sometimes.

You keep six.

We might have to keep seven, right And I'm I became convinced of this midway through training camp.

I'm starting to think bryceon Tremaine's going to be one of them seven if it's seven, or six if they keep six, because not only did he make big catches in camp, but he is one of the few guys in that group who is a proof and special teams right there.

I mean, if they had to pun against the Jaguars right now, he's probably the best gunner on the roster.

And that's it.

That's an underrated skill and it's it's one of those values that Dave Canalis talked about when they picked this roster is gonna be important for those last couple of guys.

I mean, listen, we know XL and Tteroa McMillan are going to be on this roster, all right, And if Adam Thielands still the Carolina Panther.

And then he's gonna be he gonna be on this roster.

And then when you start talking about the David Moores, the Hunter Renfros, the Jalen Cokers, Jimmy Horn, Junior Bryce and Tremaine Jessim Reed still in the roster at this moment, you know, you start looking at those guys and you say who can help out in more than one way?

And Bryson Tremain's one of those guys.

So it'll be interesting to see.

Tune in to Panthers dot Com tomorrow for all the latest on all the roster news and breakdowns and everything like that.

We'll bring you the news and then we'll tell you what it means, because that's what we try.

To do here.

But extrapulators.

And also extrapolators.

Oh that's all right.

I haven't called you homeschool in a couple of weeks.

Wait, what did I say?

You stuck a U in there somewhere.

That's just the Alabama Taylor Moten says, there's no U in extrapolate.

All right.

It, that's all right, yeah, I trust you implicitly to spell that word correctly.

But uh, anyway, lot coming your way again.

Nineteen more moves to make tomorrow to get to the fifty three man roster limit.

Obviously there's going to be stuff happening after that, so stay tuned to us throughout the week Panthers dot com for all the latest Tuesday practice squad.

On Wednesday, we'll have it for you by the time we get to Thursday, when we bring you this Happy half hour again leading into a long weekend off, there should be some stability around this thing, so we look.

Forward to stability.

We look forward to seeing you Thursday at our regular time.

Here a happy half hour

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