Happy half hour.

Hello friends, we're back, and look this time I brought help because everybody decided me talking solo for twenty minutes our low Guthrie style was not anything anyone was particularly interested in.

So welcome back from special assignment, Cassidy.

You know, I don't know how I feel about knowing that I can be replaced by mayonnaise and fat heads, but I feel like I'm welcome back, So that's at least encouraging.

I'm writing that down right now.

Mayonnaise and fat heads.

No, it wouldn't be a happy half hour without you.

And it is week one, friends, It is that time we got football to talk about.

Yeah, we do.

We've been spending so much time this offseason talking about global.

Themes, exponential ideas.

You know, we've just been way out here and it's time to get down in here because it's football time.

There's a game this Sunday, and the Carolina Panthers are going to be in it against the Jacksonville Jaguars, and all that abstract stuff we've been talking about to become a concrete reality, and frankly, I am grateful for that.

Finally, you know what, you know, how Steve Spurry always called the off season like talking season.

Now we're finally ready to put boot to ball, as they say, get back on the ground a ball.

Yeah, have you ever heard that one?

I don't think I've ever heard that one.

Is that Alabama?

Or I don't think I made it up?

That would be a good parlor game Alabama or English?

You know, I don't know if you know this, but modern Southern English is the closest thing we have to Shakespeare, because Shakespeare that lent like time period in England.

That is how commoners spoke, and that's really how a lot of English people spoke, and which is what when people came over to America, like pilgrims and stuff, and that was their accent, and they kind of settled down into the southern part of America, starting in Virginia, and then the royal family in England like that sect, you know, lords and ladies and dukes and duchesses wanted to separate themselves from the common people, so they started speaking in a in a different accent and a different tone, and that became what is the modern English accent, and the English accent of Shakespeare's time is what is most closely related to Appalachia is Appalachia.

All right, I'm gonna have to push the button on your name to end this story because you said it wrong.

It's if you want to hear Shakespeare as it was meant to be performed, have a Southerner performance forsooth.

I did not know what this had to do with Duke's mayonnaise.

But here we are, all right, Football, Bryce Young, Jacksonville Jaguars.

Let's get it on.

Bryce has been It's been so interesting to me.

Bryce.

We kind of know by this point.

Bryce is not that rear view mirror guy.

He's not one to look back or put things into historical perspective.

That's why he has us.

He is folks doing the thing in front of his feet right now, and he does a good job of compartmentalizing everything.

So I don't think it was a surprise when he was talking yesterday that he's just like, man, I'm on this now, I'm I'm looking forward.

And the interesting part about that is Bryce has something different to look at now than he did a week ago this time, because a week ago this time, roughly, he thought he was going to be throwing to XLT.

Mac and Adam Thielen and now he's got xlt MAC and Hunter Renfrow and.

No Jalen Coker and no Jalen Kocher.

That was Jalen Cooker in there as well.

It's been an adjustment for him and to me that puts so much pressure on him this week that there's any more or less than there was already.

But he's going to have to adjust on the fly to a thing that none of us really predicted.

I mean, they shuffled the deck a little bit.

It's still a group they like, but it's a very different group because now you're mixing a twenty nine year old Hunter Renfro into the thirty whatever year old Adam Thielen spot from the other day.

Adam thlnd was a known commodity.

You knew exactly what you were going to get out of him, which was usually consistency.

That was the most important thing, and he was I don't even want to say a safety blanket for Bryce because a safety blanket indicates a last option.

He was a first option a lot of time.

He was his number one target.

What does the offense look like without that?

Coaches have talked a lot about t Mac this offseason, and the possibility of him kind of being that number one guy.

They also, we know Bryce is at his best when he's distributing and when he's playing point guard.

He doesn't necessarily this is so cliche because we've heard it over and over, but he doesn't necessarily need a number one guy, right, And so you know, does that does it work kind of in his favor or does it not hurt him?

Maybe that's the better way of saying, does it not hurt him?

Really?

Like it would maybe another quarterback to lose an Adam then to have, you know, the Jaalen Coker Hunter Renfro switcheroo going on with Jalen Coker going on.

IR That's where yet to find out.

We'll find out on Sunday.

But I do think that Bryce's skill set can weather a lost such as that a little bit better than maybe some other quarterbacks.

Yeah, and I think what happens when we're in the training camp portion of the year, but we see a lot of seven on seven, We see a lot of what amounts to passing drills on air.

Let's be honest.

When we get to whatever they're calling that stadium right now in Jacksonville, EverBank EverBank.

Okay, sure that when we get to EverBank Stadium on Sunday.

You know who's gonna go center stage on this thing.

Not all those fancy pretty receiving routes.

These two cats right here, Chewba Hubbard, Rob Hunt, everybody.

And by the way, Rob Hunt popped up on the injury report with the foot.

We'll see how he is.

Checkpanthers dot com for your latest injury updates all day long, but especially later this afternoon.

And then this guy right here, this offense is still going to run through Chewba Hubbard, and I am convinced that for all the talk about Bryce and receiving targets and everything else, this first couple of games are going to be Let's get back to those basics that we do really well, and we know this guy right here does those things really well.

I can't I want to do this, but I don't want to do this.

I almost want to like grab a.

Piece of this.

There's going to be another three and a half minute Shakespearean soliloquy.

I think that was like a minute and a half.

All right, we should just take a piece of paper and write down what we think the first play will be and then we look at it next week to see who was right.

Yeah, well, I've already written mine down in this notebook.

We'll see.

I don't want to put mine out there in case I'm right.

I don't want to give away anything.

See that's difference between me and you.

I don't want to put mine out if I'm wrong.

But anyway, I just think and and Brad Iazac talked about this this morning.

I mean, there is a Rico Daltle here for a reason, and the reason is because they want to continue to run the ball.

What they did last year with Cuba was a good start to what they wanted to do.

Rico adds to that.

And it also gives you the opportunity to spell him through the season so that he's got gas left in the tank in December, because we've seen before with different Carolina Panthers teams under different coaches, when you can run on people in December, that's when you can demoralize somebody.

I don't think anybody who was at the December twenty two game against Detroit when it was about minus one hundred and fifty degrees.

It was football on hath out here at Bank of America stadium, and I just I remember that so vividly because Cuba and Deontay Foreman were able to basically take the souls straight out of the Detroit Lions that day and make them their own.

And when you can do that, that buys you so much time to be bryce young people, peel and pew the ball around the way you want to, and especially at a time when there are questions to be answered about the Carolina Panthers defense, I think that's super valuable.

So we'll see how it goes on on Sunday, see who gets that first play of the game.

But I would I would be willing to bet that this guy right here gets a lot of action and a lot of action early just to try to establish wish what they want to be about.

And I wouldn't be surprised if we even see like some equal numbers of carries between he and Rico, or maybe equal number of touches, because you know Rico can do it, can can kind of flex out a little bit some too, and just kind of keep defense back on their heels a little bit, or even better, have them cheating up and then you can throw downfield to a guy like t Mac and when you have a stable of backs to your point, when when the other team knows what you're doing and you still are able to do it like that is that's that's probably one of the better feelings on a football field.

Etn could factor into that some You know, he's probably going to be active because he is their primary returner now, and so you've got that to go.

You've got him to go in as a spell as well, and all three of them are very, very different, and so you can keep your running back game, or you can keep your running game going in a myriad of ways, which is always helpful.

Yeah, there's no doubt.

There's no doubt.

And and again that's gonna be important to me because everything is so unsettled and we don't know.

You want to talk about abstract concept.

I have no idea what the Carolina Panthers defense it's going to look like on Sunday.

I believe it's going to be better.

I believe it's going to be more stable.

Having a big old Derek Brown in the middle of it makes everything better behind him.

But we don't know particularly how that's gonna look.

I mean, what you're gonna get out of turche on Wharton as a rusher from inside.

You know how many snaps you're going to be able to get out of Nick Gorton and Princely backing up Pat Jones and dj Wanam.

I think the plan is just to have those guys come at you in waves a little bit and use them in different different orientations, just to keep people off balance a little bit, because right now they're the group with the most approved I mean, for all the stuff you want to say about changes in the wide receiver room, this is still about that offensive line, which Ikyakwanu's still kind of up in the air.

We'll see what he does on Friday in practice.

That's what Dave Canalis said.

He's a little bit up in the air based on that appendectomy last week.

But if he he's not able to play, you go yosh Niman or Brady Christians, and then that's still the rest of a really good line that you know well from last year.

That's still the base fit.

We know that much.

On the other side, not so much.

And that's why I think getting Derek back in there is just central to everything, because I think the thing we lost sight of last year when he was gone is just how good Derek Brown he is at football.

And Ashan Robinson was able to step in in a huge way.

What did those two look like together?

Now that's what I'm kind of excited to see.

And you wrote about this a little earlier in the off season, but you know, Ashan Robinson played a lot of snaps last year.

He played more snapstein he's ever played in his career bar a season that went into the playoffs.

So in a regular season, this is the most he's ever played.

And now he can be able to catch his breath.

He can do that in a rotation, you know, that make a difference.

Does that help him when he goes out there?

Although he also talked about wanting to rush more and he definitely got to do that some last year.

Yeah, Listen, it's gonna take a little bit of time.

I don't think whatever we see on Sunday is necessarily gonna be you know, that's the twenty twenty five iteration of this defense.

But it'll be an interesting start, especially because about the pass rushers as well.

We've seen them working interchangeably.

You know, it's not like, Okay, if one them's out there, then Pat Jones is out there, and if Nick Gorton's out there, then Princely's out there.

We've seen them interchange where it's it's Wan them and Princely or vice versa.

You know, it's been a lot of different looks with all four of those guys.

Yeah, And I don't know if you're looking at last year's stats or what might Actually I am terrible.

Ashan had what five and a half sacks last year?

Five and a half, six and a half.

I think he was tied with five and a half, lie something like that.

He was right in that range.

Church and Wharton had eight and a half sacks for the Chiefs if you include the playoffs, and why not, let's count that.

So they've got guys who can rush from inside up front, and to me, that's the biggest difference in this year's defense is you've got a more capable front line, which just enables all the other stuff behind it to be that much better.

You've spent a lot of time this week on the Jaguars itself, and I mean when you look at their offense, everybody knows about that shiny new Travis Hunter, but they've got a lot of parts over there.

For Trevor lall Rance, I mean, whether it's Brian Thomas, whether it's there on ETN Brother that they've got, They've got dudes over there on that side of.

The ball, and they lost some of that too, you know with different trades Christian kirk ev and Ingram Is that right?

But then you know they still got guys like ever mentioned today with Brenton Strange and ETN Tank Bigsby, They've got a little bit of a stable there at running back and man Brian Thomas Junior.

There's gonna be so much focus on Hunter, Travis Hunter.

Understandably so.

Brian Thomas Junior made the Pro Bowl in his rookie season on a bad time team, and it's because that's how just outstanding he was.

He was a huge bright spot for them.

So what does it look like for him now when obviously Travis Hunter is gonna have to draw some attention and you know, does that open up Brian Thomas Junior a little bit more?

They're gonna have to.

It's also gonna be interesting because this is gonna be the first time a defense has faced Travis Hunter in the NFL, and the first time a defense has faced that duo of Hunter and Thomas and so I mean, let's be honest, the first fifteen plays might be a little bit of like back on your heels, just kind of assessing some stuff, figuring out what exactly they're going to do, and then going from there.

You think so, because I'm not sure about that, because you know who's not really a back on his heels guy.

That's true.

They might.

I mean, here's what's gonna be interesting though they.

See speaking of people who've got stuff to prove.

I mean, Jac's coming off that first Pro Bowl last year, and last year was that time when he kind of announced to the world what he was all about, much in the same way Derek did two years ago before he was injured.

So I loved the idea of Okay, Brian Thomas, Travis Honold, see what you got, because we got one of these on this side.

I am also curious to see, like do they switch stuff up because the Jacks have pretty much exclusively worked Hunter in the slot.

So is that a chall Smith Wade assignment?

Is that do they move guys around?

I don't know, We're gonna find out, yeah, because nobody really knows yet what the Jaguars are gonna actually do because they were they were very very careful in Vanilla with it in the preseason as well.

In fact, I don't even think Hunter played but one preseason game or something like that.

Yeah, and so give me started on preseason football unlike Bryce.

That's in my rear view mirror and I don't want to think about it.

In a Shawn Robinson did have five and a half sacks Licke, Yeah, so I did.

I nailed it.

I was correct.

I just wasn't clear.

So that's the second time that's happened today.

We'll leave that alone.

But anyway, it is all coming around.

And you know, the Carolina Panthers have started seasons in Jacksonville before, right, Yeah, so you never know what can happen when we get down there and see what Speaking of twenty fifteen, Yes, you weren't here then, I was not you.

You were all my something else Where were you in two thousand?

Here's what's interesting, Darren, this is gonna be really funny.

I did not realize this until I turned this game on last night.

I wanted to go back and watch because I was not here in twenty fifteen.

I was in Florida.

I was covering the Florida Gators at the time, and I was like, you know what, I want to go back and watch that season with eyes as somebody or fresh eyes as somebody watching it for.

The first time.

And because I would watch it passively here and there.

You know that Panthers were good miss in twenty fifteen, and so I would watch it here and there, but it was never like actively watching.

So I was like, I want to go back and find these games.

You can find pretty much any full NFL game on al Gore's Internet if you know where to look.

It's usually YouTube all right.

Piece streaming, And so I pulled up that week one game at Jacksonville last night.

I started watching this game.

As I'm getting into it, it clicked.

I was at this game like I was in the stadium.

I don't even think it was called EverBank at the time.

I was in that stadium watching that game.

There was like a networking event going on before the game.

For any of us that work in sports know about teamwork online, and they were having like some networking event ahead of time, and your ticket to the event also got you a ticket to the game.

So I went and sat up in the top of the stands watched this game by myself didn't really know much about either team.

I do remember one play vividly though, where Cam broke off on a run like it was started as a scramble and then he ended up running up the middle and he got a first down and it was a big first down, and he like he got tackled pretty hard, and he like immediately popped up.

And you know, the screens in Jacksonville are bigger.

You could see them things from the space station, and so you could see him smiling, and he like does this little dance to indicate first down and move the markers.

And I was like, he is electric.

And I grew up in Auburn fan so I watched him in college, but to see him in person, I was like, this is just an electric football player.

I did keep some notes as I watched this game last night, though I'm not going to go through them all because some of them were just like stream of conscious thoughts.

Did not realize Michael Orr had been on this team.

That was an interesting little note.

Sandra Bulock was not.

I forgot that Paul.

I'm making sure I'm say his last name right, Paul's Lesnie.

I forgot that he existed, like as a person and then the game started and I was like, oh, yeah, he was their defense.

And then say with Phillip Brown, Jonathan Stewart, my apologies, wasn't familiar with your game.

Wow was he?

Like he was just incredible, Like he would just like go into a scrum and then just like pop out of it.

You've gone full shit.

I'm like, where did he come from?

And he's just like bouncing off people.

It was.

It was really really impressive.

I don't know, and I'm interested to see if this continues throughout the season.

I can't remember watching a team before and this was just one game, but I can't remember watching a team before where the middle linebackers are switching and moving that close to the snap and like moving around.

And I guess that's the benefit of having a Luke Keigley in there that knows everything that's going on and where everybody needs to be that he can.

You know, he's got rookie Shack Thompson out there, and he's moving him right before the snap into a different place.

And I think there was one play where he like physically moved Shack over That was fun to watch.

No doubt.

I love that there were so many drops in that game, and I was like, oh, you know, we think about that twenty fifteen team as just like running through everybody.

But there was ted Ginn had a wide open touchdown I think middle of the second quarter.

You got that every now and then with Teddy.

Yeah, and there was a couple Greg Olsen had a touchdown that got negated because he pushed off, so it was OPI.

There were a couple other drops, right, So yeah, it was a little clunkier than I remember that twenty fifteen offense being.

But it was also the first game.

It was also the first game because that was a team, as you remember, lost their Calvin Benjamin during training camp to a torn acl and we're sitting there in week one wondering, how are we going to make up for this, How are we going to find how are we going to replace a number one wide receiver?

And that was a late train It took some time.

That was a late training camp injury too.

That was like August nineteenth, as I recall, in the way back Machine or something like that, and it took them a minute.

But yeah, it certainly does make it easier when you've got a big Ol'cam Newton and a big old Jonathan Stewart in the backfield who can run straight through people.

Yeah, that seemed to be the offense at least in that week one game.

So interested to keep watching and see how the offense evolves.

The defense clearly very very strong.

I mean they had Blake Bortles kind of in a blender all day, Josh Norman with the pick six.

That was fun.

And by the way, Stu, if you're watching, and I know you are, the rest of us know who you are, and we value your contributions greatly.

So I've been a fan of Jonathan Stewart the person since I've been here, and now I'm realizing, like, oh, this is why people are such a fan of you as a players.

And he's always hanging around and talking about stuff.

It's because he's good at the thing.

So that'll be cool.

I'm looking forward to as the season goes along, you actually watching those things for the first time.

That was the second time for that game, but I.

Didn't remember it until I started the game.

Look forward to touching base on those on this podcast throughout the course of the season, because that was quite a season to look back on.

Check the Panthers YouTube channel.

There's plenty of twenty fifteen content there, whether it's our look back series, the video tributes, that kind of stuff, round tables, JJ Jansen, cart talks.

All that kind of stuff's there.

But this twenty twenty five season starts on Sunday.

Stay tuned to Panthers dot com for all the latest throughout the week, getting ready for that game on game day.

We've got all your stuff covered there.

Keep it locked onto Panthers dot com.

Subscribe to the YouTube channel.

We got podcasts all week long.

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We've got it for you.

We know it's football season, and the next time we see you here on the Happy half Hour, we'll have a ballgame to talk about.

So until then, friends, we'll see it next week on the Happy half Hour