The Happy Half Hour.

Hello friends, and welcome to a very special Houston edition of The Happy Half Hour.

This looks like Houston right here, doesn't it.

That's right.

We're coming to you from an undisclosed location.

Actually it's an adjunct training room.

That's a cold tub right in front of us that I may jump into later, which will give.

You five dollars if you do the rest of the which is from that cold which.

Is perfect because we're right across from a bend that says dirty whirlpool shorts.

That's right.

This is the glamorous life for the NFL folks, and we're bringing you all the latest from Houston right here.

Actually, cold tub.

Ain't a bad idea because it was about, based on my meteorological expertise, a million degrees.

This morning is somewhere around there.

And you know this is going to be so cliche.

It's not the heat, it's the humidity.

The heat itself wasn't horrible.

It was in the mid eighties.

How to breathe.

The humidity was stifling.

Yeah, that's a seventy eight due point.

Yeah, we talk.

It was like eighty three humidity two point at one point.

I think I told you I was walking on the sidelines.

One of the guys kind of looked over it stopped me.

He goes, I can't breathe.

In this, and it was.

It was.

It was like a wet blanket right there.

On top of that, it was.

A little thick out there today, no doubt about that.

But Dave Canalis signed up for that.

He wanted to see it.

He talked, He's talked a lot all off season about play Jacksonville in week one on the road.

Got to be ready for that.

And you know, today's practice was kind of interesting because he admitted, you know, they started well, they closed well, but he said there was a period in the middle where a lot of penalties, and he said, our guys got tired, our guys got hot, our guys got tired, they started making mistakes and pushing through.

That kind of stuff is the reason we're here, other than the fact that Houston's a delightful place right here by the dirty whirlpool shorts bin and we you know, we're.

Enjoying our time here.

But Dave wanted it hot.

He wanted to see them react because if there's a theme to this training camp for Dave Canalis, it's learning how to be resilient, pushed through this.

Kind of stuff.

And he talks all the time about finish.

You know, how are we going to finish the offense on the offensive side, because they were split Panthers offense versus Texans defense vice verse.

On the other field, the offense, I think came through in that two minute drill and scored right there at the end.

And you know, you saw that pop up in several games on the second half of last year.

And you know, they took four games to overtime, Three of them were a win, one of them was a fumble away from a win, and there were games where they fought back into the fourth quarter even on some of the losses, like the Chiefs and the Eagles.

So can you then make that one extra play to finish?

That's what he wants to learn.

That's what he wants them to learn here, and this was a good lesson in it.

There is Christmas music playing in the background.

I think we've entered some other dimensions.

There's an iceberg under there.

It's like we're at the North Pole and Hell at the same time, where you know we're actually in hades on the other side.

Of the world.

The Caribbean.

But yeah, I mean you mentioned the two minute drill.

I mean Bryce was Bryce was doing Bryce things down the stretch and really first both offenses, first offense, second offense.

Both got to the end zone and that moved the ball.

Two minute work at the end.

Of practice, and I was over there on that field Bryce.

If you haven't seen it on Panthers dot com, check it out.

Bryce and Tremaine with the play of the day.

He went yard.

Jalen Cooper wasn't practicing today.

He was back here sick getting some antibiotics.

He wasn't feeling well, so he took the morning off to get himself right.

Hopefully he plays.

But Bryson Tremain's out to run around with the ones.

Made a big play forty yards down field, and it just underscores another one of those themes of this camp, which is another wide receiver, wide receiver making big plays.

It's it's a lot of depth at that spot.

And Tremain's an interesting cat to me because after Dan Chasinho left, he was a guy not a lot of people talked about, but he might have had a roster spot here because he's so good at special teams.

Tremaine's got a huge frame.

He's like six four ten two fifteen somewhere in that run, so he's got the range to go get it and runs pretty well.

He catches the ball.

You know, he was injured during OTAs and was kind of hanging around and a lot of people looked at him and thought he was like Teos brother or something hanging around team because he does look a little bit like t Mac.

But he stood out in camp because he is a big, physical guy, and you know, to the point, Bryce has always been good in those two minute situations.

And I thought it was interesting and we've got all this stuff for you at Panthers dot com.

CJ Stroud his old friend.

They played pee wee football against each other.

Hey, you basketball against each other, CJ said today.

He said, Bryce one of the best quarterbacks I've ever seen.

And you kind of forget based on the way their career started.

I mean, CJ obviously came into a better position.

You know, he was offensive rookie of the Year on a ten win team that went to the playoffs, and Bryce didn't enjoy a lot of those same benefits in his first year in Carolina.

But the way he bound back last year.

People still think of.

Him that way, and I think it's important for people back home to remember because they are so hyper focused on everything that's happened to Bryce that globally, the opinions of him are still pretty good.

You know.

And we've seen this off season in particular, some of the things that made him so special, because, like you said, CJ said that today, We've heard Tetoroa say that before too, because they played each other in high school.

And one of the things that made Bryce so special was his anticipation.

And we saw that with the t.

Mac throw during the Browns game on that one drive, and then there was a clip you were watching the offense today, but there was a clip I saw floating around Twitter where he hit Laget down the right sideline and when the ball left Bryce's hands, Excel is still way back here getting caught up by a defender, but he got loose from him and caught it in a spot that only Bryce and Xcel knew he was going to be.

And so just textbook anticipation.

Yeah, no doubt.

A lot of other stuff happening on that other practice field that you were spending a lot of your time at Trevin Wallace wouldn't hear for the start of practice.

He had some personal stuff.

He flew down this morning and joined the team, came out midway through practice.

They weren't deep at that.

Position to begin with, after Josie Jewel was released at the beginning of camp.

Called and cheerless it's hurt.

So basically they were like Christian rose Boom in a cast of thousands up here this morning.

Bammark Lay linebacker, Yeah, Ban Martin Scott was out there a little bit, Thomas and Kombe, who's a special teams guy who lines up outside a lot in John rat Again, everybody was kind of taking turns in there just to kind of get through and that's just kind of where they're at until Trevin.

The anticipation is he's going to be out there Saturday.

Started to say Saturday night, but that's a noon kickoff here locally, which is a good thing.

We'll get home earlier.

But anyway, they expect Trevin to be back Saturday for the game.

But it gave a different look.

Despite the defense had.

A pretty good day.

I mean, they were flying around over there on the other side of the field, picking off CJ a number of times.

Yeah, and of course you know it goes back and forth, back and forth.

This is still a c J.

Stroud led offense that's been pretty good in the past couple of years.

But there was a lot of give and take the run defense now again, granted we're comparing this to what it has been last year, but it's a noticeable shift forward.

And there were a lot of guys getting their nose in there.

He saw a lot of times that safety's kind of throwing themselves in there.

Leith and Ransom at one point just completely threw himself into the box to stop a run play and he did so, and one of the guys standing next to me was like, like, there goes freaking Ransom or something like that.

And we saw Marek do the same thing Nick Scott a couple of times.

At one point c J.

Stroud kind of got out of the pocket and starts running around and you think he's about to do like one of those things he does, and here comes Dereck Brown chasing him down, gets him all the way out of bounds, and was joking about it later like, man, I'd like run a long way to get to him, but he got him out of bounds on what was considered a sack, and that's not the only job he got sacked today.

Pat Jones kind of stayed in the backfield on his reps.

And it's hard completely to judge a sack in these practices when the quarterback is in a non contact jersey.

And asked Pat, like, how do you judge just that?

What do you consider a sack for yourself?

And He's like, basically, if I'm back there and I get a hand on him, you know, I'm considering that a sack.

He got back there at least twice.

He thinks he got back there maybe even more than that, but we saw him at least twice.

There's still this is like I said, this is still cz h Stroud, This is still Nick Chubb running the ball.

And he did get loose a couple of times to pick up, you know, five six yards at a time.

Never really broke off a big one, but they kind of kept it bottled up much more than I might would have anticipated.

And then, like you said, picked him off a couple of times.

Chris Barnes picked off Davis Millster in one drill just kind of acted like he threw it right to him.

And then Mike Jack picked off CJ.

Stroud in the end zone.

Again, it was a perfect read by Mike.

It wasn't even a you know, in the right place, right time.

He went and put himself in the right place to pick it off.

And then Nick Scott picked it off as well, batted a ball up and came down with it.

Yep.

You know how coaches will always say when they're stalling for time at a press conference immediately after practice, well, until we get to see the film, we won't.

Really know how this all went.

I feel secure in saying this joint practice went a little bit better for the Carolina Panthers in last week's against Cleveland Browns.

I mean not that there was anything necessarily bad.

I mean it was just a really active day for a lot of guys, and you did see plays being made downfield.

You did see that defense run around making a bunch of plays.

I mean, Mike Jack is a guy who broke up a lot of passes last year because he was opposite J.

C.

Horn and got targeted a lot more.

And even though on a day like today when Jac wasn't out there practicing and he's probably not going to play Saturday, because of that left thumb.

But Mike is still so active and playing really well.

He's comfortable here in a way he hadn't been in the past and has really look good.

I mean, there's you're starting to see.

You know, obviously they've got a good bit of progress still to make and probably you know, it's hard to tell if this is a finished product in terms of personnel and defense, but you can see those guys beginning to improve.

We've talked a lot about how much deeper they are on the defensive line.

They made a point to go out and get Bobby Brown, Tershall and Wharton in free agency.

They've done a lot through the draft to add to.

The pass rush with Nick Gordon Princeley coming in.

But Pat Johns, DJ Wanham.

You see strides being made on defense.

And that's why I think this Texans practice was so good because you moved up a level in competition.

No offense to our friends with the Cleveland Browns, but this is ten len playoff team the last two years, and that's why this was such a good practice for these guys because they moved up level in competition and they played better in response to it.

And you know, in a weird way.

I think it almost ended in such a way that it can be positive moving forward because it ended with a two minute drill.

I think there was like minute twenty on the clock.

Offense had to go somewhere around seventy five yards, had to score a touchdown.

Yeah, because of what the score was, and CJ.

Stroud did exactly what he does and he just moved right down the field kind of picked him apart.

But you know, both Pat Jones, Trevon Merricks or Trevon Merrick said afterwards, like, you know, that's kind of the thing you can move forward from.

There's a lot to take because there was a lot that went right, but coaches will always tell you you can teach a little bit more too from when stuff goes wrong, and there's stuff from that two minute drill that they can learn off of from as well.

But overall, a really really good day for the defense.

To your point too about Mike Jack, I mean, because he had his hand in a few pass breakups as well.

He had one that got called DPI.

That might have been a little bit of home cooking here.

I don't know if you can consider it home cooking at a practice.

Can you get a home call at a practice.

Yeah, had one that he argued was not DPI and looking at the eight K wall, I think he might have had a good argument, but it did get called.

But he also had a couple other pass breakups as well.

I think last year those that corner unit was kind of seen as like JC and the Gang, like JC and whoever else was there, And obviously Mike was the starter for most of the year, and now it almost feels like JC and Mike, if that makes sense.

Yeah, no doubt.

A couple other news and notes out of this joint practice.

There was a dignitary on hand, that's right, our very on Dom Capers entertaining guest.

As he walked in, it was like the Godfather had walked into practice, and in a lot of ways he is because Dom Capers, as you old heads like me remember, was the inaugural coach of the Carolina Panthers, the inaugural.

Coach of the Houston Texans.

He you know, he kind of laughed about being crazy enough to sign up to the coach two expansion teams, but he did a good job with it.

The job he did in Carolina was the reason that Houston Texans hired him to get the started here in two thousand and two, and you know, Dom's.

Just one of those legendary figures.

I enjoy seeing him on the field because it reminds me of what it's like for somebody who loves his job so much.

I mean we talked earlier in the summer Dom came back.

I mean Dom was injured.

He popped a hamstring off the bond during OTAs had surgery, was off his feet for two weeks, which is a nightmare for Dom Capers.

He wants to be.

Out there on the elliptical working out every day after practice.

He wants to be on the practice field, and it wasn't until the first day of training camp back home in Charlotte when he was able to get back out there.

So seeing Dom out there on the field greeting people like a dignitary was cool to see.

Yeah.

He when we were walking around at one point he was like, this is weird.

He's like this because I guess this first time he's really been back.

But he's like, you know, I remember when we put all this in, pointing around at all the practicability, He's like, this is weird being back out here.

Yeah, but you know when your dom Capers, everywhere you go has a memory, when you're that embedded in the NFL.

That's right.

He likes walking down the halls in the stadium and be like, I remember when that was something else.

So and so used to sit here just doing down the line.

He celebrated a birthday this week too.

That's right, Dom turned seventy five, and so may may we all age as gracefully as Dom Capers did.

So a couple other nuggets.

Nick Gordon had to be taken from the field to day taking in a cooling trailer, get some ivs.

They're trying to take care and Nick, get him squared away.

You know, he's from here, and he kind of fell victim to the heat a little bit during practice.

That shows you, you know, just how hot it was out here today.

Sometimes you can get too hot too fast, and it's hard to get your core temperature back down, which is kind of what Canalis essentially said.

Happened that they were just having a little bit of trouble getting his core temperature back down.

Wanted to be careful there.

Yep, and so hopefully Nick bounces back.

They're talking about, you know, trying to maybe get him back in the game.

We'll see what the next couple of days bring.

And you know, after a practice like that, you never know when stuff pops up and when somebody has you know, something.

After the fact that they didn't realize at the time.

So we'll see.

What's a factor into the decision on how much they play Saturday.

That's right today too, that's right.

Canalis is gonna wait and see.

He's talking about playing him a little bit more maybe than they did the other week against Cleveland.

Maybe a third series for each of the first two groups or each of the first groups.

So we'll see how that goes.

But there's a lot to come.

Keep it locked on Panthers dot com for all the latest uh stay tuned to the Panthers YouTube channel for all the latest video And by the way, if you haven't enjoyed Luke Keighley on Car Talk with JJ Janssen, a nice tight fifty minutes of Luke Keighley.

You know how I.

Say, the answer to any problem is more.

We got more Luke Keighley on the Panthers YouTube channel.

By the way, I'm a little salty with Keighley and I had to text him back is today because the previous record for cart talk appearances was thirty five minutes, held by me in a blizzard.

So I told Keithley, let me see you bring it in the snow, big boy.

You're riding around in the ac with JJ there.

I was out there braving the elements.

So anyway, check that out on the YouTube channel.

Keep it locked on Panthers dot com.

We'll have all the ladies from Houston for the next couple of days in that game on Saturday.

Until then, we'll see you next time on the Happy half hour.

Right here, and hand me a pair of them dirty warbles.

No, hand me a pair of clean Whirlpool shorts.

I'm getting in this hub.

We'll see y'all back at the house.