Ask The Old Guy: Break's over, let's go to the combine

INDIANAPOLIS — Hope you all enjoyed the offseason, all six weeks of it. Because rest time is over now.

With teams landing in Indiana today for the scouting combine (seriously, the planes, particularly the planes out of Charlotte since the entire world has a connection there, are full of logo-ed quarter-zips and athleisure), the whirlwind of the next couple of months begins in earnest.

Of course, the primary business here in the heartland is the evaluation of 300-some college prospects, who will go through a wringer of medical tests, media appearances, and of course, workouts. And having everyone together in one spot makes it convenient for teams, which is why everyone hopes it never leaves here.

It's a good place to get measurements, information, interviews, and sometimes COVID (there are a lot of people breathing the recycled indoor air of the Indiana Convention Center). But it's also the prelude to the free agency season, which will officially start two weeks from Wednesday.

When that starts, it figures to be a busy time. The Panthers have 21 unrestricted free agents, along with five restricted free agents and two guys labeled exclusive rights free agents who aren't actually free agents at all. They also have a considerable amount of holes to fill. They've already re-signed Andy Dalton and JJ Jansen (because it wouldn't be a Panthers roster without him), but there's a lot of business to do in the coming weeks as they fill out a roster.

So it figures to be busy, starting now.

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Hello, with Luke Kuechly's sad exclusion from the Hall of Fame, I feel like it would instead be a good time to finally get him into the Panthers Hall of Honor! I honestly find it crazy that he isn't in already, but besides being one of the greatest Panthers in franchise history, he is also still with the organization on the radio. He qualifies in every sense of the word. I know the Hall of Honor ceremony is a lot of work, but I feel like he is way overdue to be in. I could also include Thomas Davis, Greg Olsen, or even John Kasay as well for people deserving, but I know there are only so many spots. Basically, long story short, do you know if there are any Hall of Honor plans this year (hopefully for Luke)? Thanks! — Elijah, Enfield, NC

Yeah, it's kind of a drag that we're not going to Canton again this year, and not just because I love any excuse to go to Canton. (I catch myself looking at real estate ads when we visit.)

Kuechly was, in my mind, deserving to be the 91st first-ballot entry into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. (Julius Peppers was the 90th, appropriately, last year.)

Luke crammed a lot of excellence into eight seasons, earning All-Decade honors and being named All-Pro seven times (87.5 percent of his seasons). Exactly two players in the history of the NFL were All Pros at a higher rate than Kuechly, and their names are Barry Sanders (10-of-10, 100.0 percent) and Jim Brown (8-of-9, 88.9). The guys he's immediately ahead of on that list are Reggie White (13-of-15, 86.7) and Anthony Munoz (11-of-13, 84.6). When that's the crowd you're running with, your qualifications are implicit.

And he deserves to be in the Hall of Honor, too, and it's likely just a matter of time. As to whether he should have been there previously, there was a slight mitigating factor called COVID-19 that slowed the induction process. After Jake Delhomme, Steve Smith, Wesley Walls, and Jordan Gross were added in 2019 (Kuechly's final year as a player), there was a break before Peppers and Muhsin Muhammad went in in 2023, with Hall of Fame celebrations for Sam Mills and Peppers in 2022 and 2024, respectively.

If the team decides to go two at a time, like the Muhammad/Peppers class of two years ago, there's no shortage of qualified candidates to sprinkle through the next few years. In addition to the ones you mentioned, there are guys like Ryan Kalil, Cam Newton, and others who are extremely deserving of consideration. So stay tuned.

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The last ten games of the season (despite a poor defense) were the best Panthers games I've seen in 7-8 years, so it upped my expectations for the 2025-2026 season. Assuming the Carolina Panthers are a rain city renaissance band circa 1990, what would you imagine would be a realistic scenario? Would they hit a Soundgarden "Badmotorfinger" heavy/dirty upgrade (6-8 wins), or if they rebuild the defense well and the stars align, do you think a Nirvana "Nevermind"/Pearl Jam "Ten" beginning to end perfection season (10-12 wins) would be possible? * Alice in Chains' "Dirt" would not be applicable since the Panthers already achieved a 2015 (15-win) season. — Jordan, Charlotte, NC

See, now this is a question after my own heart, mind, and plaid shirt collection.

The Panthers clearly got people feeling some kind of way in the second half of the season, and expectations tend to rise when you show people progress.

And not to be a wet flannel, but it's also important to keep a little perspective on where they were and where they have to go. The 2003 Panthers needing two seasons to go from 1-15 to the Super Bowl was an extreme outlier. So it's important not to anticipate that because no one anticipated that two decades ago, either.

There's more work to be done on the roster than can be reasonably accomplished in one offseason, or maybe even two. Remember, this team was 2-15 when they came to the combine last year. But they've stabilized things, had a good free agency and draft last year, and need another one this year. Then they'll still probably need some more stuff.

So, depending on the next two months, it's fair to expect a better product. But it's harder to go from five wins to the playoffs than it is to go from two wins to five. They won't sneak up on anyone offensively next year, they'll be aware that Bryce Young can be an accurate and timely distributor, and that Adam Thielen's got something left, and that Chuba Hubbard is a bell cow, and that the Panthers offensive line is legit (and it's been a minute since they've been able to say that).

And the work they need to do on defense is significant, after breaking a record for points allowed last season.

Getting Derrick Brown back will help, but he's just one guy. They need another couple hims, if they want to play the kind of grunge-y football in the trenches they need to improve.

Will it be a hit? Depends on the work they do over the next couple of months. But they're definitely in the early stages of establishing their own sound, and that's the important thing.

This has also sent me down the music rabbit hole, and I am compelled as an old person to remind you that Pearl Jam named that album Ten because 10 was Mookie Blaylock's jersey number, and if you remember Mookie Blaylock, we're already friends.

(Although, Jordan, I think you have drastically underrated the 1991 Soundgarden classic. Their version of "Rusty Cage" is even better than the Johnny Cash cover, and I love Johnny Cash's later work. Rick Ross might be out there walking barefoot and speaking in riddles, but he's also a genius. This just makes me want to dig out my boxes [plural] of CDs in the basement. Or maybe I should just buy a record player.)

As such, I'm making Jordan this week's Friend Of The Mailbag and will save him a trip to the merch table. He's one of us.

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Will Shaq be back? — Garrett, Spruce Pine, NC

This question came in before Monday's news that veteran linebacker Shaq Thompson will be allowed to hit free agency and that the team is moving in another direction.

That one hurts, as someone who got to know him better over the last five years. Shaq's an official Friend Of The Mailbag, and you know I consider those like family.

It's easy sometimes to get lost in stats and awards and accomplishments and wins and losses, and lose sight of some long-term impact from some players.

Shaq came in here as a rookie and played alongside two guys named Luke Kuechly and Thomas Davis. He walked in during Year 10 and helped mentor a rookie named Trevin Wallace. Along the way, he was the connective tissue that helped a team transition from one era to the next, and he was the wise voice in the ear of a bunch of young dudes on defense including Brown and Jaycee Horn.

Players who serve as bridges from one generation to the next are valuable beyond their stats. Shaq played alongside Julius Peppers. He was part of a team that went 15-1. So he had things to say.

And as evidenced by the fact he was voted a team captain for half his career (five times in 10 seasons), he was respected by his peers, the kind of guy coaches and front offices could trust in that locker room.

Team captains, Panthers history (since 2000)

Of course, sometimes Shaq said things that gave people heartburn, but he was also honest, smart, and all-in for his brothers.

He was also a steady and good player for a long time and had 135 tackles in his last healthy season in 2022. In that regard, he's not unlike Mike Minter (the only player other than Davis and Kuechly ahead of him on the team's all-time tackle list). Minter never went to a Pro Bowl, but he was an intelligent and physical safety who caught the eye of Sam Mills as a rookie and played in a Super Bowl with a broken foot. He also played exactly 10 years here before retiring in August of 2007.

And 10 years is a lot of football for a body to withstand.

Unfortunately, Thompson was the victim of terrible luck in the last two years, during which he played just six games because of injury. Misfortune's the only way to describe an opponent falling across your leg in a pile like happened in 2023, and last year's Achilles tear in Week 4 was just a gut punch.

Thompson made it clear he wanted to come back, and I hope for his sake he either finds someone to give him the chance or peace with whatever comes next. He deserves that. He'll be successful, regardless. All I know is that I'll miss his perspective because not everybody has that. And now, some of that burden will fall to guys like Brown and Horn, who are responsible for carrying it forward to a new generation.

They've learned well, from one of the best leaders who walked through that room.

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Hi, Darin. Hope you're enjoying a little downtime before the free-agency flurry and draft.

The notion of a fan community comes up often in the Mailbag and I've been meaning to offer my two cents (which is about what it's worth) for a while. I've only caught a handful of games in person over the years. But I was at the opener in 2003 when Jake Delhomme came off the bench and eventually tossed the winning touchdown pass to Ricky Proehl with 16 seconds left to beat the Jaguars in a performance that set the tone for an 11-5 season, just two years after finishing 1-15.

As memorable as that moment was, what has stuck with me more through the years was walking down the stadium ramps after the game with thousands of other fans - of varying races, religions, political leanings, barbecue preferences - united in a sense of community around their favorite football team. At the time, there was still a lot of grumbling about using tax dollars to help pay for a new arena and citations of studies claiming there either was or wasn't an eventual return on the investment. At that moment, in that collective wave of euphoria, I remember asking myself, "How do you quantify this?"

All that said, I feel the same sense of community reading The Mailbag, where beliefs and biases are set aside, and our favorite team unites us. It sounds corny, I know, but we could use a little more of that these days. Thanks for what you do. Oh, and by the way, John in Savannah is now John in Winston-Salem. It's good to be home. — John, Winston-Salem, NC

John, that's just about the nicest thing anyone's said to be in a while. Thank you, seriously. That warms the cold black heart of a longtime sports writer, a member of an industry not given to overt sentimentality. But every now and then, it does feel like it's almost a calling, or something resembling one. Or something of value, however small it is.

Was recently visiting family in Virginia, and over a brunch conversation with one of the wise elders, a delightful woman who has lived a full and rich life, got to talking about my job and how it wasn't exactly curing cancer or anything important. "Oh no," she said. "It's one of the very most important things in the world right now because sports is one of the few places we have left where people actually come together." (I told you she was wise. And also delightful.)

Similarly, this weekend, was approached at a local brewery by a lovely young couple (seriously, like models in a J. Crew catalog kind of lovely). They introduced themselves and told me they started reading the Mailbag to their baby in utero, and the child is now 18 months old and they love experiencing it all and raising a child in these ways. To that, I can only say I'm sorry for teaching the baby bad habits like run-on sentences and sarcasm or introducing them to the emotional push and pull of preferring a particular ball team for your whole life. Now that I know kids are reading, I will try, in the future, to work more Winnie-the-Pooh references into the 'Bag since Winnie-the-Pooh is the very best way to teach a child the virtues of being happy and kind and thoughtful and finding adventure where it lives. As a bear of very little brain myself, it resonates.

So thank you for all the kind words, and if it's any kind of example for the greater good, I'll take it.

But I love the idea that this space can be an incubator. If we can find more places where people come together beyond a good ball game, that would be fantastic. I mean, we all have more in common than we realize. Really, all any of us want is a plate of eggs, and the security to live the life we choose to live. So maybe one day we could use this communal experience as a springboard, and leave the stadium as one and make sure all our neighbors are housed and fed, for starters. Dare to dream. But if a ball game is all we've got for now, we might as well hang onto it.

And I am humbled to play any small role, as I drop these two sticks into the stream and run to the other side of the bridge to see which one comes out first.

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Hey Darin, love this segment. While I understand the rationale of bringing back Ejiro Evero for one more season based on Dan Morgan's admission he did not provide him with the proper personnel to be effective. It seems that Evero has had significant input into personnel and getting "his guys"' who know his scheme, but those hires have not exactly worked out. The emphasis of this offseason seems to be finding the "right guys" for his system.

My concern is if we spend the majority of our salary cap resources and draft capital on rebuilding the defense based on Evero's 3-4 defense and they underperform again, Evero is likely gone and will likely be replaced by a coordinator that runs a 4-3 defense (as most of the league does), and now we have a bunch of square pegs to fit in a round hole that may not translate to a 4-3 as much as a 3-4. — John, Indian Land, SC

I think the emphasis this offseason is on stacking good players. And it's Morgan's responsibility to do that and Evero's to coach them up once they get here. A guy like Derrick Brown is going to fit either one. A pass-rusher who can get to a quarterback likely has some portability, whether his hand is in the dirt on third down or he's on two feet. There are some guys who are only one or the other, but they're more rare than you'd think.

And this is another opportunity to point out that when it's time to fix a defense that needs fixing, it's more about "which three" or "which four," rather than "4-3 or 3-4?"

Last year, 10 teams ran out of a 3-4 base, so most of the league leans in the other direction.

But four of the top five teams in run defense were 3-4s (and six of the top 12), so it's not like it can't work.

Plus, the percentage of time teams spend in base defense seems to shrink every year. For most teams, their nickel package (with two standup linebackers, five DBs, and four players along the line) is the one they spend the most time in, so finding a reliable slot corner (perhaps 2024 fifth-rounder Chau Smith-Wade) is more important than a 370-pound nose who's likely to play fewer snaps over the course of a season.

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Hi Darin and JJ! Is an off-season edition of the Cart Talk featuring Darin Gantt already scheduled? Thanks! — Fernando, São Paulo, Brazil

Not only is it scheduled, it has been recorded. In the snow. It was epic. Neither of us will ever be the same.

But, as is the custom when Jansen and I get talking, it exceeds the bounds of commercially viable content and requires more time to edit. It wasn't as bad as our recent Happy Half Hour, which was more accurately described as a Happy Hour, but it was close. My sources tell me the raw copy was around 45 minutes, and the final product was somewhere in the 30s. Butchers.

We're releasing all the unused footage in the director's cut, straight to VHS. You've been warned, and stay tuned for something memorable.

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I have enjoyed listening to Jordan and Jake and Happy Half Hour each morning as I shave when a new episode drops. But this week's version was best yet. Your visit with JJ Jansen was so interesting. His discussion of what he feels at season end, his relationship with former Panthers, and his foray into owning sports franchises was utterly fascinating. Bravo!

But I was mesmerized listening to Jake and Jonathan Stewart compare notes of their respective Super Bowl experiences. The fact they both cried standing in the tunnel, waiting to come on the field, some 12 years apart, was so moving. The different stories of how they handled the big game's ticket situation made me laugh.

Thanks for doing these programs. It keeps us long-time Panther fans in touch with the men who made us cheer so long ago. — Omer, Wilkesboro, NC

Thanks Omer, again, JJ is an easy conversation. He and I could do this for hours on end. (And we have.)

But as we've built out our inventory of podcasts in the last few years, we've got a lot of people able to create a lot of content. And Jake and Stew were killing at before and at the Super Bowl, and both have plenty to say. We have a good roster of podcasters, and a deep bench.

We'll keep bringing it and adding to the inventory if you keep listening. And I know you do.

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And on that note, let's go lightning round, brought to you by the patron saint of the lightning round Jeff from Fuquay-Varina, to close it out this week.

Can JJ Jansen name all the different kickers and punters he's snapped to in his 260 games? I bet he can. — Will, Rock Hill, SC

Will, you were right. I figured he'd forget a Justin Medlock or a Ryan Winslow along the way, but he nailed it, 21-of-21 (11 kickers have kicked for points, and 10 punters have punted in at least one regular season game since 2009). That's a lot of storage space in that head of his, and he uses it well. He and I joked that after all the random stuff we covered in Cart Talk (including me naming every long snapper in franchise history, all six of them), we probably wouldn't be able to find our keys.

Do you think it is likely that even with Andy Dalton now under contract, the Panthers would still draft a QB on Day 3? — Jan, Fort Mill, SC

Maybe. They do have Jack Plummer under contract, and they spent a year developing him. But Dan Morgan is all about the best player available, and quarterbacks are valuable, so if the right guy is there on Day 3, it's possible.

Besides, Andy Dalton can't play forever. One of these days, he's going to join the senior's tennis tour.

Greatly enjoy your insights! In looking at the Panther run-stuffing issues the past several seasons, I just wanted to give a shout-out to (as any good LB'er would do) unsung blocking/eating/hold-the-point DT'sDTs like Colin Cole! It's tough to find the total package guys; they are few and far between, so tip of the cap to the guys with an important role like Collin Cole! That said, it's time for another Cornhusker or two to wear Carolina Black & Blue! DT/DE Ty Robinson and/or NG Nash Huttmacher are both football-loving D O G S! Robinson is an early third, and Hutmacher a late fifth! Both are guys who are about the team, as both played in Nebraska's bowl game as NFL prospects! They are truly not alone in doing this but I sure hope GM Morgan gives extra evaluation points for players who flip the letter to We instead of Me and opt to play in a bowl with their teammates! — Craig, Lincoln, NE

I won't pretend to have seen Nebraska's bowl game (or known that the Huskers were in one) or any details about the aforementioned prospects. What I do know is that adding linemen, plural, is one of the priorities of the offseason, and finding guys who love football is a big plus.

Do the Panthers or any other team offer a behind the scenes to their draft process to their fans? I've always wondered about her draft process from the GM and HC perspective. It would be amazing if they did some type of sweepstakes for a fan to win a chance to do that! Thanks for your time, been a long-time fan. Go PANTHERS!!!! — Jesse, Rockwell, NC

That would be cool, but Morgan has cut way back on the number of people in the draft room period (area scouts and coaches rotate in and out, as needed), so it's unlikely he's ever going to let the public in.

But I tell you what we can do. We'll keep creating Blueprint-style content and behind-the-scenes stories at Panthers.com for you (and we have a lot of cameras and tape recorders and notebooks here), it's the next best thing to document the work they're doing.

Work that hits another gear tomorrow.