Zero. Chris, the number is zero. That’s the number of touchdown passes. Deonte Johnson caught from Bryce Young and also the number of touchdown passes. Jonathan Mingo caught in a Carolina Panthers uniform. Hm. 00, I mean, you know, it’s hard to, uh, catch a touchdown pass, um, or any pass for that matter as you, uh, Jonathan Mingo when you catch a ball in bounds and then fling your whole body out of bounds. I still haven’t forgiven him for that last year. Put it on a, hang it in the Louver, hang the PIC, take the picture and hang it in the Louver. Mm. Let’s get this sucker started, get dialed in Panthers fans. Here comes an in depth. Look at your team exclusive interviews, locker room in sight. Let’s huddle up. Let’s just do it for Panthers playbook driven by Carolina Ford Dealers. Here are your hosts, Dennis Cox and Chris Lee. Welcome back to another episode of Panthers playbook. That’s Chris Lee. Dennis Cox here with you. Leave your thoughts in the comment section down below on Jonathan Mingo getting traded, but also what Dan Morgan has done in terms of trades and also this rookie class that we’re seeing emerge for the Carolina Panthers this year. But first Carolina Ford dealers, your sponsor of Panthers Playbook for, for, if you want a Ford F 150 on your team, look no further than Carolina Ford dealers. See your Carolina Ford dealer today. Uh, Chris, the news came out on the trade deadline on Tuesday in the morning. Actually, Jonathan Mingo gets traded along with the seventh round pick next year in 2025 for 1/4 round pick from the Dallas Cowboys. And I’m, I thought to myself, wait, Dan Morgan was able to turn his number four slash five wide receiver depending on who’s healthy into 1/4 round pick next year. You got more value for that than what they did. Deonte Johnson. I know that’s, that’s the thing. Now, I understand that there’s ok. Well, you have, you’re gonna get 2.5 years of Jonathan Mingo more cost control because it’s a rookie contract thing like, ok, I understand that, but Jonathan Mingo was not productive for the Caroline Panthers. So, you know, a good job for Dan Morgan. And I also love the fact that with Mingo no longer being in the locker room. Hey, Xavier Litt, you’re part of the future Jalen Coker, you’re part of the future two rookies that this team is building around for the future. Chris. Yeah. Uh, you know, first off the trade itself, um, it kind of caught me off guard because I, I didn’t expect that to be the trade. Right. You know, you would think that, um, maybe you trade somebody for future cost control measures or, you know, whatever like that or, you know, just to get some quick value back because you might lose them anyway. Or if you try to retain them, you’re gonna have to, you know, try to really pay them and maybe you just don’t have the space for them for next year with whatever they’re looking at for that. Um, but then the fact that the Cowboys gave 1/4 round pick for this guy and it’s like everybody has access to tape, right? And, you know, there is no, this is no disrespect to Mingo, but everybody has access to tape. Um, if you’re the Cowboys, why him? 4th, 4th round pick and not Deontay Johnson a week ago. Like I, if I was a Cowboys fan, I’d be mad right now. You know what I’m saying? Like, because II, I really, I don’t from the other side, I really don’t understand. Like, let’s send Carolina Panthers our fourth round pick and get Jonathan Mingo. Yeah. Yeah. Make that make sense. I mean, there’s a lot that’s been going on. That doesn’t make sense right now. Uh, and, and that’s something that doesn’t make sense to me. Uh, but hey, we’ll take it and now the Carolina Panthers go from 1/7 to 1/4 rounder. Still keep nine picks in the NFL draft coming up next year and they just added that much more value. And so essentially in the fourth round, you’re getting guys who probably are second or third round picks, right? Um, athletically, but maybe there’s one small thing that’s wrong with them, you know, maybe they’re 40 time as a wide receiver. You like it to be 4344, maybe it was four or five, right? Maybe this person, um, is, could have been a second rounder or a third rounder, but there’s maybe some sort of sketchy thing in their past and we got, we’re not quite sure. Maybe there’s some injury history with this particular person. Peyton Wilson probably should have been a first or a second round pick. Uh, but, you know, went later on to, uh the Pittsburgh Steelers, you know, so it’s, it’s usually like you can get a pretty good pick in the fourth round, some pretty good value in the fourth round if you know, you know what you’re doing with it. And so congrats to, to Dan Morgan, I mean, people talked about Dan Morgan got fleeced with the Deonte Johnson trade. I think they got what they could. Dallas got fleeced with this trade because, oh my God. Mhm. Yeah, seriously. For example, Dean Sanders was the first pick in the fourth round this past year and we all saw what that dude did this past Sunday. We all see what he, which by now, right now of current Carolina Panthers players, Dat Sanders is your leading receiver in yards followed by Savior League, get followed by Jalen Coker rookies and to go back to like dropping, he dropped because the knock on him was he wasn’t as good in pass protection as he was as far as like his route running and his, his ball catching ability. And so that’s the part he’s been working on with the Carolina Panthers. Other than that probably should have been a second or third round pick. Yeah, but hey, that’s what you can get out of that. And again, these three guys, we just mentioned Sanders Liget Coker rookies this 2024 draft class already proven to have way better production than the last two draft classes because now with Jonathan Mingo gone, look at the 2023 draft class, Chris Bryce Young, I’ll, I’ll say jury’s still out. We’ve shared our feelings on that. He might prove us wrong, but jury’s still out on Bryce Young, which by the way, he’s starting, we’ll get into that here in just a little bit. Jonathan Mingo is gone. Your third round pick DJ Johnson. They keep trying to find guys to, to be the other outside linebacker opposite of J Dave and Clowney in place of him. So you’re not getting anything from DJ Johnson right now. And then also you have Chandler Zavala depth guard and J Robinson is a special teamer. That’s it. That’s it. From your 2023 draft class. So you have four guys from last year’s draft class on your team. Go to 2022. You have Ik Kwando, I think he has had a pretty good year this year overall. Still a lot of things to work on, but much better than what he did last year overall. And then you have Cade Mays as a six round pick who did a pretty good job filling in as a center, but the guy wasn’t even on the roster at the beginning of the year. He was with the Giants on and you know, he was with the Giants practice squad. And then you have a Marty Barno who’s a really good special teamer, but he hasn’t played this year because he’s still recovering from a knee injury that he suffered late last year. That’s all that’s in your organization for 2022. That’s it. That is it like there are literally four guys from last year and two guys from 2022 on your active 53 man roster from those two draft classes six. That’s it like that Scott Federer disaster written all over it. But you look at what they got going right now, Lee get seems like he’s getting better every single day. Jonathan Brooks activated. Hopefully we see him get some touches this Sunday. Look at third round pick Trevor Wallace, a dude to Jon Sanders looking like a dude, Shawn Smith Wade playing pretty well so far as he start to give more reps. Yeah, I think I’m really liking him as a potential future slot corner. I really like it coming back Crum, we’re gonna see for the first time, Demonte Richardson, undrafted rookie. He’s been leading the team in tackles the last couple of weeks. Jalen Coker. We’ve seen this dude just blossom as an undrafted rookie as well. The rookies on this team really give you a lot of hope for the future in terms of what this team is building. Chris, I, I’m loving what this rookie class has provided. I think that’s also why like I was never like down on the future of this team. It was more so the right now wasn’t where I thought it, it should have been at the moment, but I, I really do feel like, you know, take away what the record looks like right now. Dan Morgan and his front office did an amazing job this off-season with this team. You talk about who they brought in. We’ve gone over it, the offensive line so much better right now. Uh, also, here’s a, a sneaky person being brought in and we’ll talk about this in a little bit as well. But, uh, you have, uh, Jordan Matthews who they brought in and, and now that Jonathan Mingo is out, he’s gonna have a heightened role with the team as a wide receiver slash tight end hybrid for the team, special team’s role as well. And so, like, and then, you know, it’s just the, the folks that they’ve brought in, uh, and, and the folks that they’ve drafted have done wonders, I think, uh, for this team, for the most part, you know, there’s some that, like, you know, they may not be here next year or whatever, depending on what defensive coordinator is or isn’t there, uh, in the team that’s being ran. Um, but there’s a lot of good to look forward to with this team, but you just know that they’ve put the investment in the places that it needed to be the two, guards. They bring in Damian Lewis, Robert Hunt. There’s a long term investment in those guys. You have the draft picks. There’s a long term investment in those guys and then also Dan Morgan’s gotten more picks back for 2025 and now we have nine and now we’ve moved up the board a couple of times. The, the, the future is a team if they do just as well next year in drafting as they did this past year with drafting, the future is definitely getting brighter for the Carolina fan and I hope they dedicate a lot of next year’s draft to defense because the defense needs it because they sacrificed a lot of defense to, to get to where the offense is right now. At least the pieces on offense. Yeah, I hope a lot of that goes to the defensive side of the field. Now, a big question going forward is, well, is Bryson that future plan? That’s a major question is Bryce in that future plan and he’s getting an opportunity to start again on Sunday in Germany against the New York Giants. And Dave Canalis talked about it on Wednesday in his press conference and it, it, it feels like even though he hasn’t like fully committed to saying Bryce is our starter for the rest of the year. It, it gives me the impression the way Dave Canal spoke on Wednesday that if Bryce plays well in Germany at least continues to show progress, then we’re gonna ride it out the rest of the season with him. We’re gonna ride out the rest of the year with him and you know what? That’s fine. He’s the young guy play the young guy, Andy gave you what he gave you. Andy Dalton is a backup in this, in this league and that’s ok. He had a good career, really good career. He’s a backup in this league. But you know what, fine, like ride it with Bryce the rest of the year. Yeah. No, I’m, I’m with that and, you know, again, this is probably gonna sound like hate because we’ve been accused of that. Um, but I, I like the fact that Bryce Young hasn’t lost the game for you for the last couple of weeks or so. Um, he actually got a chance to get you a win despite how bad things were overall. Unless listen, winning that game on Sunday was an anomaly, right? It was literally the first time in NFL in uh NFL history in the Super Bowl era that a team gave up over 425 yards lost the turnover battle and, uh, you know, I guess was under 100 and 25 yards uh in passing and in rushing to their opponent and still ended up winning the game. Literally, I think the record is like 225 and one. The Panthers are one. So in the last 20 years, um the Saints outgained the Panthers by 100 and 50 yards. I have what Bill Barnwell of ESPN posted pulled up. Um But again, Bill Barnwell ESPN Saints outgained the Panthers by 100 and 50 yards, ran for 100 and 50 plus yards and won the turnover battle over the last 20 years. Teams had gone 275 and oh, in that formula. So it was 275 and one. Now, the Panthers are the first team in the super bowl era to win with UN under 250 total yards, gained zero takeaways and 425 plus yards allowed. They are the first team to win the Super Bowl era doing that. Like you said, the win on Sunday was an anomaly but hey, I ain’t getting back. So I given it back, I’m not, I’m not gonna give it back, but also like, II I want to just paint the picture of, I don’t know what happened with this. It’s more so like the Saints gave it away. We were in a press box sitting next to each other. Like, why did the Saints call that play? Why are they doing this? 4th and 4th? Why did uh why did Alvin Kamara go out of bounds here on third down? Why did he try to get tackled inbounds? So the clock can run like it was the Panthers during a time out. It was so many different things that happened and we were just like, they’re gonna, they’re gonna let them get back into this game even after the Panthers got the ball back at a three and out. They’re like, they still kept messing up and still kept, you know, uh, you know, getting, uh, penalties and things like that. But despite all that, Bryce Young got a win right. He did and guess what he presented itself. He took it and it, it did, he presented itself and he made some good throws in that. And of course, Steve Smith’s like, uh, like route of the week was that, um, that 25 yard or so whatever it was to Jalen. No, no, no to Coker. Jalen Coker over the middle when he, uh, came across, um, uh, the formation. Um, and so it was, it came across the field, excuse me. And so when, um, having all of that and seeing what Bryce Young has been able to do and also him playing just a little bit better, uh, every single week, you gotta see what you have. And it was cool actually hearing from Dan Morgan and saying we didn’t consider trading him. He’s our number one overall. He was our number one overall pick last year. We want to build with him. We just needed to sit him down for a little bit and, and now he’s playing and we hope that it’s working out for the future. I like that. It gives him a vote of confidence. Hopefully his confidence grow gets better. And uh, and, and Bryce can, you know, take the opportunity and run with it and it, it’s his, it’s his to take the question is, can he take it? Like how, how, how well is he gonna run with this opportunity that he has once again? Because there are doubters, us included, us included in that. We’re not the only ones saying it, but we’re not afraid to say, hey, if he proves us wrong, we’ll say that we’re wrong, but he has to continue to string together good performances on a consistent basis. That’s just something that he hasn’t done yet. But things around him have gotten better in terms of Sunday, this coming Sunday against the Giants. It’s, it’s a winnable game. Obviously both teams are two and seven. It’s a winnable game and I know the Giants pass rush, even with uh out Kvo Thibodeau, who’s been out for a while, you still got to deal with Dexter Lawrence. You still got to deal with that guy by the name of Brian Burns on the other side as well. Like their pass rush is legit, their front is pretty legitimate and something that I hope that this team does. I know a lot of people are gonna say, hey, you know what? Keep losing, get a high draft pick. But if I’m Dave Canals, you’re trying to establish a winning culture. And the only way you establish a winning culture is by winning. And that’s what I want these guys to have Dave Canals and his culture being established winning. I want this team to win games. I’m tired of losing. I don’t want tanking. I want wins. Dennis, if you had the second number overall pick, right and get a good player. If you had the ninth overall pick and get a good player, what’s really the difference? Honestly, it, it just, it just comes down to what your, your front office and your scouting department is able to do. And, uh, if, uh, the board falls to you the right way, but there are game changers all over that first round. I don’t, I don’t care if you’re picking 29th. Like, you know, you can get a game changer at 29. I mean, was a late first round pick. Look what the Baltimore Ravens did at number 32 a few years ago. Hello. You know what I’m saying? Turn into a couple of mvps for them and look where they are right now. So, you know, it’s, uh, you can do so I don’t get this whole, you know, tank and all that. No, no, no, no, no. You remember we got Christian mccaffrey at like number eight overall in 2017. Right? So the Carolina Panthers not being top five if they win a few games is not gonna hurt us whatsoever. It’s more so about how the board falls to us and what the scouting department ends up doing. We didn’t have faith in the Scott Fitterer regime and administration, which is why everybody wants to pick high with what, uh, Dan Morgan has done so far. I’m a believer now in what they do. I don’t care where they are on the board and that’s why I wasn’t too upset about the Deonte Johnson trade. It was like, ok, they’ll, they’ll do something with it because they’ve shown me this year. They, they can do something with it and I’m confident that they will remembers they really get was pick 32 in the draft, right? Was pick 32. Right. And what I think he’s, what, third among rookie receivers of receiving touchdowns? Yeah, it’s four this year. It’s four this year. And he’s getting better every single game. That’s the thing that matters. That’s the thing that matters most. He’s getting better every single game, the growth of this team. It’s, it’s not happening overnight. We’ve talked about this, but it is getting better and that’s the thing that matters most. That’s the thing that matters most. The future of this team I think is going in the right direction. Here. Here’s another question and I, I was trying to think of this, when was the last time the Panthers, you know, take out, uh, maybe like, uh, a specialty player, like a kicker or punter or somebody like that or a long snapper. Uh, when was the last time the Carolina Panthers had an impactful, um, undrafted free agent like Jalen Coker or Demon Richardson. I’m having a hard time really, really thinking about it because one of the things that I’ve always thought about the Carolina Panthers, uh, back when, um, um, uh, what’s my man who was right before he came after and before Marty Hearney, when Barney Hearney came back, Dave get Dave Gettleman. Um One of the things going back to Dave Gettleman back to, to Harney to Federer, that one of the knocks I had on the Carolina Panthers scouting departments. I didn’t feel like they did a good job with the undrafted free agent mark, right? Like you didn’t have those, you know, stories of those Adam Thiele stories like, oh my God, they found this guy and it, and it fell to them. Like those guys usually didn’t stick around. Now, we’re gonna be hooked on X and Coke for the next few years. You know what I’m saying? So, like I, I’m so glad that the Carolina Panthers know exactly what they’re doing now with their scouting department because we’re gonna be hooked on X and Coke for the next few years. We got X eggs. We got Coke heads, Xavier Legget and Jalen Coker, the duo. We didn’t know we needed. Oh, nothing but energy and hype, nothing but energy and hype. When we’re ready for some touchdowns, you might really be riding dollar bill. That’s all I could say. By the way, this Sunday, this Sunday, we will be at the Carolina Alehouse in Cary, North Carolina Carolina Alehouse again, it’s a 930 kickoff for the Panthers. We’re gonna be there. We’re actually gonna do Panthers playbook right after the game ends at the Carolina Alehouse in Cary. Come, come watch the game with us. If you disagree with our takes, that’s fine. If we’re gonna do the show there, yell at us there. That’s totally fine. No problem with that. Come talk, Panthers, come watch football with us. We’ll just sit there and have a good time as well. There’s gonna be a breakfast buffet, there’s gonna be drink specials that are going on, starting at 10 o’clock. There’s a bunch of different things going on. So make Sure you’re at the Carolina Alehouse and Carrie, as always, Chris Carolina Ford Dealers, our sponsor of Panthers Playbook. If you want a Ford F 150 on your team, see your Carolina Ford Dealer today, Chris, I’m looking forward to Sunday. Me too. You know what, I’m also looking forward to. What’s that? The bi week? We all need it. Right, bro. Like even podcasters need a bi Aweek and I, I’m so glad that this is gonna be early on Sunday. We can knock out Panthers playbook. We can go watch a full slate of games and then watch a full slate of games next week and then come back to the Carolina Panthers and let’s sprint to the finish line. Oh, let’s do it. We out.

Source: wralsportsfan.com