0, Chris. The number is 0. That’s the number of targets Jonathan Mingo had in his revenge game this past Sunday against the Panthers. 0, but they got the win. The Cowboys did. I, I was really expecting him to get like 2 targets, 1 catch, 8 yards. Falling out of bounds. While falling out of bounds. I guess I just gave him too much credit. We were robbed of that moment. We were robbed of that moment. Let’s get this up. Get dialed in Panthers fans. Here comes an in-depth look at your team. Exclusive interviews, locker room insight. Let’s huddle up. Let’s just do it, 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 Coxter with you. Uh, first of all, make sure you hit the subscribe button. And second of all, leave your thoughts in the comment section on who that dude is for the Carolina Panthers. We’ll dive into that. But first, Chris, Carolina Ford dealers, our sponsor of Panthers Playbook with a Ford F-150 on your team. It’s game on to your Carolina Ford dealer today. You know, Chris, I was thinking about this past Sunday against the, the Dallas Cowboys. Even though the Cowboys aren’t a good team, you can still look at them and say, Hey, CD Lamb, you better watch out for that dude. Micah Parsons, you gotta watch out for that dude. Even other bad teams that are out there, there are players out there say, hey, you gotta watch out for that dude. Who’s that dude for the Panthers? I thought. They don’t have that. They don’t have that do that even as a bad football team, you can say, hey, you still gotta watch out for that guy. Um, I would say Derek Brown was supposed to be that guy on defense, um, but, you know, when you lose him after the first game of the season, you, you lose all of that, um. You also kind of traded away a couple of those guys, DJ Moore, uh, Christian McCaffrey, um, to an extent, Brian Burns, he’s, he’s had an OK season, but I don’t think he’s had a season worthy of $30 million per year for the Carolina Panthers, not that he’s not worth that for somebody else, sure, but for what the Carolina Panthers needed in this moment, he’s not worth that. Um, but to an extent, Brian Burns, um. But you’re absolutely correct, there’s there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of jags, and um by jags I mean just a guy, just a guy, and um I I think that, or in some circles it’s just another gangster, so there’s that, there are songs like that, but shout out to Juvenile, but um there’s I I I think that’s the part where like over this offseason. If you do get a few different change makers, if you can get some either uh through free agency or through the draft, and the draft is, is really projecting, you’re kind of projecting through free agency as well, uh, you’re hoping that what somebody did in another team in another system or a similar system can carry over to your team as well, uh, but there’s more of a proven history there. Um, if you can get some of those guys, All of a sudden, I think it kind of raises what the Carolina Panthers could do for next year because you have all of these pieces who are good in their who are OK in their role right now. But now all of a sudden, if you have a star wide receiver, then Xavier Liguet and Adam Thielen, not needing to be the number one option, all of a sudden look really good as options, you know, 2A and 2B, and then of course Jalen Coker right there, I’ll put him at 2C, um. If you, if Jonathan Brooks ended up being really healthy, and maybe he ended up being that guy, then all of a sudden Chuba Hubbert looks like a great, you know, one be back uh for for the Carolina Panthers. Um, if you get a, a big time, um, linebacker from the draft or or edge rusher or something like that, all of a sudden DJanum. Looks pretty good as a as a 22A rusher on the other side, and you know, just to see what happens, or Trevon Wallace looks good as a as a 2B linebacker on the other side. Uh, you know, it’s it’s there’s gonna be a lot of projection, but that’s, I think that’s the next step for the Carolina Panthers, just exactly what you brought up. Just get some something other than jags, because there’s a lot of jags right now. And that’s no disrespect. Yeah, and you know what, you, you need those guys to go around those game. You need those guys to go around the game breakers. And again, not every team, I mean, there’s a reason why they’re bad teams in the NFL because they don’t have a lot of those game changers. But again, you can even look at say, I mean, look at the, the New York Giants whom the Panthers beat this year. You can say, yo, Malik Neighbors, watch out for that dude. Hey, Dexter Lawrence, watch out for that dude. Now those are bad teams that can sit there and say, at least they got like a couple of those. Again, I’d look on this roster right now and I don’t see that. Again, team coming up this week. I mean, you could argue Arizona Barbers. But hey, Marvin Harrison Junior, watch out for that dude. Buddha Baker, watch out for Baker. Just got an extension, you know what I’m saying? That’s definitely one of those guys. Yeah, exactly. Watch out for that dude and they’re not and they’re not a bad team. So that’s something that um that concerns me about this, this, this team moving forward is where are they gonna get it? Can they find it? Because if you’re gonna sign in free agency, generally teams don’t let game breakers go, at least for cheap, at least. Like they’re gonna be super expensive to sign. Now again, a guy like T. Higgins just because money doesn’t work in Cincinnati and they’re also notoriously cheap. That guy could be a game breaker and a difference maker, like, hey, watch out for that dude. But again, that’s gonna be super expensive and super highly sought after. I don’t know if a team like Carolina can afford that. But how do you find that guy? Like, do you find that guy in the draft? Can you, are you capable of finding that guy in the draft, even a diamond in the rough. Heck, Pittsburgh Steelers, you can sit there and say, yo, George Pickens, watch out for that dude. He was a 2nd round pick. So there’s guys can be found at different at different spots, but Right now, you said it after uh last game on Sunday. This team has to play perfect in order to be competitive. They have to be, and I don’t know if it was again, they drank some of their own Kool-Aid because, hey, they played close against the Chiefs and they played close against the Eagles and whatever. They have to play perfect because again, they don’t have a game changer on their roster. They just simply don’t, and I don’t know. Without those guys, how, like, what’s the ceiling for this group if they don’t have a game changer? Like truly what is the ceiling for this team if they don’t have a changer, a game changer on their roster at some point next year. Let me push back just a little bit because we, we named a couple of guys and there’s one that I failed to mention that I feel like, uh, maybe some somebody who’s watching this is screaming out right now. But right now we’re just witnessing him in his rookie year trying to figure it out. I think Jata and Sanders is possibly one of those guys, right? So that’s one of those uh players that I’m looking forward to, like, I, I think I have more a higher level of expectation in him than maybe. A Shaw Smith Wade, right? I think if Shaw Smith Wade kind of, you know, does, you know, of course I need to see him show improvement and kind of be able to be more versatile and things like that, but pretty much, you just need to really tread water, uh, and and and just don’t drop. Tota and Sanders, I could see as one of those guys that if he gets it together and stays healthy, and if the scheme allows it. You’re talking about maybe 800 to 1000 yards next year, if he does it the right way. Yeah, he has that ability, you know, and, uh, again, I’m not saying necessarily that’s what he’s going to get. But he has the ability to be at that level, and, and then you’re talking about you’re one of the better tight ends in the league. And so that’s the part that I’m looking forward to. Nobody ever say anything negative about his pass catching, his route running or anything like that. All the knock against him was always can you block? And so that’s one of the reasons why why he dropped. He’s done an OK job with it so far. If he can continue to do that, plus, uh, you know, get the route running and And and everything together, maybe he could be that guy. Yeah, we’ve seen him have some, some breakout moments and some strong games. We definitely have seen those flashes, but again, it’s on a consistent basis. I even look on the defensive side of the ball. Yeah, Derek Brown is as strong as he is, as great as he is, he’s a great run stopper, but you never see him actually like move the pile like in 4 sacks like a Chris Jones or somebody along those lines, even a Dexter Lawrence on the interior. I, I think back to the times of what we had. I mean, gosh, you knew like Luke Kuechly, you know, like, I know it’s, that’s, it’s a pretty high standard, but who’s a game changer on defense? Not just on the front, but even on the 2nd and 3 levels. We don’t, I mean, JC Horn maybe, but the scheme doesn’t even allow JC Horn to even like match up one on one against the top receiver on the other team. So we don’t even know if he could fully be that because they just stick him in the boundary and leave him over there. That could be the other thing. Maybe we can’t see. Who the who the uh game breakers are because the schemes aren’t there to allow those guys to be that, right? Like with um somebody like Micah Parsons, right, coming out of Penn State, we saw him as a linebacker. We didn’t know he was going to be one of the best pass rushers in the NFL. Like we, we assumed we assumed he was just gonna play linebacker and kind of Do a little bit of everything, all of a sudden you could put him on the line, and that completely changes things, right? And that’s thanks to a defensive scheme that allows him some flexibility to do that. When Mike Zimmer came in to replace old boy who went to Washington, Dan Quinn, Dan Quinn, he knew he had to build that within his system because that’s how you’re gonna get the best out of him. Listen, Ijero Evero or whoever is gonna be the defensive coordinator next year, allow JC Horn to travel. Yeah, gotta allow him to travel, and then we gotta see who else has it too. Maybe there’s somebody else who’s being held back by this particular scheme, and that’s, I would love to see uh what other people could do with that freedom. Yeah, I would love to see this team have difference makers on multiple levels of the field. I want to see the team have that. DJ Wadham, I think has been really good since he’s come back from the, from the injuries and the blood clot issue. Yeah, I think he’s been really good and we think we’ve seen overall the pass rush better when Wadham’s out there in the field. I wouldn’t necessarily call him a game changer, like a game wrecker. I wouldn’t necessarily put him. I’m not gonna put him in that category, but he is very good. But once you get on the second level, Jozy Jewel, been around the ball a lot, makes a lot of tackles, made a couple plays, but I wouldn’t say game changer. Watch out for that guy. And then again, on the secondary, yeah, but again, on the secondary, you don’t have like an Antoon Winfield you know. Tampa Bay has that yeah you can wreck things up, you know, you don’t have that. Kyle Hamilton, M Fitzpatrick, even though Fitzpatrick’s having not that good of a season, but you don’t have that. Can I also point something else out too? What’s that? Um, it also feels like this defensive scheme doesn’t allow for guys. To really go after the ball defensively, you know what I’m saying? They’re more so going for strips than interceptions, because if you really like Panthers don’t tend to get them, get those a lot unless there’s a tip by a linebacker or somebody at the line of scrimmage. Like the last real one was what when Shaw Smith weighed. Got it and he said I was actually in the wrong position and he just, he had to make a play, so he had to end up freestyling to end up doing it. If he did his job what he was supposed to do within the scheme, it would have never happened, right? And that’s the interesting part about this particular defensive scheme. It almost, it’s almost like it takes people’s instincts out of it. You kind of have to be robotic in nature. At least just from what I’m seeing. I’m not in those meeting rooms, I don’t know the playbook, I don’t know the terminologies or anything like that, but it just, it just feels like uh these guys aren’t allowed to to be that. And so that’s also another reason why I want to see something different. Maybe we do have some of those game breakers. Maybe, maybe, maybe, they’re just not allowed to be that. This is where I put a lot of emphasis on Dan Morgan this offseason. You have 9 draft picks, 99. There’s a lot you could do with it too. You gotta hit. You have to hit again. You really do. Have you seen this discussion on like, um, if the Panthers get picked number 3 or 4, if you’re if you’d be willing to trade it trade down for more picks. What are you feeling, what are you feeling on that? I, I always say it all depends on what, what’s there, because if you’re gonna trade down, OK, well, who are you gonna get? That’s the big question. Are you trading down just for the sake of trading down to acquire more capital? Well, if the quality of player isn’t gonna be there where you’re trading down to, then to me it’s not worth it. Again, it’s just, it’s all about who you’re trading down to. Same thing with trading up in the draft. It’s like, who you gonna go get. That’s, that’s the big question. So if, like, say for example, they’re at 4 and a team at 9 wants to move up, OK, well, who’s who you gonna get at 9? That’s, that’s the question. Are you getting a top tier player? I mean, cause I think Michael Parsons was like the 11th pick, Jaylen Carter was the 9th pick in the draft. You know, so again, it’s just, it just depends on who you’re gonna get at those, at those spots. That really is is the biggest thing, and also it’s just you yourself. An evaluator have to look and say, all right, if I’m gonna get an extra 2nd and 3rd or whatever it might be down the draft, what’s the depth of the draft? What positions do I have of need? And are there are a lot of people at this position that I know I can go find at these spots. So again, it’s all about what’s available to you and, and the depth of the draft like. To me, I, you can’t fully, in my opinion, you can’t fully assign numbers, just be like, hey, the 3rd round pick is worth, or the 3rd overall pick is worth X Y Z. That’s just the way I look at it. I’m, I’m 100% with you. I would lean towards keeping the pick, um, because you’re just not sure, and here’s another reason. Last year, and this is no disrespect to Xavier Legatte, I love Xavier Legat. He is a 2nd rounder who was chosen in the 1st round because the Carolina Panthers wanted to make sure they had that extra year. Um, just in case so that his, uh, contract and Bryce’s contract doesn’t end at the same time, right? Um, but he’s really a second round pick. Um, Jonathan Brooks, um, Fringe 1st, 2nd guy dropped because of the knee injury, right? Jata and Sanders, probably more of a, you know, fringe 2nd 3rd round guy who dropped because of the pass blocking first pick of the 4th round. You, the point is that I’m trying to make, you didn’t have a real even though it was a really good draft I thought last year, you don’t have a real top-end talent from last year’s draft that you can, uh, you know, just brag about or, you know, or put in in the forefront. Um, and so now that you have this opportunity to pick in the top 10. Go get somebody who has that like undeniable this person could be wearing a gold jacket, uh, after it’s all said and done type of talent, and that’s that’s what that is for when you’re when you’re picking there. You didn’t have that luxury last year, and, and so, again, nothing against the guys that you that you got, I think they are performing to what their expectations are, um, to me. Now you just need to figure out like, OK, what is the need? Who do you see here? What are you gonna do as as your evaluations come in, uh, in pro days and uh you go to uh combines and, you know, all those senior bowls, all that good stuff. We start looking at guys, who is the guy that we need to get, we need to pick right here, pick 345, wherever they’re gonna end up landing at. Um, and I, I, I think that is something that’s gonna help out with the whole thing that you’re talking about here, getting a game breaker, getting that person that’s gonna be that’s, that’s worthy of that top 10 pick. So yeah, for example, let’s say they’re at 3, or let’s say they’re at 3 and a team from 6 wants to move up to 3 because there’s a quarterback sitting right there. So it’s Cam Ward, right? So yeah, take it from 3 to 6 because I can know I can get or if I’m gonna get Mason Graham from Michigan or, um, Taoa McMillan. From, from, uh, Arizona wide receiver, Abdul Carter. Like, OK, I’m getting a game changer at 6. OK, yeah, then I make that move and I acquire more picks. Yes, again, it’s all about who you’re gonna get in that situation. All right, well, if I’m gonna move from 3 to 6, who’s gonna be there? Or if I move from 3 to 8, OK, well then who’s gonna be there? So that’s, that’s always the thing I always caution when it comes to moving down in the draft. But hey, if you can get a, a, an overhaul, hey, if I can get a game changer at 6 and I can get a bunch of extra, then I’m for that. Then I’m for that. But again, this team needs some game changers and they’re gonna be picking in the top 10. You better find one and you better hit. That’s all I’m gonna say, Dan Morgan. It’s all I’m gonna say. But you know what though? I, I give, I’m gonna give Dan Morgan the benefit of the doubt cause he hasn’t looked bad so far. It hasn’t, it hasn’t. Like, coming to like manifested into extra wins. I mean, there’s one extra win from last year, um, but You have one of the top offensive lines, he did his thing with that. I think you have some improvement as far as, you know, the offensive weapons and something to look forward to when it comes down to that, like, think about where we were last year at the end of the year, and it’s like, bro, are we gonna have to try to sign back DJ Chark? To have somebody, like, is Adam Thielen really gonna be our number one once again? You know what I’m saying? Like think about really think about where we were last year and um you know, again, you need a couple of offseasons to make it happen, and I think with the with the hand that he was dealt. With the uh draft picks that they didn’t have last year because of decisions made before, he did a really good job. So I’m gonna give him the benefit of the fit of the doubt, and I feel like he’s gonna have a really good offseason and the Panthers should take at least a little bit of a step in 2025. Let’s hope they do, but you can take a step with Carolina Ford dealers with the Ford F-150 on your team, it’s game Mosi or Carolina Ford dealer. Today, Chris, we will, we’ll have another episode on Sunday after they face the Cardinals. Let’s just get a win, right? Can we get a win? Can we get a win final home game at the bank, I will, I would like it. I would like it because they’ve only won one game at home so far this year. Yeah, and I guess 2 technically if you count Germany, but really only 1 at home, 1 in Charlotte. Yeah, um, I just feel like this, this game is gonna be a lot tougher than the than the Cowboys game. Yeah, it can be, it can be. Oh gosh, please respond. Have a good response, Panthers. Leave your thoughts in the comments. We’ll see you guys on Sunday.

Source: wralsportsfan.com