Zero. Chris zero. That’s the number of times. Bryce Young threw a touchdown pass to Deonte Johnson this season. We barely knew you. We barely knew you barely even knew you. Bye. Get the sucker dial 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 us your thoughts in the comments section, by the way on the Deonte Johnson trade and also share your thoughts on Bryce Young star. Once again, we’re gonna dive into both things here, including maybe give us your grade on Dan Morgan and what he’s done so far when it comes to trades because we’ve seen Brian Burns get traded. We’ve seen Deon Johnson get traded the trade of Deon Johnson coming in. What’s your grade on Dan Morgan? What he’s done so far? But before we dive into that, Chris gotta let the people know that Panthers playbook is sponsored by Carolina Ford dealers with a Ford F 150 on your team. It’s game. Monse your Carolina Ford dealer today, Chris, I was not surprised and I even talked to a couple of people in the Panthers organization that Deonte Johnson getting traded was an inevitable thing. But I was shocked at how little they got in return. I was shocked at how little they got in return. That’s the thing that surprised me and really a lot of people out there. Yeah, I was too, but I think that has more to do with where the Carolina Panthers are and what the league thinks of Deontay Johnson versus anything that Dan Morgan is doing. Right. I, I’m not gonna throw Dan Morgan under the bus. I don’t feel like Dan Morgan, you know, got fleeced or anything like that. Um, when I, you know, I think I was a little bit more emotional over it as far as what they got in return, uh, when I first heard about it, but after sleeping on it, uh, it was like, ok, that’s probably the best you can do. And if we kind of sit back and think about it, getting a compensatory pick if he were to walk isn’t guaranteed for the Panthers, right. So, and you don’t get that until 2026 by the way, right? So, you know, if you think about it, they essentially let off Dante Jackson to get Deonte Johnson in and probably a player that they don’t know if they wanted him around or they don’t know if he was going to resign with them. I mean, at this point, if you had the choice between the Panthers and somebody else, you probably are gonna pick somebody else if you’re, you know, somebody in, in the league. So I just look at this now as, ok, we still have something for Dante Jackson, right? We had this guy for, uh, a few games, uh, 78 games, whatever it was, I think seven games and it was cool. It was good having, uh, somebody who gets open who has hands, uh, and who can run really great routes. Uh, but I think me and you have seen it when we’ve been in the locker room feels like he’s a hard dude to get along with, right? Um And we know about some of the things that he did in, in with the Steelers, literally taking plays off having opportunities to pick up, uh, fumbles right there in front of him and he’s just walking, not letting, not do anything and watching the other team pick up the ball and go the other way and not even trying, uh, to stop him. Like he’s a guy who, who’s came in with his issues. You talked about that, uh, when we first got him, you’re a, you know, a Steelers fan because you grew up that way and you know, it, it’s a great organization. So I don’t I don’t blame you. But, um, you know, it was one of those things where, like, I don’t necessarily like seeing him go. I wish he would have worked out. This isn’t like one of those things. Oh, he’s horrible. We just got to get him out. No. Um, if you feel like you have something with your young core, with Jalen Coker, with Xavier Liga and you feel like they are, they could possibly pick up bad habits, get that bad, you know, Juju out of the locker room. And if you don’t think that you’re gonna get anything back for him or if you don’t think that you’re gonna be able to retain him, might wanna get something. So uh it might, this might be a situation where Dan Morgan just did what he had to do. I think there’s a lot of that, like they just wanted to get that guy out of the building. I think there’s a lot of that and also you got to look and see what the wide receiver market, you know, what was dictated by other trades that were made previously when I saw deandre Hopkins was traded for conditional fifth that can bump up to the fourth by the Kansas City Chiefs if, if they win the Super Bowl and he plays like 60% of the snaps or something along those lines. Like basically you traded a late fifth round pick the equivalent of what the Baltimore Ravens just gave you, that’s essentially it. Now granted you had to give up the sixth round pick with it. But when I saw that happen, I was like, yeah, you’re not gonna get the third round pick which reportedly the Panthers were asking for, for Deontay John. But I also bring up this and you talk about what the league sees players as right. Like I think when we see these trades, we actually get a true idea of what people value in players Deontay Johnson, who is the number two receiver along alongside George Pickens up in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh was willing to let their number two receiver go to get Dante Jackson who is an oft injured corner because remember he had the torn achilles and he was he of a bee up last year. What’s that? Having a hell of a year this year? Yeah, exactly. And he has five interceptions, go figure. Um, but here’s the thing, he was an oft injured corner, right? So you’re willing to give your number two receiver up for an oft injured corner and a late round pick swap. A six and seven. You’re willing to part with your number two receiver who’s had 1000 yard seasons for a guy that hasn’t played a full season in like two years, like that’s what they’re willing to do and a player that Dante Jackson that the Pacers were gonna cut. So like that’s, that’s they were willing to give that up for Deontay Johnson and it’s just like other teams could have made a similar move to get that guy, but they didn’t. Now the Panthers made the move as a scratcher ticket. Guess what? You didn’t quite hit fine, you move on, you separate it from your losses. It is what it is. Uh, I think the biggest thing you brought it up, you didn’t want to have that guy around your team anymore, especially your young receivers, especially we hear him saying like, well, you know, I can’t do everyone else’s job. I’m like, dude, you’re not even fully running your own routes. You’re not even catching balls every time they’re thrown your way, you’re not even fully doing your own job. So guess what? You moved on, you got rid of it. That’s totally fine. The, I wish it was as opposed to 1/6 go to Baltimore. If it was 1/7 I would have been like, all right, cool. That’s fine. But guess what, the market apparently just wasn’t that big for him. It just really wasn’t. And I think this is also sometimes us as fans, we try and value what we have more than what everyone else in the league thinks. Like we value Deonte Johnson. It’s like, oh, you could have got 1/4 for the guy or a third. I was like, actually, no, that’s not really the case. Like Amari Cooper only got a third, you know, like that’s, I mean, there’s like, a couple of other picks and things like that, that kind of went in return. But really it was a third, like for Amari Cooper who I’m sorry is better than Deonte Johnson. You weren’t going to get a third. I mean, it’s what it is. But you know what, I’m finally seeing Jalen Coker getting, catching all those targets or getting all those targets thrown his way as opposed to Deonte Johnson. I’m fine with Xavier Lee gett getting more targets coming his way. I’m cool with me like I’m cool with those guys getting more balls thrown their way. Pause. I mean Jalen Coker, as you, you mentioned him, he is uh the third best graded rookie wide receiver in the NFL right now, right? Somebody who went undrafted who went to a small school, he is literally um separating from NFL defenses and getting open. So that’s somebody that and he’s cheap right now. He’s gonna be very cheap for a little bit. So, uh you get a chance to kind of build on that and have that and now you have, this is not, you know, the best, right? But you have David Moore as a veteran who could step in, maybe Adam Thiele ends up playing again uh this uh this Sunday and then now you have uh a decent core from those four plus Jonathan Mingo and he’s plus Jonath Flamingo and you have uh some guys that could possibly do something. Um You know, for, for what it is. Right. It’s not the best core in the NFL, but it’s also a hell of a lot better than what it was last year. So, as a whole, as a whole, it’s a whole lot better than what it was last year. So, um, you know, again, I’m cool with it. Um, I personally wish it would have worked out. Like, I think it would have been cool to have a Deonte Johnson and an Xavier Liga and a Jalen Coker for the future of the Carolina Panthers. But if it’s not gonna work out, if you’re trying to build something and you have somebody in the locker room who is not gonna let you build this thing, uh the way that you want and not gonna bring, um, you know, the, the type of energy that you want inside that building, you gotta get rid of them and you have to get something. So, um, you know, I would say kudos to Dan Morgan for actually, you know, pulling the trigger sometimes we don’t understand the inner workings of things and, and, and the goings on of what’s happening and maybe this was like literally the best. I know it was rumored that two other teams were talking uh to the Panthers about Deontay Johnson, they wanted the third and the Ravens came in with a better deal. I’m sorry if that was the better deal, then that means the other teams weren’t offering anything for them. So Dan Morgan got something and I think that is something to applaud. So everybody who’s going into a Dan Morgan, I think you’re wrong in this case. Yeah, I, you know what I was hoping to get more but you know what it is, what it is, what’s done is done. And the only thing we can look forward to now is this Sunday, which, by the way, who’s throwing these guys the ball? It’s Bryce Young. Once again, he’s gonna get his second straight start a little redemption opportunity from that terrible 47 to 10 game that we saw week one against the New Orleans Saints and it’s the Saints team that is really Chris like it is really, I know Derek Carr might be back and playing for them this coming weekend. He’s missed time with an oblique injury, but this is a defense for the Saints that have just been giving up yards. I’m talking, they’ve given up 504 100 plus in recent games. I think they had another game where they gave up 380. Like that’s the last three or so weeks for them. They’re giving up a ton of yards left and right. Hey, you’re back at home Panthers, you got the one guy out of the locker room. Fine. You know what your team is going forward, go play, like go play Bryce. It’s another chance for you to go prove something. And of course, Rasheed Shaheed is out for the season of the season. So, and he was the guy that broke it wide open for the, for the Saints in that first game. You know, it’s, I, I think this is a good thing. Um, the Panthers have a chance to get a winnable game at home even with what the result was last time. As you said, the Saints have been reeling. This is a winnable game. So now offense Bryce Young, um, don’t make any mistakes, don’t throw an interception on the very first play of the game. You don’t do that because that’s what happened last time. Um Xavier Lit Jalen Coker, hopefully, Adam Thielen is back. Hey, have sure hands and get open, uh, run Chris routes defense just try not to give up over 100 and 50 rushing yards. Like, you know, I, I concede, I’ll concede, you’re probably gonna give up 100 don’t give up over 150 get off the field on third down and, uh, and then we’ll have a better game. We’ll have a chance to, uh, actually win the game. So, um, this is definitely a winnable game and I hope for Bryce Young’s sake, right? Because I think there’s some people, the discourse around Bryce Young has been interesting over the last, uh few days because we’ve seen the comments. You’ve got people who are just like, well, wait a minute, he balled out. He had 224 yards after the Panthers were down 2828 to 7-Up. Until that point, he only had 6039 of those were on the first drive alone. He did not ball out. He just simply took what a soft defense gave him at the end of the game because they knew the Panthers, uh, weren’t gonna come back and they could just do that and, you know, not put their guys in harm’s way. That’s literally all that happened. But, you know, hey, we’ll see. Hopefully he does a lot better. Hopefully he can hit the guys and have his confidence back and things like that. That’s what I’m hoping for. I’m hoping to see it too. Uh, and speaking of that discourse regarding around Bryce Young again, the, the, the fan base is split and here’s something I hope people understand is that more than one thing can be true. You and I both have the feeling of, you know, what, he’s a backup quarterback and people were making the comparisons to Andy Dalton. Well, Andy Dalton’s also a backup quarterback, like he’s Andy Dalton’s also a backup quarterback in this league. Like that’s the thing. The Panthers have two backup quarterbacks and we talked about it a bunch all last season. We talked about it in the off season coming into this year about how Bright Young was thrown into a terrible situation, terrible ownership coaching, all those things, everything around. It was terrible that’s also true. Like multiple things can be true at one time. It’s not just one thing or another. It’s not binary. All these things can be true. And honestly, I think they all are like, yeah, he was thrown into an awful situation. The, everything around him sucked. The receiving court outside of Adam Thin was trash. The offensive line was leakier than a, than a, than a sieve, like a colander trying to drain water. That’s what the offensive line was. Miles Sanders didn’t do anything in the running game. Coaching staff getting fired, flip, flopping back and forth about who’s calling plays. Yeah, terrible situation. And then coming to this year, things around him got a little bit better and he still didn’t play very well. So guess what? He also can be a backup quarterback. Both those things can be true and Andy Dalton is a backup quarterback as well. All those things can be and I think are true. It’s just a reality. Here’s something that I, I heard, uh, Ian Rapoport say, uh, of course, he’s connected inside of the Panthers locker room front office and things like that is that when he was benched, the front office did not look at this as we’re moving on from Bright Young, they still see a possible future with it. So, ok, maybe that is the case. Uh, so we said it last week, uh, under the assumption that if, uh, Annie Dalton was, uh, ready he’d play, which to me, you listen to Dave Canalis, that’s what it sounds like. It basically sounds like if Annie Dalton could play, he would play, but he can’t play. So we’re going with Bryce. Uh, so now that he has this opportunity, um I just hope he looks a little bit better and is proving that front office to be right. You know what I’m saying? Because if they see him as the guy, then that means they’re going to go into the draft and free agency next year with the idea that they’re gonna make everything else around him better to set him up for a third season with the Carolina Panthers. Ok. Now Bryce go out there and ball out. Yeah, go out here and ball out. If, if he shows that he is a starting quarterback in the future, I’ll say I’m wrong. I was not afraid to say it because you know why we’ve said that before on the show, we’ve said it wrong. We’re not, we said it, I think they’re gonna beat the Bears and then they get maybe they smacked in the face and I was like, eat crow, baby. Let’s go. We were wrong and we owned it and we flat out owned it and guess what if Bryce Sha proves to be a starting QB in this league, I’ll own that too and say I was wrong, I’ll own it too and say I was wrong. We’ll do it. We’re not above it. We’re definitely not above it. But you know what I will say this on that first drive, it felt like there was the confident, little bit of a swagger Bryce that we saw coming in as a rookie, right? We saw that on that first drive. He threw the touchdown pass, Xavier again. I’m like, ok, ok, like throwing a touchdown on opening drive though in his career. Yeah, there’s that, which is also interesting too, but I was like, ok, like I felt like all right there it was, and then it went away because in the next seven drives there were more delay of games than there were first downs. Yeah, for the offense. Now, I understand like Xavier Liget dropped one. He probably could have laid out for a ball down the left sideline. I know there’s, again, the seam route to Xavier Lik went off his hands, great throwing ball. It’s what it is. But overall, the offense just did not move against Denver against the Denver defense is awesome, but it is what it is. But guess what? You’re gonna play awesome defenses in the league. You know why? Because it’s the NFL, you’re gonna play great teams and you have to be able to play against good teams as simple as that. But you know what, we’re gonna be there on Sunday, Chris, we are gonna be there on Sunday. Um, and it’s, it’s time for another win. I want to win. And here’s, and here’s the thing, you can win this week, you could possibly win next week in, in Germany and go into the bye week with a little bit of momentum and, and those two things really aren’t out of the realm of possibility. Now, they can also get blown out too. So this is kind of hard, it’s kind of hard to pick that. But, um, you can possibly, um, you know, win two games in a row going into the Buy week, rest up, have some momentum coming out of the by week when it’s gonna get kind of hard, right? You’re, you’re gonna have, uh, the Chiefs, you’re gonna have the Chiefs coming in, you’re gonna have the Dallas team, I mean, they may not be a playoff team this year, but Dallas, I think still is, is World’s better than the Panthers. Um, and, you know, you’re gonna have, uh, you haven’t gone against, uh, the, the Bucks yet. You’re gonna have, uh, Atlanta again. So, you know, you’ve got some, some hard games kind of coming up and, I mean, shoot the, uh, the Cardinals looking pretty good as well. You got them coming up at home. So, um, but let’s focus on this week and then next week and, and get some wins, man. I mean, you know, just at this point you gotta play for pride and if you just, if everybody does their job, the Panthers can not only be competitive, they could possibly squeak out of one. And hopefully in the very near future, we’re gonna see Jonathan Brooks DJ Wham Adam feeling coming back. I’m hoping to see that too. I’m excited about that. So, something to look forward to believe it or not Panthers fans, you have something to look forward to including Sunday’s episode of Panthers playbook after the Saints game. Chris and I are gonna be down there at Bank of America Stadium giving you another episode of Panthers playbook brought to you by Carolina Ford dealers with a Ford F 150 on your team. It’s game on. So your Carolina Ford Dealer today, Chris, you see your

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