“Man, you see Mingo?”
Panthers head coach Dave Canales raved about Jonathan Mingo at a recent practice.
The second-year receiver out of Ole Miss has been turning heads throughout training camp with improved route running, the tough catches he’s made, and the overall focus in preparation and approach. It’s different for him. To talk about those differences, Mingo spoke with Carolina Blitz after Saturday’s practice.
Coach Canales is known for his work with quarterbacks. What are you, as a wide receiver, learning from him so far?
I feel like he’s pretty good with quarterbacks. One of my old coaches from college played with Dave in Seattle. He loved Dave. He was a good receiving coach to him too. Being the guy that Dave is, he understands the receiver aspect and the quarterback aspect. We can read his brain and where he expects us to be and everything, so we can be on the same time as the quarterbacks.
You worked out with Steve Smith in the offseason. How did the collab come about and what did you learn from him?
Steve talked about this last year. So one day, I hit him up and was like ‘I want to talk to you about some things’ and he was like ‘I was waiting on your call. All you had to do was call me so we could get to work.’ He was telling me about his approach and how he went about things. He kept it straight. He was telling me about certain things where I was good and bad and we worked on the things I was bad at.
What stood out from his perspective? What did he observe about you?
I’ll probably say that he figured out I’m playing fast and I have a better feel for the game and everything. I’m playing more confident. For year two, I’m taking the things that he taught me and practicing them everyday.
What makes you such a good route runner?
Trying to get an understanding of the defense. Everything in football is really about leverage, so knowing where the defense has help and where they don’t have help and me attacking the holes for first downs and touchdowns.
Speaking of routes, have other receivers been helping you with them?
I feel like when it comes to football, you can never know too much and I will be learning. I always listen more than I talk, so we always talk to people and it’s always more than one way to run a route. Adam’s (Thielen) has been around for a long time. I take ways to run routes from him. Diontae (Johnson) is a good route runner, so I take little things from him to add to parts of my game because You can always run a route more than one way, because playing against good defenses could identify routes so you have to have four of five different ways to run it to keep them on the edge.
Diontae is new. Came over from Pittsburgh. What is your connection with him is like?
He’s cool. We’re all cool and trying to make it better, compete, and trying to win at the end of the day. He’s a cool guy to be around. I like watching his routes, talking to him, picking his brain. I try to see how he runs his routes after I run my reps..seeing what he ran so I can better my game.
What have you learned from last season and what are your expectations for the season ahead?
Trying to gain timing, speed, spacing, and everything. Just being at the right place at the right time and capitalizing on my opportunities. Mainly, being the best receiver I could be and helping my team win. I’m trying to change the culture around here, getting that sour taste out of our mouths, and put the Panthers back on top again.
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