REUNION: Carolina Panthers Add John Metchie III to BOLSTER Bryce Young’s WR Unit This Season

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The Panthers have added a veteran-wide receiver.

What does it mean for the room moving forward?

I'll say right here on Lockdown Panthers.

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Welcome in to another edition of the Lockdown Panthers podcast, the part of the Lockdown

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I really wanted to see the Panthers do during pregnancy was bring in a veteran-wide receiver.

My hope was that they compare T-Mac and Jalen Coker with a already proven, productive player

to either slide in at Y receiver two or three.

I wanted to see that happen.

Now the Panthers, they have gone out and done what I wanted to do, which is out of veteran

receiver.

It's just is going to be to be determined whether this player ends up being what I was hoping

they would be able to get into the pregnancy market here in March.

Panthers, according to Adam Shafter, have signed a former Jets-wide receiver, Eagles-wide

receiver, and Texans-wide receiver, John Mechie III to a one year deal.

That is the same, John Mechie, who played at Alabama with Bryce Shung the year when

Bryce won the Heisman Memorial trophy.

So obviously one of his good buddies and its target who has plenty of familiarity with

Bryce and you wonder, is that what Bryce needs to take that next step and also the Panthers

need in this wide receiver room to see them take the next step and has been a hell of a

ride so far for John Mechie in his NFL career.

He was a second round draft pick of the Texans out of Alabama and in that summer, he announced

that he was diagnosed with leukemia and had to miss the entirety of his rookie season.

And just the fact that he's come back and he's been able to play football is a great story.

I don't really care what he's done so far in his career.

We're going to talk about it.

It's important for the Panthers moving forward.

I'm just happy for him, the man, the human being, to have gone from the highs of all

highs getting drafted, finally fulfilling your dream to then finding out about leukemia.

I'm going to be able to even play football again, let alone be able to live the rest of

my life as a young man.

And I'm happy that he's been able to go out there and play, he did miss that first season

with the Texans in his two seasons down there in Houston.

He had 40 receptions, four into 12 yards in a touchdown.

Then he was traded to the Eagles last season where he didn't play a ton was not very productive

but then was traded to the Jets where he did have production.

But overall that season in 2025, he had 33 receptions, 274 yards.

And two touchdowns, but really we got to look at what he did in New York with the Jets

from week 10 to week 18, the second half of the season where he had 29 receptions, 256

yards and two touchdowns.

Now this is a Jets team that was starting Justin Fields and Tyrod Taylor.

We saw the Jets last year.

They are awful and they're awful every single year.

So it's really hard to sit here and judge any receiver when it's Justin Fields and Tyrod

Taylor in New York with the Jets like if it's Justin Fields in Chicago or in Pittsburgh.

Okay.

We can judge a receiver when it's Tyrod Taylor in Buffalo or anywhere else he's been.

Okay.

We can judge a receiver.

But once they get the stench of the Jets on them, man, that quarterback is not going

to have success and that receiver not going to have success either.

So you really can't evaluate anybody because the Jets are just the Jets and they're always

going to be the same old terrible Jets.

But looking at his numbers though in New York again, 29 receptions, 256 yards, two touchdowns,

looking at some of the advanced metrics is EPA perturget, which is kind of a flots

that during that time, the lowest EPA perturget in the league was Justin Jefferson.

Why was that?

Because J. Jim McCarthy is his quarterback and J. Jim McCarthy, he cannot play as is evidenced

by the Vikings now being in on Kyler Murray.

But you look at the same situation in New York, not great quarterback play.

I would not look at the negative 0.08 EPA, EPA perturget as a bad thing for John Mechie as

the same when you look at Justin Jefferson, now in Carolina, guys like Xavier, look at

Bryce Chung wasn't the issue in a second out of the season.

So that's where you can look at and think, okay, there is something to it is explosive

receiving percentage also something important to look at 20.7% last year.

Now during that week, 10 to week 18 stretch, that was lower than T-Mac.

It was lower than J. Lynn Kocher, lower than Xavier LeGet and lower than Bryce and

Tramay.

But again, Justin Fields, Tyrod Taylor, what were you expecting to see at a John Mechie

or any of the receivers up there in New York with the Jets?

Now you look at just where he lined up and this is an important thing.

You have your ex receiver in T-Mac.

You have a zero receiver in J. Lynn Kocher.

And even Z are kind of up to debate whether you like Kocher more in the slot or

on the outside and then with XL or they're on the outside or the slot, they have one spot

that's missing at this point in time.

But ex you have your guy in T-Mac, but they don't really have kind of that smaller, speedy,

jitter bug kind of type of player, which Mechie can be for Carolina and certainly was back

in Tuscaloosa when Bryce was throwing the pill to him back then.

He played 61% of his snaps last year out live, but 38% in the slot.

I am very curious to see how they line up.

And now it's good he has a versatility where he can play both out wide and in the slot

of the Panthers.

Really need a dynamic slot player and that's maybe what John Mechie is going to be for

them.

He's five foot 11.

So he's a little bit smaller than a lot smaller.

When you look at just the size of T-Mac of XL and J. Lynn Kocher.

So very curious to see how he pans out coming down to the season and is looking at

PFF, the grades for these players last year, just looking at overall how they graded

among wide receivers.

When you look at the snap count minimum, Mechie was 74th out of 81 qualifiers.

Well, Mcmillan was 21st and Legat was 70 or was actually not 79, the 80s 79th out of 81

guys.

So not too far behind Mechie and one of the lowest graded guys in the league among wider

receivers that had the snap or met the snap minimum a season ago when you take it away

and you're bringing J. Lynn Kocher into the fold 128 guys at wide receiver.

Mcmillan was 20th.

Kocher was 30 seconds.

Mechie was 100 second and then Legat was 124.

So when you want to compare him to Legat and think of him possibly as being a Legat replacement,

he was slightly better than XL who was only a second season and Mechie's had a couple

of years under his belt.

Obviously lost that first year because of leukemia and he's bounced back and he again,

just being able to go out there and play football.

It's great.

It's hard to really be able to scrutinize him that much just based off of what he's been

through.

Personally, but we have to do that when looking at the Panthers moving forward.

So at wide receiver, how are things going to play out now?

Does John Metchie come in and start right away?

Is XL going to still be the guy?

Are they going to move off of Mechsell?

The draft?

All of that.

What's up about that here in just a moment on locked on Panthers.

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The Panthers went out there and did what I asked them to do, which was add a veteran

white receiver, my hope for them was that they were going to add somebody that was a

surefire difference maker at white receiver.

But the money, it's tight at this point in time.

I'm looking right now on Wednesday evening at over the cap.com, Carolina has $30.4 million

of salary cap space.

But then when I scroll down, I see that the contracts with Jalen Phillips, which is

$4,120 million, $30 million per year, Devin Lloyd, $3,45 million.

Can he pick it?

Luke Fortner and David Moore have not been taken to account just yet.

That is obviously going to drive down how much of the cap they have.

They did open up $24 million over the last day by cutting a Shana Robinson saving $10 million

in restructuring the contract for Derek Brown, opening up $13.5 million, $24 million

right there.

Their money, it's going to go down as the salary cap and all these contracts become official

and get a place to hear into over the cap and over on spot track, the place to contract

as well.

So Carolina probably didn't have the kind of endless money that we always like to talk

about that they may actually have, but they don't have because this isn't a monopoly.

This is not a video game.

This is real world, collectively bargained salary cap league where you can only do so much

to improve your roster over year and why?

Signing and free agency by spending a ton of money isn't really conducive to winning

games because you're overpaying a bunch of guys such as Turkworten last year and maybe

even Jalen Phillips issued the hope is though, even those guys may be overpaid, will they

produce once they go out there and actually prove to be properly compensated to be determined

with all these guys.

Carolina is signing and still even has signed in the last year in free agency, but they

go out there.

Good wide receiver in John matchy.

I think it's a great flyer for him because the guy was drafting the second round.

He has relationship with the quarterback and Bryce Jung.

I'll be curious whenever we talk to Bryce or John next, even maybe even Dan Morgan and

the front office staff.

If there was already like, I don't know how much Bryce and John talk, I would imagine

a decent amount having both been there in Alabama and the relationship that they had

on the field and what John's gone through with his health.

I would be curious how much Bryce Jung played a role in this and is this big for Bryce

to have guy.

He's worked with a lot.

Maybe still works within the off season to get that comfort level and heading into

the season.

Maybe, but you look at just the depth chart and how this is going to impact the room moving

forward.

Again, T-Mac, he's going to be your number one guy, your ex receiver.

He's a stud.

He's locked in to being a starter.

Dave can always told us after lock room clean out back in January, the next guy up is

going to be Jail and Coker as one of those top two guys for Carolina.

He can either plan the outside and Z or inside at why we'll see how that plays out.

But Coker is going to be another starter.

And now with the addition of John Mechee, it really does feel like they're probably

just going to rock and roll again with a youthful group.

Like think about this in the playoff game.

It was T-Mac, a rookie who was out there active.

It was XL, a second year player who was active.

Jail and Coker second year player who was active, Bryson, Tremaine, second year, third year

player guy.

It was a ton of experience.

He was active.

And Jimmy Horde, Jr.

A rookie who was active.

Those are your five active receivers on game day against the Rams two months ago.

The only other veteran in the room at that point, Tom is David Moore, who had been recovering

from an elbow injury and he did not play.

And it was the right decision not to go to him because he hadn't been out there and all

those young guys, namely Bryson, Tremaine, especially, but obviously T-Mac, what he did in

Jail and XL, you knew they were going to play, but they had earned the opportunity to go

out and fight for a Super Bowl opportunity back two months ago in that playoff game against

L.A.

So I think at this point in time, just based off of financially where they're at and

what they already have in that room and the investment that's been made, they may be

done at receiver as far as bringing any sort of veterans.

Like they they filled that quota, which on matchy, have they met it to the level that

I was hoping, maybe not, but yeah, at the way and see how it plays out, if there's no

guarantee that Michael Pittman, Jr.

would have came in here and been a stunt.

No guarantee Romeo and I sort of came in and been a stunt, Taekwondo, Thornton, or any

of the other guys or she, that we talked about, I think obviously they're far more proven,

maybe Thornton not as much, but the other three are far more proven so far in their careers

than matchy is, but where would matchy be had he not had freaking cancer, man?

He could have maybe still been in Houston balling out there.

I don't, I don't know.

I doubt that he's a journeyman and I will not discount how negative, how much of a negative

that probably was on beginning of his career, but now he comes to a place where he has a

quarterback he's familiar with and he's going to get an opportunity.

So team act, Jalen, they're going to start and I would think now there's a competition

between XL and matchy and as like Horde, I am on Xavier and really the lack of belief

I've had from him from the beginning, it does make sense considering you did draft him

in the first round for and for the people and these, it's for really for them because

they talk about how they believe in him.

Now they understand that he's got to do better.

He can't have the bonehead of things that happen a season ago.

He has to improve.

It does make sense from their perspective.

My perspective makes no sense because I don't think the guy can play you just go ahead

and cut bait and move on, but from their perspective, which is what I'm trying to see

from their lens, it does make sense.

It's not been that long.

It's not even been two full years to the date since they moved up to go get him.

They have the fifth year option, which this year is very important because if he does

not play to the level he needs to play at, they're not going to be a fifth year and

it'll probably be done after next season in 2027.

So it does make sense from their perspective to continue to invest in XL, but also have

some insurance there as while they like Jimmy Horan, we didn't see Jimmy Horan last year.

I think Bryce and Jameen can be their next David Moore and be that special teamer from

I don't think David Moore is coming in with the expectation to end up being that third

guy.

They would like for it to be XL, but if it's not going to be XL, they would also like

for it to be John Mechie and then move on from there, but they needed to do something

to give him a kick and a rear end.

And I think that's what John Mechie his addition is and also it adds and raises the floor

as far as the talent level in that room and hopefully raises the ceiling to what they can

be this upcoming season.

So team act, XL, John Mechie, Jail and Coker, like those are the guys who are vying for

those three starting spots, two of them already have it.

Mike Millen and Coker are going to come down to where they slot in as far as whether

they get in the slot or outside or if it's Coker to slot or outside or matchy in the

slot or outside XL, John Mechie, they're going to be fighting for that starting spot in

my opinion.

And then you look at the rest of the impression, Jameen feel like he's probably going to

be coming back to be a special teamer and out there on some of the rundowns is a good

blocker for them.

Jimmy Horan's junior.

We'll see.

I saw somebody other day hit me up and said, Oh, Jimmy Horan's really good special teams

player.

He didn't play special teams last year.

Apparently, they don't view him that way at least last season they didn't.

We'll see if that changes this season.

I don't know where he fits in at this moment in time.

Truthfully, because they only had five guys active on game day, there's going to be some

interesting camp battles.

XL, John Mechie, that one is going to be top of mind at wide receiver.

But then the special team guys train theoretically, Horan, David Moore, Dan Chessena, who's going

to get in there and earn that fifth six roster spot, are they going to keep seven?

I don't know.

We'll talk about more of that throughout the off season once we get closer to training

camp.

Of course, I just seem reading a nice myth also in that room as well.

But I just look at it.

You have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, gospel players, there were guys

you've at least had on the active roster over the last two seasons right now here in

that room.

Going to be interesting to see it.

I don't know at this point in time if they're interested in adding another wide receiver

next month in Pittsburgh, or whether they should, but as we know, Dan Morgan, whatever

the board says, he's going to go with it.

And he surprises last year in the first round.

Maybe those surprises again, this year, we'll find out in due time.

That's going to wrap up this edition of Lockdown Panthers podcast, part of Lockdown podcast

network.

It's by yours, Julie, Julie, and council again.

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Keep pounding.

And I'll talk to y'all when I talk to you.