CHARLOTTE — Last season was an education for Jonathan Mingo. The natural adjustment of going from college to the NFL, the physical demands of a 17-game regular season, pushing his body past where it's used to going.

He also got to experience the trauma of his first professional coaching change halfway through his first season, and knowing that would mean yet another transition going into his second season.

But mostly, he knew he had to get better after a rookie year that saw him catch 43 passes for 418 yards and no scores for a 2-15 team. So he sought out the truth about how to get where he wanted to go.

"I don't want nobody to BS me; I just want somebody shoot straight," Mingo said. "I think about football all the time because last year was depressing; I ain't going to lie about that.

"And me personally, I know I can bring it to the table. So I would be thinking about football every day, how I can get better, even in my free time. I was just trying to figure out how I can get better, and I didn't want anybody to BS me."

Boy, did he go to the right place.

This spring, Mingo reached out to Panthers Hall of Honor wideout and known non-BS-er Steve Smith, asking for help with his game. They had met during last year's pre-draft process, and Smith was a supporter.

So Smith was happy to oblige and happy to tell the truth. He laughed when asked about his work with Mingo because he knows people base their assessment on the "Angry Man" days when he was playing here (former teammate Keyshawn Johnson gave him the nickname in 2006, when Smith was 27). But he has always mentored young wideouts. Even when he was playing, and could be rather abrupt, he had a soft spot for later-round picks, practically adopting former fourth-rounder Ryne Robinson when they were teammates. And now that he's retired, he's made a habit of it.

He talks to wideouts everywhere he goes for his job with NFL Network and is happy to share what he's learned. If he sees Brandin Cooks do something on tape, he'll text him. And so then when Cooks comes through Charlotte, they'll work out together.

It's a thing he does. So when Mingo called, Smith did what he's always done to those seeking his wisdom — he offered the unvarnished version of it.

"Based on my actions of my past, people probably assume that it was like a whole bunch of negativity," Smith said with a shake of his head. "But it was more of just an evaluation. And obviously, you have to have some type of relationship with someone to be able to have a conversation.

"So, for me, what it really was was gentle truth, right?"

Even as an experienced television analyst, Smith's gentle can still be pointed, but if Mingo wanted to hear it, he was going to tell him what they saw. But this older, wiser Smith also has learned about how to deliver his instruction. He learned under veteran position coach Richard Williamson (who played for Bear Bryant at Alabama, and had the old-school ways to match), and this wasn't that.

"One of the things is, he approached me, so that means he values my opinion," Smith said. "So in valuing my opinion, I also have to value his time and this is not a session of come off the top rope and kick somebody while they're down."

So Mingo asked if they could work out. Smith said "What time?" Mingo replied: "Early."

Once they navigated the difference between 23-year-old early and 45-year-old early, they met at 8 a.m. at Smith's preferred undisclosed location — "I took him to my little sanctuary," he said with a grin.

(Smith will welcome nearly any receiver into his dojo, but he's not looking for sightseers, either.)

Some of it was on the field, some indoors. Some if it was film work, some of it was encouragement, and some of it was breaking a sweat together.

"We worked out at the end of the week, I didn't want to overwork him," Smith said. "We worked on the things, some of it was just kind of muscle-memory stuff, so we could do it at walk-through pace. But it was good for me, too, to get a workout in with a young guy."

And as they worked together, Smith told him what he saw.

Smith said Mingo's drop in production late (he had nine catches for just 61 yards on 18 targets in the final four weeks of the season) was a simple case of a first-year player running out of gas.

"He's a rookie," Smith said. "So he hit the rookie wall, right?"

But that fatigue also exposed some other issues, which Smith worked on with Mingo. And as he's watched him this year, Smith sees the things they talked about on display on the practice field.

"I think the difference this year compared to last year, I'll say it this way," Smith began. "The best way I can say, I think the routes that he's running today and how he's running, has a lot more stable ground underneath it.

"But I also believe for whatever reason, the tide has changed if you're drafted in the first or second round, and all of a sudden, you're expected to have 100 catches and go to the Pro Bowl, right? And I'm not sure where those standards have manifested for a couple of guys to do it. Everybody thinks everybody is supposed to be Justin Jefferson."

So Smith is still very bullish on Mingo, and he's not the only one.

The second-year wideout has looked much sharper working with the ones in training camp and shows moments resembling savvy. Wednesday, it was making a play during a scramble drill, the kind of play that requires instincts and instruction. It's perhaps a play he doesn't make a year ago, and coach Dave Canales visibly brightened when asked about it.

"The thought that I have in my mind is always, there are great plays out there," Canales said. "There's explosives that can happen in the second part of the play."

Mingo said Smith's also worked with him on playing to his size and strength. At a solid 6-foot-2 and 220 pounds, Mingo can muscle people around in a way that Smith could not (though Smith did it with sheer toughness, and while in the air). So Smith encouraged him to use that size to his advantage, and taught him about using his hands to be able to create separation.

"It matters when he says that," Mingo said. "Because he played the game physically."

Of course, Mingo doesn't lack for other wise elders to help keep him on track. He had the benefit of a 10-year-vet in Adam Thielen to help guide him through his rookie year, which was unlike anything any of them had ever seen.

Mingo lost 13 games in his final three seasons at Ole Miss, and hit that mark on Christmas Eve of his rookie year. But he said between Thielen and former position coach Shawn Jefferson, the receivers room remained a positive place, where they focused on their individual work during a season that went off the rails.

"It was about how we went out there every day in practice, nobody took a day off," he said. "Things weren't going our way, but in that, it was all positive. It was everybody talking positively, just trying to get better.

"Adam was a great guy to be around, especially in the way he attacks the game. He comes out every day with a smile, and I'd say like a little kid if he was drinking three cups of coffee. He always had energy, and even when they didn't want him to practice or take care of his body, he still wanted to practice. Man, I appreciated him for that. And just showing me, as a rookie, how he approaches the game."

Thielen sees the progress now, sees a more mature player out there with him.

"I think it just goes back to just doing your job, focus, preparation, and letting the other stuff play itself out," Thielen said. " And obviously sometimes it doesn't play out to your favor, but I truly believe when you stick to the process, you are a good teammate, you work hard, it'll come around.

"And I feel like for him, now being in year two and in a new system that allows him to just be himself, I think it's, it's going to pay off for him and a lot of other players."

And as a result of having a mentor like Thielen alongside and a trusted voice like Smith in his ear all offseason, things feel "smoother" for Mingo now.

He talks about technique now in a way he might not have a year ago. He understands things like pad level or reading defenses in a way he did not before.

And if that means asking hard questions, in search of what may or may not be "gentle truth," then that was something Mingo was willing to do this offseason.

The goal was to get better. Listening to one of the best seems like a small price to pay.

"You want somebody to be straight for you," Mingo said. "You don't want nobody to sugarcoat stuff for you because that ain't helping you out. And he told me the truth, and I appreciate him for that."