CHARLOTTE — Diontae Johnson has been here before.

During his career in Pittsburgh, the wide receiver played with five different starting quarterbacks over the course of five seasons, and never with one quarterback for the entire season. The reasons varied; some changes were due to injury, some were benching, but Johnson's job remained the same.

"Go out there and keep being you and keep running the same routes and getting open, there's nothing else to it," Johnson said Thursday. "It's just a different quarterback. They still going to put the ball in the right area and it just your job as a receiver, you know, catch the ball and make a play."

It's something Johnson is leaning on this week, as the Carolina Panthers move forward with Andy Dalton as starter against the Las Vegas Raiders, after benching incumbent Bryce Young on Monday.

Johnson spent the offseason as Bryce Young's number one receiver, although it has struggled to translate to the regular season. Still, with Dalton taking over on Sunday, the Pro Bowl receiver doesn't see much changing for him.

"It don't affect me at all," Johnson promised. "It's football and stuff like that happens. It's big business at the end of the day, so you can't control what they do upstairs. So as a player, you can only control what's in front of you and then execute every play that they call."

Dalton has taken the first team reps during practice this week, giving receivers a crash course in his style. He's only started for the Panthers in 2023 (Week 3 against Seattle), so this week is especially important for those like Johnson, who arrived via trade this spring, and Xavier Legette, who was drafted in the April's first round.

"I think we're still learning how Andy does things in the huddle, how he communicates. So, you know, that's an ongoing process, but we got a little taste of it last year, one game," Adam Thielen noted this week. "There's a lot of new guys here that just kind of, you know how he, his demeanor in the huddle, his communication, his snap count, all those things right on the line, changes the plays and things like that. So, we're all learning his demeanor and kind of what he brings to the huddle. I think that's great for us all to see and all to hear."

As for what he brings to the huddle, Johnson can't help but note one attribute in particular: a calmness that comes only with having spent years taking live bullets.

"Slow," Johnson drawled, as to how the game changes with Dalton. "It slows you down. You don't really got to think as much because obviously you got a vet that's been back there a while and that knows the game. So, once you have a guy like that back there, it allows you to just to be yourself a little more and just not put too much on your plate.

"So, he takes a lot of our plate, just by having that experience and knowing what to do to get us in the right calls or whatever, knowing when the pressure is coming and stuff like that."

That breadth of experience means Dalton has been playing in the league for a long time. In fact, his rookie season, the Panthers current first round rookie—Legette—was 10 years old. Like most kids from South Carolina with football dreams, he latched on to Summerville's A.J. Green. That meant he watched a lot of Andy Dalton football as well, while the two lit up the stat sheet with the Cincinnati Bengals, even setting a new NFL record in 2011 for the most receptions and yards between a rookie quarterback and receiver duo.

Thirteen years later, when Legette entered the league, he was paired with Dalton and the twos to start the offseason. It didn't take long for Legette to realize he and the veteran quarterback could establish a productive connection.

"I think he got a fine understanding of things that I like, the way how to throw the ball and how to position, so I feel like we're going to be good," Legette said of he and Dalton's connection. "I say mostly on the go balls, the right timing and like the right amount of air to have it in the air for me."

Even when Legette began running more with the first team, he was able to maintain the chemistry with Dalton, thanks to Dave Canales' plan, according to Legette.

"Everything is the same. Coach and them, they did a good job of implementing Andy in the one's offense as well just through the whole camp so I don't think nothing's going to fall out."

Knowing they'll be on the field together this weekend though, Legette shared he and Dalton have been staying after practice to work on the area of the game Legette feels he does best and can bring to the Panthers.

"The deep ball. That's something I feel like I'm good at and that's something that we've been working every day after practice," he said.

Sunday will be two days shy of a year, since the last time Andy Dalton started a game for the Carolina Panthers. But the 170 games already under his belt means his receivers aren't panicking. They're calm, they're cool, they're collected…just like their quarterback.

Said Johnson, "When you're out there, you know what you're getting and as a player, you like that."