Carolina Panthers receiver Wallace Wright doesn’t have any friends wearing green and white uniforms.
It doesn’t matter that he keeps in contact with Bart Scott, Eric Smith, Brad Smith and Braylon Edwards.
He has not seen HBO’s “Hard Knocks,” either.
This week he hasn’t talked to those guys, and he doesn’t want to talk to them. There will not be any text messages or cell phone calls wishing him “good luck” like against the Baltimore Ravens. Next week, he will speak to them or maybe after the game.
So, when the New York Jets arrive at 8 p.m. Saturday at Bank of America Stadium for the Panthers’ preseason home opener it will be the first time Wright faces his former teammates since leaving the Empire State.
“I’m definitely excited and looking forward to it,” he said. “I still have some friends over there on that team. I was with the same group of guys for four years, but I’m with a new team now, and it is about us. I’m looking forward to going in there and winning this game. Nothing would make me happier than going in there and winning this game and having a good game against them.”
Wright said he is motivated to play any game, but he said there is a little more passion going against his old team. Wright wants to beat New York, but he is grateful for his experience there.
He said everything he knows about the NFL is because of that organization. Wright always had the work ethic, but he said he learned how to be a professional with the Jets.
Jets receiver Jerricho Cotchery was a positive influence on Wright. Cotchery showed Wright how to be a professional through his actions on and off the field. Wright said he modeled his actions after everything Cotchery did.
“When I came in my example was Jerricho Cotchery,” he said. “He is the type of example everybody should follow. He is a great leader and a great guy. He leads by example. But when you are messing up, he will let you know you need to pick it up a little bit.”
He said Cotchery also encouraged him through some tough times. That meant a lot to Wright because he would have good training camps and wouldn’t see the field much as a receiver. Wright’s role in New York was as a special teams player where he excelled.
That hard-nose play is what made him a standout in college at North Carolina. Panther safety Marcus Hudson, who played at North Carolina State, remembers Wright well.
“His hands are strong,” Hudson said. “I haven’t seen him drop too many passes. I believe we knocked his helmet off (in college), and he still managed to catch the ball and ran a couple yards with his helmet off. I was surprised to see how solid his hands are.”
That same energy was displayed on special teams and was a major reason the Jets kept him on the roster for four years, despite being stacked at receiver. Wright said Cotchery would often talk about working hard and having a good attitude.
“He knows the situation, I was in there because he was one of the guys I was playing behind,” he said. “He just encouraged me to keep moving forward and everything will work out the way it is supposed to and from a religious stand point too. Everything is working out (in Carolina), and God has a plan.”
That plan had him starting in the first preseason game against the Baltimore Ravens and getting reps with the first team in practice. Wright knows he can play. He just needed the chance.
“You have guys like Bart Scott,” he said. “A guy I talk to all the time. He didn’t start playing until his fourth or fifth year, and now look at what he is doing. There are a lot of stories like that - more stories than what people know. Not everybody is a first-round pick. Not everyone gets an opportunity to play their first or second year.
“There is a long list of guys who don’t get that opportunity until four or five years down the road. I’m on that list. All you can do is make the best of your opportunity.”
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