The same could be said of the Panthers' offseason. They added seven free agents from outside, including Fortner. Among that group are the top young pass-rusher in [Jaelan Phillips](/team/players-roster/jaelan-phillips/) and the top middle linebacker in [Devin Lloyd](/team/players-roster/devin-lloyd/), along with the late surprise addition of Walker.
So that means getting to know a lot of new faces for Fortner. He does have an aunt and uncle who live on Lake Norman, and he's been here long enough to have heard horror stories about I-77. But mostly, he's ready to get in here and learn a new set of teammates.
In addition to being on three teams in the last seven months, he's also learned the old offensive lineman lessons that while no one really grows up dreaming of playing center, everyone is the backup center. Generally, if you're the best offensive lineman on your high school team, you play left tackle. When you get to college, the next-best left tackles become guards, and then the next-best guards (or the smart ones, and Fortner has three degrees from Kentucky, including a master's in mechanical engineering and an MBA) become centers.
So he was a guard for his redshirt year and first four seasons at Kentucky, before another late change of address in college.
"I played guard for five years, and then Liam Coen showed up (in 2021 as offensive coordinator), and he said, ' You're playing center,'" Fortner recalled. "All right, cool. No one really says I'm playing center, but I jumped in, and it went really well, and I was fortunate enough to make it to the NFL off that."
As with most linemen, they snap enough to be able to do it if they have to, but accepting that you're a center now means refining the techniques and being able to communicate the calls across the line.
And then, it's a matter of rote work and learning how each quarterback wants the ball.