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CHARLOTTE — There's something to be said for being the hunter.
For being the one who gets to sneak up on someone unawares, set the tone, in a way, and shape how a game can go depending on what your floor and ceiling are that day.
For the past couple of years, the Panthers have been on that side of matchups, the team that wasn't valued or measured by an opponent in the way other matchups might be, allowing them to have games that took the Chiefs down to the wire, or came back from 17 down to beat the Dolphins, or knocked off the Rams. They knew how to drag teams into the mud with them and force opponents into a dogfight.
There's something to be said for being the hunted.
When you're the team others want to knock off, the team opponents start to circle and say, "That one, that's the week we're going to throw our best punch."
The Panthers, coming off a division title last season and as a top 5 offense through the first six weeks, are finding themselves in that position more and more. At the outset, it's a compliment; it means you've done well enough to garner more attention. It also means you have to know how to take a punch.
"I know what that feels like in different ways: to be on a team that, a team kind of sleeps on you, and they didn't expect what you brought, and then to be on the flip side of it where everybody's trying to beat you, everybody's trying to show what they can do," said coach Dave Canales on Monday.
Canales 10-26 practice
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"And not that it necessarily becomes all about you, but it's a factor, it's a dynamic. That's something that I've spent a lot of time thinking about, talking to people about how to prepare our guys so that the process of preparation doesn't wane, doesn't relax; it stays focused and engaged, and even more so now."
After two back-to-back wins over the Lions and the Eagles, the Panthers returned home in Week 7 and saw exactly what the Buccaneers could do to the tune of a 43-13 loss.
Since the start of the 2025 season (including the postseason) through Week 7 of this season (not counting the season openers of 2025 or 2026, since they were the first games of each season), the Panthers are 8-3, coming off a loss. They are 3-8 coming off of a win.
"Definitely not a fun train to be on," admitted defensive lineman Derrick Brown. "You want to win, obviously, every weekend, but you know, it doesn't turn out like that, right? I think it's just following our process. Following our process and being able to continue the weeks as we continue."
To Brown's point, it's nearly impossible to win every weekend in the NFL. The 1972 Dolphins were the last team to do so, and to this day, remaining players from that club pop a bottle of champagne wherever they are when the last undefeated team of the season loses its first game.
Coincidentally, the 2015 Carolina Panthers are the most recent team in the NFL to make it the farthest into the season (Week 14) before suffering their first loss. This season, only the Minnesota Vikings remain undefeated at a perfect 6-0.
So no, it rarely happens that a team wins every weekend, and it would be almost unrealistic to expect that. But going undefeated isn't the same as being inconsistent. The latter is what the Panthers are really chasing right now.
"I got to take responsibility for preparing my team to have the mindset to be able to handle that success and to understand you can't change your process," admitted Canales. "The more that we continue to improve as a team, you're going to get a better shot from the teams you're playing.
"Can we find better ball than we had last week? Can we have that same fight, that same urgency, that same getting out of the mud type of mentality, and be comfortable with that?
"We have to be able to go into every week with that same regard and not just get up for certain games, but have consistency about it because it's about us and it's about us pursuing our best. That should be enough. Let's get together on that same mindset so we can make that happen."
It is, of course, easier said than done. A coach can stand up in front of the team and say all the right things over and over. But putting it into practice requires a certain focus and urgency — to use Canales' word — and perhaps a bit of fear of that feeling after a loss becoming too familiar.
"It has to be fought for, clawed for, earned, each and every weekend, each and every day, how we go about our process, and there are no guarantees. You got to prove it every year," preached longtime veteran Darren Waller.
"When a culture starts moving in the direction that they want to go and have moments like playoff games, playing against high-level teams and having every chance to win those games, it's like now, you can't afford to necessarily have weeks where there are maybe lapses in that standard and in the execution of that standard.
"You got to be on point. These teams that are repeatedly in the positions where we and other teams are trying to get to, as far as deep postseason runs, they're consistent. They're consistent in what they're trying to do week in and week out. It's very rare you see lapses in what they're doing, and them beating themselves."
Defensive lineman Tershawn Wharton spent years on one of those teams that were always the hunted, the Kansas City Chiefs. He was with the organization for two Super Bowl wins.
"It's just knowing that you're going to get everybody's best," offered Wharton of what the mindset should be. "And knowing the direction we want to go, just continue to keep our football our football. We had some positive games; yesterday got away from us, but we're still stepping in the right direction."
They are stepping in the right direction. It's impossible to look at where this franchise was two years ago, before Canales arrived and this roster settled in, compared to where it is now and think any differently. But facing the right direction is only part of the equation. To get to where they want to go, they can't stall out.
"I think we all know that when you face situations where you have this challenge in front of you, and it puts us in a state of mind where this play right now in practice is so urgent, these days stacking up a great week is so urgent right now," said Canales. "The feeling that you're left with after a loss — when you're coming out of a win, I have to be able to create the same type of urgency from the group to say, 'Look, we're (at) now, look where we're headed.'"
Players have talked about buying into this program when they realized their head coach was the same person on Monday, whether Sunday was a win or a loss. That means accepting such an attitude as a challenge as well. Can they go into a week of practice and the next game chasing the same goal every week?
Derrick Brown AJ Dillon practice
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The next challenge for this team, as Canales has preached all offseason, is earning the right to play in those big games, those championship opportunities, by handling every game. That means remembering this feeling.
"I'm not going to let yesterday drag me into having another one of those come Thursday," said Brown.
Added Waller, "Games like yesterday are always so full of lessons. I feel like you can grow from situations, from losses more than you can from wins. It's kind of easy to just celebrate that. But coming out of this, there's nothing but lessons available to us. So it's a matter of what we do with those going into Thursday."
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