That growth shows itself in a multitude of ways. On defense, there is a young core group, partnered with veterans like Derrick Brown, Jaycee Horn, Mike Jackson, and others, learning lessons that only come with experience and creating calluses that will pay dividends.<\/p>\n
“We definitely proved to people just by the fight that we put in the whole season and that game that we deserve to be in that setting,” preached Smith-Wade, “a playoff setting, and perhaps a Super Bowl setting, but at the same time we didn’t get that big game.<\/p>\n
“We can be a playoff-contending team and a little bit more. I mean, if you’re not trending in the other direction, what are you doing? So, we have the leaders to do so. We have a staple in our core values and our philosophy, and what we want to take and to go forward.”<\/p>\n
On offense, the Panthers have seemingly found their long-term quarterback, top two receivers, and an identity in the run game that can carry them for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That growth shows itself in a multitude of ways. On defense, there is a young core group, partnered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[79,1476,235,260,2567,7,3545,81,6,236],"class_list":{"0":"post-670046","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-carolina-panthers","8":"tag-app-news","9":"tag-bryce-young","10":"tag-carolina","11":"tag-carolina-panthers","12":"tag-carolinapanthers","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-jalen-coker","15":"tag-latest-news","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-panthers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115879217982624525","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}