Darin Gantt

CHARLOTTE Because it's become such a spectacle, it's easy to get caught up in what happens tonight when the Carolina Panthers announce a draft pick.

But the important part for Dan Morgan, Brandt Tilis, and Dave Canales isn't about tonight.

It's about what happens tomorrow, in August, in December, and in 2026 and 2027 as well. That's the way the Panthers are trying to build this team at the moment, which demands looking a little farther down the road while making sure to clear the hurdles right in front of them.

"We have to be really disciplined; Dan, Brandt, myself looking for players and adding players of value for this year, and for the future," Canales said. "We just have to be really disciplined about a plan of building this team the right way and making sure that we make the right moves that are going to affect us for a while.

"And we have to take all of these great players into consideration. Got to watch the film and we have to consider it, but I love the guys we have and I'm excited to see the growth and the steps."

This has always been about the steps from the moment Canales, Morgan, and Tilis arrived last January. And that requires looking at the draft a little differently than many people do.

The easiest thing to do when considering a draft is to look at a list of players and match it to a team's needs as they are right now.

A more complicated way to look at it involves considering the entire roster, and that's what Morgan has been doing for over a year since he took this job.

While the Panthers have 70 players on the roster at the moment, only 17 of them are signed through 2027 or beyond, and just 28 of them through the 2026 season (including left tackleIkem Ekwonu, if they pick up his fifth-year option or extend him).

The other 42 are on contracts that expire after the coming season. That group includes a lot of guys in their first, second, or third years who can be retained easily if the team chooses, but in addition to having a lot of decisions to make, they also have a lot of financial flexibility.

And until you have a lot of good players on your roster, having flexibility is the next best thing.

In addition to a free agent spending spree to try to upgrade the talent on defense, the Panthers have also doled out three big extensions since Morgan became GM, keepingDerrick Brown,Chuba Hubbard, andJaycee Horn.

The goal is to continue to fill that list with drafted players who become part of the regular rotation so that free agency doesn't have to be as busy in future years. That means finding the next Horn, Hubbard, and Brown so you can pay them to become part of the core around the drafted guys on less-expensive rookie deals.

"That's the goal, that's what we want to do around here," Morgan said. "We want to reward the guys that we draft. So, obviously, we have to draft well, and hopefully, we'll pay those guys, and I hope that happens. I hope we're paying players for years to come because that means we're drafting well and pinpointing the right guys."

For an example of what Morgan's trying to do, look no further than the defensive line.

The Panthers set an all-time league record for points allowed last season, and it started up front. Whe Brown was lost for the season after injuring his knee in the opener, it triggered an avalanche that never stopped. As the Panthers plowed through 11 different defensive linemen in games last year, the results got progressively worse, as they allowed over 200 rushing yards per game in each of the last six games.

So the same way he went to work on the offensive line last year by signingRobert HuntandDamien Lewis, he augmented the return of Derrick Brown by signingTershawn WhartonandBobby Brown IIIin free agency. Making the line deeper will create competition for roster spots last year, they were playing the available rather than qualified with the hopes of making it sustainable for years to come. They'd love to come out of this year's draft with another talented option up front so that roster spots aren't automatic.

Raising the floor takes time, and the Panthers are actively in the process of it.

"I think we all saw our defense; it wasn't good enough last year, so we've been addressing that this offseason in free agency, and we'll continue to do that during the draft as well," Morgan said. "So we're really excited about the direction that we're headed, excited about the draft.

"I think last year you saw that we addressed the (offensive) line. The line improved all of last year, so we're excited about that. Defensively, again, we just weren't good enough last year, so we had to address our front. So we signed some guys along the front that we're really excited about. So, I think we really got better on the defensive side of the ball, and we'll continue to do that."

So if the Panthers do something this weekend that the mock drafts didn't anticipate, it's likely because they're taking a longer view of this thing than the draft graders normally do.

And taking that long view requires discipline, as Canales mentioned.

It's easy to look at a depth chart and see where the holes are (they still have just three safeties on the roster, and obviously need more than that). But they're also trying to construct a sustainable roster over time, which requires more than just filling open seats.

"We talk about wanting to build our team from a personnel standpoint inside-out, and so we've invested a lot of resources the first year on the offensive line, the second year up front on defense, knowing we can't solve and fix and put all the pieces in the spots all at once," Canales said. "But if we can gradually accumulate dawgs, high character guys, who can help us from a football standpoint.

"At the end of the day, we have to make decisions, whether it's in free agency or in the draft, to evaluate the talent first and foremost, but then to get to know these people, these humans, to see if they fit into our culture. It's that organizational commitment and checks and balances on each other to say, is this guy a Panther? Or maybe he's not quite yet, but can we get him there?"

Last year's draft was a perfect example. In addition to upgrading the offensive line after a 65-sack hemorrhage in 2023, the Panthers had an acute need for a wide receiver, soBryce Youngwould have someone to throw to. But without a first-round pick, there was no certainty of getting one, or at least one they wanted.

But after holding tight throughout a first round that was being conducted without them, they made a late trade with the Bills to getXavier Legette32nd overall.

The South Carolina receiver was a player they coveted and that much became clear in the pre-draft process (thanks to Legette himself spilling the beans). But they also made the move to get to No. 32 in a deal with the Bills, in part so they'd have the fifth-year option on Legette's rookie contract.

Before they got to know the person, they studied the film, and Legette showed a lot of traits they were looking for in his final season at South Carolina. But it's not just measurables or numbers. As they try to put this thing together, they're also looking at the way these prospects accumulate numbers.

"I think at first it starts off by the film study, and I think you can see a clear example would be a player who is playing as hard as he did in the first quarter in the fourth, whether it was a one-score game or they were up by 20 or down by 20, end of half drives, two-minutes, that's where I think the initial character starts to show up," Canales said. "It happens on film, and you see these guys continue to grind regardless of the circumstance. That's character, and so we categorize that under football character.

"The personal character part is where we rely on our amazing scouts who are in the schools, who go to practices to see what this guy looks like at a normal practice. What does the strength coach say about him? What does the academic advisor say about him? What do his teammates say about him? Then we have to kind of weigh. Is the school trying to sell this guy, or are they being genuine? And then the more reports that you get that are consistent about a guy, the more you can kind of start to say this is a person who not only has high football character but also high personal character."

The next phase of that discernment happens when they meet the players, interview them at the Senior Bowl or other all-star events, have meetings at the combine, visit at their pro day, or bring them here for a visit. That's when some of the intangible factors begin to weigh more heavily.

"That's where then you factor in the human element that we all have, like when you sit down with somebody for lunch or you sit down with somebody for the first time," Canales explained. "And it's like, OK, I kind of like this guy. There's a part of our gut instinct that you do lean on a little bit to be able to tell it's a good dude, or this guy feels a little bit like he doesn't have his world in order, a little shaky here or there.

"There's some where it can't all be scientific, and it can't all be gut, you do like to kind of feel what that person is like, you know?"

And as they went through that process with Legette, they came to the conclusion he was what they were looking for.

"I think it was just which I think is a great character trait for a lot of my favorite people is he's just him," Canales said. "He was comfortable, and he was just being himself, and I liked that about him.

"The genuineness that I felt from him and in our couple of interactions, at the combine and then when we had him in here for the 30 (visit), you just feel like this is the dude that's just going to be him every day. And there's a trust factor that kind of grows from that, and then to go with it, they gush about him at South Carolina, and they love the guy, and they enjoy having him out there at practice. And so all those things start to make sense.

"He's absolutely the way he is, and he wasn't trying to be something else for the interview process. You know he was just, he was just being X, which is what we love about him."

One of Canales' trademarks is his ability in the interpersonal arena. Raised as a coach by Pete Carroll, one of the masters of motivating and getting the best out of the people who play football, Canales has developed some instincts that he trusts based on experience. He remembers the way Russell Wilson walked in the door, the way Doug Baldwin and Tyler Lockett approached the daily grind, and he looks for some of those markers.

"Over the last 16 years, I've learned to trust that guys who know where they've been, have a road map of the obstacles, the A-ha moments, the times where they took big leaps in their football play, big leaps on a personal level like they can identify these critical moments," he said. "It feels like they know where they are today better, and then it feels like they can project where they're going. And it usually happens. It usually comes to fruition.

"I've also seen those guys not achieve their potential, and for me, it's about whether we can help this player become as good as they possibly become. Can they help us help them become as good as they possibly could become? The characteristics that I've identified of guys that we took chances on were the ones who told their story so well. They knew their skill set so well. It's like, this guy has a plan, which means he'll continue to have a plan for where he wants to get to. And they all got there or better, and that's what I'm looking for when I'm talking to these guys."

Of course, a draft evaluation can't just be about vibes.

If a guy can't play, all the self-awareness in the world won't matter.

Morgan acknowledged last week that he prefers actual performance to projectable traits, and he's still a scout, so he uses all the tools at his disposal.

"I think obviously you want the production; you want the body of work to be there," Morgan said. "You obviously don't want to draft guys that weren't productive in college. Obviously, we want guys with a lot of production, and you know, I think that usually translates to the next level."

Canales said they still lean on a lot of the measurables they gather at the combine and pro days, but try to keep them in context.

If a player runs slower-than-anticipated 40 times, how does that compare to his short shuttle or three-cone drill? Looking at the entire picture gives them a chance to know the player more fully as they enter the process.

And the draft is just the beginning of that.

Canales talks all the time about development, so getting them here is just the first step.

When he talks about Legette, he has landmarks in mind for this year and Year 3, knowing from watching Baldwin, Lockett, DK Metcalf, and others that this takes time. And he's committed to that, even if it runs counter to the now culture that permeates so much of our draft conversations and immediate expectations.

To go back to the example of the lines, Morgan has begun to build both lines where the contracts are staggered, with key pieces secured for the future and new additions constantly coming in.

"I feel really good about where we're at right now, excited about the direction that we're heading," the general manager said. "I feel like we can really add some good pieces to the roster and continue to add to the front and build out that depth and the competition on both sides of the ball with both fronts. We want to dominate the line of scrimmage, and I think that's the bottom line. I think no matter how good this roster can ever get, you can never be satisfied. You've always got to be hungry and always looking for ways to be innovative and getting better."

That means improving the team right now while keeping their eyes on the horizon.

"That's the balance," Canales said. "Because I have to come into the building every day and I have to operate to win right now today, win this game. Build a winning team right now because that urgency is infectious, and we want our team to achieve our potential, whatever that is. I'm open to whatever that is, but to achieve your potential you have to be going for it. So my language can't be long term, it's about today.

"But then when we have our bigger talks we have to say today and then also project smart moves and all those strategic moves that help you for a long time."

And the long time is what they're after, with tonight just another step toward that goal.