CHARLOTTE — There have been times the last seven months, when Jalen Coker wondered where all this was coming from.

The whole time, he never doubted where he was going or whether he belonged.

The Panthers rookie wide receiver may have been available to them as an undrafted free agent because of injuries, and after getting here, he's dealt with a handful of problems since.

But over the course of the season, he's shown he can produce and be someone the team can look toward in the future.

Whether it was the hamstring injury that lingered before the combine and got worse when he got there. Or the fact he couldn't run at his pro day. Or other soft tissue injuries during his time here, including the quad strain that cost him three games after the bye, there was always something. But there was always a confidence that this is who he is.

"Even coming into OTAs and rookie minicamp and stuff, I still had lingering things, and I just never really had that time to kind of chill out, especially coming off of a hamstring, and then I ended up doing the other hamstring and then the quad, so I kind of was just getting bombarded with injuries after having no injuries in college," Coker said with a shake of his head. "So it was kind of a tough, tough couple of months to balance all that stuff and get right and try to maintain focus. But you know, I just control what you can control, so I mean that's what my mom always tells me you just got to control what you can control, and just having that unwavering confidence of when I'm back, I'm going to be able to prove to everyone why I belong."

He certainly looked like it last week when he scored the 83-yard touchdown against the Cowboys, part of a career-high four-catch, 110-yard day. And they need him this week, since Xavier Legette isn't expected to play this week and David Moore is in the concussion protocol. But Coker has produced this year.

For the season, he has 21 catches for 373 yards and two touchdowns, showing signs of what he could be if all of those things could come together.

But ever since the pre-draft process, those what-ifs have lingered in the background.

Coker's listed at a solid 6-foot-3 and 213 pounds, and said he was running some sub-4.5-second 40s while he trained for the combine. People like that get drafted. So when he went to Indianapolis, felt that twinge, and ran a pedestrian 4.57 time (28th-best among receivers at the combine), it stifled some of the optimism about the Holy Cross product. But there was still that 42.5-inch vertical, the best among the wideouts, as evidence of his explosive ability, along with what he put on tape.

So maybe, if not for that hamstring, none of this works out this way. Because when they look at plays last week, or some of the other contested catches he's made over the course of his rookie season, it's easy to wonder why Coker wasn't drafted.

"I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that he wasn't healthy going into the draft, so he couldn't be a true version of himself," Panthers wide receivers coach Rob Moore said. "So I think that had a lot to do with it, maybe a little bit the smaller school thing may have had something to do with it.

"But you know we got him. When you turn on the tape, you can see the talent."

For any undrafted rookie, the first challenge is to make an impression in hopes of getting to hang around another week. But with every week that passed, Coker would do another thing to get noticed.

"We saw him in one-on-ones, going up against some of the upper-echelon guys; he was able to hold his own," Moore said. "He was able to create separation, and the thing that jumps out to you is his ability to catch the football with his hands. He's got really good hands. He's strong to the ball, good body control, all those things that you've got to have to be able to make contested catches in this league."

That's a pretty lengthy laundry list of qualities you look for in a receiver. So be able to get him without using a draft pick, Moore's OK with that.

"We're lucky that he didn't get drafted," the veteran assistant and former NFL wideout said. "We got him here."

But once he was here, it still took a number of twists and turns. Signed in May, he went on the physically unable to perform list at the start of camp. He was activated a few days later and stacked solid days throughout training camp and the preseason. After initially making the 53-man roster, he was waived the following day when the Panthers claimed six players and then signed to the practice squad.

Then a month into the season, when the patron saint of undrafted receivers Adam Thielen suffered a hamstring injury in Las Vegas, he was back on the active roster, where he's been ever since.

Thielen was like everyone else, who saw signs of it through the offseason and camp, noticing the big guy who looks like what a drafted receiver normally looks like.

"Yeah, obviously a great skill set of being a big, strong athlete, I think that's the thing that sticks out," Thielen said. "The way that he moves is usually not a guy that's 220 pounds, so he does a great job of stopping and starting again, which is usually not a skill set of a big, strong receiver, so that's kind of the first thing I noticed as he was here."

But when Coker started doing it in games — beginning with that four-catch, 78-yard day against the Bears — those signs started becoming more real.

"I think at the end of the day in this league, you have to prove it on Sundays," Thielen said. "And so when he was able to start proving it on Sundays and showing up in situations and making plays, big plays and big games, that's when you're like, all right, like this is, this is not just a fluke. This is the real deal.

"I've seen a lot of guys over the years do it in practice and look really good and looks like they got a ton of potential, but they don't show up on game day. So, he's not one of those guys, and that's when you say, OK, this guy's going to have a long career and play at a high level for a long time."

Of course, he's still a rookie, still an undrafted one at that, so he also knows nothing is promised.

After listening to Thielen for months and watching him work, he's seen the map to the long career he's hoping for. Coker knows there's more work to be done. The goal is to maintain this level, without those nagging muscle strains, without the time off the field. Thielen's shared all those lessons, and Coker's listening.

So he knows this offseason needs to be different, more focused on all the things that allowed Thielen to last this long.

"Oh, 100 percent," Coker said. "I feel like there's definitely going to be a lot of mobility, a lot of receiver work. But at the end of the day, it's a lot of taking care of my body, eating the right things, knowing how to prepare, and getting in a good routine to where when the season does roll around, I'm in peak performance shape, and I can maintain that for as long as I need to."

And Coker intends to maintain that for some time.

Even though there are times when it all feels a little surreal for Coker — who still has that boyish grin, the look of a guy still processing that he's in the NFL. But he also has the newfound bravado, having made a few plays, of someone convinced he belongs.

"I don't know, I just don't see myself doing anything else other than this for a really long time," he said with a shrug. "So it might just be kind of oblivious. I just know I'm going to be able to push through this to come out on top, so I just have that unwavering confidence."