CHARLOTTE – Xavier Legette swears he's not nervous.

The rookie receiver (and the Carolina Panthers first round pick this year) would have every right to feel butterflies. The team traded up to get him in April, he's part of the future of this offense and it's first game in the NFL. But as he told reporters on Thursday, any anxiety that would be expected ahead of his first game in the league, this one against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, were dismissed years ago.

"I just go off my preparation," Legette said Thursday. "I just stay even here. Never try to be too hard, you know…I don't get nervous. I stopped getting (nervous) after my freshman year."

That was five years ago, at South Carolina. The lessons are transferable though, Legette promised, and he's ready to face Week 1 with little to no fear.

"Coaches been having me in for a whole lot of reps and I've been doing good at it," Legette said. "We got one more practice, just base it off that. If I have three good days back-to-back, I'm going to feel good about Sunday."

Eyeing Brown's sack numbers

Derrick Brown famously set a new NFL record last season, accumulating 103 tackles, the most ever by a defensive lineman in a single season. It's a number that should and will be celebrated for years to come. But there is another number the Panthers and defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero want Brown to focus on — his sack total.

Throughout his four-year career thus far, Brown has 8.0 total sacks, with the most coming in 2021 (3.0). His unique combination of D-lineman size and pure athletic ability though leave the door open for higher numbers. So, the Panthers want Brown to chase it.

"I think this guy could get 8 to 10 sacks this year," Evero said Thursday of Brown. The former first-round pick did register 15 quarterback hits last season, a career high. There's still more there though, Evero is convinced.

"The pressures were there; he affects the quarterback. He's a hard man to block, run or pass, one on one," Evero explained. "But at the end of the day, we want to translate those into more sack production."

Teammates believe Brown is more than capable as well. Jadeveon Clowney, who has 52.5 sacks over his 10 playing years (thus far), sees the skill set already in Brown. It's just in need of some sack specific polishing.

"I was telling him, you just got change up your angles," Clowney revealed Thursday. "You got to work on things you're not good at, your weakness and I think your angles — change your angles up and rush, going to help him get the extra sacks this year."

Clowney took this advice to Brown during practice, having noticed what the defensive lineman was capable of. Clowney has been in the NFL for a decade, playing for five teams (now six), so he has seen what a wrecker in the middle of a defensive line can do for the rest of the guys on the field.

"I was like, man, I need you to play your highest you've ever played this year because I'm beside you and the better he do, the better I'm going to do. Keep the double (team) off me if he playing just as well as I am or (even) better," Clowney explained. "So I just want to help him because like you said, take his game to the next level. DB's a great player. He always in the backfield, but he stay on the double team. So once he can figure out that one-on-one, when he do get them opportunities to take advantage of them and win, it's going to help me and the guys around. So that's why I try to give him the little knowledge I learned.

"I'm looking forward to seeing him play. A guy who worked extremely hard. I tell everybody that's one of the hardest workers I ever played with since I've been in the National Football League, so I'm just ready to see him out there Sunday with me when we do our job."

Trial by fire on kickoff

The NFL has had the preseason to test out the new kickoff rules, but it's likely to still take time for teams to fully smooth out the wrinkles in the new formation. Since the new rules allow teams to disguise more, each club has different approaches that can vary greatly.

That's what Panthers defensive coordinator Tracy Smith has been juggling as a wave of new players joined the team in the past week (the Panthers grabbed six guys off waivers last week).

"The guys that are going to be active (for the game) have to play and get ready as fast as they can trying to blend what they did before with what we're doing now," Smith explained Thursday. "So, there's a little kind of combination of some guys on their day 50 training and some guys on day two. So, we're catching everybody up to speed."

Since this will be a new venture for all 32-teams, and now with less of a rotating door of personnel, Smith knows there is going to be a learning curve. At the very least, it creates more of an even floor across the league and gives those just arriving from other teams a bit of wiggle room to learn right alongside everyone else.

"Each week you're learning week to week what you have to do to get ready. So, they're learning right with the other guys…even the ones that have been here are not doing the exact same thing they were during the preseason anyway," Smith said.

"So, it's a learning experience for everybody getting to figure out what they can do through the video of what they did before and what we want to do against the Saints kind of thing and blending that together as best we can."

As for what it looks like, only time will tell, but it will make Sunday an interesting case study in how the new format could change the game.