CHARLOTTE — For three months while he was on blood thinners, all Taylor Moton could do was prepare.

Since that couldn't include contact, it meant working out, it meant watching from the sidelines and helping rookie Monroe Freeling, and it meant taking pass sets in his chair in the meeting room.

So the physical part is almost the easy part, for someone who has played as much football as Moton. To be clear, 79 snaps in a game is a lot, but when you've played more than 8,000 snaps of NFL football the way Moton has, it's easier to process.

"Just a little bit of general soreness, right?" Moton said with a grin on Monday, when asked how he felt after his first game since January. "Getting your body calloused back, all that contact."

And then, as is his custom, he started thanking the people who helped get him back to this place after this summer's frightening diagnosis of blood clots, but it's also a window into the way he worked back into shape.

"Ultimately, I'm just lucky to have an awesome athletic training staff here, strength staff," he continued. "We say movement is medicine, right? So just moving around, getting the blood flowing. Meeting with the athletic trainers, getting all the soft tissue work, everything to make sure I feel as good as possible for next week. I mean, not even next week, for the week of practice or going into Sunday, so we can just rinse and repeat and continue going game in, game out.

"My expectation was to play the entire game, and going back to the strength staff, right, kudos to them for doing everything in their power to help me get in the best shape as I possibly can, and ultimately it's just taking it one day at a time, right? I mean one day at a time, one play at a time out there, right?"

His getting back on the field was a result of that kind of commitment to daily process, and an important lesson for Freeling, who was out last week with a knee issue, so Moton's return was fortuitously timed.

And while Freeling's job status is unclear with Moton returning, the rookie is grateful for the role model he's found.

"It's been awesome to kind of see T-Mo because you never really know," Freeling began. "You don't really know what to expect, and it's hard to recognize game until you actually see it. So actually seeing people play, just some more respect for them."

In the short term, that includes watching how Moton has worked his way back physically (Freeling had no timetable for his own recovery, though he practiced a bit last week), but it's also the daily routine.

"I mean just his attention to detail and everything," Freeling said of his mentor. "I sit right next to him in meetings and see the amount of notes he takes on literally anything and everything, even if you've heard it 1,000 times and you've been playing it for 10 years, and also just, he has some crazy hand placement. I think he's very consistent in that.

"And even when he wasn't even playing, I'd be sitting next to him in the meeting room, and he'd actually be doing (pass) sets like in his chair. I'd just turn over and I'd see him be like (mimicking what he's doing on the field). I mean, I definitely have a lot of respect for him and the way he approaches every single day."

Being that kind of mentor comes naturally for Moton, but it's also the same situation he came into as a rookie. His first season, he sat behind All-Pro Daryl Williams, before moving into the right tackle spot and making it his own for the next eight years.

"It was huge my rookie year to get to sit behind Daryl Williams; big shout out to him," Moton said. "My rookie year, when I came in, I was fighting for that right tackle job. He ultimately beat me out, and he became an All-Pro that year, so just getting to watch how he worked, how he watched film, how he went to practice, how he handled his business, and then how he went out there and executed consistently on Sundays, I think that was huge, learning how to really play at this level and how to be consistent at this level.

"So just a huge shout out to him. Like I said, if I can play the game like he's playing, I'll be OK."

Moton said Freeling's been "a sponge" so far, and thinks he'll play a lot of important football here in the future.

But what that looks like in the immediate future remains to be seen.

Canales said he was happy to have choices to make, after entering the season without Moton or left tackle Ikem Ekwonu. With free agent acquisition Rasheed Walker playing well, and Moton back, it's possible that Freeling will work as the swing tackle, being ready to sub in on both sides. Considering he was almost exclusively used on the left in college, that part shouldn't be as hard, but any decision on that front is moot until Freeling's healthy again.

"My dad always said a man with options is blessed," Canales said. "But again, we have to do what's right for the team. We take this seriously. Monroe wants to be out there, and he's itching, and he's working really hard. He wants to be able to get out there and help his teammates."

But with Moton back, there's time, because he resumed the kind of steady play he's been known for. Canales said he expected it, but was still impressed with how quickly things stabilized when he returned next to right guard Robert Hunt.

"T-Mo, I mean, just settled right in," Canales said. "It's unbelievable, you know, to be able to come in there, play a full game, a lot of reps, to play the quality of football that he did, passing off stunts, handling pressures; he and Rob, like they didn't skip a beat, like they've been working together this whole time, was so impressive.

"I'm not surprised about it, but just really proud of the way Timo was able to come back and help his team. I mean, coming into it, it wasn't a matter of fitness. It's just like football fitness, right? And when people are leaning on you, you get the power rushes, the run game, all those things, and it starts to accumulate. That's always the concern when guys come back when they haven't played a lot of football, but the strength staff, the training staff, they had him really strong, really fit coming into it, and I was happy he was able to finish the whole game."

And having the chance to make a choice at some point and continue to develop Freeling with the model of consistency back on the field isn't bad either.