CHARLOTTE — JJ Jansen has been around a lot of football in his day. That's what comes with playing in the NFL for 17 years. He's seen coaches come and go (and when Dom Capers came back, it meant he's been around all of them except George Seifert). He's seen staff fired mid-season and staff take the Panthers to a Super Bowl. He's seen coaches stick their heads in the sand and seen coaches open to figuring things out.

He knows what and typically how long it takes to be successful.

"Ron (Rivera) said years and years ago he didn't really think he got kind of the hang of it till about Year 3," Jansen said Monday, boxes encircling the longtime long snapper as teammates did the end-of-the-year dance of sorting through gloves, cleats, and the various accoutrements that accumulate throughout a season.

Jansen was in Charlotte for the entirety of Rivera's stint as a first-time head coach and saw the growth up close. In Rivera's first year with the Panthers, the team went 6-10, finishing third in the NFC South (where this year's team finished at 5-12). The following year, they moved to second in the division with a 7-9 record.

In Year 3, when Rivera purportedly "got kind of the hang of it," the Panthers finished 12-4 and first in the NFC South, starting a three-year run leading the division. The highs came because the team knew how to weather the lows, yes, but also because a head coach was willing to learn how to grow into the role rather than presume knowledge was a given.

It's an attitude Jansen sees mirrored now.

"Guys pick up on, hey, even in a wild ride—our first month of the season was a really wild ride this year, and the head coach is the same guy every day," Jansen continued. "The front office are the same people every day. Without having to even say anything, it exudes calm throughout the building in the face of some chaos, and so that stuff, as hard as that was, I think kind of breeds success down the road when we start playing well, and confidence is building amongst the guys.

"Coaches beg their players to be the same guy every day. And then there's a lot of coaches that aren't the same guy every day…What I was really impressed with from the jump was, if nothing else, he was going to be the same stabilizing force from the jump.

"I'm sure we as players don't see 95 percent of the stuff that comes across the head coach's desk, but the fact that I know that all that stuff happens and he's the same guy, it calms us down as players."

Adam Thielen hasn't been around quite as long as Jansen, first entering the league in 2013. But as a savvy vet, he's also seen enough over the years to know not only when something is real but also rare.

That famous Canales Consistency™, especially in the context of the 2024 season, is rare.

"I feel like it's a rare thing for a team that had some ups and downs," explained Thielen. "I think it's easy for coaches to have consistency when things are going well, but I think when things are up and down, it's tough.

"And you see the true colors of the leadership, and again, he has done a great job of just being that strong leader through some really tough times and some good times, so that is a sign of great leadership and definitely a step in the right direction for this organization. I don't think I've ever been around a coach that has really just been able to evaluate first and then emphasize what guys are doing, so it just shows a sign of a true leader and a guy who knows what he's doing."

Canales said on Sunday—and reiterated when asked again on Monday—that the Panthers found their quarterback in Bryce Young this season. Those same Panthers in the locker room on Monday spoke about finding their coach. Combine that with the club finding their GM in former linebacker Dan Morgan, and they've possibly hit on something even rarer than consistency through hard times.

"All of those things kind of growing together is a huge advantage for our organizations, the stability of it," Jansen added.

"What was unique to the end of this year, which we haven't had in a long time, is like I said before, head coach, GM, quarterback, all all under contract, all kind of on an upward ascent, all kind of growing together where it's beneficial to everyone to do well on the same timeline. That's pretty unique and that probably hasn't existed for a long time.

"And I will say this: I don't know (if) that happens in a lot of places most of the time. Most of the time, there's a quarterback out, a coach out, something's going on, so we need to take really good advantage of this period of time where you have you have a young quarterback on a rookie contract. You have a young coach that's energetic and he's learning the job, a GM that loves what he's doing and has a really clear vision for the organization and what he wants it to look like."

Growing together means learning together. Part of Young's ascension on the back half of this season is due to Canales becoming more comfortable as a playcaller, and vice versa. Canales sharpened his skills as a play-caller in his second year by learning alongside his quarterback.

"I love that story," Canales smiled when asked about he and Young figuring things out as a duo. "I do feel a sense of rookie head coach…the natural progression of myself as the head coach, a second-year play caller, learning, growing, taking information in, being humble about the stuff like, 'I didn't like that call,' and being able to take that information and hopefully— talking about impact—hopefully, that allows Bryce to see like, look, we're not looking for perfection here, we're looking for just growth and let's go forward together and let's let's find the solutions together."

To Jansen's point, it's hard to have all three of those offices working together at one time. Most countries can't even find the right balance in their powers. For the Panthers to have a rookie head coach, a rookie GM, and a quarterback with a mulligan rookie season, all moving in the same direction makes things easier for everyone in the building.

"Yeah, I'm not gonna lie. I was thinking about the other day; it's a blessing to be able to have no crazy turnaround or anything like that," laughed running back Chuba Hubbard on Monday.

"To just stay in the same playbook. I mean, it's been four years, five years where I haven't been able to do that, so just to be able to build off what you've already learned and start to master it and then to obviously build chemistry with everybody in the building from the GM down it's a good feeling."

There is still much to be done: offseason work and moves to be made, humbling reality checks to face around the deficits that made the difference in some games. But there's also a feeling humming through the walls, a sense of confidence that Jansen said hasn't existed in the building in several years.

"October looked better than September, November looked better than October, and December looked better than November, and we're the most undefeated team in January so far," laughed Jansen.

"So that consistency breeds confidence."