CHARLOTTE — The afternoon felt like the way things should be at Bank of America Stadium; Tommy Tremble in front of the camera, Chuba Hubbard standing on the fringes grinning and hyping up his closest friend on the Carolina roster.

"I had to come see my boy," smiled Hubbard, pulling out his phone to take his own proud papa pictures as Tremble signed the papers in front of him and his family.

The fifth-year tight end was re-signing with the Panthers, wrapping up his first foray into free agency with a second contract courtesy of the team that drafted him and Hubbard in 2021. The duo talked about the possibility of no longer being on the same team, but it was a reality Tremble didn't want to give too much heed to.

"No, man, I told him I'd switch to linebacker and knock him out," Tremble said with such a staunch delivery there was no choice but to believe him. "Luckily, I don't have to do that anymore."

The two will still have ample opportunity to mess around after practices, though, keeping their streak alive of working on the Jugs machine each day during the season. Because while the Panthers are rebuilding their defense through free agency at every level, the club has kept this offense together for the most part (the team did release Miles Sanders on Tuesday).

"I mean, the last game (Week 18), it was like a movie against the Falcons," Tremble said of the approach. "Everyone was doing their thing. Bryce Young was balling out, the O-line, offense, receivers, tight ends, everyone was doing their thing that game. And I think seeing that and having that kind of belief behind us, it gets us, it gets us going for this next year. We're really excited for it."

The momentum built on the back half of the 2024 season as the Panthers offense, in its first year under Dave Canales, averaged 24.3 points per game during the last eight weeks of the season.

There are times a team can catch fire, though, only to see it burn out in the cold doldrums of late February and March. Carrying that momentum into spring, training camp, and then the 2025 season will be the challenge.

"I think it's continuously trusting what coach is building with this team and knowing that it works," Tremble said. "I think it's one thing to say it but another thing to see it happen, especially at the end of last year, and so a lot of guys in the building got belief in this whole staff, this team, and I think that's the difference maker going into this next year."

There wasn't always that consistency. Years of head coaching changes, offensive coordinator changes, and play caller changes meant the offense was in constant turmoil, bad play affecting the coaching changes and vice versa, leading to each change cutting out the legs from the other.

"I think that's been a little bit of a struggle since I got here as a rookie with a lot of offensive coordinators, a lot of changes up top, and you know it's a result of our play," Tremble explained. "It's a result of everything, but that consistency going into the second year, it's really exciting knowing that we can just keep on building from last year, and I think a lot of guys feel that in the building they're really excited to just keep stacking."

The grind of getting to this point and then taking it to the next level is why offensive lineman Austin Corbett wanted to be in Charlotte in the first place and, even more importantly, why he wanted to return despite being available as a free agent again this season, doing his part to keep a cohesive unit in the locker room.

"When I signed here when I was going through free agency the first time, I was coming off the Super Bowl, so we were at the top there at the Rams, and like, I wanted to take my knowledge that I have," Corbett explained. "I was very fortunate to play football with a lot of veteran players throughout my first four years, and I wanted to take that knowledge that I gained from them and to be able to bring it to a franchise that needed that growth, and I saw the potential here and there's been some hiccups along the way, but like we're seeing it."

The nucleus of keeping the offense together was keeping the offensive line unit together. As a group, the line reduced the number of sacks from the 2023 season to 2024 by just under half. Before Corbett was injured in Week 5, the starting five was solid through the first quarter of the season. Even after Corbett was sidelined for the season, and the center position turned to both Brady Christensen and Cade Mays, with Christensen later taking snaps along the line, the bulk of the line stayed steady.

It provided Young with a sense of comfort and familiarity as he found a solid footing during his second year. Keeping that unit together for the most part, with the original and final starting five all returning, will help usher Young and Hubbard, and the whole offense into next season.

"I definitely wanted to stay and make sure, like this is what I came here for," Corbett said. "I want to be a part of this turn or make it happen, so it's exciting. We are starting to come together."

Each free agent, Tremble and Corbett included, had different reasons for returning. Tremble and his wife are about to have a baby. They wanted to stay in the town where they'd already placed roots and allow Tommy to stay with the team where he'd already learned the offense and found a role. The feeling was mutual for the Panthers coaching staff and front office.

"You want continuity, you know, and so talk about a guy like Tommy Tremble," coach Dave Canales pointed out during the NFL combine at the end of February. "You know, we're going through all of our film, and he does such a great job, so now it's all of a sudden it's like, in all fairness let's let Tommy see what's out there from a free agency standpoint. But for me it's like, OK, we have these guys that we've trained for a year, you know, and you'd love to have them back."

For Corbett, who will be 30 years old before the 2025 season begins, he's in an era of his career which could still go a number of different ways. Having a say in how that happened was vital for Corbett and his family.

"It's a weird thing, right? Especially offensive line, as soon as you approach that 30 number, you kind of, you become old in the NFL and, so I don't know, I don't know if I'm in the back half, am I right in the middle, am I still on a run," Corbett pondered.

"I got a bunch of redshirt years under me now with all these surgeries, and so that's really helped out the body in different parts where I've been able to address a lot of other areas of my body, and the football just grinds and breaks down, and so I feel absolutely amazing right now."

For both guys, though, and Hubbard watching from the edge of the room with a smile, the most important part was the chance to be a returning piece in a growing offense.

Said Tremble, "I think it shows how special the offense can be."