CHARLOTTE — In the days leading into a new league year in the NFL, Kenny Pickett found himself on a boat, deep-sea fishing off the coast of Florida. He was with a handful of guys he had been training with in Florida during the offseason, including Panthers running back Jonathon Brooks.

As the clock ticked towards the NFL's new league year, Pickett had been considering what teams might call when the window opened. He watched tape, looked at which rosters had needs, and weighed where he might fit in best.

The Carolina Panthers were definitely on his list for a variety of reasons. But he hesitated, not saying anything to Brooks just yet. Partly because you never know what can happen when free agency actually begins. And partly because Brooks was otherwise occupied.

"JB got a little sick on the boat," Pickett laughed, telling the story last week after he arrived at Bank of America Stadium to sign his new contract, and which Brooks confirmed as well with a groan at having to relive the memory.

When the negotiating period opened, all the dots Pickett had connected came to fruition.

For starters, a little over four years after he and Bryce Young shared a Heisman stage, the two reunite in a quarterback room. Young won the Heisman trophy in 2021, followed by finalists Aidan Hutchinson (second in voting), Pickett (third), and CJ Stroud (fourth).

"We spent a lot of time together at the Heisman," Pickett remembered. "Obviously, being on the Heisman stage together is special, you know, not everybody can say that.

"He's a great guy, I really respect him, his game, and what he's done so far in his career. Just looking forward to adding another element to the quarterback room, and you know. Championship. That's the goal."

Four seasons after he led Pittsburgh to an ACC Championship in Charlotte and executed a famous play on the Bank of America Stadium field that precipitated a rule change in the NCAA, he's going to call that field home. The fake slide en route to a huge quarterback run was a Pickett legacy in the Queen City for years.

"Hopefully, we'll build a better one here in the pros," he offered.

And almost exactly four years since he met Dave Canales at the Pitt Panthers Pro Day, the quarterback is in the system he knows can help him flourish.

"He was at my pro day. I grabbed lunch with him. He actually met (my wife) Amy when we were engaged. He met my parents," Pickett recalled.

"I was really excited about the opportunity to play for him four years ago, and now that I had a chance to play in the NFL and I watched a lot of tape throughout the weeks and Panthers and he was in Tampa and Seattle, seeing all the different things that he does, I feel like I fit it really well, so I'm just excited to see how he teaches his system and go from there."

Through the course of Pickett's interesting four-year career thus far, the former first-rounder has spent time with four teams (the Steelers, the Eagles, the Browns for a training camp, and the Raiders). Each stop has offered vastly different coordinators and systems, but that means, at 27, he feels as if he's been able to pick the brains of people across the league, bringing various perspectives to the table.

"It's cool to see different perspectives everybody has on the game," he explained. "Something I can bring down here is just past experiences, being in different systems, playing against different coordinators, kind of understanding what has worked in the past and what hasn't. So I think it's just another element I can bring."

One of those experiences was a year in Philadelphia, backing up Jalen Hurts as the Eagles (including Pickett) earned a Super Bowl ring. He saw action in four games, including a start when Hurts was injured, in which Pickett helped deliver a 41-7 win over the Cowboys. It meant he also had hands-on training with the Eagles' notorious tush-push.

"I have the easiest job. It's the guys up front that have the hardest job," he explained. It was something he shared with Luke Fortner, the center whom the Panthers brought in to sign a contract the same day, when the two were hanging out.

"It'll be like, 'OK, that's all you, buddy. I'll just keep running my feet forward.'"

But the experience and ability are part of why the Panthers wanted the 6-3 and 220-pound passer here. General manager Dan Morgan expressed an interest this offseason in providing some competition at the backup quarterback spot with someone young and mobile.

Young is firmly the starter, but competition at the backup spot with Andy Dalton will also give Carolina a chance to develop someone still in the early stages of their career while providing a compliment to Young, whether it be on a play or in the case of injury.

"I think (Bryce and I are) very similar in how we play," noted Pickett. "I think we both operate well from the pocket, and when things break down, we can make plays on the move. I think Coach does a lot of things play action-wise, boots, you get out on the edge, and we both can throw the ball well on the run.

"So, I think I think we kind of complement each other in what we do. We're excited to learn more about how he sees things, talk X's and O's, and get to know him better as a person first. But yeah, I think it's definitely exciting being in a room where you feel like we kind of play the same way and we kind of, the same mold of what they're looking for here."

Seeing how Canales and Young have partnered over the last couple of years to elevate the former No. 1 overall pick's game, coupled with Pickett's first impressions of the coach at that pro day four years ago, meant he knew this could be the right opportunity.

"Just the things that he asks you to do from inside the pocket on the move, changing the launch points," Pickett explained of how he fits within Canales' system. "He likes getting the ball out of your hand.

"Just talking with him on the phone about how he wants the quarterback to play matches the way I like to play and how I was kind of brought up in college with Mark Whipple, who is an NFL guy. So I'm excited to kind of get back towards that playing style."

He is also ready to get back on the water—or at least a shore, so as to save Brooks from any chance of seasickness again.

"Hopefully we'll find like a bass lake or something where our feet are on dry land, and then we'll see who's the better fisherman," he laughed.

And the best person to help find that in the Carolinas is Patrick Jones II. The Panthers' outside linebacker was the final dot Pickett had connected to this team, and one of the more exciting reasons he has to be here, sharing a locker room once again with his four-year college teammate.

"We were pretty close," Pickett shared of Jones. "I mean, spend four years with someone, you get pretty tight, you know, so it's awesome that we're teammates again. I'm excited to see him.

"I'm going to call him right now. I'm going to call him later today and talk to him about it because it's kind of been a whirlwind since then, but he reached out too, so, yeah, I'm excited to link up with him."

Pickett's one-year deal with the Panthers, in hindsight, was a long time coming. It's also an opportunity to put into action the most important lessons he's learned over the last four years.

"I think as a whole, just be able to handle success and adversity, being able to go through injuries and go through different situations and always come out a better version of yourself. I think I've done that throughout all the stops and learned a lot of football."