CHARLOTTE — There was never any doubt for David Moore that he'd be back here again, walking through the familiar door off Mint Street in mid-March just like he did last year and the year before. And three years before that, too

"Just hope," he smiled, settling down and making himself comfortable in a chair just off the Panthers' football hallway. "There was a lot of hope."

That hope was rewarded when the Panthers signed Moore to a third straight contract, keeping him not only in the locker room to which he has become accustomed, but with the coaching staff—and particularly head coach—who think of Moore as their guy, going back to 2017 in Seattle.

"I just love being around people I'm comfortable with," Moore expressed just minutes after signing his contract. "And, Dave, Brad (Idzik), a lot of the coaches here I'm pretty comfortable with, and for sure a lot of the players now that I've been with them for two years."

The feeling is mutual, evidenced by the fact that three offensive coaches walked through the lobby where Moore was lounging just moments later, changed course when they saw him across the way, and pulled the receiver out of his chair so they could deliver back pats and hugs as they welcomed him back.

As he's done every year for the past three springs, Moore left his "babies" on his Texas farm (they're cows, not actual babies) to come sign the contract—"I think we have eight babies now. I just sold seven or eight on the bye week"—and he'll head back there for the next few weeks, weighing whether or not to get a mule and purposely banging his arm on walls to ensure the elbow that was severely dislocated in Week 4 last season is ready for action once again.

"I'll still go around hitting walls with my arm, and if a door is shutting, I use my arm to do it," he laughs, miming how he's putting his elbow through stress.

Granted, having even control over the action, even unconsciously, doesn't impart the same force as getting tackled by a linebacker at top speed. Moore knows, as he returns for his third straight year with the Panthers (and fourth overall), that if he's going to make the impact he knows he's capable of, the elbow needs to be tested further.

"I really just want to get tackled. I just need somebody to put full pads on and lay one on my arm," he admitted. "Getting hit does not feel good at all in general, but yeah, I just want to see for sure. I'll know for sure then when I get tackled. I'll try to make some kind of jump in the air and come back down on my body just to feel it."

Moore's return to the receiving corps will be vital. The group experienced exponential growth last season, headlined by Tetairoa McMillan, the offensive rookie of the year and the emergence of Jalen Coker, which sets the entire group up for greater success.

But Moore, in his important but albeit limited appearances with Bryce Young thus far, has proven himself to be a vital safety blanket. Having spent seven of his nine seasons thus far in this particular offense, he now understands not only his role in the playbook but everybody else's, too. In 2024, over half of Moore's receptions went for a first down, and he hauled in three touchdowns on 32 receptions.

"It's good to have that, especially for a quarterback," Moore says of what he wants to be for Young. "It just gives him a little bit more time to think and process and not feel like he's in a bind; he has an outlet here, he has a few more outlets."

The veteran had just one catch in 2025, though, before everything ground to a halt. For that matter, he'd barely completed the catch when it happened. A short out route against the Patriots in Week 4, on the first play from scrimmage, ended with Moore holding his left elbow, which had been turned in a direction elbows shouldn't turn. Having only ever missed significant time with one other injury, though, in his entire career, Moore wasn't that fazed. He went to the locker room out of precaution, but fully believed he'd be jogging back out before long.

"I'd say the day that day it happened, I went in the locker room and I thought I was coming back outside to play (even) after my arm was bent backwards," laughs Moore now, understanding how ridiculous the notion fueled by naivety and adrenaline really was.

"I still thought I said come play, but yeah, it did suck pretty bad, and I had to come in cahoots with it after about a few weeks. It took that long just for me to realize, like, alright, this is actually more serious than I thought."

At 30 years old (he's now 31) and his ninth season effectively ended, no one would have faulted Moore for letting his mind wander. Maybe back to his farm permanently, to a life after football. He refused to acknowledge the possibility.

"That's, I would say that's more like a negative mindset because then your mind is there," explains Moore, passion causing his voice to rise. "And then I'm just thinking like, oh, what if this happens and what if that happens instead of, it's football, everything's going to happen, and this could have happened when I was in Year 1, it could happen in Year 15."

Instead, he resigned himself to a new kind of season.

The fluent Dave Canales interpreter and experienced veteran in the room, Moore had always been a de facto teacher for the receiving corps, a role he willingly embraced. But realizing he'd be sidelined the rest of the regular season, he made a conscious and concerted effort to not only teach but to mentor a group that, without him, was made up of two rookies, two second-year guys, and one receiver in his second accrued year.

"Being here and being a shoulder to lean on, just an outlet to talk to whenever about anything," muses Moore of what he hopes to offer his room. "Not even football related, but just a good friend or brother, and that usually takes a lot of people a long way, just having someone they can kind of trust in and know that they have somebody behind their back. That was one role I got to kind of tap into this past year due to the injury."

The father of two (human) babies admits he has to stop himself at times from trying to raise his teammates—"I'll start to think, it's not my son, it's not my son," he laughs. "I got to remember these are like little brothers."—but his impact and influence in that way is invaluable.

He stands behind their media scrums during game weeks, offering support and taking notes on how they might improve in front of the camera. He pulls them aside during practice and games, offering insight on a play or a concept. He keeps McMillan loose with a dance break, Xavier Legette encouraged with pep talks, and Jalen Coker focused in games.

Each guy receives a slightly different approach because David Moore spent the past two years learning his guys the way he learns a defense, assessing how they approach the game, what they can bring that's different from the others, and how they need to be mentored in return.

"I kind of just kept talking to (TMac) as, 'Hey man, you say you this, you say you that, and I see that you are those things. So just continue to show every game," Moore recalls. "Before every game or during every game, just tell him, 'Hey, the plays are out there, just go make it.'"

With Coker, the veteran Moore just needs to see his eyes after his first catch to get a feel for what kind of day it's going to be.

"At the beginning of the day his energy, you know, he makes that first play and he starts going crazy and then you can see it in his eyes where he's just calm and he's just playing and he'll get excited and then he'll just go back to that calm, it's like he's suppressing his energy," Moore explains, bragging on how the young receiver channels calm during a game.

"That's a good thing to have, man, you know, it's a good thing to be able to do, is go out there and just continue to make plays, continue to make plays, and that's something that he can do pretty well."

Coaches and general managers always hope for those special locker room additions, someone who can bring equal value on the field and off. Plenty of players think they can be that guy; few can do it well.

David Moore does it well.

But now, he's itching to get back on the field. It's been too long, and watching the Panthers offense find itself and establish an identity last season was not only the manifestation of all Moore had hoped for since he arrived in the spring of 2024, but a motivation to return here, to a place that has become home, better than ever.

"They did exactly what I was hoping they would do and come alive and grow into that offense that we've been talking about for the past couple of years," Moore says. "And it's just only going to get better. So if it's only going to get better, I feel like I could just add to it and it'd be just that much better."