ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The Panthers made a significant investment in improving their defense this offseason when they signed Jaelan Phillips and Devin Lloyd in free agency.

And even though they've played a grand total of 23 snaps between them as Panthers, you could see the difference in Saturday's preseason loss at Buffalo.

Phillips played 10 snaps and had a sack and two tackles.

Lloyd logged 13 snaps and had three stops, including a tackle for loss, when he shot through the traffic and dropped Bills running back James Cook in the backfield.

But mostly, you could just sense the difference they made.

"Just anytime you're able to add good players like that to the defense, it changed the whole thing," cornerback Jaycee Horn said. "Like you've seen it today with Jaelen, him being able to affect the quarterback early, and then Devin, just the way he goes about his day-to-day operation, the leadership he brings to the group, he puts that on display daily.

"So just bringing both of them has been good for us."

In the first quarter, Phillips and fellow starter Princely Umanmielen were in the vicinity of Bills quarterback Josh Allen, with Phillips even hugging his former AFC East foe at the end of a play. Horn felt the warmth from out on the edge.

"As a corner, you feel like you're not naked out there when you got guys that can get to the quarterback like that," Horn laughed.

But that's what they were hoping for when they spent serious money to add premium players to a group that includes Horn and defensive tackle Derrick Brown (who didn't play Saturday).

Sacks and pressures are the obvious movers (with Phillips' sack in the red zone pushing the Bills back into a field goal), but Lloyd has steadied the entire group with his presence in the middle.

"First and foremost, I think one of the things that was really nice with just being with Devin is there's no drop-off in communication," safety Nick Scott said. "He's somebody that learned the defense extremely fast, so he's driving the bus out there like he's been part of this for a while now, which is really encouraging. He made some plays, and he just really serves as a centerpiece for our defense, just getting there in on the run game and things like that.

"And Jaelen with the sack and the pressure, those are big. He's taking points off the board for us and helping us slow down that initial drive that they had. So that's definitely encouraging as a DB when you don't have to be running around with a quarterback like Josh Allen who can do a lot on the run. He was able to get him corralled."

But it's not just their own stats; the two have shown that ability to help others. With outside linebacker Patrick Jones II on the bench next to Brown, Princely Umanmielen (ostensibly their third-down rusher) had a pair of pressures early, and said he could sense an across-the-board improvement.

"Just trying to bring practice to the game and go out there and rush with confidence, and I feel like I did that," Umanmielen said. "And then there's nothing better than rushing across from a guy like Jaelen Phillips.

"He got paid the way he did for a reason. So whenever he's rushing like that across from you, it makes it easier on my side."

Umanmielen also noted the calming effect Lloyd had on the entire group,

"When he's on the field, he doesn't stop talking," the second-year pass-rusher said. "He's trying to help everybody out, the front line especially; he's always like calling out alerts, like play calls, alerts before it happens, and it just makes playing defense much easier."

That was the point of those big additions.

The Panthers set all the wrong kind of records on defense in 2024, but continued to stack pieces around Pro Bowlers Horn and Brown, and got to the middle of the pack defensively last year. The hope is that impact players on every level now (along with their 2025 free agent addition Tre'von Moehrig) can push them higher.

Panthers head coach Dave Canales noted the "splash plays" the new guys made Saturday, and specifically talked about the difference getting pressure from Phillips can make for the other rushers like Umanmielen and the defense as a whole.

"They all challenge each other," Canales said. "It's a great room. They enjoy working together. It's a hardworking group. (Position coach) AC Carter does a great job with those guys, in the pre-practice, during practice, finding ways to just improve their techniques, their hand placement, all those things, and they really enjoy it.

"It's great to have a veteran guy in the room who knows how to get after it, who knows how to work and set that tempo for guys, and Princely's been one of our guys that has really stood out this training camp with the chase and with the effort and the style that we're looking for, and it's just good to see that translate out there on the field."

Again, it was only a quarter, but it was certainly a hint of what they're looking for.