CHARLOTTE — When the Panthers released Hunter Renfrow last Tuesday, they told him they wanted him back and would continue to have conversations.

Less than 24 hours later, they had traded Adam Thielen, and those conversations went to voicemail.

It wasn't because Renfrow was freezing them out — he's glad to be back in the only place he considered playing this season — it's because his daughter had his phone and was watching cartoons.

Last Wednesday, Renfrow was back in upstate South Carolina at the family recycling business (in which he's a partner), hooking up a trailer so he could go pick up a golf cart. While engaged in golf cart business, general manager Dan Morgan and Dave Canales were trying to call, but he never picked up.

"I had like 10 missed phone calls from Dan, Dave, my agent, and they're all just ignored," Renfrow laughed on Monday, after the first practice of his second stint with his hometown team. "My daughter's watching Bluey or something. So I got back in the car and had that conversation, I guess."

There were steps between his release last Tuesday and coming back, from either direction. The Panthers wanted to see him back to the sharpness he showed early in camp, before a hamstring injury limited him a bit. And he had to decide that this was really what he wanted to do for the rest of the year.

The 29-year-old missed an entire season (and wasn't himself previously) as he battled ulcerative colitis, so the physical part of the commitment was real. But so was the fact that he and his wife are expecting another daughter, so it wasn't just about what he wanted to do.

"My dad instilled in me and my mom as well that when you commit to something, you're committed to it," Renfrow said. "You know it's not something you take lightly, and it's not something where Week 7 or 8 you realize, man, this is tougher than I wanted, like I don't feel well. And physically, I had to get back, so I just made sure I had my mind right. My wife, we're going to have another daughter here in about five or six weeks, and so making sure she was good with it, and I know there's going to be some hard times, some beautiful times, but some times where she's going to spend a little more time back home. So being able to navigate that and getting her help.

"I think the team is an important role, whether it's in business, whether it's in football, whatever it is, it's important. And so being able to make that commitment to people to say, right, I'm going to be here through the good, through the bad, through the long haul is important to me."

And then Renfrow went from being a want to a need for the Panthers in 48 hours last week. Because Thursday afternoon in practice, projected starter Jalen Coker went down with a severe enough quad injury to land him on injured reserve (ruling him out for at least four weeks), so Renfrow went from golf cart discussions to preparing to play the Jaguars on Sunday. With Thielen gone and Coker out for at least a month, they need somebody who can work out of the slot the way he does with first-rounders Tetairoa McMillan and Xavier Legette on either side.

"Couldn't be a better opportunity, right now, based on the situation we're in," Canales said. "We're so blessed to be able to have Hunter come back to us here and decide to continue with us with the Panthers.

"We're stoked about it, and he had a great day today, but I'm really glad that the guys were able to find a common ground in an agreement."

Of course, it wasn't that hard to agree.

Renfrow admitted that other teams had called, looking for help and offering spots on their 53-man rosters. But he wasn't interested in those, because he didn't want to be far from home. His coming back was particular to this place, and that meant something to him, and he passed those wishes along to his agent.

"I kind of told him I was going to be here or nowhere," Renfrow said Monday. "I know he told me a few teams, but I think he was getting calls throughout the weekend. But I just told him this is where I wanted to be. Just because this is home for me, this is what I wanted to do.

"I'm a little hard-headed at times. It was fun when I was coming to go to Clemson. I had a few other offers, but I felt like that's where God wanted me, for whatever reason, and so I walked on at Clemson, and I felt like he wanted me here for whatever reason, and you know this could end tomorrow, right? But I think just trying to be obedient to that, trying to you know follow his path for my life."

He and Canales shared a laugh about that Monday morning, as they stepped onto the practice field on a perfect fall day, the kind you'd make up if you could, which is fitting considering all the twists and turns in Renfrow's story lately, which led to him agreeing to terms on Saturday.

"I was able to kind of come in over the weekend and just have a conversation with him and really reiterate the fact that I'm committed to this story; I'm committed to your story here with the Panthers and the excitement that I have for where this could go," Canales said. "All of a sudden, you know, Jalen gets hurt, and all of a sudden it's like, OK, Hunter, by the way you're playing on Sunday right now, so let's go. So just a lot of excitement for both of us.

"I think both of us just kind of had a laugh and just thought like, many are the ways of man, and the plans that you might have in your mind, but you know God ultimately has a plan for how things work out, and we kind of just sat there on the field and just kind of had a laugh. It was a little different than we both kind of pictured, but here we are."

That's not an unfamiliar phenomenon for Renfrow, who got on the field at Clemson as a walk-on only after star wideout Mike Williams suffered a broken bone in his next, and the previous slot option moved outside to replace him.

"You know, it's funny how God does things," Renfrow said. "He orchestrates things. Sometimes it's our plan, sometimes it's not our plan, and I thought coming out of cuts Tuesday, maybe, then God's plan was a little something a little different for me. But you know we're taking it one day at a time and just trying to be obedient to what he wants me to do."