CHARLOTTE — If you believe in fate and serendipity and things that work together as such, August 12 is a very special day for Darren Waller.

Nine years ago, on August 12, Waller made a commitment to get sober, changing his life on and off the field in the best ways.

Last week, on August 12, Waller got a phone call he'd been waiting months for: his agent told him the Carolina Panthers wanted to sign him. He didn't have to think about it for even a moment, and agreed to a deal right away. And when he noticed the date, it felt like a higher power had stepped in.

"It was crazy because it's also nine years of sobriety for me. So it's like the fact that those two coincided on that day was just something that you can't really wrap your mind around as human beings," smiled Waller, sitting in the Panthers signing room early Monday morning, signed contract still on the table.

"We call it God, you know, so I think it's just something greater at work, but definitely a lot of gratitude in that day. It was just like a double celebration."

The self-made musician had his content team at the house already when his phone rang, so he was able to capture the moment he found out, in yet another example of perfect timing.

"I'll train, and then we'll just be doing content, doing all types of stuff, and then we were just doing like a talking piece for some stuff, and then I got a call like during," he explained. "Right after they showed up from the airport, like we just started, and that happened."

He committed pretty quickly after that phone call, and signed his contract on Monday morning. But the long-time tight end already had some impressions of the Panthers, including a very recent one that made a huge impact: the comeback in Week 5 to give Carolina a huge 27-24 win.

"I thought we should have beat y'all by 40 that day," he laughed, thinking back to that game. "We were up early and then a combination of falling apart and then y'all being resilient — I mean us being resilient," he quickly corrected. "But I was impressed by how they responded to the adversity and played the rest of the game.

"I thought it was just super impressive because a lot of teams, you get up on them like that, some teams will fold up and that seemed — they seemed to energize themselves. It was impressive to see."

Waller admitted he spent much of the offseason waiting for a call. He doesn't know if teams thought he was weighing options himself, but all that matters now is being able to bring his experience to this team. He scored six touchdowns in just nine games last season, on 24 receptions for 283 yards.

"I hope that they can still see like, I mean, I feel as good as I've felt in years right now," Waller promised. "I feel like the training that I put in this offseason has allowed me to be — from an explosive speed, movement standpoint, where I was when people remember me at the peak of my career. And I think my scoring potential was unlocked last year in ways that hadn't been before.

"So combine those two, you still get a pretty decent product out of me."