CHARLOTTE — For an hour or so on Sunday, Panthers rookie tight end Mitchell Evans was very nearly Panthers rookie offensive tackle Mitchell Evans.

And even though they were able to get by with their five available and healthy linemen through the rest of the game, there was a moment in the third quarter when tight ends coach Pat McPherson offered Evans a career change.

They avoided that possibility Sunday, but it was close enough to give Evans flashbacks to the time when he was last an offensive lineman, which went even more poorly than Sunday did for his team.

"I was a guard in seventh grade, actually a backup guard, I didn't play," Evans said with a wince on Wednesday. "I was about to quit football actually."

Considering he went on to a fine career at Notre Dame and was drafted in the fifth round, it's a good thing he didn't. But the Evans who has earned playing time as a rookie and found a niche here, it's hard to imagine him not being good enough to play for Wadsworth Middle School.

So how is that possible?

"Did I suck? Yeah," Evans said with a laugh. "I have zero memories from middle school playing football; I very rarely played."

In the peewee leagues in his central Ohio hometown, he was a talented running back. And his parents were tall, so he figured he'd grow into the right size to play football. And he was athletic enough that Wadsworth High coach Justin Todd eventually convinced him to come back out when he got to ninth grade, and he became a quarterback and a punter and a tight end, en route to the NFL.

"I played running back as a kid, and I was pretty damn good," Evans said. "So I was a little bit bigger than other guys. In middle school, everyone kind of caught up a little bit, and I kind of grew up a little bit. Like, I was athletic still, but also kind of awkward, getting my body.

"I knew I was going to be tall because my mom's side was just pretty tall and my dad's pretty tall, so growing up I knew I knew I was going to be eventually taller. But that middle school time is when it stopped for a little bit."

And that in-between phase almost left the Panthers perilously close to not having their in-case-of-emergency-break-glass lineman, who was ready to abandon the sport to become a basketball player before he was old enough to get a driver's license.

"Yeah, that's where I lost my love for football, I almost quit," Evans said of those days as a reserve interior lineman for the Wadsworth Middle Grizzles. "I had to get convinced to come back out."

The good news is it worked, and he found his footing again in football.

Of course, there was a moment during his freshman year at Notre Dame when he felt a similar fish-out-of-water moment.

He was the fourth or fifth tight end at the time, so he wasn't expecting to play at all against Florida State.

It was my first college season, I didn't really know what was going on, and we had a guy go down and the other one wasn't ready, so I got thrown in to that third tight end position," he recalled. "And we used 13 personnel (one back, three tight ends) a lot, so I played like 10 snaps and I had no idea what I was doing. I lined up wrong four times. It was, like, bad.

"Watching that film, I was like, oh my god."

And that's kind of what the Panthers were thinking Sunday, as lineman after lineman started to fall, and Evans came this close to being thrown into the deep end of a new situation again.

During the third quarter, tight ends coach Pat McPherson gave him a heads-up that something could be happening. The Panthers lost center Cade Mays and right tackle Taylor Moton in the first half to injuries. They only dressed eight for the game, which meant they were down to their final spare (backup Jake Curhan, who arrived here four weeks ago). But when Brady Christensen was carted off the field with a torn Achilles early in the fourth quarter, the five they had was it for the rest of the game.

So in addition to his normal duties as a tight end — and he's already caught two touchdowns in the first half of his rookie season — he got a quick crash course in what it would take to try to block Pro Bowler Joey Bosa and friends.

Evans joked that it was either him or a fellow rookie — "We could put Jimmy there," he said of 174-pound receiver Jimmy Horn Jr. — so he was ready to do what was necessary.

"Coach (McPherson) came over and said, 'You know if one more lineman goes down, you're playing tackle,' and I'm like, oh my god," Evans said. "But they're like, it's OK, so this is what you would do."

Evans has earned high marks for his blocking anyway, but the line is a different world. He's listed at 258 pounds, and all the offensive linemen here have weights that start with a different number.

"Yeah, he'd need to live that 300-pound life," center Austin Corbett said. "He'd need a couple of cheeseburgers if he wanted to make that change."

But they also think he'd have a shot to pull it off.

"Oh yeah," Mays said with a nod. "I'd say he'd be like your prototypical Notre Dame guy; they've had a bunch of first-rounders. Like if he put on about 30, 40 pounds, he'd be the same way."

Mays was on an exercise bike, unable to return to the game (and he didn't practice Wednesday), but he's been in similar situations. He's started at every offensive line position at some point, so he knows about cross-training, since not every center can also play tackle.

"I mean, you just try not to think too much about it, and just go get the job done," Mays said. " You can psych yourself out if you really get down to it, but just, you know, job's got to be done and you're just the right guy for it.

"Yeah, he'd be just fine. He'd be fine."

Veteran backup tackle Yosh Nijman is used to the quick-adjustment life of being a snap away from the lineup, and said his advice to Evans would be simple.

"I would tell him to keep his shoulders square, keep his eyes to the chest, and punch him in his chest, and make sure your feet are matching your defender," Nijman said, and that's sound advice for anyone. "If push comes to shove, Mitch is ready."

Coming that close also had Evans thinking about what could come next.

"Yeah, maybe I could switch positions and make $120 or 130 million dollars," he laughed. "I'd have to tighten up some things, but I could do it. Center or guard, nah."

Definitely not guard. We want Evans to hang around, after his last shot at that position didn't go so well.