CHARLOTTE — What makes a rival?

In sports, it's often the team with which you have the most bad blood, the most history, the most visceral reaction when you see someone wearing their colors in the grocery store.

"Like Florida State, I hate Florida State," spat Mike Jackson, the Miami Hurricanes product, this week. "So, Florida State, I'm just saying, I can't stand. I'm cool with Ryan, though."

The Panthers' rookie kicker Ryan Fitzgerald, a Seminoles alum, will be glad to hear it.

For fans—or Mike Jackson—those sorts of rivalries are baked directly into a team. For players in the NFL, though, it's a little tougher to establish and feel rivalries.

"It's different, like, because in the NFL, it's hard to say they're a rival because they can make a trade and the dude can be your locker mate the next week," pointed out Jackson. "So you can't really say it's like a real rival."

It was a situation that presented itself this week when the Raiders traded Jakobi Myers to the Jaguars, two teams that had just played each other.

"I was just talking crazy to some people," Myers laughed at the circumstances. "And then to have to come in here and see them, it's like, all right."

"I actually saw Jakobi Myers talking about that, but yeah, it is crazy," acknowledged Jaycee Horn. "I mean, you'll be here today, gone tomorrow for sure, so can't take it too personal, but it's also, you know, like I said, some games do mean more just because you had some success."

In the NFL, both Horn and Jackson said, winning is so hard that every week feels like a grudge match in some way.

"I think some games have more meaning," said Horn, "but rivals is kind of a reach because you know it's so competitive that every week you've got to come to play."

Jackson echoed his teammate, pointing to today's matchup against a 1-8 Saints' team, drawing the parallel to the Panthers getting 40 scored on them by the Bills before turning around the next week and being the top team in the NFC.

"Every team in the NFL is dangerous," preached Jackson. "Like, look at us. We go out, they put 40 on our heads, and then came back the next week and played like that. So every team is dangerous.

"Like it's any given Sunday. That's what makes the NFL so fun. You don't know who's going to win in reality, so we're just going to go out there and play good football."

There are games that do mean a little bit more, though, to Horn's point, and they're pretty much always going to be a divisional matchup.

"Not me personally, but I'm sure it's going to be a little more, you know, feisty and physical out there, just because it is a division opponent," said Horn.

Added Jackson, "We play on twice a year…(so) no matter if you feel like it's bad blood or not, you're still going to see them twice a year."

Rivalry or not, and records aside, Sunday's game is a big matchup simply because it is the next game and a divisional game. The Panthers are currently 1.5 games behind the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC South, and are 1-0 in the division. The next two weeks are divisional games with a chance to make a push.

Carolina is coming off a tough and emotional win against the Packers. That can sometimes result in a hangover. But the Panthers promise they turned their attention quickly back to the Saints and the NFC South this week.

"It's freaking hard to win in this league, whether it's the first quarter of the season, second, third, whatever," said an impassioned Nick Scott this week. "These are NFL teams. We're an NFL team. But it's tough, it's tough to win, so we take those with a lot of pride, and we just try to keep building. Our goal each week is just to get better than we were the week before, and we were able to do that this week.

"Our goal is the same. Whoever is coming out to be our opponent, we're just going to try to improve on what we've done, as well as make the necessary adjustments to match up the best against them."

And when today's game is over, regardless of the result, it will be time to turn the page quickly again, to yet another divisional opponent. So call it a rivalry, call it a more meaningful game, apply whatever adjective is needed; the Panthers are just calling it the next one, and it's another must-win.