CHARLOTTE—A football season can be long to the point of tedium. You're thankful for each opportunity and for what the process of every day means as it accumulates throughout the year, but sometimes, when you're in the thick of it all, it's easy to become so insular and focused that everything else fades away.

To borrow an age-old adage, you can lose the forest for the trees.

But as the Carolina Panthers stand here on the precipice of something truly special, a chance to redefine who they are for the NFL, and for themselves, Dave Canales is being intentional about appreciating where they're at, where they've come from in less than two short years, and where they want to go next as a program.

"I go there every day," the coach admitted Thursday as to how often he allows himself to think about how this rebuild process has unfolded. "That's something that I'm really proud of with (general manager) Dan (Morgan) and I and (executive vice president of football operations) Brandt (Tilis), (owner) Mr. Tepper and the conversations that we have over the last two years of where we are and where we're headed, what is the next step."

For right now, that next step is well defined: win on Saturday and get into the playoffs for the first time since 2017. It's an opportunity that very few in the locker room have been given, especially if drafted here in the past eight years.

Two of those guys are Chuba Hubbard and Jaycee Horn. Drafted to the Panthers in the 2021 draft class, they found themselves reminiscing at practice on Wednesday. But more importantly—taking a page from their coach's book—stopping to appreciate where they are and how far they've come.

"It's been times, obviously I've prayed for this, multiple other guys," Hubbard shared. "Me and Jaycee were just talking in practice, talking about just the highs and lows and everything that it took to get to this point. So you know, we're thankful and blessed, but we're hungry. We know how much this means to us and Carolina, so it's all or nothing."

Hubbard was at least playing in 2022 when the Panthers were last making a playoff push with an interim coach (before missing the postseason with a 7-8 record). But Horn was sidelined for the last two games of that season with a broken wrist. Saturday will be the first time the Pro Bowler will suit up for what is a de facto playoff game.

"It's exciting," smiled Horn. "(Chuba and I) just talked a little bit about the stuff we've been through since we got drafted here: injuries, losing seasons, coaching changes, just to have this opportunity, it means a lot, a lot to both of us, and I'm sure all the guys (that) have been here for a long time."

Those guys, to Horn's point, haven't experienced a winning season since 2017. The last gasp was the 2022 push, then came the infamous 2023 season, which ended 2-15 and featured an in-season coaching change. When Canales and crew were brought in for 2024, there were no grand promises made early on. Everyone involved knew this would be a multi-year process.

So they got to work, taking that two-win team to five wins in the first year of this new program, and now to eight wins and (possibly) counting in year two.

"Having that everyday focus, attacking every day, what does a win look like today?" posed Canales. "It's been two years of just trying to find wins by either improving things, by adjusting things, evaluating our processes, and all those things, and I think about it every day."

There is a devil's advocate argument to be made that the Panthers are only in shot of the playoffs and their first division title since 2015 because the Bucs have stumbled down the stretch, the Saints made a quarterback change mid-season, and the Falcons didn't find their stride until after being eliminated.

None of it takes away from what has happened in Charlotte this year, when the Panthers put themselves in position to take advantage of the door opening earlier than expected by winning crucial division games, knocking off two separate No. 1 teams, putting together a three-game winning streak early in the season, and being mentally prepared to come back from each loss since.

None of what's happening the rest of the division, conference, and league changes what happened when the group decided to ask themselves back in the offseason, "Why not us?" When Derrick Brown stood at the mic during training camp and warned the rest of the league, "Don't doubt us, don't doubt us.

"You got a lot of hungry people out here," Brown said. "If that's what people want to say, it is one thing, but I mean just inside the building, everybody believes, and that's more dangerous, so I'm excited to see what this team holds."

When this season does come to a close, whenever that may be, the Panthers will take more time to reflect, to assess, and to self-evaluate. And they'll likely determine that—no matter what happens this weekend—they finished this season ahead of the expected rebuilding timeline.

Until then, Dave Canales and crew will look to steal those little moments each day, a second to appreciate where they're at, where they've brought themselves to.

"I have so much gratitude for the hard work of the whole group, of this whole organization, and what we're doing to put ourselves in this position now," said Canales. "And I know that I can't name everybody, but I have such an appreciation for everyone who's contributed to this."

And then it's back to work.