CHARLOTTE — The differences in the Panthers' defense have been obvious and significant — beginning with things as visible as a Derrick Brown in the middle.

And the statistical measures are improving after last year, which is reasonable considering where they began and how much has changed since then.

But thinking back to the last time the Panthers played the Falcons, the changes on defense are frankly alarming.

"You get new guys on the team every year," veteran defensive end A'Shawn Robinson said with a nod. "I don't really worry about those things. I just worry about us just doing our job at a high level."

They're moving in that direction, after it became clear they needed to bring in reinforcements on that side of the ball.

A total of 13 players took snaps in the defensive front seven for the Panthers in that overtime win to spoil the Falcons' playoff hopes and close the season in January. Only four of them remain with the Panthers on the active roster.

Outside linebacker D.J. Wonnum played 70 of the 79 snaps because they were practically out of options. Robinson was injured in the first half and wasn't able to finish, managing just 21 snaps. That meant rookie Jaden Crumedy (still here backing up) had to play 40 snaps, or 51 percent of the game. Thomas Incoom played a single snap on defense that day, and he remains here as one of their top special teams players.

That's it, that's the list.

Panthers defensive snap counts, 2024 regular season finale at Atlanta

Of the other nine players to take snaps on the first two levels of the defense that day, four of them are not employed playing professional football at the moment. Three others have found new jobs with other teams (Shy Tuttle in Tennessee, Jadeveon Clowney in Dallas, Sam Roberts in Atlanta, though he hasn't been active for a game yet). Defensive end LaBryan Ray is still here on injured reserve, rehabbing a high ankle sprain. Among those not playing at the moment is middle linebacker Chandler Wooten, who was the sixth different player to call signals for the Panthers defense last season.

Of the eight defensive backs to play that game (cornerback Jaycee Horn was inactive), only three remain, and Demani Richardson is the only member of the safety group that's still here, along with cornerbacks Mike Jackson and Akayleb Evans.

Such was the nature of 2024 and the subsequent offseason, as the Panthers worked aggressively to restock the defense from front to back.

Of course, that began with getting Brown back from the knee injury that cost him the rest of the season.

Defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero has pointed to the improved performance in run defense this year (allowing just 82 yards on the ground last week against the Cardinals, after 200 against Jacksonville, with 72 of it coming on one play), and Brown's large presence in that.

"The biggest difference between Week 1 and Week 2 was the explosive runs," Evero said. "So obviously, Week 1, we gave up three or four runs that led to big gains, and we were able to get rid of those, really, in the second week. And so I thought for the most part, we've done a good job between our D-linemen and our outside backers really playing against the opposing teams' offensive lines, and so I felt good about how we played. Obviously, Week 1, there were a couple of things we didn't fit correctly, and it came back to bite us. And so just continuing to understand like where everybody fits in the puzzle and when they run the ball, how we play up front, how we play off of the second level, and understand how people are attacking us.

"So I thought we had a better job or did a better job of that Week 2, and yeah, certainly you have a player of Derrick's caliber in there, it's going to make a big big difference and he's another one, he did a good job Week 1, in Week 2 he was dominant. And when he plays that way it's really good for us."

That's an understatement, but only the beginning of the restock.

They added defensive linemen Tershawn Wharton and Bobby Brown III on the first day of free agency, along with outside linebacker Patrick Jones II, linebacker Christian Rozeboom, and safety Tre'von Moehrig. Wharton and Jones are out with injuries today, but they're also layering in players, including rookie outside linebackers Nic Scourton (who is in line to play a lot of Jones' early down snaps) and Princely Umanmielen (who got the first sack of his career last week).

And with all the new faces, the results have improved.

The Panthers rank 22nd in the league in yards allowed and 23rd in points allowed, and those are 10- and nine-spot improvements from last season. And while they're far from a finished product, they've shown signs of the improvement they needed on that side of the ball, after setting all the wrong kind of records last year. They're also up to 13th in the league in third-down conversions allowed (38.1 percent) after they were last in the league in that category last year as well (50.2 percent).

Again, they're far from where they want to be, but they're showing an amount of real progress.

"Yeah, we're together on defense," Robinson said. "We do everything together. We trust each other. There's no man bigger than the other, so we take everybody's words as fuel. Whatever we need to do, or whatever we need to adjust on and communicate. That's the biggest key about this defense is all about communication."