CHARLOTTE — Other than guys coming in for treatment for injuries, players weren't in the stadium Friday morning, when Panthers head coach Dave Canales made a change to the defensive coaching staff. Since the plane home from Green Bay landed around 3 a.m., that's reasonable. And with their mini-bye weekend, this provides a last chance for some rest before their final 10 games.

But when they come back to work on Monday, the players know they have to work one way.

Together.

That was clear from the post-game locker room Thursday night, when a number of the team's leaders — the guys who have been here long enough to have seen coaching changes before, at the coordinator level and above — said the responsibility was on them to keep things cohesive.

"We're not going to explode from the inside out, right?" veteran defensive tackle Derrick Brown said. "We're going to stay together. This is a team; we've been going at it since July or whatever, however long ago it was; the message is simple.

"We're going to figure it out inside, right? Inside our house. We don't need to do all the talking and all this other stuff. We've just got to figure it out. You can learn, go out there and execute in all three phases, whether it be offense, defense, or special teams. Nobody played perfect tonight."

Brown, in addition to being one of the best players on the roster, is also one of the examples of what any coach would want. He works, he's accountable, and he's present in a way that not every player is. He's one of those "he talks, people listen" guys in the locker room, which is why he's a three-time captain.

But he's also not alone in that messaging after Thursday's loss to the Packers. For starters, Chuba Hubbard wasn't freaking out about a second straight loss, even though the Panthers have been so good in the situations in the past (they're not 8-4 following a loss over the last two seasons).

"Not just me, but we have a bunch of other leaders, and that's just what we have to convey," Hubbard said Thursday. "A big thing, like I just said, is finding our best every single week regardless of if you lose big, you win big, or whoever you play, and that's the culture we're building here. And like I said, it's Game 7. This isn't panic mode. It's just, look, evaluate, go back to what we did right and what we did wrong, and then move forward.

"I think we all have that belief regardless of win or loss. We've been building this culture from. Yeah, it's my job to emphasize these things and make sure that we're bringing that best every single week and every single day. And I'm going to do my very best. I promise to do that."

Again, it's worth remembering that as a first-round pick in 2020 and a fourth-round pick in 2021, Brown and Hubbard have seen some things. They've been here for five head coaches. Interim defensive coordinator Todd Wash will be Brown's fourth defensive signal caller, and Hubbard has been through even more changes. He's worked five different people with the offensive coordinator title, and if you count the four switches in 2023, he knows all about transitions.

So even though he was talking Thursday night before they knew about the change, the captain's words carried weight about how they'd have to proceed. Both Hubbard and Brown have been here when the offense was carrying the weight, and vice versa, so they know the importance of moving forward as one.

"No, I don't think it's anything divisive; no one's going against each other, no one's doing this or that," Hubbard said. "We're all in this together. Defense has our back. We have defense's back, and we're playing for each other.

"To be on a team where so many guys have such great chemistry and friendships that you know they're not just playing for the family or a check or whatever you want to say. We're playing for each other, and we're trying to win as a joint group, and we're going to continue to do that."

And when they reconvene on Monday, keeping it that way is going to be Canales' message for the next 10 weeks.

Because of the timing of the decision, Canales sent his players a message Friday morning so they'd hear it from him and not social media, and then had individual conversations with some team leaders. The entire team, he'll see Monday morning.

"So I can't really give you a full pulse of the whole thing until I get to talk to the rest of the group," he said Friday when asked about the locker room. "But, hopefully they understand the urgency behind this, hopefully they understand the belief that I have in, and what we have in this locker room. And it's my responsibility and my commitment to making sure that they're getting the best training, that they're getting the best preparation and plan for Sundays."

And Canales knows that even though the change was on defense this week, connecting the three phases of the team will be essential, which dovetails with the message Brown and Hubbard were sending Thursday night.

"I believe that in situations like this, it's implied; we have to approach this job with great urgency," Canales said. "We have to approach every single game like it's the most important, and that's going to happen by default. But also, it's Brad (Idzik, his offensive coordinator) and I talking, it's talking with Goody (run game coordinator Harold Goodwin) and making sure we're all on the same page. Will (Harriger, the quarterback coach), with Bryce being connected on the protection part, the tools to be able to utilize.

"It's the whole group, honestly. And you know we haven't talked about special teams. But I mean this is an organizational deal; we've got to be urgent about what we're doing, and we believe in the guys we have here, and we believe that our best way forward is to make sure that we're giving them the best possible options, that we're finding solutions together.

"So that the players understand that they're supported. And then we expect that, in return, the players will also feel this, they'll feel the urgency of it as well. And anybody on that defensive side who's involved in what we're doing, I'm sure they're going to feel a part of this as well, and they never want to be a part of this type of situation where a coordinator gets fired; they're going to feel that. They're going to feel that personally as well. So, I expect it'll hit us; it'll hit the whole group. But I just want to make everybody understand there's a standard of urgency and excellence that we have to be after, and we're committed to finding that."