CHARLOTTE — James Mitchell wanted to talk about the touchdown—his first of this preseason and the only time the Panthers found the end zone Thursday night—to explain how it unfolded and worked out to give Carolina the 17-yard score, but he hadn't yet seen it. And despite living it, he still wasn't sure how he'd gotten that open.

"Honestly, I'm going to have to see the film because all I know is I turned around and the ball was in the air."

Even when running it in practice, Mitchell had never been given that much open space.

"Oh, you'd like to think so," laughed Mitchell, "but, actually, probably not."

After finally seeing a clip, and unable to stop himself from losing it when realizing there wasn't even a defender on the screen, the tight end was able to articulate the connection between the play, the scramble, and the score, plus his celebration with the youth football team waiting on the sideline for their halftime scrimmage.

"I just had a corner route and that scenario in the red zone, you know, we have a break point and aiming point when we get in the end zone, and Jack Plummer did a great job of putting the ball exactly where it needed to be and I was able to get to that spot and it worked out perfectly," he explained.

Mitchell has been a quiet force this camp, not making flashy plays, but making consistently positive ones. This is his fourth training camp, following his first three with the Detroit Lions, who drafted him in the fifth round in 2022. While in the Motor City, he played in 30 games, starting one, and pulling in 13 receptions for 141 yards and one touchdown.

With Tommy Tremble spending the entirety of camp rehabbing from a back surgery, Mitchell was the old head, bringing experience and understanding to his unit and the offense.

"I feel like I've had a really, really good camp, really solid camp," Mitchell admitted. "There's always something that I can get better at, always something I can do better, but you know my mind says just to attack every day."

In total, Mitchell finished the preseason with four catches for 32 yards and the score. Whether or not it's enough to stick around now that Tremble has been activated will remain to be seen. But his touchdown Thursday night was a cap on a camp of which Mitchell is proud.

"I was blessed with a new opportunity here after being in Detroit, so I haven't taken that for granted. Every day I've been trying to just be the best I can, and if that's not catching the ball, doing something to spark a run, or anything that they ask me to do.

"So you know with that mindset, just being competitive and taking coaching and being accountable, I think that's where my plays have just shown up; just being in the right spot."