CHARLOTTE — Princely Umanmielen leaned into the mic, making sure everyone knew that whatever he was about to say was worth hearing, then offered a knowing smirk, teeing himself up to answer an otherwise simple question as to how he would describe his game as a pass rusher.

"I would describe my game as—it's a crazy word, (but) sexy, you know what I'm saying," Umanmielen said.

"Like when you watch me on film, you're not going to see me mauling guys; I can do that, but it's usually more finesse, like footwork, getting guys' hands off of me, things like that."

It was Umanmielen's film and that, shall we say, enticing technique that made him stand out to the Panthers during the draft process. General manager Dan Morgan and coach Dave Canales have stated on multiple occasions they never imagined a scenario where Tetairoa McMillan, Nic Scourton, and Umanmielen would all be available to draft in the first three rounds. But the cards fell in such a way that it happened.

Now, Umanmielen is finding ways to adjust his game to the NFL speed.

"Like as soon as the ball snaps, everything is developing, now," he explained following Wednesday's mandatory minicamp practice. "In college, I was able to play a little slower and read a little slower, but, like in these practices thus far; I feel like you have to just, you have to kind of go without—you have to know the defense enough to go without thinking because of how fast the game's going."

Even when Umanmielen was "able to play a little slower," he was still finding places to affect the game. In four years at Florida and one final year at Ole Miss as an outside linebacker, Umanmielen had 136 tackles, 40 for loss, 25.5 sacks, four forced fumbles, and one recovered for a touchdown.

Along with fellow rookie Scourton, he's learning alongside veterans D.J. Wonnum and Patrick Jones II. Wonnum is the only returning starter from last year's squad (Jones signed as a free agent this spring from the Vikings), and even then, played in only eight games after spending the first half of the season recovering from a leg injury and subsequent infection.

But after a year in which the unit tied for the third-fewest sacks in the league — Wonnum was able to finish with the third-most on the team with 4.0 sacks in just eight games — Morgan overhauled the position. That included bringing in Scourton and Umanmielen, who arrived well aware of the challenge ahead.

"I embrace it a lot, you know today I think we did a good job of getting out the quarterback," Umanmielen said of the day the defense dominated the first team period. "But I embrace it a lot. I feel like I'm an elite pass rusher, and I feel like I know what I can bring to this team, and I'm looking forward to this season to put that on display."

Defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero's defense is predicated on having dynamic pass rushers off the edge, which means for Umanmielen, it's a chance to play in a defense designed for his skill set. It's a fortuitous marriage since it isn't always the case.

"I think this defense, you know, sometimes in some of our calls, we have three down D-linemen and two outside linebackers, so I think this defense just gives us a lot of freedom to get after the quarterback.

"A lot of times, they'll have the outside linebackers as—like, I visited a team in my 30 visits, and it was like the outside linebackers were more of droppers, like they played more of a box linebacker, like a second level linebacker play.

"But in this defense, they really give us freedom to work with the D-tackles in order to get after the quarterback."

The Panthers need him to get after the quarterback and do it with pads on in the fall. For now, everything is based on practices when no one can go to the ground, and everyone is in shorts. When that time comes, though, for the regular season, Umanmielen—who promised during his draft call to break the bank once his rookie contract was up—is ready to prove he is all Carolina hoped he could be and more.

"I was a little hot that I was sitting until the third round, so it was just proving myself right in the future, just to come out here and just to put in the work to show that I'm worth however much breaking your pockets is," Umanmielen laughed.

"Even though I was a little bloated about it, I'm still grateful at the same time because it gives me something to work for."