Making it to the NFL is a lifelong dream for thousands upon thousands of football players. But few make it. For the Panthers 2026 rookie class, the last four months have been a blur; a culmination of a dream years, even decades in the making. And a crash course in all it takes to become a player at the highest level of the sport.

Six of the Panthers seven draft picks from this year's class recently sat down to reflect on their draft day, the time since, the nerves of training camp, the excitement leading into the season opener, and more in their rookie diaries.

We conclude with Monroe Freeling. The Georgia offensive tackle was the Panthers' first-round pick, taken 19th overall in the 2026 NFL draft.

My name was called right when I got the call. My call got screened by Siri originally, but I picked up the phone and held it all in. Pretty much everyone knows the story after then, but it was a great night.

My mom did a great job setting up the whole party, so it was good. They sent us the hats, which apparently we were supposed to return, but then they told us we didn't have to. So my mom's just waiting to find different fans and different teams when they come over; she still has 31 other hats.

I can't even imagine being anywhere else right now. It worked out in my favor.

Rookie minicamp, that was my first time playing football snaps — that's probably the longest I've gone in my life without playing football up until that point. So at first I was like, oh man, it feels really good to play football again. But also, I was not in football shape, especially that first practice. But I was just happy playing football again at that point.

Then OTAs were non-padded, so there's only so much you can correlate to being like, this is real football. I don't even think it hit me I was in the NFL until training camp, where we actually put pads on.

I remember I was asking (offensive line coach) Joe (Gilbert) as soon as the T-Mo (Taylor Moton blood clot) news came out, and he was like, 'Yeah, you should be fine on the left.' Then, a couple of days before training camp, he called me up and was like, 'Hey, you're actually working right.'

I only had like 160 snaps on the right side in college. Most of them were on the left. At first I was like, well, that's great news I'm with the ones, but I wish I'd known a little earlier. I was going to be working to get that left tackle role, and then I kind of got tossed into the right tackle spot, and so it was just like, all right, let me figure this out. I knew there was going to be growing pains in that department, but I was just excited. It's a new challenge for me to go and attack, so I was excited to do it.

I think I've done a pretty good job of adjusting to it. I've had my ups and downs, but I'm confident in my ability to come into this season.

The challenge going to the right side was flexibility, like hips and stuff, and also just strength-wise. I wasn't really used to kicking off my left leg; that's usually the one that I'm using to plant or hold power. It's just a little different, so it took me a while to figure out how to do it.

I think that, in terms of sets, my sets are the best they've been, even though I didn't have the best training camp practice against the Texans. My takeaway is that my sets were good. I think the other parts of my game need to grow, so I'm looking forward to the next two weeks to really refine that and be ready for the season.

I have a hard time giving myself grace for the Texans practice, because I know that they (Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter) might be the best pass-rushers, and I'm a rookie, but at the same time I know what I'm capable of.

So, yeah, I can give myself grace that I didn't have the best practice against them, but also, I know what I'm capable of, and I know that the things I was doing weren't exactly what I've been doing the whole training camp, whenever I've been having my good practices.

It irks my brain. I'm better than that.

Ahead of the season opener, I'm working on hand placement and using my hands; knowing when to use them, and just being more effective, especially with my left hand. I think I don't use it as much as I should sometimes. On the left side, my primary punch hand is my left hand. So now on the right side, it's like, "Now it's my right hand," but I'm like, "Wait, I can use my left hand too." I don't need to play out here one-handed.

As for emotions on opening day? I think we're both going to find out at the same time. I don't know what the emotions will be right now. I don't know what my family's emotions will be. I'm sure they're going to be happy, but at the same time nervous, and I'm sure I'll be a little nervous too, but if I'm not nervous out there, I think I'm crazy.

You got to have a little bit of nerves going into it, but I'm going to try to just keep my mindset on the goal.

It's just a game; go have fun, play football, be yourself- all of the above. That's all you can do.