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.

Next up is Will Lee III. The Texas A&M corner was drafted in the fourth round (129th overall) in the 2026 NFL draft.

But a guy like me, what I've been through to get to where I am, I always lived with a chip on my shoulder. Out of high school, my freshman year, I felt like I should have played on varsity; didn't play. I played Freshman all year, then sophomore year I played varsity all year. So I took that jump and had that chip on my shoulder all the way. Having to go to junior college, with a chip on my shoulder to get to where I was at.

Then Kansas State, felt like I could have played in the SEC. Played in the SEC, and then being at A&M with all the negative outside noise. They talk about the program always going to 8 and 5 and such and stuff like that. And then, in the two years we were there, we were this close to making the SEC championship.

And then our last year we made the playoffs, and we barely missed the SEC championship. It's always with a chip on my shoulder. Then with the draft just not going where I wanted to go and now just having to prove people wrong, and then really more than anything, prove it to myself, I am who I say I am.

So, really, draft day, I feel like I was more just anxious. I just wanted to hear my name being called. I was looking throughout the media, looking up, and having people in my ear; nobody could have told me I wasn't a Day 2 guy. So that was just in my mind, and then after the last pick of the third round, and I wasn't called, it kind of upset me, honestly. Hearing some of the guys that went before me, it was like, I know they ain't work harder than me.

But then the next day, when I got called, and it was Carolina, I was like, oh yeah, the fit was perfect already. I've been watching Jaycee since I was in junior college, and then having him and seeing what Mike Jack did last year, then having Nic Scourton on the team and all the other Aggie guys here, and just knowing what they did for them, I knew I was in a good situation. So it was amazing.

And also, being in Charlotte, it's a mixture of what I could ask for to live in; you could be on the outskirts where it's quiet, and you're away from everything, and then you have a little bit of the city life too when you come downtown, and it just balances out your lifestyle. So, it was just perfect in my eyes.

I feel like practicing with the first team during camp- yes, it was pressure- but I feel it was more the fact that they felt like they could trust me, so I took it as a positive.

They trust you, and they know what you can do, so go out there and do what you do best. Do what you normally do on a day-to-day basis and perform.

It made it really easy because I just play football. It's not like I'm filing taxes or trying to build a spacecraft or anything. It's just going out there, playing in between those white lines and just doing what you do best and what got you here.

So it was really easy for me, going out there and playing with the vets. Having Nick Scott and then Tre'von Moehrig at safety, they really slowed it down for me. Day to day, you're getting a lot of calls in; you have to run a lot of different defenses. Just having those guys there to slow it down for me and tell me what to do and what I got to do made it real easy for me to pick up on the defense. In my head now, it's like I know what to do. So when they tell me, I already know.

Guarding TMac (Tetairoa McMillan), guarding the Offensive Rookie of the Year, I try to cherish my wins. When I was first out there in training camp, there weren't a lot of them. So the ones I got, it kept me like, keep going, keep going, keep going.

He does the little things right. When you see the little things he does right, you're like, 'OK, so now I got to change up this technique, and I got to like tweak this a little bit and play it like this or play it like that.' It makes you critique your game to a tee. So, it's good for me to go against him because he's so young, and it's just like, seeing what he can do at a young age gives me motivation because I'm not that far from where he's at.

He's in the league in his second year, and I'm on my first, and I'm probably even older than TMac, which is crazy.

*McMillan is older than Lee but only by four days

So it's like, you really just can't think of the age as treating anybody differently. In my eyes, he's a vet because he's been in the league longer. So taking the little things he tells me and how I should play something instead of playing it like this is really helpful. Going against him, it makes me better every day.

And then going against guys like D-Mo (David Moore ) and Xavier Legette and all those guys, it's so many different play styles. It's really setting me up for when I do play against different receivers in the regular season. It's not like I haven't seen it before, because we have literally every style of receiver you can ask for in the league: Jimmy Horn Jr., you got a little twitchy, fast guy. You got Legette, a fast, big, physical receiver. You got TMac, the smooth route runner that does everything to a tee. You got D-Mo, who's been in the league long, and he just does things with no wasted movement. He does everything without wasting movement.

So you can get a little bit of everything, which helps me have a variety of styles and practice I can go against.

I made that (interception versus TMac), and it's like, can I do it again? Every time I get a pick — and I established that in my mindset — I can keep doing it again, and I don't get too high or get too low, and I stay level-headed; that's a win for me. The pick isn't such a win; it's more of the fact that I can do it on a consistent basis and keep myself level-headed.

Say you have that week of going without a pick and you're down, and you feel like you're not playing well. No, that's not the case. It's just sometimes the ball just doesn't find you. When you understand that, you know you can make those plays, and you can do it, and you don't get too high and get too low; it just keeps your play in the middle.

I really haven't thought about the opener much because I really want to cherish it. I'm an in-the-moment type of guy. I don't want to think it's going to be like this or think it's going to be like that, or be disappointed or be overly surprised, because it throws me off.

I think about getting to play against my former teammate (receiver) Jahdae Walker, him being at the Bears, and (Bears receiver) Luther Burden, a St. Louis guy; we were close friends growing up, so it's like being able to play against those guys, it's fun. But really, with me, the whole moment thing, I'm just trying to stay as level-headed as possible and just make sure I go out there, do my job, and just don't disappoint.

Take it day to day, and then when it comes, just live in the moment for it to happen.