CHARLOTTE — Every rookie class hopes to the one to change a franchise. Every class arrives in the spring with hope, and dreams, and goals for themselves individually and as a collective group. And every class, at some point, realizes they are on a different playing field. It's at that point they choose whether or not to rise to the occasion.

Through the offseason and now the first quarter of the 2025 season, the Carolina Panthers 2025 rookie class has answered the call. All seven draft picks, plus multiple undrafted free agents ( Corey Thornton, Ryan Fitzgerald, Bam Martin-Scott, and Trevian Thomas) , have played in and contributed to games (and wins) in major ways already.

From leading receivers to the season's first sack, big tacklers to huge fourth-down conversions, and more, this rookie class has already made their impact. Now, five games in, they look back at the beginning of their NFL career. They offer advice to their pre-draft selves, share their welcome to the NFL moment, and give us a peek into the famous rookie talent show.

Be sure to catch the new episode of Blueprint tonight (premiering Friday at 6:30 pm on panthers.com and the Panthers YouTube channel) for an extended look into the rookie class, the rookie talent show, and the rookie's impact so far in 2025.

Now five games in, what advice would you give your pre-draft self?

Tetairoa McMillan (Rd. 1, No. 8): "Just be grateful and stay true to yourself."

Nic Scourton (Rd. 2, No. 51): "I would tell him the round you get drafted in doesn't matter, but the team and the coaching staff that believes in me, that's ultimately—during that time I really let not going first round get to me, but now looking back on it, man, I'm so dang blessed to be here and I have nothing to worry about."

Princely Umanmielen (Rd. 3, No. 77): "I'd probably tell myself to try to be the hardest working person in the building and to fall in love with the process and not fall in love with the results."

Trevor Etienne (Rd. 4, No. 111): "Get ready to live your dreams, you know, get ready to go to work, get ready to become the best version of yourself. Get ready to tap into a mode that you never knew you could tap into."

Lathan Ransom (Rd. 4, No. 122): "I think to just enjoy the moment. Just never forget how bad you wanted to get here, all the sacrifice that you and your family members made to get here. I tell myself to this day, I tell myself that every time you step on the field you're playing for them and playing for the Lord who's blessed you to be here."

Cam Jackson (Rd. 5, No. 140): "Have more fun with it. I feel like April Cam Jackson, he took it like a whole lot serious, so I'd for sure tell him that, just have fun with the process for sure.

"Just when I got here, you know, coming in as a rookie, I'm thinking like, they're grown men, so everybody's going to be serious. But, I say just getting around, especially my D-line guys and the other guys, they really just some big kids at heart. So yeah, I really would just tell him like, you know, don't go in too tense, just go in and have fun with it."

Mitchell Evans (Rd. 5, No. 163): "Rest. Get as much rest as you can because you're not going to get much during the season. Kind of that, establish a good routine, because when you get throughout game week, the weeks are all the same, really whether you're away or home is a little different, but like establishing a routine, how you go about things, how you study film, how you recover, how you eat, all that really matters.

"Because you get comfortable, then you get in the swing of things and your body adjust to that. If you're kind of all around the place, your, weight can be down, it could be up, you won't feel as good on game day. You could be mentally out there because maybe you studied less film than you normally do, whatever. So just establishing a routine is I'd say has been really key."

Jimmy Horn Jr. (Rd. 6, No. 208): "Just continue to keep standing down, you know what I'm saying, staying patient and just continue to grow as a player and never get satisfied. That's what I tell younger Jimmy."

Corey Thornton (UDFA): "Be in God, bro. I'll probably tell myself win the lottery ticket. (Burst out laughing). I'm playing, but to myself, to trust in God, continue to go hard and don't let up, you feel me. Keep on going, keep being consistent, keep on just being a blessing to others, just keep striving, be the best version of yourself. You're going to be good, bro. You going to be good."

What has been the most surprising thing about the NFL, or the moment you realize the league was different?

Tetairoa McMillan: "My welcome to the NFL moment was when I seen Adam Theilen walk into the locker room with with his son. That was for sure my welcome to the NFL moment.

"Because in college, you have a few guys that have kids, but they ain't nothing but babies and toddlers, you know, so, I think his son was like, I want to say he was anywhere between 6 and 8 years old, so I was like, 'What is he doing here?' Yeah, I was like, I'm really in the league now."

Nic Scourton: "Honestly I've kind of, I would say just how different it is after the game. Like guys are friends, you know you're seeing people you played college with, it's just honestly different like it's a different type of intensity once the game's over. Like after the game in college, I'm mad, I want to fight somebody, but now I got my brother across the field, I'm so proud of him."

Princely Umanmielen: "Ummm welcome to the NFL, not yet, not yet. It's still early."

Trevor Eteinne: "I would definitely say kind of just like watching how guys prepare and how much goes into taking care of your body. I'll say at college, you know, I thought I was doing enough, but watching Chuba Hubbard, watching Rico Dowdle, watching the guys in my room, watching just the guys—I've learned a lot from them, so I just say my welcome to the NFL was really learning how to become a pro.

"I would ask my brother certain things and he still helps me to this day, but kind of seeing it firsthand and just still learning from him also, you know, just I say that's probably my welcome to the NFL, learning how to become a pro."

Lathan Ransom: "How you just got to flush the last game so quickly and get to the new game. I think obviously it was like that at Ohio State, before I got here, but just, you don't think about that last one. Once that Monday ends, it's on to the next game prepping for the next game."

Cam Jackson: "It's still early. I'm waiting on that."

Mitchell Evans: "Just realizing game-to-game, or week-to-week, like everyone's good, records showing are not—individual, schematically everyone like, they're getting paid millions of dollars too for a reason like they're not bad, no one in the NFL is really bad because they all got here for a reason."

"So just kind of facing that because you know in college there was definitely a kind of a level of who you're going against. But realizing that each week you got to bring your A-game no matter who you're playing and that just goes back to honing in on your craft and technique and really how important that is because in college talent can take you pretty far, bnut here it's like you got to have talent and technique, so I'd probably say realizing that has been my moment of like, 'OK, you're in the NFL like everyone's a dog.'"

Jimmy Horn: "Oh, I say my first moment was training camp and we had the joint practice with the Browns. I felt like that's a surreal moment, like I'm seeing players out there I grew up watching like Myles Garrett. I just seen him right there, I'm lining up at receiver, and Myles Garrett, shoot, really just being right there.

"I'm in here with Andy Dalton. I was a jitt (a kid) when Andy was playing quarterback. And I'm here playing with this man. Adam Thielen was right here, like that was crazy."

Corey Thornton: "It's every day. Every day, the meeting rooms, from the practice field, from the game, the start of the game. They got the big flag that come out, the little jet that flew over one time. I got to be locked in, I'm not thinking about that at the time, but afterwards I'm like 'Damn, that was pretty nice.'

"And seeing Andy Dalton; coming up I watch Andy Dalton in high school."

Who was your winner in the rookie talent show that takes place every year during training camp, when each rookie has to sing a song (sometimes multiple times) until veterans approve?

Tetairoa McMillan: "(International practice squad linebacker) Mapalo Mwansa, or Corey Thornton. Corey sang A Thousand Miles. That was a vibe, that was a vibe."

Nic Scourton: "TMac; he sung gospel, but I think he had the good vibe."

Princely Umanmielen: "My winner, probably Maz. He had a lot of energy up there."

Trevor Eteinne: "Maz, he definitely did the best. He just had the energy. He had everybody going."

Lathan Ransom: "Corey Thornton! I think it was so funny how we started it off with a different song than he was originally doing and kind of switched the vibe and then switched to the song he was really good at and he killed it."

Cam Jackson: "I would say Maz, he really kicked it off for us, gave me confidence to go up there and do what I needed to do for sure."

Mitchell Evans: "You had to find a song that everybody could sing along to so that would kind of ease it whatever, but if it was a song no one knew or you weren't giving passion to it, Corey Thornton opens up with '1000 miles', everyone knows it. And also it's Corey. It's hilarious.

"It was funny the way he gave it energy and stuff, that was the big thing I was told from everybody is like just give it energy and give it a try, you'll be fine."

Jimmy Horn: "Well I think I did the best. I feel like if they knew my song I would have won… But if you gonna be real, I'll give it to Maz. He did a good job. He brought out, he was he was on chairs."

What did you sing?

Tetairoa McMillan: "'I Smile' by Kirk Franklin…Honestly, I came up with it probably like a couple of minutes before walking into the team meeting. I was like I know a lot of people on the team would know it and you know it's a gospel song, so it's hard to not like gospel."

Nic Scourton: (The defense held their portion of the talent show during the joint practice week in Houston. Scourton suffered the collapsed lung during that joint practice, and was unable to participate. Defensive lineman Bobby Brown III interjected and said that would be remedied at some point this season.)

Princely Umanmielen: "So I tried to sing T-Pain 'Buy a Drink' at first, but I couldn't hear the beat, so I started messing up and they booed me, throw cups at me and all that. So then I went up there, I went back up there and tried to just sing another song that I knew and I sang 'Love Yourself' by Justin Bieber. I know that any time of the day."

Trevor Etienne: "Um, I hope my footage never [gets out]."

Lathan Ransom: "I sang the song I'm going to sing at my wedding one day. Yeah, I'm going to sing it at my wedding. It's called 'If I Ever Fall in Love' by Shai."

Cam Jackson: "I did 'Say Goodbye' by Chris Brown. So when I started singing and I seen Bryce Young and Turk singing, I was like, 'Yeah, I got it, yeah, I got it.'"

Mitchell Evans: "The offense was so bad. We were first. I don't make excuses, but we were first and they changed the rules a little bit because normally before it was like they just sing a-cappella or whatever so that was kind of like, whatever and it was like at random time.

"And back in the day it was anybody, any random day through camp, you can get called and you go out there and perform whatever and you can get booed or whatnot. But this year they did it offense one day, then defense another day and so offense was first and then defense had an extra two weeks to figure out what they wanted to do but I definitely think I carried the offensive side a little bit."

"I will never want to watch that performance ever again. I sang 'Let Me Love You' by Mario. It was just a song that I felt like I could sing because you had to sing it like like we were getting booed for doing other stuff. So it was a song that I knew all the words to, could sing it easily and I feel like it was everyone knew the song, could sing it as well.

"I was bad like, vocally, whatever they say, if I was on American Idol, or The Voice, they would not turn around for my performance, but I just gave a passion and stuff, so all I could do is just try my best."

Jimmy Horn: "I did that song from Sinners, 'I Lied To You.' [Breaks into song] 'There's something I've been wanting to tell you for a long time.

'It might hurt you.

'I hope you don't lose your mind.'"

Corey Thornton (UDFA): "'A Thousand Miles.' That was the song my sister told me to sing. Of course [watched White Chicks growing up] and that's a part of it. But I sing it all the time in the car with my little sister. We'll be in the car, she's 13, and we'll always listening to it and we just be singing together."