CHARLOTTE — Panthers cornerback Jaycee Horn got the attention when the Pro Bowl team was announced, and that was deserved, partially because he doesn't get that much attention during games from opponents.

But if teams are going to throw to the other side, where Mike Jackson is, that comes with a risk as well.

Jackson had an interception and a pair of passes defensed last week against the Seahawks, giving him four picks and 19 PDs on the season. The 19 also leads the league, and is one short of the franchise record of 20 set by Eric Davis (1999) and Brett Maxie (1995). Jackson's 36 passes defensed since coming here are the most in the league over the last two seasons.

"We've been so blessed with the way Mike has really played these last few years and certainly exceeded the expectations of a lot of people, but did not exceed his expectations," defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero said Wednesday. "And when you look at the way he prepares, the extra time he spent with coach (Jonathan) Cooley in the meeting rooms, this guy is as dialed-in a player as I've ever been around in that position.

"He's locked in, in every walkthrough. He's strategizing. He has a plan in terms of how he's playing every receiver, how he's playing certain formations, and there's so much great dialogue in our pre-practice walkthroughs between him and the secondary coaches. And so it's not a surprise that he goes out there and has the performances that he does."

Evero also took time out of his press conference Wednesday to express dismay that Derrick Brown wasn't named to the Pro Bowl team, and said Jackson is worthy of those kind of honors this year as well.

Horn doesn't get thrown at a ton (which is part of the reason he's recognized as a two-time Pro Bowler), but Jackson has more than done his job on the other side.

As the nearest defender in coverage this season, Jackson has been targeted 90 times outside, the third-most in the league. But opposing quarterbacks have just a 69.3 passer rating against him, the eighth-lowest among the players with 250 or more coverage snaps as an outside corner.

"Sometimes the choice is going to be made to stay away from Jaycee and attack to the field, and that's where the volume of opportunities comes from Mike," Evero said. "And sometimes the plan is going to be to maybe challenge Jaycee one-on-one, and both of those guys will have the opportunities.

"But I do think that I know that they both have good comfort in terms of what their roles are, what their jobs are, and what people are going to present to them."

The Mitch Evans tush push experiment begins

The Panthers employed a tush push on Sunday for the first time this season, using rookie tight end Mitchell Evans to convert a fourth-and-1.

Well, actually, Brad Idzik clarifies, it wasn't a tush push.

"We didn't push the tush," joked the offensive coordinator on Wednesday.

Instead, it was more of a traditional QB sneak.

"Mitch did a good enough job of driving his legs and keeping his pad level down. Maybe something we can grow to add more bodies in the box," Idzik shared.

"I don't know that we're going to become the Philadelphia Eagles anytime soon, but, at the same time, anytime you have a weapon like that that can take a snap under center for us, and Mitch, we feel comfortable with him doing that stuff."

Evans was a quarterback in high school, as so many NFL tight ends were, and while in college at Notre Dame, the Fighting Irish used Evans on QB sneaks a handful of times as well. When he first arrived in Charlotte this spring, he immediately began advocating for doing so at the NFL level as well.

"He threw it at me really early in the year in the offseason as well, but we've been working on it for weeks, and he's done a great job," shared Idzik.

The offense can't necessarily practice it live as much this time of year, when practices are forced to ramp down, but the group repped it during the offseason and has used the more recent attempts in practice to polish up Evans' cadence and timing.

"We've been working on it for a while now," Dave Canales said this week. "Mitch is just getting a comfort level of it…there's a lot that goes into the sneak play, the timing of the snap, the guy's firing off on the ball the right way, and then the quarterback being able to brace himself so he doesn't take that initial impact because if you go too quickly, you can get knocked back with an initial charge from the defense, but if you give yourself an element of space and time, then your momentum adds to the center's momentum and the guards and then so the whole thing kind of times up the right way.

"And that takes practice, and the guys, the quarterbacks around the league, and the tight ends more and more now are getting really good at that part of it."

Finally, on Sunday, the Panthers were ready to use it. Now, with one game left in the regular season, and possibly a playoff run, Carolina has forced opposing defenses to scout for a completely new wrinkle on fourth-down plays that is different from what they've done previously.

"It's just really good to have a sneak play," said Canales. "Up until this point we've really leaned on Chuba Hubbard and Rico Dowdle with our dive plays, our belly plays, some actions off of those things, toss cracks, bootlegs, play action passes, just trying to, sometimes we'll spread it out and go 11 personnel, so just trying to have variety, but when it's less than 1-yard, it's half a yard, it's 6 inches, it's good to have a sneak play."

Trevor Etienne's growth showing up as a punt returner

When the Panthers named rookie Trevor Etienne as their primary punt returner this season, they knew there would be some growing pains. Etienne did it sparingly in college, only twice to be exact, but his speed and vision meant there was clay to mold there.

"Obviously, a lot of the college punts are bouncing to you, lower hang time," explained special teams coordinator Tracy Smith this week. "This is a different sport when it comes to that. The rules are completely different, so you're seeing something different."

But as Etienne has progressed through the season, Smith has seen his returner adjust his game week to week as he has ridden the wave of learning to return punts in the NFL.

"The starting block for him was just catching the ball reliably, and we saw a season full of left-footed punters, right-footed punters, rugby style guys, all that one at a time is learning guys," explained Smith.

"He's now getting to the point where he's seen—this is the third punter that he's seeing for the second time," said Smith, referring to Tampa Bay's Riley Dixon, which will be the third divisional punter Etienne will have faced.

"He's never even done that before. Now he gets to see Riley again. He's like, 'Oh yeah, I caught this ball on that side of this, that kind of thing.' So the experience has grown, and he's been conscientious enough about it to make that experience matter."

The result of that is tangible and noticeable growth in the young returner, which means he's now returned 19 punts for 160 yards, averaging 8.4 yards per return with a long of 16 and five fair catches. According to Next Gen Stats, Etienne has produced what is considered a successful punt return on 52.6 percent of his punts, the seventh-highest success rate in the NFL amongst qualifying punt returners (min. 15 returns).

"He just gets a little bit better over the course of this season," Smith said. "There hasn't been a jump and a dip because he is just working at it methodically. He is, after every single practice, getting his catches. He is hyper-focused on his job, so he's done a good job.

"I'm so excited for the success that he's starting to have in the return game…the biggest part for us is he's become, over the course of the season, really secure with the ball, and that's, that's choice A. That's why you get to be back there."