CHARLOTTE — Xavier Legette is willing to admit this hasn't been the easiest start to a season.

But he's also confident that what's happening now isn't going to last.

"When it pops it's going to pop," Legette said Thursday. "The ball's going to find me, and it's going to be what it's going to be."

He was matter-of-fact and confident in his approach in part because he was being coached up from behind the media scrum by his fellow wide receiver and close friend David Moore.

While a throng of reporters surrounded Legette after practice, Moore was on the periphery watching closely, and when it was over, he laughed and said, "I got my boy over there. Y'all grilling my dog. Get off his neck. Get off his neck."

Moore was kidding and having fun with all this, because he refuses to let the current hysteria over the second-year wideout become the thing it's been outside the locker room and practice field. He even joined the knot of reporters around Jaycee Horn and asked a question about Legette, and Horn just shook his head and said, ... "Nah, man," and walked away.

"I was just trying to help my man, they was grilling my mans," Moore said when it was over, adding that when reporters are gone and it's just them, the conversations aren't terribly different.

"Hey boy, pick your head up," he described a recent conversation. "You're going to get your s--- right, don't think too much about it. We all go through it. It's all about, you know, coming back the next day with a different mentality."

And that's why the Panthers are confident this two-game stretch, in which Legette has four catches for 8 yards, is a temporary condition.

They've seen the work he's done this offseason, the supplemental Jugs machine workouts with Chuba and others, the time he's put into it. And when head coach Dave Canales was asked Wednesday, he said he felt bad because he hadn't put Legette in the right spots. Tetairoa McMillan began an answer about his teammate by saying, "I'm not worried about him at all. I know that come Sunday, he's going to show up, and the main thing for me, and what I see in him, is his confidence. He's a confident dude, and he's staying confident regardless of the outcome, regardless of whatever's going on."

So there's a decided lack of worry around him, and he appears to have picked up on that.

"I'm trying to go about it the right way," Legette said. "I'm just trying to stay to the course, just keep pushing. The storm don't last forever, so good days are coming."

When asked if he considered this a storm, he nodded.

"Yeah, for sure, man, because I ain't getting the outcome that I want," he said. "I don't really know, I guess I've got to wait 'til it's time."

It went on like that for about five minutes, but everyone looking for a complicated answer was left waiting, because to Legette, this was simple.

"It just ain't happened yet," Legette said. "I'm going to just leave it like that. It just ain't happened yet."

This is the same thing Moore is telling him often. With his rural Texas ranching roots, he's the closest thing to having a similar background as exists in the receivers room. And they quickly fell in together, going to rodeos and hanging out outside the office, which helps alleviate some of the tension in the work environment.

The 2017 seventh-rounder has stayed in the league as long as he has (and this is the third team Canales has brought him to) by playing well when called but also for having the right kind of perspective, and he's tried to share his wisdom with Legette throughout. But when they're together, it's more Butch and Sundance than Yoda and Luke Skywalker, because there's an easiness about the relationship and the situation.

"It's harder when people don't understand, from the outside looking in, it might look as bad as what you think," Moore said. "But behind the scenes, everybody kind of knows. Like people that know, they know. We all know, X, it's not your fault, man. It's nobody's fault, just stuff like this happens, especially in this game. It's going to work for other receivers. It's going to not work for you at this point."

Moore recalled a stint his junior year in college when he was dropping passes.

"I couldn't catch a ball to save my life," he said. "And it just came out of nowhere, it just happened so I was in my head pretty bad, games where I cried because I was mad. I was so angry, but all it took was one catch. I can remember the catch this day."

And after that?

"I caught it, scored, and from that day on, I was all good again," he replied.

And that's what he's reminding Legette right now, while reminding him why he's here.

"I think what X is going through right now, it's nothing new, it's nothing abnormal," he said. "I think it's really nothing to it besides just coming back day by day and just getting better with the team, along with the team, and not trying to make something bigger than what it is. Because it's not as big as people make it.

"But you know it's the NFL so it's going to be made a big deal and mainly because he's a first-rounder and people are expecting big things from him. But it's OK, bro. That's what we tell them, that's how we talk to each other. I mean, from the oldest to the youngest, youngest to the oldest, we all got that camaraderie that brotherhood that we can talk to each other on that level, right?"

Even when things are going well, like they were last year, Moore said he'll sometimes catch Legette in his own head. That's when he crawls in there with him, just to break the tension.

"I' see him over there with just a blank face, I go make him laugh," Moore said. "I go do something, say something to him, make him laugh, just kind of keep his spirits up. Even when he's not down, he'll just be sitting, and I just go over there and wake him up a little bit."

And having that kind of support may have rubbed off on Legette. Because as big as it is on the outside — and he admitted seeing some of it at times — he's determined not to lose focus on the things that matter.

Asked if his confidence had wavered, he just shook his head.

"I know one of my best games is around the corner," he replied. "And we're just waiting for it."