CHARLOTTE — The Panthers are setting a record before they even take the field this weekend, and it's one they hope helps them build for years to come.

Of the 53-man active roster they're taking to Jacksonville, 12 of them are rookies, the most the Panthers have ever carried into a regular season in 31 years of business.

That breaks the previous record of 10, which happened in three seasons.

That's also nearly a quarter of the roster (22.6 percent), and part of a deliberate effort by general manager Dan Morgan to make this team more sustainable. Of the 53 players on the roster entering Sunday's game against the Jaguars, 40 have been acquired in the last two seasons when Morgan was GM (and only seven predate his arrival in June 2021 as assistant GM).

"We definitely wanted to get younger,

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