“It’s good to have good players,” including Bryce Young

Any conversations about 2027 are of course premature, but Tilis said that’s where his focus usually is anyway.

“I’m already on to next year,” he said. “I’m looking at next year, and I’m seeing, all right, what’s the team going to look like next year? How are things going? How are we going to field the team? Who’s going to be on that team, so on and so forth. I spend a lot of time on that. I’m lucky to have (director of football administration) Justin Davidov, who works with me, and he gives me a lot of good insight there.

“But that’s where my mind, that’s where my worried mind is.”

And to that end, they’re continuing to think ahead.

This roster is continuing to get better and younger at the same time, as the Panthers have just three non-specialists over 30 (31-year-olds Nick Scott, David Moore, and Taylor Moton), and Robert Hunt turning 30 later this month.

“It factors, because when we do anything with our roster, we are projecting into the future and we’re making a prediction as to how this player is going to play,” Tilis said. “And there’s more upside, obviously with younger players, and there’s more certainty that there’s going to be a high level of play with a younger player.

“That doesn’t mean we’re only going for younger players. It just means that they end up getting all the tiebreakers.”