AP

Panthers General Manager Dave Gettleman waited a long time to find a team to run.

But now that he’s got one, he’s not going to get in a hurry making changes to it.

Via Bill Voth of Black and Blue Review, Gettleman insisted his penchant for patience wasn’t likely to change this offseason, even though the Panthers fell a game short of a title and are in better salary cap shape than they’ve been in years.

“With my 30-year meteoric rise, I’ve learned to be patient,” Gettleman said. “If you have a philosophy that you believe in, and I know people are impatient, but, . . . you have to be patient.”

Other than cornerback Josh Norman — who can probably expect to be franchise-tagged — the Panthers don’t have many priority free agents. And though they have some flexibility, it’s more likely Gettleman will try to turn that into deals to keep players such as defensive tackle Kawann Short and eventually Star Lotulelei than to spend on outside free agents.

“We’re going to do everything we can to keep our core together, I mean, you’d have to be an idiot not to,” Gettleman said. “Tough decisions have to be made. We’re going to do the best we can to keep this team together.

“We’ve got a lot of really good, young players and we don’t want to develop players for other teams.”

The Panthers are also five weeks behind most of the rest of the league in terms of preparing for the offseason. But considering they’re more likely to work the second wave of free agency than the first, that’s not as much of a problem for them as it might be in other places.