The Carolina Panthers enter the season in search of an identity.

They have a plan, they have a philosophy, but after one of the most seismic offseasons in team history, they are very much a mystery.

They've put trust in young players but held off on the kind of long-term deals they've always made to keep young stars around.

They're trusting the offense to a quarterback without a long-term mandate, with competitors in his rear-view mirror.

They've remade the defense in the model of former, wildly successful ones, but they don't know how it will look in the future.

And they can't even know if they'll have labor peace so there will be a next year, and that has affected every decision they've made.

"We've said repeatedly we liked our young players, and that's what this offseason has been about," general manager Marty Hurney said. "We wanted to give the guys we've drafted a chance to progress. At the same time, we've still kept the formula intact. We've still got a number of good leaders on this team who can teach guys what we want around here.

"We made some changes, but we kept intact a core, and we think we have the guys to do what we need to do to win games."

With that in mind, a look at the season, and a team in transition:

What's this team about?

The Panthers are one of the youngest teams in the league. Nine of their 10 drafted rookies made the roster, giving them 35 of their own picks on their 53-man roster. Only one team has more of its own drafted players (Green Bay, 36).

That's the kind of roster they've been building toward, after free-agent splashes gone wrong in 2005 and 2006 renewed their focus on the draft. Since then, their draft fortunes have improved steadily, annually adding key parts at reasonable salaries.

"Winning teams have a philosophy and a formula," Hurney said. "If you look at the core of what we are, and what we do on offense, we have a very good offensive line and set of running backs, and one of the best receivers in the league. We've got a change at quarterback, but that's about it."

The other side of the ball has turned over names, but preseason indications are the results will continue to be there.

The Panthers have four defensive ends they trust instead of one, a new corps of defensive tackles they'll evaluate for a year, and the kind of cornerstone player in the middle of it all (linebacker Jon Beason) who can drag a team along by force of will.

What did they really lose?

For all the offseason change, only two departed players appear poised to make a significant impact on their new teams - Cleveland quarterback Jake Delhomme and Chicago defensive end Julius Peppers. The rest are either looking for work or playing complementary roles with new teams.

Receiver Muhsin Muhammad retired and fullback Brad Hoover is still without a team.

Defensive tackle Damione Lewis was cut by New England. Maake Kemoeatu will start in Washington, but only until Albert Haynesworth is ready. Linebacker Na'il Diggs will start in St. Louis. Right guard Keydrick Vincent is starting on a weak offensive line in Tampa Bay.

Linebacker Landon Johnson made the Detroit roster but cornerback Dante Wesley didn't. Defensive tackle Hollis Thomas and quarterback Josh McCown were last seen on United Football League rosters.

While they took years of institutional experience with them, they also cleared the decks for the future.

By dumping contracts in an uncapped year, the Panthers avoided dead-money charges that would have been crippling in a salary-cap system. In short, it cleared the books for 2011, when the Panthers will need all the flexibility they can get.

What does the future hold?

For all the kids with new jobs, several have another wave of kids behind them. And for all the guys they've groomed, pay day is coming soon for a lot of them at once.

Quarterback Matt Moore was given the starting job but immediately was put on notice with the drafting of Jimmy Clausen and Tony Pike. Moore enters a contract year, making quarterback a situation to watch.

It's similar to the running back situation, where DeAngelo Williams has one year left but Jonathan Stewart is signed through 2012.

Center Ryan Kalil's contract is the only offensive lineman's up after this year, but he's in line for a huge deal.

On defense, five of the nine linemen are in some degree of contract years, and a sixth (defensive end Tyler Brayton) might as well be.

Injured linebacker Thomas Davis and cornerback Richard Marshall would have been unrestricted free agents this offseason but for rules that came into play with the league's uncapped year.

That's left them with 24 players whose deals will expire after this season, and at least five potentially big ones.

The last time the Panthers had this much work was entering the 2009 offseason. They worked mega-extensions with cornerback Chris Gamble the previous November and left tackle Jordan Gross at the deadline, enabling them to keep Peppers with the franchise tag.

But even though those were three huge-money deals, the next offseason potentially could dwarf it.

What's on the horizon?

The league's labor situation has created a great unknown.

With no collective-bargaining agreement in sight, players are bracing for a lockout, as owners try to beat back some of the financial gains made by labor in their last deal.

That's an awkward limbo for Hurney, who has prided himself on retaining his core of players.

"Obviously our history indicates that we do whatever we can to try to keep our younger players," he said.

The problem is, he hasn't taken those steps this year, whether by decree from above, the uncertainty of the future or the rules put in place to make some deals more difficult.

Much of the Panthers' direction will center upon what happens in a board room, as any new CBA could change the rules for free agency. If the bar to become unrestricted stays at four years, the Panthers will have a ton of work to do at once. If it's five, or six as it was this offseason, the entire landscape changes.

"No one knows what it's going to look like," Hurney said. "So it's impossible to say what's going to happen."