CHARLOTTE, N.C. — After agreeing to terms on a new contract last week, Jalen Coker and his fiancée enjoyed a celebratory dinner at one of Charlotte’s premier steakhouses.And that was the extent of the splurge purchases for the Carolina Panthers’ newly minted wide receiver.“A lot of it’s gonna go to the savings account,” Coker said of the three-year, $34 million extension that will keep him in Charlotte through 2029 and — he hopes — beyond.Locking up their WR2 with a deal that was good for the player and the organization was smart business, something Coker could appreciate. The 24-year-old Coker was a psychology major at Holy Cross, but is mindful of his finances.How the Panthers are tapping into trash talking at minicampJoseph Person“I’m like super frugal. I don’t like spending money a lot. I guess when a house and stuff comes down the line, that’ll obviously be something we look into,” he said Tuesday. “But I’m big on saving it and just gonna make sure I take care of the future.”There was a time not that long ago when Coker’s future with the Panthers was clouded by a history of soft-tissue injuries. Coker, an undrafted free agent in 2024, was limited to 11 games in each of his first two seasons, thanks to hamstring issues as a rookie and a strained quadriceps that forced him to start 2025 on injured reserve.But Panthers coach Dave Canales has praised Coker’s commitment to changing his diet and following the team’s plan to try to prevent more soft-tissue woes. Beginning last offseason, Coker stopped snacking late at night and started loading up on ground beef, rice and salmon.“Not fun, but it has to happen,” he said. “But that’s the easy part. If you have the ability to go play and doing that little stuff can get you to where you need to go, it’s an easy commitment to make.”Coker didn’t take the E-ZPass lane to the NFL. Despite starring as a two-way player for his northern Virginia high school, Coker’s only scholarship offers came from New Hampshire, Howard, Youngstown State and other small programs.He signed with Holy Cross, only to see his freshman season get pushed to the spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was the Crusaders’ leading receiver as a sophomore, was all-conference as a junior and a finalist for the Walter Payton Award (given to the top offensive player at a FCS school) as a senior.By the time he left the Jesuit school in Worcester, Mass., he was the program’s career leader with 2,715 receiving yards and 31 touchdown catches, including a school-record 15 as a senior.Juston Burris watched a lot of those touchdown receptions on tape.Burris, a defensive back who finished his seven-year NFL career with Carolina, was in his first year as a Panthers’ scouting assistant in 2023 when he was handed a list of small-school prospects that fall. The list included hundreds of players from conferences outside the Power 4, and it was Burris’ and other young scouts’ job to “go through the weeds and find guys that may be under the radar,” he said.A Patriot League receiver with great hands and the ability to get open despite not having blazing speed quickly caught Burris’ eye.“Separation at this level is so tough, so minute. If guys are gonna succeed, they really have to have that awareness, that body control, the strong hands to play through traffic. And what I saw from (Coker) at that level … the guy was crafty,” Burris recalled.“He wasn’t the fastest. He wasn’t a 4.3, 4.2 guy. But he understood pace. He understood timing. He knew how to pick his spots (and) separate with timing.”The first tape Burris watched was an early-September matchup at Boston College, Holy Cross’ only game against a major-conference opponent during Coker’s final season. Coker led the Crusaders with five catches for 53 yards in a 31-28 loss, prompting Burris to pull up the film from Coker’s games against the likes of Fordham, Bucknell and Lafayette.“And he was just as dominant,” Burris said. “He didn’t just get up for a big-name program in that region. He dominated against the other guys that were in his conference.”Coker was hardly an unknown, having secured an invitation to the combine. He posted a 42.5-inch vertical jump that tied for the best mark among all players in Indianapolis. But he clocked a 4.57-second 40 while slowed by a hamstring injury he’d sustained a month earlier.Coker caught all four of his targets for 60 yards and this touchdown against the Saints last season in New Orleans. (Matthew Hinton / Imagn Images)Whether due to his speed or small-college background, Coker went undrafted before joining the Panthers in Dan Morgan’s first year as general manager. He caught a touchdown pass from Jack Plummer in the final preseason game at Buffalo in 2024 and had a 100-yard receiving game against Dallas in December of his rookie year.Coker overtook Xavier Legette late last season as the No. 2 wideout alongside Tetairoa McMillan, the Offensive Rookie of the Year. The 6-3, 213-pound Coker had a huge game in the playoff loss to the Los Angeles Rams, pulling down nine of 12 targets from Bryce Young for 134 yards and a touchdown, which put the Panthers up 31-27 before Matthew Stafford led a game-winning drive.During a Zoom call Tuesday, Coker was asked whether his contract extension — which makes him the NFL’s 39th highest-paid wideout — was affirmation for a player who took a different path to get here. He said his dream was to make it to the NFL; now he has additional goals.“This wasn’t the end of my story. This isn’t where I want to be finished at,” he said. “I just want to continue to build, continue to do good things for this organization. Down the line, hopefully I can stay for eight more years. I didn’t want this to be like, I finally made it. I can relax, I can take the foot off the gas a little bit. No, this is now I’ve gotta prove it even more.”