CHARLOTTE – The ties that bind Da'Norris Searcy and Ross Cockrell to each other and to the Panthers run pretty deep.
Both defensive backs signed two-year contracts with Carolina on Friday, coming back to the state where they played college football and in Cockrell's case where he attended high school. This won't be the first time they've played together: Both were fourth-round draft picks of the Bills and overlapped in 2014 when Cockrell was a rookie and Searcy was in his fourth and final season in Buffalo.
For all that though, there is this: Searcy played collegiately at North Carolina, Cockrell at archrival Duke.