We’ll see.
That’s the phrase that Ron Rivera used to describe the offensive line situation as the Panthers begin to prepare for their Week 1 matchup with the Dallas Cowboys – with injuries to four potential starting offensive linemen throughout the preseason forcing the team to start four different lineups up front in four weeks, there has been uncertainty that appears to be continuing into the regular season, becoming even more complicated by return timelines, injured reserve questions and roster limitations.
With that being said, the Panthers received mixed news this weekend – first the good news: both Daryl Williams and Amini Silatolu, who both suffered knee injuries during training camp, returned to practice. Now the bad: Matt Kalil, who had an arthroscopic procedure on his knee August 21st, did not attend practice and Jeremiah Sirles, who had started at right tackle after Kalil’s injury, was placed on injured reserve Saturday with a hamstring injury.
“It was tough for all of us, especially with Matt [Kalil] going down, but everyone stepped up – all of the second guys, Greg [Van Roten] stepped up at the guard spot,” said Silatolu, who added that he was back to 100%. “We’ve got to see how it plays out Tuesday when we start practicing.”
With Sirles going on injured reserve, the Panthers traded a conditional seventh-round pick to the Detroit Lions for lineman Corey Robinson – Rivera said he likes the versatility that Robinson offers; the 6’7 lineman can play both right and left tackle. If the Panthers suffer another injury at either spot, they can sub Robinson in on either side without having to move other players around him – position versatility is a valuable asset in the NFL and Robinson, who started games at both tackle and guard in 2017, makes the coaching staff feel more comfortable with their depth up front.
While there were rumors that Williams would start the year on injured reserve, it would appear at this point that isn’t the plan – Williams wouldn’t go so far as to say that he’ll be ready to go against Dallas, saying that he would want to play if he’s ready and the knee feels good, but he’s definitely ahead of schedule in his rehab.
“Just to be out there is a positive feeling to be working with the guys again,” said Williams, who wouldn’t say whether he’ll be ready to start Week 1. “I would say we’re definitely ahead of schedule, but we’re still taking it day by day.”
Players that opened the year on the 53-man roster for at least 24 hours are eligible to return to practice after six weeks and to game action after eight weeks if they are placed on injured reserve, as opposed to players like Sirles or cornerback Kevon Seymour, who will spend the entire year on IR.
With Williams and Silatolu returning to practice and Sirles being placed on IR, the largest question mark on the line remaining appears to be the status of Matt Kalil. The 29-year old Kalil, who was not at practice Sunday, has battled injuries almost his entire career and is less than two weeks removed from a knee scope.
“We’ll see what happens,” Rivera said when asked whether or not Kalil would be placed on injured reserve. “We’ve got a couple more roster decisions still to be made, I understand, as far as the positions that we have, so we’ll see what happens.”
We’ll see.
Update: Three minutes after this story posted, Matt Kalil was placed on injured reserve.
