Captain Munnerlyn saunters to the podium in the media room at Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC. He slides behind the desk with a huge grin and issues his first official statement since resigning with the Carolina Panthers in March.
“I’m ba-ack.”
The 29 year old cornerback signed a four year contract to return to the team he was drafted by in 2009, and he has fond memories of that team. “We were the no-name guys. Y’all always say ‘who is that in the secondary,’ but we still always finished like top-five in the NFL in defense. We had guys back then that wanted to compete and just go out there and prove a point that we were somebody. Guys like me, Mike Mitchell, Drayton Florence, Melvin White. That was a secondary that nobody knew of,” Munnerlyn said. His role has changed, calling himself one of “the old guys” in the locker room. “They brought me back to be a mentor; to go out there and compete at a different position, play at a high level and bring the young guys on and let them know what the competition is. The key each and every day starts at practice. I practice pretty hard and I feel like if you practice well, then you play well. Just to bring me back and teach the young guys the ropes.”
“I remember when I used to be a young guy, I had guys like Chris Gamble, Richard Marshall, Chris Harris to bring me along. So now I’m that guy that everybody is looking to, especially being the secondary, being a defensive back, being a cornerback. You’ve got guys like Daryl Worley and James Bradberry and Zach Sanchez who are asking me like ‘Cap man how you play like this, how you play like that.’ So I embrace that role. I just know that I got to stay on top of my game and that’s the thing that helps me stay at the top. I’ve got to stay at the top of my game and keep competing.”
Though he hasn’t been practicing yet this training camp after straining his hamstring while working out in Mobile, Alabama trying to get down to camp weight. Spending time in Mobile to get used to the heat, Munnerlyn “was running, getting ready for my conditioning test. My trainer back at home told me, ‘we’re done for the day,’ but I said ‘Nah, I feel good man let’s do something extra.’ Thinking that I’m still young, thinking I’m still 21-22 years old. I’m not that young anymore. That’s how I did it but I feel fine.” The corner has worked out on the side, making sure to stay loose, “just trying to take it slow and keep it from being an ongoing issue. Hamstrings can be tricky and I know that; so just trying to walk me in slowly and getting me ready to roll.”
“It’s hard to win in the NFL with two rookie corners.”
Munnerlyn is expected to play the inside cornerback slot, and he realizes that the secondary was a weakness for the team last year. “It’s tough to start two rookies going into the NFL. Getting the quarterbacks like we have in the NFL with the Tom Bradys, and the Aaron Rogers, they are licking their chops when they play them. They are licking their chops like ‘man, they got two rookie guys so I’m going to welcome them to the NFL.’ So it’s definitely tough.”
Munnerlyn believes in the young cornerbacks, being especially impressed with James Bradberry. “With this group though we’ve got a lot of talented guys, especially the young guys. You look at James (Bradberry) like I said, this guy right here can be the real deal. He will definitely be the real deal, he is big, he is physical, and he knows how to cover, he can go get that ball. I’m excited for big things for him this year.”
Munnerlyn is one of the most prolific trash talkers in the league, joining trash talking champs Cam Newton and Russell Shepard as the voices most often heard during practices. He loves razzing his teammates during practice, but knows that there is a time and a place for those actions. “If in a game something like that happens, you can’t go out retaliate or you will get a penalty. I did that before and Coach Rivera will remind me from time to time. When we played the 49ers in the playoffs when Michael Crabtree kind of got in my head a little bit and I head butted him and then got a 15-yard penalty. I can’t do that because I hurt the team, Munnerlyn said, “you have to be aware of that. So sometimes that trash talk is pretty good for the team they will let you know so you just got to go out there and show them up with your play.”
And show them up is exactly what the diminutive cornerback plans to do.
“You can tell, this organization, that they want to win now. They are two years removed from the Super Bowl, and they want to get back and they want to win it. You can tell by some of the offseason moves we made, and you can tell at the same time that this team is a great team already. They were just missing a couple of pieces last year.”
