With only one day of camp left until the players leave Wofford College for their homes in Charlotte and, in reality, the last day of full practice – the final day of camp tends to have a “last day of school” feel to it, there are two ways that today’s practice could have gone – either a hyperintense session where the play is turned up a notch or a sloppy showing that begins and ends with mistakes. While there were elements of the first, unfortunately, today’s session had too much of the second for Ron Rivera’s liking, although he’s happy with the overall performance of the team in camp thus far.
“For the most part, I did [think the team had a good camp], I’m a little concerned about today,” Rivera said after a practice that saw multiple turnovers and botched snaps. “We had too many detail things that we weren’t very good at, but we’ve accomplished a lot; I think we’ve found some guys that are going to step up and play for us and we’ve got some other guys that are headed in the right direction. I like, for the most part, what we’ve done as far as our consistency.”
“Today was not one of our better days.”
While not a standout day for parts of the team, there were some continued excellent performances individually, including rookie wide receiver DJ Moore, who continues to dazzle in practice, this time turning newly signed cornerback Alex Carter almost completely around and getting wide open on a slant route – he lived up to the request of his quarterback, who turned to Moore before the play and implored him – “Man, cook this guy!”
Moore obliged, much to Newton’s delight. Here are some other storylines we noticed:
- The team added defensive back Alex Carter, a 2015 third-round pick who has spent time on the practice squad of New England, Chicago and Seattle in his career; this corresponded with the move to place safety Damian Parms, who was having a good camp, on injured reserve after he suffered an injury Thursday night in Buffalo. Carter actually arrived to practice during the stretching period and was immediately thrown into the fire against Moore in one-on-ones.
- INJURY UPDATES: Tyler Larsen (hyperextended left elbow) and James Bradberry (groin), who both missed yesterday’s practice, are healing nicely – Rivera said Bradberry is on track to play against Miami and that Larsen could have practiced today if it was the regular season. Sometimes we can get too caught up in days off and small injuries during training camp – don’t forget that Week 1 is still four weeks away and the goal is to have the players ready for Dallas, not necessarily ready for Miami or New England. That being said, Cole Luke, Corn Elder, LaDarius Gunter, Ben Jacobs, Andre Smith and Jeremiah Sirles didn’t practice today – all missed yesterday’s practice as well.
- Rivera mentioned the sloppiness of practice, and the best example of that was a sequence early in practice in which Greg Van Roten, subbing for Tyler Larsen at center – Ryan Kalil takes limited reps during camp to preserve him for the regular season – botched two consecutive shotgun snaps to Newton, the first barely getting off the ground and rolling to Alex Armah in the backfield and the second not close to Newton’s hands, even though he tried to save it. Van Roten, who Rivera said after practice was “for the most part” the leader to take the starting left guard slot, has played all five positions throughout his career – but is likely the third-string center.
- The backup quarterback battle rages on, as both quarterbacks started slowly – just as they did Thursday against Buffalo – but accelerated down the stretch, with Heinicke putting a dart between the numbers of Jason Vander Laan across the middle and Gilbert throwing a perfect ball to Ian Thomas on an out route along the sidelines; Jermaine Carter was all over Thomas, but Gilbert put the ball in a spot that only Thomas could get it as he went out of bounds. The best throw of the day – non-Cam edition – went to Gilbert as he essentially doubled down on his perfect touchdown pass to Mose Frazier from Thursday night, throwing a similar ball to Frazier only this time, it was further into the end zone and Frazier couldn’t – according to secondary coach Richard Rodgers – get his feet down inbounds; Rodgers might be a little biased, though.
- The starting quarterback had an inconsistent day, throwing interceptions – one to Kuechly and one to rookie Donte Jackson – and generally looking inaccurate for some of the day, although he did have highlights, including an arching deep ball to Torrey Smith during individual drills that had the crowd gasping as Smith made a one-handed, over-the-shoulder catch.
Beautiful, one handed catch from Torrey Smith down the sideline
- There was a lot of crowd interaction today, with Thomas Davis imploring the crowd to give him energy, Newton doing his signature “Y’all ain’t go to church today, huh? I need you to pray for me!” jokes for a Sunday practice and Donte Jackson having the most fun following an end zone interception in which he ran the length of the sidelines before removing the towel from his waist, placing it over his forearm and carrying the football – as if it had been served up on a silver platter for him.
- While he usually only gets called out for the poor reps, Matt Kalil had an excellent showing during individual blocking drills, holding back Mario Addison on multiple reps. Also looking strong continues to be CJ Anderson in pass protection – that was one of the reasons the team brought him on and he hasn’t shown anything less than excellence in that area during drills and in the preseason game against Buffalo.
