After a solid day of padded practice yesterday that proved fairly uneventful, Panthers practice ended today with what appeared to be a broken left leg for cornerback Ross Cockrell as he was rolled up on by wide receiver Torrey Smith in the end zone on what Ron Rivera said were “normal circumstances” – obviously a low note for the team to head to their first day off of camp, especially after Saturday’s injury to Daryl Williams, but it followed what was a brisk practice session for the team in which their were several nice performances. While the brutal side of the NFL often rears it’s ugly head during the regular season, especially as concussion issues seem to dominate the headlines on a weekly basis, to see two players suffer major injuries on the first weekend of training camp in which contact is already limited so much by NFL rules is almost devastating. After Saturday’s injury, Daryl Williams lay on the ground screaming as a hush fell over the crowd and today’s seemed even worse as Cockrell yelled out “my leg is broke!” after the injury occurred – fans said afterwards that they could audibly hear a bone snapping. Brutal stuff.
Here are some other storylines we noticed during practice:
- Greg Olsen, Mike Adams and Ryan Kalil all got vet days today – that meant increased reps with the first teams for Ian Thomas – who performed well, including a red zone catch that looked as good as any route Greg Olsen would have run. Thomas isn’t quite up to Olsen’s level, though, as he couldn’t connect with Newton on another throw that would have been six if it had been Olsen; nice to see him get a lot of reps, though, as the team will need him to be ready for a lot of game action if Chris Manhertz isn’t ready for the regular season. Tyler Larsen subbed in for Kalil and continues to be an extremely consistent part of this offensive line room.
- With Adams out, Rashaan Gaulden saw even more reps today, but one in particular ended badly when he laid out wide receiver Jarius Wright in the back of the end zone – although it might have been a clean hit, training camp is supposed to be as non-contact as possible outside of the trenches and Wright stayed on the ground being tended to by trainers for a few minutes before walking to the sidelines. Gaulden received talks from multiple players, including Devin Funchess and Mike Adams – he also had a conversation with Ron Rivera, who said after practice that he told Gaulden that he had to be careful with hits like that because of the new targeting rules the NFL is employing this season. Wright quickly returned to drills and was fine, but it was an avoidable scary moment. That being said, a big hitter at the safety slot is something the Panthers have been lacking for the past few years.
- Jason Vander Laan left practice early and spent the rest of the day on the sidelines with a shoulder wrap on and rookie Donte Jackson was held out due to a sore groin – Rivera said afterwards that holding Jackson out was precautionary, especially with an upcoming day off. Curtis Samuel, Fred Ross and Bryan Cox, Jr continue to work on the side, but if you think they’re getting days off, the workout they’re putting them through is extremely involved and involves multiple exercises – it’s not just pedaling the bike slowly.
- Daeshon Hall looked extremely strong and fast during today’s one-on-one drills, blowing by tackles on both the left and the right side; Rivera said after practice that they are expecting second and third year players to step up, and Hall is certainly one of them. In other one-on-one blocking drills, the left side of the line didn’t have a great day, with both Matt Kalil and Amini Silatolu having poor reps early in the session; however, Silatolu bounced back with a terrific rep against rookie Kendrick Norton. A consistent performance will be necessary for Silatolu to win the left guard job, although he continues to get almost all of the left guard reps with the first team.
- A funny exchange between yesterday and today. Rookie QB Kyle Allen was kicked out of yesterday’s pass blocking drills because he incorrectly called the cadence, with a fiery John Matsko replacing him with an equipment manager early in the drill; after today’s drill was over, Matsko made a point to go over to Allen and give him a hearty congratulations on running the drill successfully. It’s the little things.
- The specialists don’t get mentioned a lot, but punter Michael Palardy absolutely boomed punts today, with two consecutive kicks sailing at least 60 yards and dropping just inside the sideline – Palardy will be a field position weapon this year, just as he was last year when he had the fifth-best net punting average in the league.
- One thing I’ve noticed during this week thus far is that there have been a lot of swing and screen passes to Jarius Wright – obviously Norv Turner is very familiar with the receiver’s skill set from his time in Minnesota, and it’s interesting to see him utilized in this way. The way you expect Wright to be used? He’s being used that way too, as he is consistently settling down in zones near the line of scrimmage for short-to-medium gains.
- Luke Kuechly dropped what looked like a sure interception of Cam Newton; a few plays later, Colin Jones had a drop as well – Newton still hasn’t been picked off during team drills, much to Thomas Davis’ chagrin.
- After a shaky day for the quarterbacks yesterday, Garrett Gilbert had an excellent day today, completing two beautiful passes down the right sideline, one to Damiere Byrd and one to Mose Frazier, both of which went for long touchdowns. Gilbert has been the better of the two competing for the backup slot, especially when he rolls to his right, as he has done multiple times throughout camp thus far.
- Bug Howard punctuated a score with a dunk of the ball through the goalposts, resulting in the defensive sideline telling him that he would pay for the showboating move later.
- Cam Newton had some great interactions with the fans, including one with a woman who said she had taken a picture of him that was better than the one in the newspaper – Cam’s response? “Then why isn’t yours in the paper, then?” Practice began with the traditional music during stretches, but today’s session began with two consecutive rock songs, the first was ‘Mr. Brightside’ from The Killers that brought a celebratory reaction from Christian McCaffrey among others. When a heavy metal song came on next, Devin Funchess ran over to the DJ – that metal song became ‘Bad & Boujee’ pretty quickly. Cam Newton was very happy with the change, as evidenced by this clip:
Mood. pic.twitter.com/vJOuTr1pAr
— The Riot Report (@RRiotReport) July 30, 2018
Josh Klein is Editor-In-Chief of The Riot Report. His favorite Panther of all time is Chad Cota and he once AIM chatted with Kevin Greene. Follow Josh on Twitter @joshkleinrules.