“DOG DAYS!”
The words, yelled by Kawann Short, rang out multiple times throughout Monday’s practice session.
Perhaps it was because it was the fifth consecutive day of practice with a day off looming, perhaps it was the sparse crowd that packed the fence as the team again utilized the field furthest from the hill or perhaps it was the beating sun that kept the team and even the fans from making a lot of noise throughout a practice that turned out to be heavy on red zone work and light on chatter.
Perhaps it is just the ‘dog days’ of training camp, but maybe there’s something more.
Practices haven’t been as loud overall as in seasons’ past this year, perhaps it’s the more structured stretching routine or just the lack of a defensive foil for Cam Newton’s trash talk; Thomas Davis was always the loudest voice on the opposite side of the ball, making it known whenever the defense made a big play. Donte Jackson is trying his best to step up to that mantel, but hasn’t quite gotten there – although after an incompletion, you could hear Jackson’s southern drawl call out from the sidelines.
“Hey, 1! Hey, 1! What happened?”
Jackson also has taken to interacting with the crowd during practice in a similar fashion as Newton – yesterday, he did a half-lap trying to hype up the crowd after a particularly impressive pass breakup. Today’s session saw him stand in the corner of the end zone, remove his helmet and simply wave to the crowd with a big smile on his face a la Miss America while the team took a water break.
The defense has been playing well all weekend, but you literally don’t hear about it quite as much when they make a big play. At least not yet.
Are You Not Entertained?
Here were some other storylines I noticed today:
- Kyle Love returned to practice today, but Chris Hogan, who left practice early yesterday, was nowhere to be seen during the session as he stayed inside with back tightness.
- The biggest questions of the summer revolve around the nickel cornerback and free safety position and today, most of the first team reps went to Cole Luke, who spent last year on the practice squad, at nickel and Ross Cockrell, who has played mostly cornerback in his career, at free safety. Rivera pointed out Cockrell’s ability to break on the ball as a reason for the look at safety, citing the seven interceptions of Kurt Coleman in 2015 as one of the reasons for the defense’s success. It makes sense, with an improved pass rush, if the quarterback makes a mistake, you want the secondary to be able to pounce.
- That pass rush was impressive again today, with Bruce Irvin bowling over Greg Van Roten during red zone drills and Mario Addison slipping around Daryl Williams for what likely would have been either a sack or a strip-sack on consecutive plays.
- Will Grier showed off his deep ball during 7-on-7s, hitting Aldrick Robinson in stride over Kevon Seymour, who came back on the next rep for an impressive pass breakup on DeAndrew White. Grier looks a lot calmer and more comfortable in the pocket the past couple of practices as compared to the spring, not surprising for a rookie getting his first taste of the NFL.
- Robinson may turn out to be a sneaky-good signing, as he’s been able to act as a deep threat and has gotten a few reps with the first team, especially as Torrey Smith still works himself back into shape – Smith wasn’t able to work with the team for most of the spring, so he’s just getting back into the swing of things in terms of his knee. He told me last week that if there was a game, he’d be ready to play, though. Robinson also had a nice one-handed catch during red zone drills, but couldn’t get his feet inbounds.
- There have been a lot of crossing and shorter routes for DJ Moore and Curtis Samuel this summer – again, not surprising. Get the ball in their hands and let them work.
- A fair amount of red zone drills today, with a touchdown pass to Samuel in the back of the end zone on the second attempt raising eyebrows – great route by Samuel to get open and a perfect pass for the score. James Bradberry had an impressive breakup of a pass intended for Jarius Wright – looked like it was a touchdown until the CB came in and pulled it out of Wright’s gut. DJ Moore also had a one-handed grab that was a beauty.
That one-handed snag 🖐 pic.twitter.com/WNRGmB64lo
— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) July 29, 2019
- Bruce Irvin with the hustle play of the day as he chased down Christian McCaffrey and poked the ball out from behind – if there’s a defensive MVP of the first chunk of training camp, I’d probably give it to Irvin, who has looked borderline unstoppable rushing the passer and hustle plays like this are the epitome of being a team leader.
