Injury Report: The New Normal

With the Carolina Panthers one of the oldest rosters in the league, one of the key elements of the season is how they manage their veterans; we’re starting to see that come to frutition as the Panthers head into Week 7 – there’s still three more weeks before the “mini-bye” after their Thursday night game against the Steelers. Three players, all in their thirties and all players that played over 50% of the snaps – Mike Adams, Julius Peppers and Mario Addison, were given vet days on Wednesday; Peppers doesn’t practice on Wednesdays normally and participates only in a limited fashion on Fridays.

Another vet who will be changing his practice habits is Greg Olsen, who practiced in a limited capacity only five weeks removed from a re-fracture of his fifth metatarsal – Rivera said that a limited practice schedule on Wednesdays makes sense right now for the 33-year old who played every snap but one on Sunday against the Redskins.

“That’s Greg’s new normal,” said Rivera. “We’re just going to try and be smart with Greg and bring him along after big days.”

While Ben Jacobs missed practice, he was excused to be with his wife as she prepared to give birth to twins – certainly a good reason to be away from a Wednesday practice. Rookie linebacker Andre Smith, who missed the entire week of practice last week, was again absent with a hamstring. While Matt Kalil was eligible to return, he worked on the side with trainers in sweats and a large knee brace.

After missing the last two practices of last week and Sunday’s game, Damiere Byrd was a full participant in today’s session.

Check out the rest of the injury report below:

Josh Klein

Editor-In-Chief at The Riot Report

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.