While Torrey Smith may have been cagey the past few days about his knee injury – at one point he called it a “boo-boo on his knee” – the overwhelming thought was that he wouldn’t be available for this weekend’s matchup with his former team and the team made it official on Friday when they released their injury report ruling both the wide receiver, who had his most productive game last week in Philadelphia with four catches for 61 yards, out in addition to linebacker Andre Smith, who has battled a hamstring injury that has kept him out the past two weeks.

While Torrey Smith has played over 70% of the snaps, Ron Rivera says it won’t be Jarius Wright taking his spot out wide, it will be a combination of the other three wideouts as Wright stays in the slot.

“For the most part, Jarius really is our slot – he’s done a great job at it,” said Rivera. “Most of his reps at practice have come at the slot; the guy that’s gotten a lot has really been Damiere, because that’s Damiere’s position, but obviously you’re going to see an increased number of DJ and an increased number of Curtis. At least you should, based on the formations and the personnel groupings.”

“I don’t think there’s really going to be one guy that’s going to take an inordinate of reps other than Funch.”

The only other player listed – Cam Newton was not on the injury report after being limited the past two days of practice – was rookie safety Rashaan Gaulden, who suffered an ankle injury during Wednesday’s practice and did not practice Thursday or Friday; if Gaulden isn’t able to go, second-year defensive back Corn Elder will get a jersey for the first time since Week 3.  Rivera says that Elder and Captain Munnerlyn, in addition to Colin Jones, can play the role of backup safety if something were to happen to Mike Adams or Eric Reid. But they also have a 6-0, 229 pound contingency plan.

“Those two guys are guys that have that kind of ability and if worst came to worst, we can put Shaq back there,” said Rivera.

“I’m being serious.”

Check out the full injury report below:

PlayerInjuryGame StatusNotes
Andre SmithHamstringOut
Torrey SmithKneeOut
Rashaan GauldenAnkleDoubtful

 

Josh Klein on Twitter
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.