The Panthers are heading into their Week 4 bye with a winning record and the opportunity to take a week off – but a week that is usually earmarked for a team to get a little healthier is actually coming pretty in the schedule and doesn’t offer that much relief from an injury standpoint – at least not on the defensive side of the ball. The injuries that have hurt the secondary thus far – cornerbacks Ross Cockrell and Kevon Seymour have already had surgeries and safety Da’Norris Searcy was placed on injured reserve last Friday after suffering his second concussion in less than a month – can’t be helped with a week off; Searcy is the only player eligible to return from IR, and that can’t be until after Thanksgiving weekend at the earliest.
When Searcy was placed on IR on Friday, the Panthers activated Josh Hawkins, a cornerback who hadn’t played safety since high school, to replace him on the active roster, and as fans clamor for help at the safety spot for a defense that has allowed a 69% completion percentage and their opponents’ passing yardage to grow by at least 80 yards per game thus far this season, Ron Rivera says the answer is where the answer has always been: on the roster.
“We’re very comfortable,” said Rivera about the safety situation after the Panthers final practice session before the bye week. “We went out [against Cincinnati] and we played with a group of guys that we’re comfortable with; these are guys who have been in this system – we brought Dez Southward back, a guy that knows our system, and has been in this system; we’ll go from there and see what happens.”
While Rivera said that Southward, who spent 2017 on the team’s practice squad, and fellow Cole Luke, who was thought to be in roster contention before being placed on IR before last season began, might be activated to the active roster at some point – he complimented both player’s performance in training camp and said that had the Panthers not had the injuries that forced them to shuffle and keep extra guys on the roster, Southward would have stayed on the practice squad – he was waived on September 11 to make room for wide receiver DeAndrew White, who was signed when both Curtis Samuel and Damiere Byrd were likely to miss Week 2.
Rivera hasn’t shown a penchant for making splashy free agent signings, certainly not during the season – the team brought in ahead of Week 2 after losing tackles Matt Kalil, Daryl Williams and Jeremiah Sirles; they brought in Jairus Byrd in 2017 only after both Kurt Coleman and Demetrious Cox went down in the same game.
The fanbase, however, isn’t clamoring for the team to sign just any safety to start next to Mike Adams – one would imagine that Quentin Demps, Tyvon Branch or Mike Mitchell would be met with the same exasperation as social media is expressing when Rivera says he feels comfortable with a Colin Jones & Rashaan Gaulden rotation.
They want Eric Reid.
Photo Credit: Sports Illustrated
Reid, the 49ers 2013 first-round pick and 2014 Pro Bowler, hasn’t been with an NFL team since his rookie contract expired with San Francisco – while other safeties like Tre Boston and Kenny Vaccarro were eventually signed after sitting without a job long past many expected, Reid continues to be jobless, with most assuming his status stems from his protests against social injustice and police brutality during the national anthem in 2016 and 2017.
Reid filed a collusion grievance against NFL owners under the collective bargaining agreement in May, arguing that he – and former teammate Colin Kaepernick – are being punished for their protests.
While Rivera declined to say whether the team had looked specifically at Reid, who has battled concussion issues through his career and had surgery to repair a torn bicep in 2016, he reiterated that he feels comfortable with the safeties already on the roster after complimenting their play against the Bengals in his Monday press conference.
“There’s a lot of names that come out and you’re going to discuss what your primary needs are,” said Rivera when asked specifically about Reid. “Again, for us, we looked at what we have [and] such short notice, we stayed with what we have. We felt very comfortable about the way our guys played and I thought we did some really good things out there.”
Panthers wideout Torrey Smith, who played with Reid for two years in San Francisco, has been beating the drum for the safety who has had ten interceptions over his 69 starts both on Twitter and after practice on Tuesday, saying that it would be foolish to not know why Reid hasn’t gotten a job offer, even going so far as to vouch for Reid to GM Marty Hurney if necessary.
“Eric Reid is a Pro Bowl-caliber safety, 26-years old, first-round pedigree, and one of the best men that I know. I know that teams, obviously, they have to be interested in him,” Smith said Tuesday after practice. “And honestly, with our injuries, I hope he ends up here. I know his talent, and if it’s something where [the Panthers] come and talk to me about him, I’ll be glad to talk about him as a player, as a person.”
Do y’all realize that Eric Reid and Colin Kaepernick don’t have jobs when they are young, talented, and healthy. We legit have folks who recently committed crimes (I believe in second chances) and it just blows over but they can’t get a shot? What does that say about this league?
— Torrey Smith (@TorreySmithWR) September 21, 2018
Whether the Panthers reach out to a free agent safety or promote Dezmen Southward or Cole Luke to the active roster remains to be seen.
But for now, they’re comfortable.
