Here are some other storylines and players I noticed tonight at Gibbs Stadium:
- While Torrey Smith, Jermaine Carter and Brandon Chubb are all on the Active PUP list, Smith and Carter were working hard on the opposite side of the field with trainers while Chubb rode the bike. Smith joked with me that his workout was harder than the guys in the huddle running team drills because he would run a route, come back to the sidelines and there was no one else to run – so he would just run another one.
- One of the most important connections that will be made during training camp will be the connection between Cam Newton and center Matt Paradis – during initial warmups, Newton gave a long embrace to his new center. Backup center Tyler Larsen snapped the ball to rookie Will Grier – Ron Rivera said yesterday that they will be rotating the backup quarterbacks, so first up with the second team was Grier tonight.
- Both Elijah Holyfield and Jordan Scarlett impressed running routes and making catches out of the backfield – Holyfield did have one drop…and then stayed after practice to work on the JUGS machine. It will be incredibly important for them to be able to add route running and pass catching, something neither of them particularly excelled at in college, into their repertoire if they hope to beat out Cameron Artis-Payne for the backup running back job.
- Daryl Williams, wearing a large knee brace, began team drills at left tackle with the first team and stayed their for much of the evening, working next to Greg Van Roten, who spent all of last season at left guard. Second-round pick Little did get some run at left tackle with the first team, but was beaten on at least one rep by his fellow 2019 draft pick Brian Burns. More on that relationship here.
- If the season started tomorrow – and IT DOESN’T – the starting offensive line would appear to be, from left to right, Williams, Van Roten, Paradis, Turner, Moton. On the defensive side of the ball, the Panthers began practice in the traditional 3-4 front, with McCoy, Poe and Short across the front and Addison, Kuechly, Thompson, and Irvin behind them. In the secondary was Jackson, Bradberry, Reid — and Rashaan Gaulden.
- Gaulden took most of the reps as the first team safety and never looked egregiously out of place – the long bomb to Samuel was over Reid’s head – and spent a lot of time matched up in man coverage with someone in the slot. After practice, while many of the other players were signing autographs and speaking to the media, Gaulden was working on his footwork and hands with position coach Richard Rodgers. The first look at nickel cornerback appeared to go to Corn Elder – what I thought was interesting was that when the team was in 3-4, there were usually only four defensive backs, but when they had four defensive linemen, they would bring in an extra CB to go with Kuechly and Thompson. Certainly something to keep an eye on going forward.
- The defensive play of the day was easily a play where Mario Addison came on a blitz and batted a pass directly into the arms of Shaq Thompson – that’s the advantage of the 3-4 defense, it’s hard to tell who’s blitzing.
- Kyle Allen continued to look sharp, throwing some nice deep balls throughout the evening. He’s not giving up the backup quarterback spot to Will Grier that easily – Taylor Heinicke didn’t get to throw much in team drills, that’s one of the downsides of four quarterbacks in camp, but with the rotation, you can expect him to get more work tomorrow while either Allen or Grier takes a lesser role.
- Curtis Samuel looked as quick as advertised – during one team drill, he took a quick out and juked past both James Bradberry and Luke Kuechly into the open field. He was also the recipient of Newton’s first deep ball.
- After practice, the positions each spent some extra time with their position coaches in groups, something I don’t remember happening last season. It will be interesting to see if that continues or if it was simply a ‘kickoff’ thing.
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.
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