Everyone spends the bye week differently. Right guard Trai Turner traveled home for a few days; safety Kurt Coleman was on “daddy duty” shuttling his kids to and from school and spending the day in a kindergarten class; tight end Greg Olsen spent the weekend collecting insider secrets about the Minnesota Vikings while in the broadcast booth for FOX Sports. But as the Panthers reconvened for their first practice after four days away from Bank of America Stadium, feeling refreshed and refocused heading into the final stretch of games as they head towards a playoff run, it was the return of three players that have the Panthers extremely excited about the final few weeks of the season.
The team welcomed Greg Olsen, Ryan Kalil, and Damiere Byrd back to practice for the first time in weeks Monday; Olsen had not practiced since he suffered a broken foot in the Week 2 win over Buffalo, Byrd since he broke his forearm in New England, and Kalil since reaggravating his neck injury in the Week 7 loss in Chicago. Byrd and Olsen appear to be on track to return as soon as they are eligible by NFL rules, the Panthers made the league aware that both players had returned to practice and were designated to return today, which starts a 21 day clock in which both players must be returned to the active roster.
Olsen is eligible to return to the roster this week and is expected to take wide receiver Curtis Samuel’s spot as the rookie recovers from season-ending ankle surgery. Byrd, who the Panthers hope can utilize his speed in replacing Samuel both at the wide receiver position and on special teams, can’t be officially activated to the roster until November 28th.
“Having them back on the field, it makes us a little bit more dangerous.”
-Ed Dickson
Kalil, who said after practice that he was thankful the Panthers didn’t place him on injured reserve and gave him a chance to work through his injury on his own timeline, was optimistic about his health going forward, but didn’t want to rush things, noting that there was still a long way to go, even to Sunday’s game against the Jets.
“Obviously, having certain guys back is always exciting, it’s always exciting to have all your guys back; selfishly, just wanting to get out there and play is more exciting than anything,” Kalil said after practice Monday. “The plan is just keep going out there and seeing how it feels and we’ll make a decision as we get closer to the game.”
If Kalil isn’t ready to go in New York, he and the rest of the team have complete confidence in backup Tyler Larsen, who has taken the majority of snaps thus far this season. “He’s somebody that the guys have had confidence in from day one, I think he earned that right last season when he came in and he’s done a great job this year,” Kalil said about the 26-year old Larsen. “You don’t get to 7-3 by not doing a good job.”
While both Kalil and head coach Ron Rivera were hesitant to talk about how close the six-time Pro Bowl center was to returning, with Rivera saying that there were still “a whole bunch of other things that have to go in the process as far as Ryan’s concerned, so we’ll see how that is, but it was encouraging to see him out there and he worked very well,” the coach seemed excited about what the return of that trio would do for an offense that seemed to be getting it’s feet underneath it after setting a franchise record for yards against the Miami Dolphins on Monday night before heading to the bye.
“I think it’ll be a very big boost, I really do. Especially with what they do on the offensive side of the ball, we’ve kind of come together in the last few weeks as an offense, there’s been a lot of positive signs,” Rivera said. “I think being able to add Greg back into the mix and when Ryan’s ready to roll, I think that helps us too, as well. So we’ll see and who knows, maybe in another week or so we’ll have Damiere Byrd back up for some more speed on the outside. There’s a lot of good things that can come for us as far as the offense is concerned.”
This week of practice will be critical for all three players as they get back to normal and back into their routine, as many times, complications won’t pop up during practice, but when the player wakes up the next day. While their injuries may have healed, jumping back into full football activities can sometimes be harder than assumed.
“Until you go out there and play football and get reps, it’s hard to simulate that; you can do all the cross-training and all the conditioning and weight lifting and all that, but until you go out there and run around and move, it takes you a little bit to get your legs under you, to get the rest of your body going,” Olsen said after his first practice back. “I feel good about my foot, sometimes, it’s just getting the rest of your body going again.”
As far as his much publicized foray into broadcasting that had Vikings GM Rick Spielman upset about the tight end’s presence in the booth for the Rams-Vikings game, Olsen was more playful. He said that while it was stressful, he really enjoyed himself but was too sensitive to hear any bad reviews; as far as the inside information the Vikings brass were afraid he might glean about the Panthers Week 14 opponent, Olsen rolled his eyes and said, “I learned so much about the Vikings, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Ron Rivera was just as sarcastic when asked to reveal the secrets concerning the Vikings his tight end had brought back to the first practice.
“Without a doubt, we’ve got a whole file.”
