After Fan Fest Friday night concluded almost a full week of padded practice for the Carolina Panthers, the hottest day of training camp thus far in Spartanburg seemed like a lighter practice then last week’s – especially as multiple players were either dinged up or given a vet day to rest up for the first preseason game in Buffalo on Thursday. But a lighter practice with the players in shells didn’t mean that the team was any less intense, with positional drills beginning with both Luke Kuechly and Jermaine Carter, Jr knocking the sled over completely as they hit it – and just because Thomas Davis spent a portion of practice that he wasn’t involved in playing catch with his son on the sideline doesn’t mean he and Cam Newton didn’t engage in their traditional trash talk, with Newton calling out the linebacker after he was inches away from an interception that resulted in a catch near the goalline for Jarius Wright, calling the 35-year old “too slow”.
Here are some other storylines we noticed at this Sunday afternoon’s practice:
- I told you a lot of players missed practice today, but here’s the list: Kawann Short, Jeremiah Sirles, Ben Jacobs, Julius Peppers, Ian Thomas, Daeshon Hall and Alex Armah all worked on the side with trainers in addition to Fred Ross and Chris Manhertz, who remain on the PUP list – Ron Rivera said that none of the players missing time were anything serious. Christian McCaffrey and Michael Palardy both were not on the practice field; McCaffrey has a stomach bug and Michael Palardy’s wife is expected to deliver a baby boy at any moment. She may have already, depending on when you read this.
- Julius Peppers was activated from the PUP list earlier today after passing his physical as he recovers from offseason shoulder surgery, Rivera says he’ll continue to “work him back in; he’ll be limited in practice, we’ll be smart with the things we have him do with getting everything ready for the opener, more so than anything else – he’s a vet who knows how to do things, so it’s not like we need to see what he can do.” As a 38-year old with 154.5 career sacks, that is a bit of an understatement.
- In one-on-one pass blocking drills, a lot of the offensive line has been derided thus far in camp, specifically the left side. But Amini Silatolu, who was listed today on the team’s first official depth chart as the starter at left guard, had an excellent rep against Dontari Poe, who is one of the toughest defensive tackles in the league to keep from the quarterback – more consistent reps like that will go a long way towards easing Panthers’ fans minds about the performance of Silatolu as the team heads towards the regular season.
- Another day, another terrific practice for Greg Olsen, who says that even as he’s gotten older, he still enjoys training camp and finding ways to get better. “It’s been fun for me to learn a new offense, learn to do things a little different than maybe I had gotten used to doing in the past, and that’s kind of been energizing a little bit. To just be challenged, to do something different – the way I want to run a route vs. the way Norv wants to run a route, he wins the tie, so I’ve got to do it his way.” Olsen continues to be the best player on the Panthers offense by a wide margin this camp, scoring three times today, including a route in which Cam Newton threaded the needle into the tiniest of holes around Shaq Thompson and Olsen made an extremely difficult catch look easy.
- Speaking of Newton, after former teammate Kelvin Benjamin derided the 2015 MVP in an interview with The Athletic and on Twitter yesterday, Cam seemed to play with an extra chip on his shoulder today, threading multiple passes to many different receivers through what seemed like impossible holes, including a slant to DJ Moore for a score that had some extra zip on it. If Newton was bothered by Benjamin’s comments, he didn’t show it.
- Cam’s accuracy shined on a couple of throws, but he had an absolutely beautiful throw that went just over the outstretched hands of Donte Jackson and ahead of another defender and directly in between the numbers of Devin Funchess, who dropped what would have been a gain of about twenty yards. Funchess made up for the drop later in practice with a nice gainer along the sidelines in which there was a lot of questioning about whether he pushed off of Kevon Seymour to create separation.
- Having a good day as well for the first team offense was Jarius Wright, who caught passes throughout the afternoon session, including a big gainer up the seam in which he would have gone for a score had this been a game – Wright has been utilized not just as a third-down option over the middle, but on wide receiver screens and swing passes; the coaching staff obviously likes what Wright can do with the ball in his hands.
- With Kawann Short getting a vet day today, Vernon Butler was taking the snaps next to Dontari Poe.
- Tight end Jason Vander Laan returned from a few days of practice missed with a shoulder injury and picked up right where he left off, catching two touchdowns – Rivera said after practice that he likes what he’s seen from the tight ends on the field currently and he’s not concerned about tight end depth; he says that they’re not expecting to get Chris Manhertz back until the season starts.
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.