The Carolina Panthers released their first injury report of the 2018 season after shocking reports surfaced Tuesday that second-year wide receiver Curtis Samuel had undergone a small procedure to correct an irregular heartbeat – not surprisingly, Samuel was not present at practice Wednesday and Ron Rivera ruled him out for this weekend’s game against Dallas.
“He’s dealing with a medical issue and we’re going to move on,” Rivera said. “He’s doing well and we’ll see what happens – he’s in the doctor’s care right now; it’s unfortunate, but I know that he’ll continue to do what he’s told – he’ll be back.”
“I would say it’s safe to rule him out – I’m not going to play around on this one, just like I said – it’s a medical issue and the doctors are taking care of it for him.”
Without Samuel, the Panthers will look to lean on players like DJ Moore and Damiere Byrd more; although Samuel hadn’t cracked the starting lineup in the preseason, he still led the team in receiving yards and was expected to be a part of this offense as he’s progressed in both his route running and his ability to catch the ball consistently. Cam Newton and the rest of the offense will be moving forward without Samuel, at least for this week – just like they did for seven games last season.
“Our prayers are with him, but at the end of the day, we still have five wide receivers that we think extremely [highly] of,” said Cam Newton. “They know what they’re supposed to do, I know what I’m supposed to do, Greg [Olsen] knows what he’s supposed to do and this whole team knows their role and their responsibility and we’re just trying to max out on that as a whole.”
Daryl Williams and Amini Silatolu both practiced in limited capacities, and Ron Rivera isn’t ready to start thinking about who will be starting at right tackle opposite Taylor Moton on Sunday against Dallas – stressing, as he always has, that the important thing is not necessarily being able to practice, but how you feel the day after practice. So the Thursday and then Friday injury reports will be a lot more indicative of whether a player will be ready to suit up and play Sunday.
The entire injury report is below:
| Player | Injury | Practice Participation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brendan Mahon | Neck | None | |
| Curtis Samuel | Medical Illness | None | Reportedly had a procedure to correct an irregular heartbeat - Rivera said to count him out for Week 1, but that "he'll be back." |
| Chris Manhertz | Foot | Limited | |
| Amini Silatolu | Knee | Limited | |
| Daryl Williams | Knee | Limited |
