Damiere Byrd is on the cusp of being the next NFL success story. Not that he isn’t successful already, but Byrd has gone from undrafted free agent to practice squad to main roster to preseason fan favorite to starting wide receiver in less than two seasons. He is still less than a year removed from his first NFL catch against Tampa Bay in last season’s finale and is coming off his most prolific game of his young career in which he caught all five of his targets for 37 yards in addition to returning two kickoffs; the second-year pro who ran a 4.25 40-yard dash is becoming a larger and larger part of the Panthers passing game as the season wears on. He appeared to be on this path when he broke his arm in Week 4 against the New England Patriots and was placed on injured reserve; now that he’s back, he’s anxious to make an impact.
We had a few minutes to chat with Damiere after practice Thursday ahead of the matchup with Green Bay. Byrd had just finished voting for the annual NFL Films Top 100 Players, as the NFL staff flitted around the locker room aiming for players to choose the best players in the NFL.
So who’d you vote for?
To be honest? **Byrd exchanges a look with neighbor Kaelin Clay, then starts singing G-Eazy and laughing** Me, myself, and I….nah I’m just kidding. I think I did about eight people, I don’t know. Antonio Brown, Luke, Tom Brady, I think I put Melvin Ingram in there somewhere.
Does stuff like that, like the NFL Top 100, does that kind of stuff reverberate, does that exist in your world? Do you pay attention to stuff like that, who’s in the top 100?
We don’t always get to see the plays, we kind of only get to see the stats; we only get to really see film of who we’re playing and coaches’ [film] of that, but we all kind of know, “alright, he’s having a great season, he’s doing this, he’s doing that.” So we all kind of know.
Who do you look up to, as far as wide receivers on other teams?
AB, Julio, those type of guys. Keenan Allen’s having a great year; there’s a lot of people.
You had your biggest statistical game to date with five catches last week, you’re slowly but surely becoming more and more involved in the offense, do you feel like your role is progressing the way that you want it to?
Yeah, I think everybody wants to have a role in the offense and fortunately in these past few weeks my role has expanded in getting targets, getting catches, things like that. You’ve got to continue with it and continue to try to make as many plays as I can to try and make our team win.
You just came back from a broken arm, Aaron Rodgers is coming back from a broken collarbone. Different stories, obviously, but is it hard the first time you step back on the field after that much time off with an injury?
Yeah, definitely. I think that’s even, the first game of the year, you’re going to feel that way. So if you’re hurting, if you’ve been out for six to eight weeks, the feel for the game, the speed of the game, it’ll be a little bit different, but he’s been a great quarterback for a long time; he’s been playing in this league for a long time, so you just deal with it and it’ll come back fast.
You guys knew that he was coming back for this game a few weeks ago, right?
Yeah, we heard it. We figured if they were able to win some games and continue to be in the playoff hunt, that, no doubt that he would try to come back.
How important do you think it is for the offense to be balanced with the running game, which has been clicking the past few weeks; do you think it’s important that the passing game jumps back up to that level or are you content with the running game taking the lead?
I think, theoretically, you can always say “Hey, we want to have a balanced running game and passing game,” but at the end of the day, if we’re winning games, it doesn’t really matter. We could throw for 500, if we lose the game, what does it really matter?
We’re just trying to do whatever we can to win games. If it’s throwing for 300 yards, then it’s throwing for 300 yards; if it’s running for 200, then that’s what we’re going to do.
Do you think yourself and Kaelin [Clay] being on the field has opened up the running game a little bit with you two stretching the field?
I think the execution of the entire offense as a whole; being able to mix up passing on run downs or running on third downs, it’s really been able to keep defenses on their toes.
You’re a South Carolina guy, have you seen Captain’s car?
I have, I already kind of knew about that bet. I stayed out of it, so my car is perfectly fine.
Might think this belongs to famous UGA alums @ThomasDavisSDTM or @randywattson but nope.
Former Gamecock @captain_41
lost a bet. And this was his punishment. pic.twitter.com/7rDk4JtgnB— The Riot Report (@RRiotReport) November 29, 2017
You don’t get involved with those kind of bets?
I do, but not those kind of bets where I’ve got to drive my car around with a Georgia logo on it!
