Panthers’ Matt Kalil: With ‘little hip thing’ fixed, his quickness has returned

New Panthers left tackle Matt Kalil has always been big, so quickness has never been his strong suit.

But the man the Panthers have entrusted to protect Cam Newton's blind side says he feels as quick as he has in years after undergoing surgery last September to repair a torn labrum in his hip, caused by a misshapen ball joint.

The Vikings, Kalil's former team, recently cleared him. And Kalil has been working out with his brother, Panthers center Ryan Kalil, near their childhood home in California.

"This little hip thing that I had, it's something I had since college (at Southern Cal). It was kind of something that progressed and got worse," Kalil said Friday after signing a five-year, $55.5 million deal with Carolina.

"It got to the point where they went in there and they fixed it. It's felt the best it's ever felt in a long time, even since college," he added. "Now that that's out of the way, I've been doing some workouts and things like that. Quickness I haven't had in a while kind of comes back and that's exciting."

This story was originally published March 10, 2017 at 9:55 PM with the headline "Panthers’ Matt Kalil: With ‘little hip thing’ fixed, his quickness has returned."