‘The final level of a video game’: Panthers emotions run high for roster hopefuls
The feeling is all too familiar for Taylor Heinicke.
For the past four seasons, Heinicke has entered the final week of the NFL preseason firmly on a team’s roster bubble. That means uncertainty, stress, apprehension. What about my future? And this year is no different.
Heinicke spent 2018 as Cam Newton’s backup, but this preseason, the Carolina Panthers have relegated him to the far reaches of the quarterback depth chart in favor of developing Kyle Allen and rookie Will Grier. Even though Heinicke has played more consistently than either in his little preseason action, his physical limitations and lower upside make his chances of making the team slim at best.
“Every year, it kind of feels like the same thing: you’re battling for a spot,” Heinicke said. “I just don’t think about it. It’s kind of out of my control.
“When you sit there and you think about it, you’re stressing yourself out and you’re losing sleep, not eating. It’s just not healthy.”
Heinicke’s experience with roster cutdown week — every NFL team must go drop 90 to 53 players by 4 p.m. Saturday — does give him something of a leg up handling the process. But there are a handful of other Panthers hopefuls of all ages, backgrounds and positions going through the same process.
And yeah, coach Ron Rivera has noticed a few more nerves from those players this week.
“Yes, you really do,” Rivera said Tuesday. “It’s interesting because now is about the time where if you walk by those meeting rooms, you’ll see a few guys in spending a little more time watching tape than they typically do.”
Rivera said Monday that there are “a good number” of roster spots still up for the taking, which he credited to the team’s transition this offseason. After sporting the league’s fourth-oldest roster in 2018, Carolina has made a concerted effort to get both younger and quicker across the board, especially on defense.
That’s why you see players like Brian Burns and Christian Miller around instead of Julius Peppers, or Greg Little and Dennis Daley instead of Ryan Kalil.
The other half of that churn, though, means that pools of younger guys are all competing for one or two spots at primo positions. The Panthers realistically have four or five candidates deserving of a sixth receiver spot, and yet, tough decisions must be made. The team can’t keep Terry Godwin and Rashad Ross and Andre Levrone and Jaydon Mickens.
So not the most fun week for Rivera and general manager Marty Hurney, not to mention the players whose immediate livelihoods are on the line.
If there’s any consolation for those experiencing the struggle this week, it’s that they still have one more chance to prove themselves. Rivera said that Thursday’s preseason finale against the Pittsburgh Steelers will “weigh on a lot of those decisions.”
That’s music to the ears of someone like Reggie Bonnafon, who flashed enough in this very game in 2018 to earn a practice squad spot.
“Honestly I just told myself to lay it all on the line,” Bonnafon said of his mindset this time a year ago. “Last year I told myself it could be my last football game ever, so why not? At the same time, I think it forces you to just let go and not think about it as much.
“It’s like the final level of a video game. It’s suspenseful. Sometimes not knowing what’s next forces you to be in the moment, and sometimes you excel in that.”
Bonnafon is hoping that’s the case for him Thursday. Heinicke, too. And Rivera wants to do what he can to put all those close calls in the best position to succeed.
“It’s tough because there is a lot riding on this last game for a good number of them,” Rivera said. “One of the things you try to do is catch one guy or two or three and just get in their ear: ‘Hey, just go out and do your thing. Play, let the chips fall where they may.’
“When you walk away, you want to be able to say hey, I did my best.”
This story was originally published August 27, 2019 at 4:26 PM.
