Panthers training camp observations: Samuel shines, Okung leaves early and more
After months of anticipation, the Panthers finally held their first practice of the Matt Rhule era with local media in attendance Sunday. While fans will not be allowed at training camp this season, the practice was the first opportunity to see the Panthers’ new roster and coaching staff in action.
We’ll be keeping you updated with notes and observations from practices throughout training camp to give you the best possible access to the Panthers during this untraditional lead up to the season.
However, due to team and league-wide media restrictions, all local media outlets are unable to report on positions certain players are practicing at, whether a player is with the first-team or second-team and other scheme-related information. Still, we’ll provide as much insight into practice as possible.
With that in mind, let’s get into some observations from the first day.
Moves
Prior to practice Sunday, the Panthers announced they had signed three players, wide receivers Tommylee Lewis and Marken Michel and tight end Andrew Vollert. Lewis spent the 2018 season with offensive coordinator Joe Brady and quarterback Teddy Bridgewater in New Orleans.
In order to keep the roster at 80 players, the Panthers waived wide receiver DeAndrew White and undrafted free agents linebacker Kyahva Tezino and tight end Cam Sutton. Linebacker Jason Ferris was also waived from injured reserve, and thus did not count toward the 80-man roster.
Not at today’s practice
WR Keith Kirkwood, TE Temarrick Hemingway.
Rhule said Kirkwood has a clavical injury and a league source confirmed to The Observer that it is a broken clavical and that he will be having surgery on the injury. Rhule said Kirkwood will be out for “several weeks.” Hemingway, Rhule said, is out with a head injury and is considered “day-to-day.” Kirkwood’s injury helps explain the roster additions.
Injuries
Russell Okung left practice early with a trainer. Rhule said Okung is dealing with tightness in his lower back.
“We’ve just been smart about ramping him up, not making him go the full practice,” Rhule said. At the end of each practice, Okung has been getting work done in the pool with head athletic trainer Kevin King. Rhule said he’ll likely continue to do that over the next week.
Top play
During the team drills, second-year quarterback Will Grier threw a bomb to wide receiver Pharoh Cooper, who was going up against rookie Jeremy Chinn, during 11-on-11 drills. Cooper made a deep diving catch just as he crossed the goal line. The entire offense put their arms up in celebration. It was a solid throw from Grier and a nice catch by Cooper.
Highlights
- The Panthers’ wide receivers, particularly D.J. Moore, Curtis Samuel, Cooper and Omar Bayless, made some tough catches against the young cornerbacks. Samuel had a couple nice grabs, including a diving catch and a competitive catch over rookie Troy Pride Jr. during one-on-one drills.
- Safety Juston Burris had a near pick of Bridgewater in the red zone during a small portion of team drills that took place in the team’s practice bubble.
- Quarterback P.J. Walker threw a touchdown pass to Bayless, who shined throughout practice. Linebacker Andre Smith was in coverage. Bayless, an undrafted free agent from Arkansas State, is definitely a player to watch over the next couple of weeks.
- Keep an eye and ear out for T.J. Green. The safety was very involved in Sunday’s practice.
Lowlights
- The Panthers’ cornerbacks in one-on-one drills. The wide receivers often got separation from the cornerbacks — sometimes deep — and there were few pass breakups. Rookie Stantley-Thomas Olivers struggled in coverage.
- During the portion of the team’s practice in the bubble, Bridgewater and the offense had two staight incompletions in third-down situations after a play when defensive end Brian Burns would have made a tackle for loss on running back Christian McCaffrey. Rhule had the offense do 10 push-ups afterwards.
Other notes
- Loud music was played throughout all portions of practice, mostly hip hop, but some other hits as well, including “Jump Around” by House of Pain. Rhule or an assistant would stop the music to move to a different phase of practice or to go over something. Rhule said he usually plays music during two practice periods a day, typically in the team setting so there is some form of distraction, similar to a game.
Just a general note and feel from practice: Things move fast. There was very little down time and a lot of noise throughout. The team uses a loud alarm to note when everyone should go to a different portion of practice.
“(Practice is) just kind of the way, when I was a player at Penn State under Joe Paterno and then worked for Tom Coughlin, the practice that we’re doing is just kind of how I was raised in football. This just really just kind of seems natural to me,” Rhule said. “We just want to move efficiently from drill to drill and and have great energy, work really hard and get out of there. We don’t want to be on the field longer than we have to, but we’re going to make sure that while we’re out there, we put great reps on tape.”
- It was a cool, breezy morning. The heat certainly wasn’t an issue with the temperature in upper 60’s. The team started out practice in the training bubble and then went back in there for one more period, but the usage was not weather-related.
- Rhule has been impressed with veteran Mike Davis in camp. “He’s a pro,” Rhule said Friday. “He’s done it at a high level. He works. He’s done a lot of good things in this league. He’s doing a lot of good things for us.”
- Samuel, who is entering his fourth year with the Panthers and the final year of his rookie deal, looked impressive in one-on-one drills. On one play he collided with Green and both fell to the ground. Samuel quickly got up, ran a few more yards and caught a diving pass.
- Rhule’s son, Bryant, was at practice. He even got in a bit of throwing with the quarterbacks when they broke up into individual drills.
- McCaffrey spent some time with linebackers Tahir Whitehead and Shaq Thompson working one-on-one in pass coverage. McCaffrey was showing Whitehead how he moves, while Whitehead was showing him how he would correspondingly respond. It’s interesting to see the veterans working together on the details.
- Instead of wearing red jerseys, all three Panthers quarterbacks wore dark green practice jerseys. Almost Baylor green. Rhule explained that he has always preferred not to have the quarterbacks in red jerseys.
“To me, red denotes injured in my brain. My quarterbacks have always either worn orange or green,” Rhule said. “Red to me just means, I’m an injured player. We want our quarterbacks to stay healthy, so, put them in green.”
Members of the first-team defense wore black jerseys.
- Offensive coordinator Joe Brady was one of the few coaches wearing a visor as opposed to a face mask at practice. Rhule had previously mentioned that some coaches were doing that so players could see their expressions.
Monday’s schedule
Panthers practice Monday is scheduled to begin at 8:45. It will be the team’s first day in pads.
This story was originally published August 16, 2020 at 3:55 PM.
