The weirdest training camp in the history of the Carolina Panthers is under way
The Carolina Panthers officially opened training camp for all their veteran players Tuesday — not that you could tell.
This is a stealth camp, a socially-distanced camp. A camp that even before the COVID-19 pandemic was going to fly well under the NFL’s radar because of how low-profile the Panthers have become.
But now, with the coronavirus always looming? The weirdest camp in Panthers history is upon us.
Just the differences between Carolina’s 25th training camp in 2019, and their 26th one, which is starting right now, are striking.
Unlike the 2019 version, the Panthers’ 2020 training camp features:
▪ No fans. They can’t come to camp practices, they can’t come to preseason games (there won’t be any) and they can’t go to most (or will it be all?) of the Panthers’ real games, either.
▪ No Cam Newton. The Panthers fired him and he’s now in New England, learning how to love Bill Belichick.
▪ No Luke Kuechly. He suddenly retired and has turned into a pro scout for the Panthers.
▪ No Wofford College. Carolina’s longtime training camp home in Spartanburg won’t host the team this year because of the pandemic. Carolina instead is camping in Charlotte — pitching a tent in its own backyard, so to speak.
▪ No Greg Olsen. He’s catching passes from Russell Wilson in Seattle.
▪ No Ron Rivera. The new head coach of the Washington football team told me he has “no regrets” about taking a Washington job that has been an exercise in crisis management so far.
I posted a few pictures of the 2019 Panthers camp on Twitter Tuesday, noting some of these changes. A Carolina fan named Chuck Till replied to that tweet, saying: “With the departure of Rivera, Kuechly, Newton and Olsen, I had felt distanced from the franchise even before COVID-19.”
That’s a perceptive way to put it. The 2020 Panthers are going to have to work to overcome that sort of social distance.
This was always going to be an odd year for the Panthers, a “can’t tell the players without a scorecard” kind of season.
The list of what hasn’t changed for Carolina in 2020 is a short one. The team is still owned by David Tepper. Running back Christian McCaffrey is still Carolina’s best player. Wide receiver DJ Moore, linebacker Shaq Thompson and defensive tackle Kawann Short all remain as key building blocks. General manager Marty Hurney survived the coaching staff purge that took down Rivera and nearly all of his staff starting in December.
The Panthers have very few veterans actually inside Bank of America Stadium yet. Everyone has to pass three NFL-mandated coronavirus tests first before entering the team facility, and on Tuesday, most of the Panthers’ veterans were only taking their first test. So a lot of the players reported to training camp, got their nose swabbed and went back home. What a first day.
There will undoubtedly be bumps in the upcoming road for the 2020 Panthers. In fact, they will be fortunate if they are only bumps, and not mountains. No one really knows if this NFL season will even be played. There are all sorts of nightmare scenarios you can think of for the league to have to shut down — what is happening with the MLB’s Miami Marlins is sobering.
For now, though, the Panthers are only beginning a season like no other while also trying to win back fans like Till.
“Maybe I’ll re-bond when the season starts,” he wrote of the Panthers. “Don’t know.”
Makes sense. In 2020, no one knows much of anything.
But for better or for worse, the Panthers opened another training camp Tuesday. Good luck to them on keeping it open. They, and the 31 other NFL teams, will desperately need it.
