Black and Blue Review
Tuesday First-Team Offense Based Off Majority of Team Drills
QB Anderson; RB Williams; FB Tolbert; WR rotation King/McNutt/Cotchery/Benjamin/Avant; Olsen; LT/RT rotation Bell/Chandler with Bell taking majority of snaps at LT; LG Silatolu; Kalil; RG Turner
Tuesday First-Team Defense Based Off Majority of Team Drills
Johnson; Hardy; Lotulelei; Cole/Edwards; Davis; Kuechly; Blackburn; nickel – Benwikere; Cason; White; Lester in for Harper; DeCoud
Punt Returners
Barner, Brown, Cason
Overall Impressions
Players seemed to deal with the heat well. The offense had the advantage during the first half of practice, then the defense started blitzing more, which caused a number of problems. During this minicamp, head coach Ron Rivera wants to see if and what his guys learned from OTA installations. Coaches implemented a 30-second clock, putting more pressure on the offense, which also led to some errors. Mistakes are expected right now. We’ll see how many get corrected over the next couple practices.
Player Impressions
- George Gring — Six year old from Houston was honorary Panther for the day; escorted to practice by Cam Newton, stretched and caught passes from the quarterback.
- Cam Newton, QB — Threw early in group drills taking three- and five-step drops; Rivera said Newton did “more than I expected” and “there was an outside chance” he could have gone full; still antsy and bored; talked with other quarterbacks and coaches Mike Shula and Ken Dorsey the majority of practice.
- Brenton Bersin, WR — Got a few more snaps with the higher rotations.
- Jordan Gay, P — Sweet gig right now; attends practice but machine spits out balls during punt drills.
- Brad Nortman, P — See above.
- Graham Gano, K — Got to work the leg a bit when team worked on extra points.
- De’Andre Presley, WR — Sat out with shin splits.
- Tiquan Underwood, WR — Seems to be one of the few receivers not rotating in with the ones during team drills.
- Kelvin Benjamin, WR — Up and down day. A few more drops than we’ve seen.
- Marvin McNutt, WR — Had a bad drop during team period, but rebounded with a sideline catch moments later.
- Philly Brown, WR — Struggled. Dropped pass on third and short, Rivera yelled “You’ve gotta make the play Philly;” botched punt return as well.
- Kealoha Pilares, WR — Player of the day; made a number of nice plays, including one where he juked past rookie cornerback Bene Benwikere causing someone on sideline to scream “Pick up the pieces!”
- Antonie Cason, CB — The league is cracking down on defensive backs using their hands on receivers this year, so Cason was one of a few guys wearing boxing sparring gloves.
- Melvin White, CB — After sitting out majority of team drills with a sore hip last Wednesday, back in with ones.
- Josh Norman, CB — With White healthier, back to playing most of his snaps with second team; one of the guys wearing boxing sparring gloves; heard from defensive backs coach Steve Wilks about needing better body language.
- Kenjon Barner, RB — Got more snaps with the ones; looked small among all the bigger bodies.
- Jonathan Stewart, RB — Status quo for this spring, which is a good thing.
- Bene Benwikere, CB — With Charles Godfrey still sitting out team drills, continues to work as top nickelback.
- Charles Godfrey, CB — Last Wednesday, Benwikere shadowed him during early drills; today he shadowed Benwikere.
- Tre Boston, S — Still watching after recent hernia surgery.
- DeAngelo Williams, RB — Had a bit more pep in his step today; busted out of line in full sprint on first play of team drills.
- Michael Zordich, FB — After rehabbing through OTAs, returned to a full practice.
- Roman Harper, S — Excused absence after wife delivered baby daughter in New Orleans.
- Jason Williams, LB — Sat out with a sore knee.
- Thomas Davis, LB — Practicing without knee brace for first time since his rash of ACL injuries; feels completely confident in his knee.
- Garry Williams, T — Returned to play some tackle with the second team; Rivera said “he’ll be a jack of all trades” if he makes roster.
- Amini Silatolu, G — Played with ones in team drills after sitting those out in OTAs; Rivera said he “looked rusty.”
- Trai Turner, G — Despite return of Chris Scott, the newly-turned 21 year old still working with the ones.
- Edmund Kugbila, G — Still out; worked on conditioning.
- Chris Scott, G — Back after missing chunk of OTAs because of conditioning problems; may be too late to wrestle right guard job away from Turner.
- Greg Hardy, DE — Walked into practice smiling and laughing with defensive coordinator Sean McDermott; dominant presence.
- Byron Bell, T — After a pretty even split with Nate Chandler during OTAs, seemed to take bulk of snaps at left tackle.
- Nate Chandler, T — See above.
- Mike McNeill, TE — Made first big play in team drills during practices media has been able to watch; later slipped on route, a problem a few guys had on slicker grass today.
- Mario Addison, DE — Rotated in a bit with the ones.
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