Are You Ready For Some Injury Talk?
Pity ESPN’s ratings.
Not only will Monday Night Football feature a pair of 1-3 teams, but Carolina and Tampa Bay are each riddled with injuries.
The Panthers will be without their starting quarterback, running back, left tackle, cornerback and their first-round pick. The Bucs could be missing two of their most important defensive linemen and their top two running backs.
This game’s long injury lists and other banged-up rosters around the league (see: Pittsburgh ruling out all seven of its inactives two days before last week’s game with the Chiefs) have Ron Rivera wondering.
“It’s worrisome as a coach,” he said Saturday. “Do we need to look at expanding the roster size? Do we look at trying to have more than 46 available on gameday? You worry about that quote unquote competitive balance.”
Rotation Updates
With cornerback James Bradberry out at least this week with turf toe and the surprise release of Bené Benwikere, the Panthers will have a new-look secondary Monday night. Daryl Worley will make his first career start across from Robert McClain. When the Panthers go into their nickel package, McClain will slide inside while Zack Sanchez and Teddy Williams rotate in on the outside.
“We’ve got a lot of confidence in what we’ve got (at corner),” Rivera said. “These are guys that have shown progress, that have really stepped up. We’ll see, though. You just never know until you play.”
Meanwhile, Joe Webb, who played some receiver late last week, may not even get his normal special teams work. The Panthers need to be cautious with Webb since he’s the No. 2 quarterback behind Derek Anderson.
Rivera also revealed Brenton Bersin would be active a week after he was released to make room on the roster for defensive end Larry Webster.
Also on Saturday, the Panthers moved offensive lineman Chris Scott to the active roster. He was suspended the first four games for violating the league’s performance-enhancing drugs policy. Guard Tyler Larsen was waived in the corresponding move.
On the Tackles
Michael Oher’s concussion will keep him out of a second straight game, so the Panthers will again go with the Mike Remmers–Daryl Williams combo.
When asked why they’re shifting Remmers to left tackle instead of keeping him on the right side, Rivera replied:
“Daryl has some experience; he’s played. Donald Hawkins doesn’t have that kind of experience. So put in a guy with no experience or put in a guy with some experience? We felt good about Daryl, and Mike Remmers has played well to stay as our starter, so we felt going with Mike as the left tackle was better for us. And he played well.
“I know there was a little spurt where there were a few penalties, but two of them weren’t his fault. It’s all I can say on that.”