Defensive tackle Kawann Short returned to work after missing three practices last week with a sore foot. Short, who said he’s “feeling pretty good,” admitted he was “a little winded.”
Safety Dean Marlowe was in pads for the first time since he strained his hamstring four weeks ago. He went through individual drills before walking over to head trainer Ryan Vermillion.
“I started to do the little breakdown drills and I kind of felt it grab on me a little bit as I was doing it,” said Marlowe, who spent the rest of practice working on the side. “To be precautionary, I didn’t want to keep doing it.”
Linebacker A.J. Klein, who missed all of last week with an undisclosed injury, was the only player on the active roster who wasn’t in pads.
Philly Brown wasn’t backing down in June.
“I guess he thinks he can bully, but that ain’t happening. Nobody’s going to bully me,” the wideout said when asked about Broncos cornerback Aqib Talib.
It had been four months, yet the memory of Talib’s two personal fouls against Brown in the Super Bowl was still fresh. But In the two months since, Brown’s avoided stoking the fire. He brushed off questions about Talib at training camp, and on Sunday, there was a curious explanation for this tweet:
All this talk I can’t wait till Thursday. Don’t think I forgot‼️
— corey brown (@phillybrown10) September 3, 2016
“It was about my fiancé,” Brown claimed. “That had nothing to do with him.”
Even if we take his word for it, Brown and Talib could make for an interesting subplot come Thursday night.
“Aqib Talib doesn’t run my life. I don’t walk around thinking about him 24/7. That’s not what I’m thinking about right now. I’m more focused on getting the victory.”
Were you excited when this year’s schedule came out featuring the Panthers on opening night?
Rivera wasn’t.
“If I had my druthers I’d have liked to start the season differently,” he said.
While 30 other teams have a week and a half between their preseason finales and Week 1 kickoffs, the Panthers and Broncos have a week. And this weekend wasn’t just about getting ready for the game. They also had to make nearly a couple dozen cuts, sift through waivers and put together a practice squad.
“The biggest challenge for me is just working through the preseason,” Denver coach Gary Kubiak said, “making a ton of decisions and yet, we got home from Arizona at three o’clock in the morning Thursday night and had to cut players and get ready to play (the Panthers).”
And while both coaches are dealing with the same issues, only one of them has a travel day on his long to-do list.
“Being defending NFC champs, it’d have been nice to open up the regular season at home. But it didn’t work that way,” Rivera said. “I don’t set the schedule. We just go out and play the game. So we’re going to play the game to the best of our ability and hopefully do things the right way.”
When cornerback Zack Sanchez arrived at Oklahoma in 2012, coaches decided to move him inside. So Sanchez redshirted while he spent the year learning nickel, a position he never ended up playing with the Sooners.
Now he’s experiencing a bit of déjà vu.
After the Panthers had used a fifth-round pick on Sanchez, they moved him to the slot in the spring. It looked like it was coming together for him at times during training camp, but he then struggled in the preseason. On Saturday, Sanchez was released, a shocker to even him.
“But I understand the business of it, so it happens. Obviously they wanted me back and obviously I’m still here, so that’s a good sign,” said Sanchez, who’s now on the practice squad.
“They want keep growing, keep being more consistent in the nickel game and outside as I get the opportunity.”
For the first time in his four seasons in Carolina, general manager Dave Gettleman made a day-after-cuts waiver wire pick up. The Panthers added defensive end Lavar Edwards, who was cut by Buffalo.
A Titans’ fifth-round pick in the 2013 draft, Edwards has also spent time in Dallas and Chicago. At 6-foot-4, 275 pounds, Edwards has no sacks in 12 career games, but the Panthers feel he can improve the depth at one of their thinnest positions.
“We think he’s an explosive guy. There’s some really good film on him from Buffalo,” Rivera said. “Our scouts, Dave, (assistant general manager) Brandon Beane and that crew of men worked late last night looking for guys. So this morning when we got in, there was a list of guys and he was one of the guys that we looked at and we really felt strong about.
“We got an opportunity to bring a guy in that is a little bit different that what we have as far as the other ends are concerned.”
To make room on the roster, the Panthers released defensive end Wes Horton.
Safety Kurt Coleman, getting deep about the Super Bowl “rematch”:
“I’m not going to lie and say that I’m going to forget it. I think this game is not about channeling our revenge. I think that revenge is a shallow emotion. I think that when we do things in revenge, the victory isn’t as satisfying. So for us, it’s about who do we want to be this year? Who do we want to be as the 2016 Carolina Panthers and what do we want to embark on? How do we want to put our trademark on this season?”