HEALTH WATCH
DT Kawann Short missed his third straight day of practice. Short is dealing with “soreness,” according to coach Ron Rivera, who said the Pro Bowler will “without a doubt” play in Week 1.
“The trainers said, ‘We just want to give him a few days,’” Rivera said. “So I’m not going to argue with it, especially now.”
RB Jonathan Stewart, C Ryan Kalil, DE Charles Johnson and LB A.J. Klein also spent the day inside.
“You can’t be too careful with guys,” Rivera said, “especially this time of year.”
“We're not pushing guys through anything. Guys tell us they're sore, we want to make sure everything's OK.”
QB Derek Anderson threw some passes, but didn’t do much more than that. Anderson, who’s still sore after Friday night’s game against the Patriots, will probably miss Thursday's preseason finale. That means Joe Webb could have the reigns for all four quarters against the Steelers. And if something happens to Webb, Anderson would be available.
“If he's sore we're not going to expose him,” Rivera said, “but if we had to we'd put him out there.”
NOTABLE NUGGETS
As I wrote after Monday’s trade, new P Andy Lee is actually coming home to do his job. Lee and his wife, Rachel, are both from South Carolina. He grew up in Westminster. She's from Columbia. They lived in Greenville until moving to Charlotte with their two sons about three and a half years ago.
“I guess you could say it’s kind of a dream come true to be able to come and play football in the town you live in full time,” Lee said. “It’s just been a crazy but awesome past day.”
Why did general manager Dave Gettleman feel he had to trade a 4th round pick for a punter?
First, the veteran they signed in June didn’t work out.
“We signed Mike (Scifres) knowing he had the plant leg issue from last year,” Gettleman said, “but we knew him — Ron had been with him in San Diego — and we thought he could potentially be an answer.”
Second, while punter isn’t the most glamorous or important position on a team, the defending NFC champs weren’t going to start the new season with Kasey Redfern.
“To have a team like this and to go into a season with a rookie punter is really rolling the bones,” Gettleman said. “Through conversations in the office, we decided to take a shot.
“Andy Lee is a Pro Bowl punter. People talking about checking boxes? Well, that’s a huge box to check.”
Gettleman won’t negotiate contracts when the regular season starts, so an extension for Short would have to be done in the next eight days. While the sense remains that the sides are too far apart, lines of communication aren’t completely shut off.
“Contract negotiations are going on,” said Gettleman, who of course wouldn’t expound further.
With the season opener inching closer, players are starting to get more questions about the Broncos. Some guys on some teams may go all rah-rah about a Super Bowl rematch, but the Panthers don’t often go public with comments like that. Especially LB Luke Kuechly.
“The thing I think about is that opening game is something you always look forward to, and to have a team of that caliber to play first is cool,” Kuechly said in his typical awe-shucks way. “To go out to Denver, I think that’s going to be fun. Just to have the opportunity to go out there and play against the team that won the Super Bowl last year is a big deal for us.”