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When Cam Newton fired a pass to his second-round receiver in the middle of the field, Coleman went for the interception. Before he could get there, Funchess snagged the ball and held on while absorbing a nice pop. As Coleman fell to the turf, Funchess sprinted to the end zone:
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h/t @Jamieclayton
With the second team running the two-minute drill, Derek Anderson tossed an out route to Brenton Bersin on third down. Jones quickly made up ground to bat the ball away:
A few plays after Kelvin Benjamin caught a pass on the sideline against Josh Norman, the two matched up again. This time, when Norman won, defensive coordinator Sean McDermott ran across the field screaming, “Nice job, nice job!”
The passing game was less than sharp, and Newton, in particular, struggled to connect deep down field.
“He was off today. He made some great reads but didn’t deliver the ball. A couple times the wrong route was run,” coach Ron Rivera said. “At least he’s making good reads and good decisions. That’s always a good step.”
As he’s done during nearly every practice this spring and summer, Newton spent a special teams period going through his footwork with quarterbacks coach Ken Dorsey and offensive coordinator Mike Shula.
When asked if he’s seen signs that Newton has improved his accuracy the past few months, Rivera replied:
“Yes I have. What I’ve seen is the extra time he takes afterwards to work on specific routes. He’s working with the backs and tight ends right now on quick inside routes.
“You see him work on the footwork as well. A lot of things happen between periods when he, Kenny and Mike would go over to the other field and work specifically on footwork. You see him working on stepping into the ball, delivering a good ball.”
For the second straight practice, Kony Ealy was with the starters on one end while Rakim Cox got the bulk of snaps on the other.
At defensive tackle, Kyle Love continued to work ahead of Colin Cole and Dwan Edwards.
When they locked in Newton, the Panthers immediately turned their attention to getting Kuechly’s deal done. They’re still working on it, but it’s clearly not something either side is stressing over all that much.
After calling it a “50-50 proposition” Tuesday, Rivera said, “Hopefully, it’ll get taken care of. It would be a great thing to have that taken care of, then we can go on to the next guy.”
So, yeah, the Panthers are planning to keep arguably the best middle linebacker in the game, and he just wants to play football. Well, he wants to play football with the Panthers, too. Odds are Tom Condon, Kuechly’s agent, cares more about the details than his player does.
If the Panthers toss out an acceptable offer sometime in the next few weeks, it’ll get done. If they don’t, it’ll get done in 2016. Either way, Kuechly will be very rich and Panthers fans will be able to wear No. 59 jerseys for many more years.
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