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[accordion_item title=”CAM NEWTON”]It’s rare when the biggest Panthers’ headlines don’t involve Cam Newton. But with so much outside attention focused on defensive end Greg Hardy the last couple weeks, Newton injury updates became secondary stories.The quarterback played better than many expected in his season debut last week, but his ribs and ankle still aren’t 100 percent. It also appeared he had his right thumb taped during Thursday’s practice. It’s unclear if that’s anything significant, and really, it’d just be added to the list.“When you’ve been banged up as long as I’ve been banged up for so long, you don’t know which one is the other,” Newton said when asked if his ribs or ankle were sorer than the other.
The story of his quick friendship with first-round receiver Kelvin Benjamin was told over and over, but it’s hard to imagine Newton’s spent more time in 2014 with anyone other than head trainer Ryan Vermillion. And it’s likely they won’t get a break from each other until 2015.“Probably sometime in February, in all honesty,” head coach Ron Rivera said when asked when Newton would be able to stop his constant treatments. “It goes with the position and the way he plays. He plays hard and he plays where he cuts it loose. It’s going to be like that. He’ll have the nagging soreness constantly.”[accordion_item title=”GREG HARDY”]The longer the Hardy situation remained up in the air, the more the media contingent grew at Bank of America Stadium.Hardy’s status was temporarily settled Wednesday, but while there were fewer cameras, some guys still had to talk about the topic on Thursday.”I’d rather leave that whole situation alone,” cornerback Antoine Cason said. “However, I don’t know how it is to go through something like that. So as a teammate, I support him.”Hardy was the first topic brought up when Newton stepped to the podium, and the team captain did a solid job summarizing the overall feeling of the locker room.”There’s a lot of guys that feel for Greg, including myself. But we still have a job to do, and that’s to put the best performance that we have had this whole season for Sunday night,” Newton said.[accordion_item title=”KONY EALY”]The Panthers will fill Hardy’s spot with a rotation of Wes Horton, Mario Addison and rookie Kony Ealy.
The second-round pick, who was inactive in Week 1, played 31 snaps against the Lions. He didn’t have 2.5 sacks like Addison, but Ealy did have a few plays where he flashed.Starting with May’s rookie minicamp, the Panthers have privately preached patience about early expectations for Ealy. But now he has a chance to fast track his development.”As I go on through this process, I get better and better at it,” Ealy said. “You’re going to see a beast coming out of Kony Ealy sooner rather than later.”[accordion_item title=”JERRICHO COTCHERY”]
Receiver Jerricho Cotchery labeled himself ‘old’ during training camp, but there’s not much of an age difference between Cotchery and the guy who threw him 10 touchdown passes last season.“Jerricho is really old,” Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger joked on a conference call Wednesday. “I always used to tease him, because I’m like a couple months older than him, but it seems like he is a lot older than me.”The 32-year-olds played together the last three seasons, but in March, Cotchery picked the Panthers’ free agency offer over one that could have kept him in Pittsburgh.And while one of Sunday’s storylines is Cotchery’s reunion against his former team, he actually just saw his old buddies last month.”I knew that we play them every year in the preseason, so I wanted to get all the hugs and the handshakes out of the way for the last preseason game,” Cotchery said. “So it just feels normal to me right now preparing to win the game on Sunday.”[accordion_item title=”LUKE KUECHLY”]Nothing on TV gets more weekly viewers during the final four months of the year than NBC’s Sunday Night Football. But ahead of this week’s matchup between the Panthers and Steelers, linebacker Luke Kuechly admitted he still hasn’t seen the prime-time program’s new open which features him, six other players, and six-time Grammy Award winner Carrie Underwood.”People have told me about it. I’ve been so doggone busy, I haven’t had a chance to peek at it yet,” Kuechly said.And what have those people told him about it?”They said it looks good. I think everyone’s pretty nice about it, though. Hopefully it turned out well and I’ll get to take a peek at it sometime down the road this year.”
[accordion_item title=”LACHE SEASTRUNK “]When Jacksonville grabbed receiver Tavarres King on Tuesday, the Panthers replaced him on their practice squad with running back Lache Seastrunk.The Baylor product led the Big 12 in rushing last season, but he didn’t go off the board in May’s draft until the made him a sixth-round pick.”It was a question of if I could catch or not. I never caught the ball at Baylor, and that was the main concern,” Seastrunk said.During his two seasons in Waco, Seastrunk had 289 carries, but just nine receptions.
When asked why things didn’t work out in Washington — the Redskins didn’t even add the draft pick to their practice squad after releasing him — Seastrunk replied, “It just wasn’t a fit for them.”He did have a couple receptions in the preseason, including one he took 80-yards for a touchdown.So while many in the NFL doubt his receiving ability, does Seastrunk think he can catch?”I think so.”[/accordion]