When Trai Turner first landed on the front of Sports Illustrated, he was overshadowed by some guy named Cam Newton.
10 months later, Turner's got the cover all to himself.
The Panthers' third-year guard, Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald, Packers defensive end Mike Daniels and Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins each feature on regional covers for the second part of SI's NFL Preview. Newton was on the front of the first part, which went out last month.
Like the rest of Carolina's offensive linemen this week, Turner didn't want to talk about much more than the Tuesday release of center Ryan Kalil's "The Rookie Handbook." But Turner's teammates were impressed by the day's other big news.
"Is that really Sports Illustrated? Trai made the cover of Sports Illustrated? Wow," tight end Greg Olsen said.
Overhearing Olsen, left tackle Michael Oher asked:
"Trai Turner? Is this the real Sports Illustrated?"
Yeah, but he doesn't want to talk about it. This week's all about Kalil's book.
"That's actually a great segue to his book," Olsen said. "He read the book and now he's on the cover of Sports Illustrated."
Forget TV. Perhaps Olsen should be a marketer in his post-playing days.