Panthers Camp Report

Well, me and a friend were at training camp today, and the practice was... well, it was hot. Real real hot. It was also strange because so many people were out. Rosario, Beason, Harris, Robinson were all out, and Delhomme, Otah and Moose all practiced just once. But the DTs were in there, and JStew participated in both practices, so those were good.

Jarrett looked fine, made a few catches you'd expect him to make, ran good routes, but more importantly he seemed very engaged in what was going on. Several times during the morning practice (which Moose sat out) Jarrett sought out Moose and they talked about things. That's encouraging to see.

As for other receiver performances, Moose was spectacular in the afternoon practice, beating corners on long routes with double moves, on comebacks, crossing routes, and never dropped a single ball. Smitty was fine but not spectacular, and he was downright silent, never saying anything to anyone except chatting quietly with Kasay and a couple other people between reps. Carter was very good, with some nice routes and catches, but had a couple drops and made some special teams mistakes.

Now for the bad news. Hackett pulled up in the morning practice with what looked like tightness or pain in his calf or foot. Never saw him again. Not sure what that means.

Toefield looks fine if unspectacular, but Nick Goings looks better. I didn't realize what a fantastic athlete Goings was until I watched him stretch before the afternoon practice. He's got a dancer's flexibility, paired with huge strength.

Kasay and Lloyd both had good practices. Kasay was automatic on field goals (read: a danger to the cameraman) and got most of his kickoffs to the goal line. Lloyd was decent on FGs, missed a few, but boomed all of his kickoffs out of the end zone. The kid's incredible.

Holt and Godfrey started at safeties, Holt made a few good plays, and Godfrey looked fine but didn't make many plays. Nate Salley looked great, getting a nice interception and breaking on the ball well.

The DEs all look really good. Peppers is unreal. Brayton's a high-motor guy, and he was fun to watch going against Otah in the morning practice. Johnson had a couple good plays, including a batted ball he should have caught. McClover had a couple good plays in the afternoon practice, sniffing out a screen really well. They all looked good at one point or another. Peppers is the only sure starter, though.

Also, no one asked, but the MLB spot was manned primarily by Seward, with spot duty by Conner and Landon Johnson. Seward looks good in the role. I didn't notice either Conner or Johnson's play at all, even though The Na'il was out.

One of the more interesting things was, with Robinson out, the two people they had alternating kickoff returns were Stewart and DeAngelo Williams. That was interesting. Unsettling, but interesting.

Also worth noting: Matt Moore is absolutely, without any question, the number 2 quarterback. Excluding Delhomme, who's just a certainly the starter, Moore's got the best accuracy, makes the best decisions, and has the biggest presence. He's a leader that his teammates seem to like and respect.

There was very little smack talk, which was unfortunate. Only Thomas Davis had any chattering to do, loudly advising Delhomme at one point to put something on his highlight reel. The pressure from the whole Smith/Lucas fight seemed to weigh on the entire team, and everyone was on their best behavior. Which made for a more dull practice than I'm used to.