Two quick injuries to starting players in the first training camp practice. Kemoeatu has suffered an ankle injury and had to be carted off the field, seen here. Jon Beason has injured his hamstring as well.
Picture by the blog in the Charlotte Observer called Inside the Panthers. Thanks a lot guys.
With credits out of the way, this could be the whole season blowing up in our face right here guys. Without Kemoeatu, our DT talent is stretched extremely thin. Without Kemoeatu, we lose a major part of our ability to stop the run. We're left with Damione Lewis as the other starter on the defensive line. Undrafted rookie Marion Favorite took over for Kemo during practice, though I full expect Corvey Irvin to take over in the near future if Kemo is down for a good bit of time.
The good news is that this injury happened early. If you're going to discover that you need more conditioning for the season, the best time to find that out is at the beginning of training camp when you suffer an injury. You have the entire pre-season to recover, and you bet that our conditioning coach is going to be hard at work making sure that he not only recovers, but that he'll be able to last.
The bad news is this. Kemo was reported to have suffered this injury just by running. Yup. You heard me right. A freak injury just by running during practice. Seems that he has a lot of work to do to get himself fit for the season.
The second injury was to linebacker Jon Beason. He tweaked his hamstring and sat out of practice. The hamstring was taped up pretty good, and while he's out Dan Conner will pick up his snaps. If you all don't remember, Dan Conner was the 3rd round steal the Panthers grabbed from Penn State. To put it simply, this kid is the boss. He'll be a fine fit on the Panthers defense until Beason can practice, and this will put him in direct competition with Na'il Diggs for his spot.
Both of these injuries are relatively new, and this article will be edited as more details come out. For all we know, these guys might be back tomarrow. Will this signal the return of the injury bug, or is it simply a bump in the road to the Super Bowl? The extent of the injuries will be out as soon as they are released.
9:00PM
Kemo is down for the season. I repeat, Kemo is out of the season. Our worst fears have been realized. Our run defense takes a huge dropoff from this point on. We can only hope that Corvey Irvin is ready to step up and be a rookie sensation much like Jeff Otah and Stewart was able to do this upcoming season. Someone needs to step up and be a competitor, or else our linebackers will be under a lot of pressure.