Now, I'm sure a lot if not most of you follow the same Twitter feeds as I do, but I thought I'd post these for those of us who don't do the Twitter thing. It's now being reported that Cam Newton will get his second preseason start when the Panthers take on the Bengals this Thursday. Now While Rivera has remained noncommittal about his opening day starter, we can probably take this as a sign of things to come.

@carolinagrowl Steve Reed Breaking news: Coach Ron Rivera has named QB Cam Newton the starter for Thursday night but not the season opener yet.

@billvoth Bill Voth Rivera says that DOESN'T mean Newton will start vs ARI. It obviously gives him a huge advantage though.

Rivera did go as far to say that Cam will play a 3 quarters, so barring a major meltdown and or injury it's probably safe to assume he will be the one under center when the Panthers travel to Arizona on Sept. 11. I like a lot of others believe this was more of an inevitability than a possibility, but it bears mentioning that Jimmy Clausen has done a good job bouncing back from a tough rookie year and deserves our respect and support. I hope for both his sake and the team's that this is a continuing trend. Nothing breeds success like having someone at the same position pushing you, so his continued progression can only be a good thing for us.

Also revealed through twitter, it appears the coaching staff is ready to Release The Cracken...

@carolinagrowl Steve Reed Greg Hardy back to practice and will be the starting RDE when healed

It looks like they must have seen what so many of us did last year when watching film of this young man. He's someone who I believe can be a true talent at DE and an eventual Pro Bowler. This move alone should greatly help the effectiveness of our D-line, providing Hardy can hold up against the run. Other than those two revelations there wasn't any earth shattering news today, so lets hope they had a good day of practice and got some of those mistakes from the other night corrected.