What first was reported as 'Steve Smith carted off' became 'Smith carted off with head inujry' which then became 'Smith carted off with finger injury- needs x-rays' and now the Gaston Gazette's Steve Reed is reporting that the all-pro WR does not have a break in his finger.
Twitter went crazy, my phone was getting blown up with texts... but at this point we should probably be accustomed to any word of injury being immediately perceived as season ending; unfortunately this has become the MO for the Panthers in recent years.
More notes from camp after the jump
I don't plan to regurgitate Reed's piece, but rather give some opinions on what he wrote.
- It's extremely disheartening that both Everette Brown and Brandon LaFell have become the odd men out in their respective rotations. This was the time for both players to win their jobs and fight for starting spots, but instead they are being beaten soundly by other players. From what we can ascertain Brown has the drive, but not the consistency while Rivera has questioned LaFell's drive at the WR position.
- Nobody really knows what this season holds, but there is no way it's going to be boring. Between wildcat packages, shovel passes and everything else we're hearing from camp it will be an astounding interesting season to say the least.
- I like the idea of Jimmy and Cam both seeing live fire with the 1st team in camp. As always, watch for whoever starts game three... because they'll likely start week one. I sincerely hope Clausen and Cam both light it up so we could potentially bait a trade.
- The Geoff Schwartz injury is very disheartening, and I hope the doctors don't find anything wrong with his hip. I don't know if I can stomach another season with Mackenzey Bernardeau at RG; he's a nice guy, but the weakest part of the OL.