Greg Olsen and Damiere Byrd now have a deadline for their return from Injured Reserve

By practicing today, injured Panthers Greg Olsen and Damiere Byrd have started the process to return to Carolina’s roster. League rules specify that players have two weeks to return to the 53-man roster after their first practice.

The Panthers offense, which seemed like it wasn’t missing anybody during their last game, is now in line for two different kinds of upgrades.

Greg Olsen is obviously one of Carolina’s biggest and most dependable play makers when he is on the field. The tight end should add some much needed consistency to an offense that has struggled to be “all over the field” in a positive way throughout the 2017 season.

Damiere Byrd, on the other hand, is an intriguing youngster with plenty of upside and not much else to his name. The 2015 undrafted free agent has impressive speed but only one career catch. The Panthers are confident the broken arm that landed him on injured reserve has done nothing to impact his ability to break a game open with his legs. He figures to make an immediate impact, if he can live up to his promise, in the same role that rookie Curtis Samuel was slated to fill.

With both of these players eyeing comebacks in the next two weeks, the Panthers will not be able to bring any more players back from injured reserve. There aren’t a ton of big names hanging out there competing for a return this year, but it does mean that rookies like Samuel, Daeshon Hall, and Corn Elder will have to wait until 2018 to make any impact on the field.

That said, Olsen and Byrd are not the only two Panthers potentially making a comeback from injury. There are also reports the Ryan Kalil was back in pads at practice today.