Sam Darnold’s performance and the 4 biggest questions facing Panthers in Indianapolis
Only seven NFL teams are participating in joint practices with two different teams during this year’s training camp.
The Carolina Panthers are one of the few, and the team’s busy next two weeks start Thursday on the road with a joint practice against the Indianapolis Colts.
There has already been much to learn about this Panthers team through the past couple of weeks at Wofford College. Free agent-acquisition tight end Dan Arnold has turned into a go-to weapon for quarterback Sam Darnold. Rookie Jaycee Horn and Terrace Marshall have stood out at their respective positions and the team is pretty happy with the specialists from last year. The long snapper battle between veteran J.J. Jansen and rookie Thomas Fletcher is the only current specialist competition.
Upcoming joint practices and the three preseason games to come will provide further insight into position battles and emerging players. It’s also a big opportunity for many players fighting for a roster spot.
Here’s what The Observer will be keeping an eye on.
How does Sam Darnold look?
The biggest question on the Panthers roster is whether Darnold can improve from his time with the New York Jets and have a longer tenure with the team than Teddy Bridgewater. Being patient at the quarterback position is not a guarantee. Darnold has looked better in practice as of late, but seeing how he performs against different defenses will be even more telling.
Rhule said that the team will get through the joint practices and then finalize how much certain players participate in the first preseason game Sunday, so it’s unclear if we’ll have the opportunity this weekend to watch Darnold compete in a game. Either way, putting Darnold in more uncomfortable situations will be a good indicator of where he is with the offense and the things that he has worked on during the offseason.
“The hardest thing for me is just being consistent in practice,” Darnold said. “Coming out here with the attitude, and making sure that I’m dialed in, in terms of my protections, concepts, what the defense is doing. I got to make sure that I’m on my P’s and Q’s and go from there.”
The quarterback is always the position that gets the most attention, but Darnold has more questions to answer than most, including if he can protect the football behind an offensive line that has much to prove.
Panthers’ offensive line rotation
The last two days of practice have featured Taylor Moton taking first-team snaps at left tackle with Cam Erving dealing with a shoulder injury. Moton is getting the snaps over Trent Scott, who has shifted to right tackle in those situations, and Greg Little.
How much more will we see Moton at left tackle going forward? Erving’s ability to stay healthy stood out upon the Panthers signing him in free agency — since being selected in the first round of the 2015 draft by the Cleveland Browns, he has only played one 16-game season.
Moton, the team’s best offensive lineman, had mostly been taking snaps at right tackle prior to Erving’s injury. Now that the coaches have seen him in pads at left tackle, will he be over there more if Erving is not healthy? How will he look against the Colts’ strong defensive line?
“I didn’t notice Taylor, which is a good thing,” Rhule said after Monday’s practice. “ ... Cam Erving was down today with a banged-up shoulder, so we took advantage of it to get Taylor over on the left side. Good work for him, good work to get Trent Scott, Brady Christensen some work. That’s another ... option. Really not much more to it other than that.”
The performances of rookie guard Deonte Brown and tackle Brady Christensen, in both the practices and the game, and how they are developing, is also important for the depth of this team going forward.
The Panthers’ situation at inside linebacker
The linebacker group wasn’t the strongest on the Panthers roster heading into camp. It’s the only defensive position on the roster that hasn’t been addressed in some way through the last two drafts and as a result, there isn’t considerable depth.
That became a problem quickly with veteran Denzel Perryman out due to a soft-tissue injury. He will miss significant time and more than the team had originally expected.
In his place, Jermaine Carter has been playing well with the first-team defense. Behind him is Clay Johnston, who was wearing a walking boot on his right foot this week, and Paddy Fisher, an undrafted free agent out of Northwestern. Julian Stanford has also been dealing with an injury, but has spent time with the first-team defense when healthy.
The team added to the position Wednesday by signing veteran Josh Bynes, who started all 16 games for the Cincinnati Bengals last year and had a career-high 99 tackles in 2020. Bynes is a logical addition to the group and will improve the position.
“We brought some guys in, and most of those guys are guys who played in the pros, so they know how to play,” Rhule said. “It’s put some stress on guys like Clay Johnston and (Julian) Stanford to take more reps. That’s been the unfortunate part, not over-repping anybody, which we’ve had to do. We’ll have to wait and see when Denzel’s ready, whenever they clear him or when he feels like he can go.”
Perryman has never played a full NFL season due to being plagued by various injuries. Adding Bynes will help the team’s depth, but it may still be an area the team needs to address further.
Is the Panther defense moving in the right direction?
On paper, this defense is set to take a step forward in 2021. In the second year under coordinator Phil Snow, the Panthers will have players only increasingly comfortable in the scheme. On top of that, the team added free agents like outside linebacker/pass rusher Haason Reddick, defensive lineman Morgan Fox and cornerback A.J Bouye (who is suspended the first two games of the year and is currently injured). A first-round pick was used to address the corner position with Jaycee Horn.
Practicing against another team will be the first time their talent will be put to the test.
“It will be a good thing (to) go against a different team,” second-year safety Jeremy Chinn said. “ (We’re) tired of hitting each other all the time. To get to go against somebody else, a different squad, challenge each other (it will be good)“
There are fewer question marks when it comes to the starters on the defensive side of the ball, but that also means the expectations are higher. Players like Chinn, Brian Burns and Donte Jackson need to perform. Not all of that comes next week, of course, but the joint practices and preseason game will allow for a first opportunity to see how they match up.
Leaving Indianapolis healthy
This isn’t complicated. The Panthers need to get out of Indianapolis as healthy as possible. That’s the goal for all teams. Multiple starters are already dealing with injuries, and while it’s unlikely that everyone will stay 100%, more physical play can lead to more injuries. Rhule and his staff have prioritized the experience that the Panthers will get from playing against other teams, but increased chances for injuries also come with that.
There have been days at practices when the number of red “injured” jerseys appear to duplicate from previous days. Staying healthy as the season gets closer, and the progress of recovering players, is an important part of this next phase of training camp.
This story was originally published August 11, 2021 at 12:30 PM with the headline "Sam Darnold’s performance and the 4 biggest questions facing Panthers in Indianapolis."
