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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Anthony Rizzuti

Panthers training camp tracker: Observations and takeaways from Day 8

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Here are the top observations and takeaways for the Carolina Panthers from Saturday, a practice session headlined by defensive dominance:

Chandler Zavala returns

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The rookie guard, who figures to factor into the team’s right guard competition, returned to on-field action. He was previously shelved on the active/physically unable to perform list due to a hamstring tweak.

Austin Corbett is still ahead of schedule

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That aforementioned right guard competition is only a competition due to the absence of Corbett, who tore his ACL in the 2022 regular-season finale. Head coach Frank Reich, however, told reporters that the 27-year-old hog molly is progressing well:

“Still optimistic. He’s still ahead of schedule. ‘Ahead of schedule.’ But we’re not rushing that, right? We’re not anticipating him being ready for Week 1, right? So, we’ll just be patient. He’s doin’ great. If you watched him move around, you’d say he looks like he could play Week 1.

“But that kind of injury, you go somewhat by the progress that they’re making—and then, to that injury, it just takes what it takes in terms of time. Years of history on that injury tell you, ‘Don’t rush.’ Even when they’re ahead of schedule, it’s better to be cautious and don’t get him in there too soon.”

Miles Sanders suffers a small setback

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The team’s new bell cow back was held out of team drills due to an undisclosed injury. But Reich doesn’t believe it’ll be much of an issue.

“Sanders did individual and had a little tweak of something. And then so we just talked about him, we said, ‘Let’s just take him out of team.’ I think he’s fine, but let’s just be precautionary.”

Defense rules the day

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Between a handful of pre-snap penalties by the offensive line and a myriad of drops from the wide receivers, the offense struggled on the morning. Plus, a dominant outing from the defense didn’t help their case.

Reich said the following about the performance:

“Too many pre-snap penalties today. I thought we started out decent on offense, but then the defense really had a good day today. So, just gotta keep cleaning things up. It was a good day today. I was excited about today. I thought our intensity was really good. We just can’t fall into a lapse on offense. We’ve been having some good days, but today was not our best day offensively.”

Quarterback Bryce Young had a similar sentiment:

“Yeah, a lot of stuff to clean up on tape. Defense definitely won the day today. And there’s a lot of things that I gotta do better. Us, as a unit, we have to do better. I have to do better individually, all of us. We take responsibility, we take accountability for that stuff.

“Obviously, a lot of stuff on tape today that we gotta go back and correct. But we have to put in perspective that there’s always gonna be negatives, there’s always gonna be positives in camp. Back and forth, we’re going up against a great defense every single day.”

Notable observations

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