Three Takeaways from Day 1 of Panthers Minicamp

Observations from Tuesday's practice.

Day one of Panthers' minicamp is in the books and was full of action. Here are a few things that stood out to me from Tuesday.

There still seems to be some uncertainty about Robbie's future

Robbie Anderson arrived at Panthers' minicamp just a couple of days after posting on Twitter that he was considering retirement. He did some light work on the side and competed in a few team drills, but nothing much. With it being his first day back (skipped OTAs) they wanted to ease him in. Following practice, we got to talk to head coach Matt Rhule and several questions were posed about Anderson's future.

"I don't pay attention to anybody's tweets," Rhule said. "No, I know about it. But people tweet what they want. I've learned. I just let things slide. I have great conversations with players and I know where they're at with everything. I just deal directly with people."

The way he tried to quickly move on to the next question had me wondering if maybe Robbie is still contemplating retirement. It wasn't just a normal, "I can't speak for anyone else" kind of moment.  

Keith Taylor Jr. had a day

No one expected the sixth round pick to do much in his rookie season, but he stepped up when players went down with injuries and pieced together a nice rookie campaign. Unfortunately, he's been limited for much of the team's offseason workouts so we haven't seen him take a large number of reps until Tuesday. On his first day back as a full-go, he looked sharp. He broke up two passes and nearly picked another. 

"It was an important day for Keith," said Rhule. "We really wanted to tailor things for him to be able to get to minicamp and get a lot of reps. Keith played really well for a first-year player last year, so you really want to see him take that next step where he can be a starting corner in this league and I believe that he can. He played really well today."

Time to teach

When I saw DJ Moore and Jaycee Horn walking up to the practice bubble in street/warmup clothes, I figured they were dealing with an injury that would hold them out of practice. Then I saw more and more veterans walk up in the same attire. Once practice began, it was clear that Rhule wanted to use this time to give the older guys some time "off" and allow them to help mentor and be more hands-on teaching the younger guys.

"No, they probably won't do anything all week," Rhule said in regards to the veteran players. "They participated in all of the walkthroughs and all the meetings. Different reasons for each guy. Some of these guys, maybe they've put a lot of miles on. If you're a guy like [Austin] Corbett, you just played late in the year, played through the Super Bowl. And positions where I could, where I have enough depth. Some guys coming off of surgery like Donte [Jackson] and Jaycee [Horn]. Guys like [Jeremy] Chinn and [Taylor] Moton who led the team in practice reps and game reps last year. Each guy has a different scenario." 

Not only is this a good thing for the veterans to get a much-deserved break, but it will also give more reps to those who are fighting for a roster spot.

You can follow us for future coverage by liking us on Facebook & following us Twitter:

Facebook - @PanthersOnSI

Twitter - @SI_Panthers and Schuyler Callihan at @Callihan_.