Quick Hits: Eyeing a QB, Injuries Piling Up, Delayed Start for Brooks + More

The Carolina Panthers are officially less than a week away from playing its first preseason game, but they have a lot of holes to fill in the coming days due to the number of injuries at certain spots of the roster. Head coach Dave Canales provided an update on those who are working through some things along with some other key topics following Saturdays' practice.

Injury updates on Tommy Tremble, Ian Thomas, Damien Lewis, and Shaq Thompson

“Tommy is probably a week-ish out with the hamstring. Just trying to get him to full health before we get him back out there. Ian’s got a calf that’s going to take some time. That’s going to take us really closely up to Week 1. Our goal is to just get those guys back. Instead of forcing them back out here, let’s make sure we get them healthy and feel really good about getting them back out. Damien Lewis, again, the shoulder, just trying to keep managing that. It’s still a little bit stoved up right now, so we’re just trying to get his shoulder to calm down so he can get back out there, but he’s been getting auxilary work. Shaq, same thing. Just the hamstring. We caught it early, so we’re just trying to get on top of that making sure he’s getting his conditioning and putting him out there.”

Development of TE Ja’Tavion Sanders

“It’s exponential growth. Every day. Especially for the young guys, as they start to stack up technique and reps, especially for Ja’Tavion whether it’s in the run game, in the pass game, or the protection unit…what I’ve seen him do is really take big leaps in the techniques. You’ll see that with young guys and the big leaps, but you want to get that to a point where it’s consistent.”

If there are still plans to add a quarterback

“Yeah, we’re definitely going to bring a quarterback in. We’re working on that. With our roster numbers, as you know, as we get a little banged up in camp it’s just you have to create spots for those players. We have to put our brains together with the personnel and coaching staff to say, where does that number come from to be able to add that quarterback? But we’re definitely going to need him to come in and function in our first preseason game.”

If RB Jonathon Brooks will play in the preseason

“He will not. He will not play this preseason. He’s doing great. I saw him running out a little bit before practice. They have a progression on him. He feels stronger and stronger every day. He’s really focused and into what we’re doing mentally with our walkthroughs just watching and in classroom stuff he’s been really attentive. Physically, this is a guy that can really make an impact for us, so again, want to be really smart about when we bring him back in.”

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