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SPARTANBURG–A familiar, borderline-familial pair of interconference foes met up Tuesday at Wofford College as the Bills and Panthers reunited for an entertaining morning session.

This was an opportunity for former Panthers defensive coordinator Sean McDermott, now the head coach in Buffalo, to spend some quality competitive time with his former boss Ron Rivera. Not to mention in the dark days of October 2012, McDermott’s current boss and former Panthers personnel executive Brandon Beane replaced then-fired (and now, re-hired) Carolina GM Marty Hurney.

Who’s on first, right? Man alive, makes your head spin right?

Well, the connections don’t end there, friends. Have a look:

Burns Goes Down

It’s worth noting that rookie EDGE sensation Brian Burns left practice with a lower leg injury. Ice was wrapped on it, and Burns was held out for the remainder of practice. He was limping noticeably, which means nothing as I am, apparently, one of the few football writers without extensive medical training.

Hey, scribes: stick to sports and promoting yourselves.

According to multiple sources, Rivera did not provide any new updates on Burns’ status.

Bills. Panthers. Round One.

To paint a bit of a picture for those who couldn’t make it out to camp today, the teams scrimmaged on two fields: Buffalo’s offense vs Carolina’s defense on the far field, and the inverse on the near field. The joint-session was broken down in five parts:

1. One on one drills.

2. Scrimmage, 11 on 11. 

3. Red zone 7 on 7.

4. Scrimmage, 11 on 11. 

5. Special teams work.

In terms of winning the at the line, Carolina handily took control of both scrimmage sessions, much to the chagrin of a fairly decent contingent of Bills fans camped out at the far field. After connecting on a pair of impressive passes in the 7-on-7 red zone session, a jubilant Bills quarterback Josh Allen found little joy during 11-on-11’s, as Carolina’s stingy secondary and relentless pass rush flummoxed the second-year signal caller. 

Mario Addison, used in a number of positions thus far in camp (EDGE R, EDGE L, 5 tech DE), had great penetration early on, getting “to the spot” and forcing Allen out of the pocket. Kawaan Short, primarily used as the 5-tech DE in the 34, also took reps at DT in the team’s 4-2 nickel package. Short looked solid, winning his battles with regularity.

On the perimeter, second-year speedster Donte Jackson impressed in tight coverage, coming away with multiple PBUs, while letting the Bills players and fans know it. James Bradberry played mistake-free football, while Javien Elliott–who MUST start week one at nickel (more on Elliott later) allowed limited real estate in coverage with superb technique and supreme confidence.

This kid has a gift–slot corner is a demanding position to master both mentally and technically. Elliott may prove to be the steal of the offseason.

The Bills With Skills

The matchup between Carolina’s offense and Buffalo’s defense? The Bills did nice work in holding Carolina’s dynamic corps of pass catchers in check. I’m giving credit to Buffalo’s secondary coach John Butler, heading up the league’s top-ranked pass defense from a year ago. 

 

Levi Wallace, as noted in the graphic, was dominant over the final half of his rookie year. Battling for the starting corner spot opposite TreDavious White, Wallace made a nice play on a tightly-threaded Cam Newton pass intended for Greg Olsen and came away with a memorable interception.

Butler’s secondary is a great test for Carolina’s young, explosive receivers, and it will be fun to watch these units battle on Friday night. 

Honorable mention for coverage: Second-year standout linebacker Tremaine Edmunds–one of the few linebackers I’ve seen cover Christian McCaffrey with relative ease. He ran stride for stride with 22 on a wheel route, one of the toughest routes to defend as an LB. 

Curtis Samuel. Again.

Well, this happened: Curtis Samuel caught another long touchdown–once again, taking the top off the defense with a remarkable second gear. Superb ball placement by Newton, as well, which is quite the contrast from 12 months ago here in Spartanburg. 

One Panther Place touched on this last week, and I will reiterate the point: Panthers offensive coordinator Norv Turner appears to be trending his calls and personnel in much the same way Carolina utilized the speed of Ted Ginn to challenge the deep middle in 2015. It’s a positive development, seeing Turner find another niche for Samuel while implementing more deep-shot plays.

D.J. Moore continues to impress, though he wasn’t as crisp as usual against Buffalo. Again, it’s a formidable coverage group. Don’t tell Samuel, as nothing seems to dull his shine with the long ball of late. It will be a remarkable passing game to watch, if all these parts remain in concert with good health.

 

Grier Continues to Struggle; Allen In Control

Kyle Allen is simply a better player right now, at this moment for Turner’s offense, than rookie Will Grier.

Frankly, it’s not even close.

As we have documented throughout camp, Allen’s positives continue to shine: he has a strong command of the huddle, breaking the huddle with good tempo and confidence. Processes and reads the field with patience, uses his legs at the proper times and always keeps his eyes downfield.

Poise in the pocket would be the biggest point of difference between Allen and Grier. He made a great downfield throw to Torrey Smith, who got between Buffalo’s corner/safety due in a Cover 2 look, and did so while standing tall in a messy pocket. 

Grier, on the other hand, continues to miss basic short completions, plagued with indecisiveness from within the pocket. He doesn’t seem have a grasp on how to read NFL coverages. To that point, an impatient Turner chastised Grier for holding the ball too long–a growing theme at camp, My money says you can expect to see the rookie looking for the checkdowns Friday night.

By this point, after a round of OTA’s and a full camp, you’d like to see more development from Grier by now. And no, this isn’t a loving assessment. But it’s professional football, and it’s a performance business no matter how you slice it. The clock is always ticking in the NFL.

Still Concerned About Williams

It may not be on the media’s radar, but Daryl Williams gave up a pair of would-be sacks in scrimmage play, and hasn’t looked great at left tackle this summer. Frankly, he’s an unnatural fit there. Taylor Moton, on the other hand, is force at right tackle. Moton plays the right side about as well as any pro I can recall. The line looks great, most of the time. I just don’t know if Williams at LT is going to be as good a fit as many assume.

Why? Just why?

Why would anybody want to be a Bills fan? What’s the appeal? What’s the point? I get the shipwreck survivors who were fans in the early-mid 90’s. Since then? What jumps out as remotely appealing? And, hey, I don’t hate Buffalo. But, damn, talk about a purgatory of irrelevance.

And, hey. Look..it’s weird seeing a bunch of former Panthers again, wearing Bills attire. It’s creepy.

Just the whole scene was bizarre, to be honest.

On The Slye

Rookie camp leg Joey Slye reminds me of former Carolina great John Kasay. I know he isn’t left footed, but he kicks a beautiful, arching ball. I’ve been impressed with the height on his longer attempts, a vital component in avoiding blocks. There’s no kicker competition, but don’t be shocked if Slye makes an impact in the league–either here, or elsewhere. 

I know, he’s a camp body–not John Kasay! Got it, thx.

Elliott Is The Nickel

Javien Elliott appears to have a big lead here. He’s dominating first team snaps. Eric Reid also made a nice end zone PBU. I’m quietly optimistic about this secondary, though Buffalo is hardly a stern test. Many sites had plugged Cole Luke into the slot corner spot–in April.

This, folks, is precisely why you don’t make assessments like that before, oh I dunno, seeing the players practice in pads. It’s maddening.

Journalism isn’t dead–we’re here, being responsible…and stuff. 

Why? Just Why? (Part 2)

Wide receiver Aldrick Robinson is still mixing in reps with the starters. I’m not sure why, or how. It’s been one of the mysteries of camp from my perspective this year. I get it: he has experience—it doesn’t negate his lack of playmaking at the current moment. It’s a strange deal, seeing him with a healthy dose of first-team reps.  

Welp. That’s it.

The Bills and Panthers meet one last time for practice tomorrow morning in advance of their preseason match up Friday at Bank of America Stadium.

John Ellis takes it from here tomorrow, as he will have a special edition of camp coverage on what we’re all expecting to be the final official training camp practice in Spartanburg—ever.

Wow. Damn.

That’s a tough pill for us to swallow here in the upstate, but it’s been one hell of a run.

 

 

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Grier in the headlights.

The Panthers website described Will Grier’s performance as “efficient”.

He tossed up a 63.8 passer rating against third and fourth stringers–rife with vanilla, preseason defensive coverages. That is not efficient. I liked the 20-yard scramble – it ended up being only one of two explosive plays the Panthers generated all night – but overall, he’s clearly a work in progress.

Allen, on the other hand, looked composed and efficient. I liked that he was able to sidestep multiple pressures allowed by a second-string offensive line. He was a little bit better than his 1-for-5 performance on 3rd downs would indicate, as Aldrick Robinson dropped one conversion, while another “failed” conversion set up a 4th and inches attempt (his bootleg).

The team would seem to have the quarterback depth chart correct, at least for now, but it’s obviously very early.

Little reason for concern.

Greg Little needs to pick it up.

The rookie LT gave up an ugly pair of pressures to Leonard Floyd’s backup, both of which would have been sacks if not for good awareness and nifty movement by Kyle Allen.

I’ve seen Little struggle much of camp against backup edge defenders, particularly Haynes. It’s quite troubling that he’s struggling so badly against speed rushers, specifically. Handling those types of rushers was touted as a point of strength.

Not many can say with a straight face they’re thrilled with the notion of Daryl Williams playing left tackle, as LG Greg Van Roten, in this analyst’s view, remains the weak link as a pedestrian interior lineman.

That left side of the line might be more problematic than we had imagined back in April. If Little can get it together and play to his potential–yea, we’d certainly appreciate that.

The explosive play: never unimportant. 

Chicago had four explosive plays, compared to a pair from Carolina.

As you’ll find out soon enough, I share the same emphasis on a healthy explosive play ratio as many fine head coaches past and present do.

It’s tough sledding when you aim to nickel and dime your way down the field for an NFL win. All the while, the opponent is biting off 30+ yard chunks of yardage on offense. Games you feel in total of control suddenly become 10-6 halftime deficits.

Granted, the Panthers “starting” receiving corps last night was far from elite. Robinson and Jaydon Mickens were each 1-for-4 in converting targets-to-receptions.

Brutal.

And, no–it won’t help Mickens’ case that rookie Chris Godwin is channeling his inner Jermaine Lewis on punt returns. Godwin’s moves and patience setting up blocks are laudable.

Eyeing the nuances and subtleties of Rivera’s defense.

Chicago ran 54 plays on offense. Defensively, the Panthers lined up in a 4-2 nickel presentation on 33 of those 54 plays. while offering up a 3-4 presentation for the other 21 plays.

It’s interesting to note: Carolina occasionally played their base defense against the Bears’ 3-wide sets–it’s something they have done in the past as 4-3.

I was wondering how Rivera would present this look in a 3-4. I got my answer: they would bring a safety down over the slot receiver, and effectively play a cover 3 defense.

This is markedly different that how they went about this type of situation when running a 4-3, as Carolina would often flex Shaq Thompson into the nickel position while employing cover 2 or cover 4.

It’s going to be a more predictable strategy in a 3-4, so I wouldn’t expect to see this wrinkle very much against, say, Drew Brees.

A numbers crunch to keep an eye on.

Jared Norris has not shown the chops to fill much of a meaningful role as a linebacker, especially in coverage, but he’s a solid special teamer. It will be interesting to see if he becomes 2019’s Karl Hankton.

Jermaine Carter and Andre Smith look much more natural in space than Norris, but neither match Norris’ impact on special teams.

I’m betting on a superior linebacker getting cut for the special teams guy, because that’s typically how it goes when the rubber meets the road on cut day. FWIW: Bryan Cox, Jr. appears to have a leg up on Efe Obada for the same reason.

Let’s hold off on the anointing oil, ok? 

Nice work on the sacks. It was good to see.

But, look. Let’s talk.

Haynes’ effort on a wham block that sprung Chicago’s opening touchdown was woeful.

There has been an ample supply of lavish praise heaped upon Haynes for torching one of the worst offensive tackles I have ever seen. I’d caution you to not do too much of that.

I do like Haynes and his speed rush. He can get low, rushing with power and agility with results. Keep in mind, it took Haynes over 40 snaps to rack up his pair of sack.

Brian Burns only needed 10 snaps to rack up two sacks on Thursday. He is special.

Haynes needs to work on his run defense if he’s going to carve out a meaningful role this year.

Hell of a special night.

Special Teams coach Chase Blackburn is earning every dime. What a great night for the “teams” unit.

Joey Slye: hey, look. Nice game. Nice leg. Our camp leg is better than any kicker competing for the Bears job, so there’s that.

Blackburn’s boys appear to be as well-coached this year as ever. The punt return teams did a good job of avoiding penalties. Terry Godwin broke off a 57-yard return with a great move and a hell of a convoy down the near sideline.

Here’s the stat: Carolina outgained Chicago in total return yardage, 131 to -3. Wins are often found in margins like these.

 

Ian Thomas. Just, Ian Thomas.

John’s covered this extensively this offseason and at camp. What an athlete this guy is, and it showed up again in Chicago.

I’m hard pressed to find a linebacker who can cover Ian Thomas on a crossing route. I’d like to see OC Norv Turner work to exploit this like a “CPU AI-glitch money play on Madden ’05”.

Keep doing this until teams put a DB on him–and then, run from this look against an extra DB.

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Ross Ellis is the co-founder and lead analyst for OnePantherPlace.

Breathe easy fans, for your long national nightmare ends tonight at 8 p.m. Football is back.

The Carolina Panthers, coming off a fine fortnight of training camp execution, are in the Windy City this evening for a preseason premiere against the formidable Chicago Bears.

As expected, Cam Newton will sit tonight’s game out in Chicago as second-year backup Kyle Allen gets another start at quarterback. Many of you vividly recall Allen’s last live game action, an impressive performance against the Saints’ starting defense in Carolina’s season finale win at New Orleans.

Third-round draft pick Will Grier will see considerable work tonight as well.

Here’s a One Panther Place Six Pack to wet your pre-game whistle—six guys on our radar for the Panthers tonight:

1. Elijah Holyfield: fellow rookie RB Jordan Scarlett is out tonight. It’s a fortuitous development for the undrafted rookie from Georgia, a dependable pass catcher and  hard worker. I stood in awe on Tuesday watching Holyfield haul in passes from the Jugs machine 30 minutes after the media and players dispersed from the practice fields. Scarlett’s hands have been suspect, at best, in the passing game–coupled with his current seat in the training room, his counterpart Holyfield finds himself in a good spot. I want to see how he looks in pass protection and if his power running prowess during his SEC days translates to the next level.

2. Javien Elliott: it’s anybody’s guess as to which of the three contending defensive backs will see the most reps at nickel back against the Bears. Elliott is a tough-nosed scrapper inside, tough on the jam and sticky in coverage. He picked off Newton a few days ago and had a great PBU on DJ Moore. Corn Elder is making up ground of late. The second-year cornerback sat down in a zone and waited for slot WR Jarius Wright to make a break on his signature pivot route. Elder timed the play nicely, jumping the route for a somewhat generous interception on this questionable decision by Newton. Cole Luke will see reps at nickel as well.

3. Kyle Allen: he and Grier have each shown flashes at camp, but Allen still strikes me as the most capable of the two for this offense—at this moment. While Allen has game experience as a starter (putting up a stellar first half against the Saints’ formidable starting defense last year), Grier still looks like an incomplete product at times. It’s improving, but early on, Grier tended to rush through his reads, abandoning the play prematurely and opting for a scramble. This is commonplace, even among first-round rookie signal callers, so it’s no cause for panic. Allen looks to be just a shade more commanding of the offense, routes and reads thus far.

4. Ross Cockrell: he continues to get the first team reps at free safety, while newly signed Tre Boston continues to ramp back up into the system. It’s too early to tell if Boston will take over the role full-time, as likely intended, but Cockrell isn’t giving up on his chance at redemption after breaking his leg last summer here in Spartanburg. I will say this: Cockrell does look lost at times in coverage. He has the requisite size and quickness to excel, but I noticed Cockrell getting mixed-up on a post corner route to tight end Greg Olsen this week. A free safety can’t lose sight of those incoming routes. Boston hasn’t made any “splash” plays thus far, but he’s been solid, almost mistake-free in his run fits and coverages. My money is still on Boston to be your week one starter alongside strong safety Eric Reid, while Cockrell—who will likely make the team, regardless—may be moved back to corner, given his experience and the team’s lack of depth at LCB and RCB (nickel corner, again, appears to be: Elliott/Elder/Cole Luke).

5. Jermaine Carter: With the absence of Kuechly in Chicago, Jermaine Carter gets the nod at MLB. Carter, the second-year product from Maryland, has flashed with his increased workload. On Sunday, Carter came up big with a PBU on the team’s best pass catcher, D.J. Moore. Carter–who measures in at 6-0, 225—lacks the size you’d want from Kuechly inside against the run game, but he flashes with safety-like quickness and good instincts in coverage. The play against Moore was man coverage on one of the league’s toughest young receivers to blanket. Carter appeared in all of Carolina’s 16 games in 2018, registering 13 tackles, one for a loss.

6. Damion Jeanpiere: 83 is worth watching. The undrafted rookie has blazing speed on the outside, and as we have chronicled at camp, he has run consistent routes and caught almost everything thrown his way. He’s a sleeper, but don’t sleep on this guy. The Nicholls State product clocked a 4.25 40 at his pro day and has wowed observers with his burst. I like the effort, the speed, and his attitude. Keeping him on our radar.

We will be live on Twitter all night with all the latest from Panthers v Bears: http://twitter.com/onepantherplace.

Full recap tonight here at onepantherplace.com and on tomorrow’s OnePantherPodcast.

Time for a quick look back at some of our best shots from Carolina Panthers Training Camp–Tuesday August 6. (Photos by John Ellis)

Here is a collection of our best shots from Tuesday morning’s Carolina Panthers practice. (Photos by John Ellis)