The hog mollies want to make sure they’re earning every one of their pennies this season.
Carolina Panthers center Austin Corbett spoke with reporters following Saturday’s outing of training camp. He was asked about the two new fellas by his side—left guard Damien Lewis and right guard Robert Hunt.
“Both Damien and Robert—both massive men,” he replied. “And both of them can move very quick. And so it’s nice to be able to fit up some double teams with some giants that can bend like that. It makes it exciting. It’s a lot of weight on the inside. And so to be able to get down and bend and move some bodies and open up some run lanes and, at the same time, anchor down in the pocket and let Bryce [Young] do his thing.”
The Panthers dished out quite a bit of money to both Lewis and Hunt so that Bryce can do his thing. Hunt made himself one of the game’s highest-paid guards with a five-year, $100 pact this spring while Lewis inked a solid four-year, $53 million deal of his own.
Corbett, who’s also on a pretty lucrative agreement, was then asked about the chemistry of the group as a whole.
“Really solid—across the room, really,” he responded. “It’s a great room. From Ickey [Ekwonu] all the way over to T-Mo [Taylor Moton]. Really just five guys upfront that love to run the rock, that love to pass protect and wanna anchor down and let Bryce do his thing.
“We all understand that we’re highly paid upfront. We get that. Five pretty significant contracts upfront. Five-star player, you gotta play like it. So we understand the role and responsibilities that we’re tasked with. We embrace that and we want that pressure.”
Well, somebody’s gotta handle that pressure. And hopefully for the Panthers, it’s not their quarterback again.