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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 Fan Fest

The Carolina Panthers took a brief break from Spartanburg on Wednesday, returning home to Bank of America Stadium for this year’s edition of Fan Fest.

Let’s run down the top takeaways and observations from the fun fan-filled night:

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Bryce Young shines again

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The No. 1 overall pick shined for the second straight practice, going 11-for-16 in team drills. And the one notable mistake he made, an interception by linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill, wasn’t even his fault.

“When you get in those situations at the end and you got 15 seconds left, so what do you wanna do?” head coach Frank Reich explained. “Do you wanna take a shot into the end zone? Well, that’s what the defense is gonna do. So sometimes it’s just good to take your medicine, kick the field goal with 15 seconds to go. And then, you gotta kick off.

“But, in this situation, sometimes what you find is—man, I feel like we’re in midseason form right now, this is good stuff. Sometimes you wanna see, ‘Is the defense gonna screw it up?’ I wanna see what the defense is gonna do. So I said, ‘Hey, let’s just go out there and run four verts, see if the defense plays the wrong coverage and then we’ll just throw it away. And then they got a pretty good rush and I put him in a hard position.”

. . . and he knows how to command a huddle

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Center Bradley Bozeman also had the chance to speak about the rookie quarterback. He told reporters that Young, although calm, always commands the huddle:

“I wouldn’t call him soft-spoken at all. I’d call him more confident. I mean, just even-keeled and confident. It’s everything that I get from him. When he steps in the huddle, everyone shuts up and looks. So, that tells you a lot. There’s a lot of huddles I’ve been in where people are still talking in side conversation about the play that happened before. Whenever he steps in, it’s silent.”

Jeremy Chinn (sorta) describes his new role

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Although undefined, the role Chinn will play in Ejiro Evero’s defense will be an exciting one. The fourth-year defender said the following about his position in the new 3-4 base defense:

“A nickel, a dime. But I feel like that puts it in a box a little bit,” he said, via Joe Person of The Athletic. “To say nickel doesn’t really do it justice.”

Notable observations

 

 

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