Carolina Panthers: Camp surprises are story heading into first game

The Carolina Panthers first game is Thursday.

Week one of the NFL preseason is finally upon us. Watching semi-pro basketball tournaments on ESPN for the last two months have only made me miss football more than ever and I personally can’t wait to see some practice action on Thursday night.

At this point, training camp is in full swing and the Carolina Panthers seem to be coming along nicely avoiding the “I” word and getting a better feel for where the team currently stands. For fans, training camp has historically been hearsay for the most part. Now, with the exposure effect of social media we can see and hear most of what occurs at these practices.

I always like to temper my expectations heading into camp to avoid disappointment. Getting over-excited about certain players to see them fail in the regular season is frustrating, but there are some tidbits of information you can take away from camp based on what the media reports (or tweets).

It is very early on the process, but there have been some major surprises through the first few weeks of camp that Panthers fans should be allowed to get excited about.

Javien Elliott

Javien Elliott, a third year cornerback and under-the-radar Panthers signee this summer, is no stranger to being overlooked.

After receiving little attention as a high school recruit, Elliott played a year at Tallahassee Community College before transferring to Florida State to walk on. He didn’t earn a scholarship until his senior season where he only started the final six games of his career.

Elliott was passed on again in the 2016, going undrafted and signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He spent time on and off their practice squad for two seasons before becoming a free agent.

Now, as a Carolina Panther, Elliott has begun to make serious noise at a position of need in training camp.

The Panthers are in dire need of a slot cornerback, otherwise known as a “nickel”. Several Panthers beat writers have lauded Elliott’s performance to this point. It will be exciting to see what he can do in a game situation come Thursday. Hopefully he can keep surprising everyone who has doubted him, as he’s done his whole football career.

Curtis Samuel

To anyone who has been paying any attention to the Panthers this offseason, it has been discussed ad nauseam that this can be Curtis Samuel’s breakout season. As I said before, it’s not wise to buy into hype without any evidence to fall back on.

Curtis Samuel has provided evidence every day since the first day he arrived in Spartanburg. This kid might just be the real deal. To put things simply, Samuel has been absolutely balling at training camp to the point where coaches seem to be shocked by the player he has become. Sound bytes include praise of improved strength, speed, route running, and most importantly: confidence. Samuel seems like a different player coming into his third season, and may be just what the Panthers need to take back the NFC South in 2019. Take a look below and some of Samuel’s camp footage:

This is my favorite highlight of the bunch. Samuel leaves one of the fastest corners in the league in the dust a la Antonio Brown in that 2018 Week 10 travesty.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, if Samuel is able to breakout this year and DJ Moore continues to come along, the sky’s the limit for this offense.

Cam Newton

I’ll admit, I was someone who thought Cam Newton would miss some if not all of the 2019 season as he recovered from his shoulder injury. Newton’s offseason surgery was successful and it seems like his recovery has come along very nicely.

Cam has worked through the offseason on changing his mechanics to put less stress on his shoulder. The Panthers have given Newton the green light to throw the deep ball as well, something that was in question heading into camp.

I am cautiously optimistic that Newton will be one hundred percent healthy by week one of the regular season, but I’d like to see a crisp deep ball in a game situation before jumping the gun here. All in all, things are looking pretty good in Carolina for the time being. I hope everyone is excited as I am to watch the black and blue back in action on Thursday night!