4 key observations from Panthers 2022 training camp practice Day 5

Carolina Panthers QBs lift the lid on trash-talking

The arrival of pads going on brought an added sense of urgency to practice. It also highlighted the ongoing trash talk between the Carolina Panthers’ offense and defense over the first few days of camp.

This is nothing out of the ordinary, obviously. Camp is always full of this sort of stuff and can even cross a line, as we saw earlier in the week during a skirmish between Robbie Anderson and Donte Jackson.

Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold revealed they’ve been joining in the trash talk, with the recently acquired quarterback even going out of his way to text Jackson and Shaq Thompson before camp to light a fire under two veteran leaders within Phil Snow’s talented group.

"“You don’t pick out the weak link; you go straight for the head.”"

While Darnold wouldn’t be your first point of call for trash-talking, the USC product did reveal a little more about Thompson and Jackson’s approach to practice. Something that provides an extra spark during drills and in the outside linebacker’s case, from the sidelines as he works his way back from a minor knee procedure.

"“The thing about Shaq, he’ll say something, and you say something back, and he’ll just laugh. He doesn’t really have anything back to say, he has that one thing, and he says it to you and can’t really respond to you. D-Jack’s just loud. That’s just D-Jack, though; the DB room is just really loud. When they have success, you hear about it, and when they don’t, you don’t.”"

Both sides of the ball will have good days and bad. But for the first time on Monday, it did appear as if Mayfield was separating himself in the quarterback “competition” based on his improved consistency with the second string.