Dave Canales assesses Jets game and offers update on Bryce Young ahead of Week 8 | Carolina Panthers

Dave Canales assesses Jets game and offers update on Bryce Young ahead of Week 8 | Carolina Panthers

All right. Really excited uh excited, really proud of uh the way that our players came out, played physical. Um were up for the opportunity to go on the road to play a team that what I saw on film, you know, played a really physical style of football. Um particularly from the defensive standpoint, you know, they they really challenged us in different ways and our guys were up for that challenge and and uh you know, continued to find a way to run the ball uh coming out of the game, you know, possessing the ball 11 minutes um in the fourth quarter. Certainly on top of that is, you know, JC Horn’s interceptions to give us more opportunities and um just staying focused and finishing do right longer. We took care of the ball and uh was really proud of the uh special teams unit and some of the hidden yardage, you know, fielding the punts, Trevor ETN giving us some good returns in the kick return game as well as the punt return game. Um you know, making our kicks, our pats, our field goals were all critical parts of it. but a collective full group win. Um, a physical style of play, something that I’m that we’re all really proud of. Dave, what can you tell us about Bryce’s injury? Yeah, we’re going to go dayto day. We’re going to go dayto-day on that right now and and uh, you know, just really look at him each day. Uh, just test test the ankle um, in different ways to see if we can’t get him back out there on Wednesday in some way, shape, or form. So, we’re going to just take it that way. and and you know I I he’s saw him this morning, talked to him and he’s like he’s like let’s push this thing. Let’s see what we got, you know, and so um we’re going to we’re going to try to take that approach with it and uh just go from there. To clarify, what is the diagnosis of his injury? I don’t want to get too specific in all the diagnosis of it. Um it’s an ankle injury and uh it’s something that we feel we feel confident we can go dayto-day with, but again he’s we’re going to have to prove, you know, and go through some milestones with our return to play with our training staff. say dayto day, but it was reported that he would not be playing this week. So, he’s out this week, but you’re going to still evaluate. There’s some reports out there, but for us, we’re just going to go dayto day on it. Respectfully, Dave is part of this competitive reasons, you don’t want it out there this early. Uh, honestly, we’re going to just look at it. If we can have Bryce out there on Sunday, I would love for that to be the case. And can you confirm if it’s a high ankle sprain? It’s an ankle right now. That those can tend to linger. you know, JT just missed three games with that. Is it uh any concern about that possibility? Could be. You know, that could be a possibility, but again, I think for us to be able to, you know, take an aggressive approach to this thing and see if we can get him back out there to do some work. We’ll do that. Well, he’s not out Sunday. Y’all have not made that decision as a group. Right now, we’re going to go dayto-day. Um, another injury that we didn’t really get to ask you about, Damen Lewis. what what’s his outlook for the next couple of weeks? Yeah, Damen um same thing. You know, we we try to get him back on Sunday. We took it all the way to game day. Uh tested the strength. We’ll have him in there doing some rehab and the hope is to get him back out there practicing on Wednesday. Uh Dave, uh obviously Andy stepping into the role or if if Bryce cannot go on Sunday, Andy would be stepping into the role. Um after watching the film, how do you think he performed against the Jets uh Sunday? Talking about Andy, uh did a great job um getting us to the right runs, making adjustments, uh gave us a chance. You know, they heated us up a couple of times. On third down, he found a nice completion. Xavier on one um we took a sack, miraculously pulled the ball back in to secure it so that we could end up getting into that situation, you know, to punt it and make them have to go the full field on that one. Um, and then of course on the last one, you know, the the go ball to Xavier was a beautiful connection right there to get us into a take situation. So, I thought he came in and did a great job. How does it change how does it change the process through the week when you don’t when the quarterback status is still up in the air? Yeah, we have to evaluate how much can Rice do, you know, can he get out there and function in practice and Andy’s ready to go. um he’ll be ready to to take on the game plan and to make sure that the whole process, the whole offense, all those things are moving forward as we have to make a decision. Dave, um because you know reps are important for getting ready for a game. We go into Wednesday thinking you got to get Andy ready just in case. I mean, he get the first team reps right away or how’s that going to work? He should always approach it that way and then we’ll make that decision on Wednesday based on just the physical ability of Bryce. Dave, as as a guy who’s been a wide receivers’s coach, a quarterback’s coach, and then obviously overseeing both of them, why do you think that Andy has kind of zoned in on Lake G as much as he has in the in this game and in the past? Why do you think there’s a comfort level there? Uh maybe his history, you know, um AJ uh Green, you know, big bodies thrown to those guys, you know, he had a good group of receivers, tight ends, uh in Cincinnati in his past, you know. Um, so maybe it’s that comfort level, you know, just seeing that big frame and just, you know, getting him getting him a ball within his frame that he can do something with. Um, but I love that chemistry. I love I love the fact that, you know, even if I go back to last year, you know, Jaylen Coker makes our team because of the way that Andy was throwing to Jaylen during our our look team on in our card offense really and uh showing what he could do and really uh allow showcasing Jaylen’s ability. So, um, and then, you know, if he goes out there and and and it’s Andy playing, you know, having an opportunity to play with T-Mac and Coker and Xavier is pretty exciting. You know, the group that’s growing. Dave Metife notoriously and annually is ranked lowest in the league for its turf and its safety of the turf. Was there anything to indicate turf played a role in Bryce’s injury? Uh, I I don’t see that as being a role, you know, just be speaking of just being there. I’ve got fond memories of playing in that stadium a bunch of different times over the course of my career. Super Bowl 48, um, winning a championship there, you know, with the Seahawks. And, um, it’s always been kind of a cool place for me to go to, you know, New Jersey, New York, you know, right on the border. You know, you wake up and you’re right on the Hudson. It’s it’s a it’s a kind of a surreal environment. And then, of course, just the history in the stadium has always been great. You didn’t think turf was a factor? I don’t think so. And uh how big a factor was the the defensive player’s foot landing on Bryce’s calf? Did that kind of was that the reason he got hurt? Yeah, I think that was the nature of the injury. How would you assess the um your series for series running back um playing after watching tape? For me, you know, it was great to just be able to call the game the way that it was supposed to be called. um to I didn’t really have to overthink any of the plays, you know, other than a couple that we had special for Chuba, a couple that we had special for Rico, a couple for Trevor that didn’t end up playing itself out in the game. Um but in general just allowed me to just stay stay in the rhythm of my calls, just go to the next one and not have to overthink who was out there. Derek Brown’s had some pretty special performances, but this one felt like, you know, he’s like Emmy tape. What was it about his performance in this in this game that stood out to you when you watched the film? Yeah, it was a dominant performance by Derek and I but again I have to attribute that to the whole group. Um it allows Derek to play to play across the line of scrimmage in and out of gaps when we’re setting hard edges. You know, got to give a lot of props to Nick Scorton, DJ Wom Princely when he got in there, Boogie Bash him had a couple of reps, you know, we even used Thomas on some pass rush stuff. So, a rotating group of edge players. Um, and then those guys inside, you know, Turk had a couple of nice plays coming off of blocks. Aan, uh, Bobby Brown, um, you know, and the whole group together, they’re just they’re executing the run game plan well together. And then it just finishes with effort. And you saw some great effort plays by Derek, not just in the run game, but also in the pass game, chasing the quarterbacks to minimize some of the scrambles, you know, getting them out of bounds on a four-yard gain or a five yard gain because of the effort to chase them all the way and push them out of bounds. Um those are the types of plays that really elevate the whole group and this is the standard of effort that we’re looking for from our team. With um Jaylen Coker back yesterday, we saw Jimmy was active ahead of Hunter Renfro. What went behind that decision? Yeah, just the combination of guys that we were using in different roles. I feel um I feel strongly that when Jimmy’s out there, he gives us an element. He gives us an element of speed, horizontal and vertical stretch. Uh Jaylen Coker really throughout camp was one of our most reliable receivers. Uh working with the first group and the second group, making plays. Wanted to see that to come alive. You know, Jaylen made it through the game. He didn’t have a lot of production. Really didn’t have any catches and I think one target. Um, but just the way that he was violent in the run game, the way he ran his routes, you know, uh, came out of the game feeling strong, feeling ready to go and excited about building on that. Dave, um, just to be clear, will you make bring in another quarterback this week? We’re looking at that right now. Um, but again, this is all going to kind of, you know, determine on on the full evaluation to see where we’re at with Bryce, someone who would compete for potentially starting position or more of a backup to Andy. probably more of a backup. Eusive in your praise of Pendon when you brought him in. How has he looked behind the scenes and with the scout team? Yeah, Henden’s a guy I’m really excited about. Loved him through the evaluation process coming out of Tennessee. Um spent a couple of years with Detroit getting really good training there uh in a system that’s very similar to what we do. Looking for the right runs to get to some of the actions. There’s some carryover there and so really looking to build off of that. He’s done a great job for us just continuing to gather the information uh to get himself ready to help us at some point if we need him. That there’s something to like or I’ve heard winning ugly. Um is that character building when you kind of grind it out and win a game like you did yesterday? Absolutely. Find a way to win. Find a way. Um in in this particular game, we were going to continue to try to find ways to run the ball. Our defense was playing phenomenally. Our special teams unit was playing together. Um, and that was the mode. That was the mode that we were in. And uh, for the guys to answer the call and when we look at the film, there’s just some really physical play happening on both sides. And, uh, it was just a beautiful thing. And it was it was the guys were uh, their defense all the way all the way through to the last series, you know, giving everything they had, throwing the kitchen sink at us, the offensive guys handling that part and defensively forcing them into some pass situations and then watching our guys come through and make plays. It’s really exciting um the way that the full group all three phases are coming to play and I know that our fans will be out there really early in Bank of America Stadium to to see this week. We’re really excited about the Bills coming in here. Um and uh this opportunity again, we need these opportunities as we continue to grow our team. We need these opportunities to prep us for the long haul. Um really excited for that. On that note, there was a big contingent of Panthers fans there yesterday, too. What was it like on the road to just look up and see that support? It was great. It was great. There was a there was a pretty uh audible keep pounding at the end of the game um as the guys finished and as we were going into the tunnel and uh it was it was uh really exciting, really comforting and encouraging to see our group travel out there to be in uh to be in New Jersey with us there and uh to be able to witness that type of a win for the guys to come through. You mentioned that after um you said that Bryce said to you that he really wants to push hard on this. Can you give us any more instead of just how he’s approaching this all mentally and maybe just from yesterday into today on how he’s doing with the injury? Not really much to add. You know, we’re just going to have to take it one day at a time literally and uh just see where we’re at. And again, the the approach is going to be if Bryce can go, we want him to go. Dave, on the Bills game that you referenced, it’s been a long time since this franchise has hosted a game that kind of has a little juice to it, frankly. And uh do you want do you want your guys to be you know fired up obviously and then do you view the Bills as something of a measuring stick for your program? I think the focus has to be week to week. The challenge is to go one and0. Let’s attack our game plan. Let’s trust our process, the way we work during the week, capture that part of it. Um, this shouldn’t be any different. This shouldn’t be any different. Um, the focus has to be there. We can’t waste energy on anything else, any other uh statements or anything like that. It’s going to be about the fundamentals of football. It’s going to be about taking care of the ball and stopping the run game. Um, which they’ve shown they they’ve been able to have success with. Um, and you know, this is a good team. This is a really good complete football team where all their processes are in place, offense, defense, and special teams, the coaching staff, a group that we have a lot of respect for. It will call on our best and we should approach that every single week. Understand um to go back to Joe’s question about looking into a potential quarterback, but also having faith in Henden. Do you feel like he is not ready to be the backup on game day at this point? Is that why you would have that conversation? These are all conversations that we have to talk about and think about for Dan and I um to do make sure that we’re putting our best group out there. Um and we’re we’re evaluating all that. We’re looking at who’s out there. Um we also have to evaluate what Hennon has done in these last couple of weeks um as he’s been with us. Said yesterday before you watched film that you liked alternating series with the running backs. So, after you’ve seen the film, now Rico did have statistically a lot more production. Uh, do you anticipate any sort of change throughout this weekend? I anticipate will go the same way. Um, to have both guys who who really I trust. Um, and to know that, you know, this is Chuba’s first game back coming off of a little bit of time off. Um, I fully expect that both guys will continue to give us the confidence to call whatever we need to call um, in those situations. And I’m glad that, you know, Rico contributed the way he did, but also Chuba had his he had a couple of really nice runs. He had a really nice screen play where there was a little bit of confusion, the communication with the line kind of standing out there as statues. There’s a there’s a little bit of uncertainty of whether there was a go call on the screen or not. Um, but they’re kind of keeping that under wraps right now, but I’m glad the outcome was right. And so, um, I’m excited again to go out this week with with two backs that I really trust that’ll run with the type of style that we expect. All right. Thank you.

Canales announced that the quarterback will be “day-to-day” with an ankle injury and talked about the team’s performance against the New York Jets.

Subscribe to the Panthers YT Channel: https://bit.ly/35gP3RB
For More Panthers NFL Action: https://bit.ly/2nv06FN

#CarolinaPanthers #Panthers #NFL #Football

For more Panthers action: https://www.panthers.com/
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarolinaPanthers
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/panthers/
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Panthers