For Panthers head coach Dave Canales, a former receivers coach, seeing that development in real time has been a season-long process, one he’s seen play out a number of times over the years, so the landmarks have become familiar to him.
“There is a toll on rookies, from a physical standpoint, certainly with a longer season,” Canales said. “The speed of the game and the amount of effort that is required of them, and then of course, there’s a mental and emotional strain of the game plans that go into it, the nuances of what you’re seeing from a receiver standpoint. The disguises, they take a step up when you get to the NFL, and obviously, the size and speed of the players that they’re playing against, it requires you to continue to evolve your game from a technical standpoint, and there’s a lot of patience that’s involved with that.
“And I think it’s really important also to celebrate the successes and to make sure, even when the ball may not go your way and you end up with two targets, let’s look at what you look like away from the ball here, though, right? That was always our mantra in Seattle when I was coaching receivers: Bottom line, guys, put wins on film because the more you do. The more the quarterback sees what you’re doing and trusts that, the more your teammates respect the work you’re putting out there, then the wins will come and the ball will come. So there’s a big patience game involved in that, and there’s also urgency, right? So it’s like, can you have great urgency? We need you to be great right now and also have the patience to know it’s going to come. Keep at it, hard work works.”