When it rains, it pours
The Carolina Panthers injury news continued on Thursday with edge rusher Nic Scourton tearing his right ACL.
Charlotte was under a torrential downpour on Thursday as the Carolina Panthers held their first training camp practice.
The Panthers were already swimming upstream to a degree before players even reported to camp. Starting left tackle Ikem Ekwonu tore his patellar tendon in January’s playoff loss and defensive tackle Tershawn Wharton underwent neck surgery in the offseason.
Tuesday brought news that Taylor Moton will miss time due to a blood clot that was uncovered in his lung and that Jaycee Horn would begin camp on the NFI list due to a cut on his foot.
Wednesday revealed that defensive tackle Bobby Brown would join Horn on the NFI list with a hamstring injury.
The flood gates opened on Thursday as second year edge rusher Nic Scourton tore his right ACL.
Horn and Brown are expected to return during camp while Moton should return in the regular season. That’s likely not going to be the case for Scourton.
Scourton had a solid rookie season and was primed for a bigger one in year two. He posted five sacks, 28 pressures and three quarterback hits as a rookie. The signing of Jaelan Phillips should’ve have freed him up to do more damage.
Alex Zietlow of The Charlotte Observer wrote in June that Pro Football Focus showed that Scourton was double teamed on 34.62 percent of his pass rushes and tripled team on 2.96 percent of them. With Phillips’ addition, teams would not be able to double both on every play.
On Wednesday, Dan Morgan spoke about the importance of depth.
When asked about the things that gave him the most optimism that things were headed in the right direction, Morgan said:
“I think if you look at our roster our depth has gotten a lot better, our talent has got a lot better and I think the culture in the locker room and in the building I think is in a really good place right now.”
That depth Morgan referred to is going to be tested in the early stages of camp, especially if Brown is unable to return soon from his hamstring.
A key depth piece that’ll likely see an increased role after Scourton’s injury is second year edge rusher Princely Umanmielen. He had 1.5 sacks, two hits and three pressures in his first season.
While the Panthers have improved their overall talent, no team can suffer injuries at this pace.
There’s still 51 days until the season opener, so the Panthers have plenty of time to work things out.
But Thursday was a massive blow for them and one that will be extremely tough to overcome.