Panthers head coach Dave Canales said on Friday that quarterback Bryce Young is showing improvement as he recovers from an ankle injury, but not enough to guarantee his participation in Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills. Young was listed as doubtful after missing three consecutive practices.
“He’s made progress every day, and we want to just keep our options open right now,” Canales stated. “Didn’t want to rule him out, just wanted to say, OK, you woke up today, it was better than you did yesterday, so tomorrow we’ll move around. We rested it pretty good today. We had two good days of work on that ankle, so we’ll take a look at it again tomorrow, and then we’ll make the best decision from there.”
Young has missed only one other game due to injury in his career, during Week 3 of his rookie season at Seattle. In that instance, Andy Dalton stepped in as quarterback and is expected to do so again if Young cannot play this week.
Canales explained that decisions regarding Young’s status have been made with input from the player and consideration for the team’s overall needs. “I talked early in the week and said, hey, let’s just push this thing every day, let’s see where we’re at, for my own sake, for the team’s sake, all the guys are they put, they’re pulling for Bryce to be out there to play with us, play with this group,” Canales said. “You’ve got to be smart, but I think it’s wise of us to just take it day by day and see if we can get back out there and continue to build and to push our football forward.”
If Young is unable to play on Sunday, practice squad quarterback Hendon Hooker will serve as Dalton’s backup. “Excited about Hooker, excited about him being here, being in tune with what we’re doing, continuing to do a great job for us when he got his opportunities on the scout stuff,” Canales commented. “Really into the game plan, and this is why we brought her here, to have another developmental person in the building that has talent and that has an ability to know our words, know our system, and be able to go.”
The Panthers also added Mike White to their practice squad this week; he participated primarily with the scout team due in part to his previous experience with the Bills during training camp. Canales described White’s contribution: “It was a good balance…We needed to get Hendon out there playing…but to have Mike available for the walkthroughs…it was excellent…He did a fantastic job.”
In other updates from Friday’s session at Bank of America Stadium (https://www.panthers.com/stadium/), veteran left guard Damien Lewis will return after missing last week’s game because of a shoulder injury. Austin Corbett started in Lewis’ place last week; before his absence in Week 7 Lewis had started every game this season.
“He had a great week,” Canales reported about Lewis’ recovery process. “The group did a fantastic job in the training room getting his strength back in the shoulder…he had a quick turnaround this week…He practiced the whole week…He’s excited to be back out there.”
