Life has changed significantly for Carolina Panthers tight end Tommy Tremble in recent months. Off the field, Tremble and his wife Hope welcomed a baby boy this summer. He described the experience as life-changing, noting how his son’s development has made family life more engaging.
“People always say it’s life-changing, and when I first had the kid, I was like, oh, it’s pretty easy, he just sits there; he’s like a potato all day.
Now that he’s giggling, he’s laughing, he’s trying to talk back, just making words and all that stuff, it’s like really, really fun to be with him. And my wife’s a trooper, she’s dealing with him 24/7 when I’m at work, and so I love her to death.”
At work with the Panthers, Tremble has focused on rehabilitation following back surgery in May. His recovery process included exercises such as wrestling over a medicine ball with performance staff. Tremble said these sessions have helped keep him engaged during his time away from football.
“You know I won every time, so it was fun,” said Tremble.
The surgery kept him sidelined throughout the offseason. Despite missing training camp for the second consecutive year—last season due to a hamstring injury—Tremble remains eager to return to play.
“It’s tough because you get that football bug where you just want to be out there, you want to try to do the run, the plays, make a play, do all this stuff so it kind of pulls at your heartstrings a little bit because people are like, oh you missed camp that’s the hardest part like aren’t you happy you did?
“No, because like I love this stuff. So that was really tough, kind of being on the side but I think trying to work as hard as I could on the side so I can’t even focus on that made up for me just not feeling like I could play football.”
Tremble explained that addressing his injury now allows him to focus fully on playing again.
“Football is a 100 percent injury rate and it was something that just kept lingering around so luckily we caught it in OTAs and just got it wrapped up with.
“I mean this was kind of the end be-all to kind of clear it out get rid of it,” he said. “After dealing with it for almost a year plus it’s nice to know that I can just play football and be me again without having that kind of weighed me down.”
Tremble signed a new contract during the offseason and reported being able to run at full speed two or three months after surgery. He hopes he will be ready for Week 1 but noted recovery remains day-to-day.
“I think we take it day by day you know that’s what the doctor said and so taking it day by day. And try my best to be my best every day and we’ll see when it comes; hopefully I can but we’ll see.”
During Tremble’s absence from practice sessions at Bank of America Stadium (https://www.panthers.com/stadium/), rookie Ja’Tavion Sanders took first-team reps at tight end—a move seen as beneficial for both Sanders’ development and team depth heading into his second year.
“I love JT he’s a good kid and a really good football player,” Tremble said. “And seeing him do what he’s done he’s shoot he’s done it for almost two years in a row in camp taking every rep and he’s took it like a trooper man.”
With head coach Dave Canales shaping an offense featuring tight ends more prominently (https://www.panthers.com/team/coaches-roster/dave-canales), Tremble expressed optimism about his role this season.
“It’s a lot more fun when I when the whole staff everyone is collectively trying to get the tight end the ball,” he said.
“Having that confidence in our entire group is really nice especially going into a week knowing hey we’re getting these kind of routes this kind of concepts like it’s really fun to go into week going in there and knowing that in game it’s going happen.
“So I’m really excited for this year.”
On Tuesday’s practice report: offensive lineman Ikem Ekwonu missed practice due to illness while Nic Scourton (rookie outside linebacker), Damien Lewis (offensive lineman), and Tremble wore red no-contact jerseys.
