Sometimes there is mystery about whether a guy will play in the preseason, specifically if he’s coming off an injury.
But when he doesn’t practice for a week, that’s usually a pretty solid indication that he won’t.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter passes along such word that Panthers quarterback Cam Newton isn’t going to play Wednesday against the Texans, but is expected to play at some point in the preseason. Panthers coach Ron Rivera confirmed the obvious after practice.
This was not a surprise, since Newton hadn’t thrown fully since working four straight days at the start of training camp and then coming up sore. That’s the kind of peaks and valleys you have to expect coming off any surgery, but it remains a bit of a concern, primarily since they’re tweaking their offense this offseason and he hasn’t run it in practice.
While Schefter didn’t mention him specifically, we can add second-round wideout Curtis Samuel to tomorrow’s inactive, since he’s only practiced once during camp because of a hamstring issue. Samuel and Newton played a little catch this morning, which appears to be the limit of their activity for the time being.