Panthers starting safety misses practice with injury, status for Chiefs game uncertain
The Carolina Panthers are on pace to get running back Christian McCaffrey sooner rather than later, but one of the team’s best young defensive player’s status is now unknown for Sunday’s game in Kansas City.
Rookie safety Jeremy Chinn missed practice Wednesday with a knee injury. He participated in limited stretching and did a little work to the side.
“I told him to rest up, like no need to rush anything,” defensive end Brian Burns said. “It’s probably more serious than what he thinks.”
Panthers coach Matt Rhule said the injury took place during the Panthers’ loss to the Atlanta Falcons last Thursday and is related to an injury Chinn had in college.
“We’ll just kind of play it by ear and see how he feels in the next couple days,” Rhule said.
The second-round pick out of Southern Illinois has 67 tackles, one tackle for loss and two quarterback hits this season. He also has one interception and five passes defensed. He leads the team in tackles and is third in passes defensed.
Chinn is ninth in the league in total tackles and leads all rookies in that category. His 67 tackles are also tied for the ninth-most by a rookie through the first eight games of a season since the merger, per Pro Football Reference.
His contributions have extended to special teams, including getting a direct snap on a fake punt vs. the Falcons last week that resulted in a first down.
While he is listed as a safety, he plays a variety of roles for the Panthers and is a hybrid player, often lining up in more of a linebacker role and elsewhere on the field.
“I don’t know that any one guy can (fill the void left by Chinn) just because of the versatility,” Rhule said. “You would just play different people in more traditional roles. You wouldn’t be able to kind of have the hybrid nature of him going from safety to nickel to Will (linebacker). You’d have to just, ‘Hey, on this package, here’s our nickel, here’s our Will, here’s our safety.”
Chinn has yet to miss a game this season. He has played the third-most defensive snaps on the team behind Tre Boston and Shaq Thompson (96.4%).
Third-year corner Donte Jackson has been dealing with a lingering turf toe injury that caused him to leave the Week 8 loss early. Last year, Jackson missed three games with a pulled groin. Wednesday he said that he allowed the injury to impact him in a variety of ways, a lesson that he has passed along to Chinn and others.
“I told actually told Chinn that today, but I’d like to tell that to any of the young guys or any person really,” Jackson said. “I really tell them just keep your head in there and don’t really let the fact that you can’t really go, you can’t be yourself, you can’t be 100% dawn on you mentally, because that will mess up everything for your game. That will mess up your preparation, that will even mess up your treatment and trying to come back from your injury once you let your head go, and I know that’s one thing I did when I pulled my groin last year. I just let my head go and it messed up my game.”
Chinn has also dealt with a hip injury this year. He was named Defensive Rookie of the Month for October and has been in conversations for Defensive Rookie of the Year.
Panthers roster updates
▪ Cornerback Corn Elder (neck), defensive tackle Zach Kerr (toe) and tackle Russell Okung (calf) were all limited in practice Wednesday. Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater (neck) and cornerback Donte Jackson (toe) were both full participants.
Running back Christian McCaffrey, who has missed the last six games with a high-ankle sprain, remains on the designated to return list, but participated in practice Wednesday.
“He looked like Christian. He looked good, he looks sharp. We’ll see how how his body responds,” Rhule said. “Obviously he did a little bit last week, but this was his first padded day, see how his body responds to the the duress of today and see how it responds tomorrow morning into tomorrow afternoon.”
▪ Offensive linemen Tyler Larsen and Michael Schofield were activated from the reserve/COVID-19 list Wednesday. They are back on the active roster after spending more than two weeks on the list. Cornerback Rasul Douglas was added back to the active roster from the league’s list Monday.
▪ Tight end Seth DeValve was signed to the practice squad. The Panthers had signed the tight end in free agency, but he suffered a non-football injury that led to the team releasing him in June. He will provide additional depth at the position that has struggled to get involved in the receiving game.
“When we signed Seth in free agency, we really liked him as a pass-receiving tight end, a guy can get down the seam, catch the ball. Initially, as he was in the virtual meetings, extremely intelligent, football guy, football character; liked everything about him,” Rhule said. “We’ll see where he’s at over the next couple days. Much like Christian (McCaffrey), I pulled him aside and said, ‘Hey, don’t try to do too much. This is something that we want to build you into.’ He’s definitely someone that we signed with purpose.”
This story was originally published November 4, 2020 at 3:19 PM with the headline "Panthers starting safety misses practice with injury, status for Chiefs game uncertain."
