Panthers tight end Tommy Tremble won’t play against the Steelers on Thursday night, but he’s on track to play in Week 1 of the regular season.
The team announced that Tremble has been activated from the physically unable to perform list on Thursday. Tremble has been recovering from back surgery and head coach Dave Canales said earlier this week that all signs are positive for Tremble’s availability for the opener.
“Tommy is doing great,” Canales said, via the team’s website. “He’s running full speed, he’s looking towards just trying to get some more physical contact and get that adaptation part, before we can fully clear him. He’s had no setbacks, and so we’re excited to get Tommy back on the field doing something real soon.”
Tremble had 23 catches for 234 yards and two touchdowns for the Panthers last season.
The Steelers will sit at least four players in Thursday’s preseason finale against the Panthers.
Coach Mike Tomlin said Tuesday that quarterback Aaron Rodgers, edge T.J. Watt, defensive lineman Cam Heyward and wide receiver DK Metcalf will not play.
Every other player is in the mix to see at least a few snaps, Tomlin said.
Rodgers played 10 snaps in the preseason finale with the Jets against the Giants in 2023. That was his first preseason action since 2018. He did not play in the 2024 preseason.
Tomlin said he doesn’t need to see his new quarterback in the preseason.
“I’m comfortable with what I’ve seen out here [in practice],” Tomlin said, via Cameron Wolfe of NFL Media.
Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said it is the first time that a healthy Steelers starting quarterback did not play a snap in a preseason game dating to before Ben Roethlisberger.
The Panthers held their final padded practice of the preseason on Tuesday and things got a little more heated than they would have liked.
Cornerback Jaycee Horn took a swing at left tackle Ickey Ekwonu during a scrum between the offense and defense at one point in the session. Head coach Dave Canales called that a “good teachable moment” to remind players of the consequences of doing something like that in a game while also taking some blame for the rise in temperature.
“May have pushed the guys a little bit too hard in the team meeting this morning,” Canales said, via the team’s website.
Canales didn’t sound overly upset about the direction things went during the workout, however. He said the Panthers “crescendoed to a place that I want our football to be and we have to be comfortable operating there” in the regular season.
“We try to push the guys to the edge,” Canales said. “We went a little bit over. But at the same time, that’s the edginess we have to play with when we have these opportunities, we have to be able to play a physical style of football and, you know, sometimes it goes a little too far.”
The Panthers will face the Steelers on Thursday and then they’ll have a little more than two weeks to calibrate themselves for their opener against the Jaguars.
Panthers rookie edge rusher Nic Scourton is recovering well from a collapsed lung.
Scourton was believed to be suffering from heat-related symptoms in Houston last week, but was eventually taken to the hospital and diagnosed with the collapsed lung. He spent the night in the hospital and then drove back to Charlotte on Friday because he could not fly in his condition.
Scourton is doing well enough that he was back on the field running sprints in shorts and a t-shirt on Monday.
“Significant improvement, he was actually running today,” Canales said, via the team’s website. “They were monitoring really closely, checking his oxygen levels, everything. Huge improvements. That guy’s 20 years old, so he he bounced back pretty quick. The hope is to just continue to just progressing daily and get him more and more work.”
Scourton will not play in the preseason finale this week, but Monday’s news is a positive sign for his availability for the regular season.
The Bengals are reportedly listening to trade offers for defensive end Trey Hendrickson. Will they actually trade him?
The bettors aren’t buying it. The Bengals are the -450 favorite to be the team for which he plays his next snap, via DraftKings.
The Panthers are +500 to be the team that trades for him, with the Lions at +800.
Next are the Colts and Packers at +1000, followed by the Chargers and Cardinals at +1400.
The Commanders and 49ers have +1700 odds, and the always-lurking Eagles are at +1800.
The ideal landing spot would be a team that is in the Super Bowl window, and that views Hendrickson as a player who may help push them over the top. Then there’s the question of whether the Bengals would trade him to another AFC team.
The NFC contenders seem to be the best destination: Lions, Packers, Commanders, 49ers. And, yes, the always-lurking Eagles.
To make a trade happen, a team has to be willing to give Hendrickson the contract he wants, and to give the Bengals the compensation they seek.
The more the Bengals want, the more reasonable it is to say to the Bengals, “If that’s how you view him, why don’t you just pay him?”
