Quick Hits: Sam Darnold's Best Day, Terrace Marshall Making Plays + More

Carolina Panthers head coach Matt Rhule met with the media Wednesday afternoon following practice.

Sam Darnold's day

"I thought Sam was outstanding today. I think that was probably our best practice today back and forth, offense and defense. We started the practice off with two-minute and ended it with two-minute. It was great to see Terrace Marshall get loose for a deep ball, but I think that was Sam's best practice since he's been here."

If Terrace Marshall can evolve into a No. 3 receiver

"Oh yeah, I think Terrace is already there at that position, at that spot. I always struggle with who's the No. 1 receiver, who's a No. 2 because they're all kind of out there and playing at the same time. But we need playmakers. Terrace is healthy and he's got a great process right now. He's one of the first guys in the building every morning, he's learning at a high level, and I think he's challenging himself. The last few days he's made some plays which we really need him to do."

If the door is closing on adding a veteran QB

"I think as we finish minicamp, Scott [Fitterer] and I will talk really every position and say, 'hey, where are we?' At every position, you only have so much salary cap and you're trying to be financially feasible. So, we'll sit down and talk now that we've got a chance to see these guys for eight, or nine weeks and see where we need to bring some more help in, where we need to look for somebody, where we're good at."

"I think we're always trying to make the team better, but if we have the guy on the team already, then we don't want to spend more money to bring in a backup guard or a backup whatever. We've had internal discussions. Right now, I'm in the coaching phase of OTAs, and then when we get to the end of it, we make decisions."

What Darnold needs to do to make him feel comfortable heading into training camp

"Sam just has to keep working and developing. We've made the offensive line significantly improved in front of him. He's learning this offense, he's starting over at square one. I think he just needs to keep stacking days. The one thing I've been very proud about with Sam is that he's taken very much a stoic approach of controlling what I can control. A lot of people say it, but they don't do it. He can't control the decisions that we make as an organization, but he can control what he does when he's out there. I think by taking that approach, we've seen Sam get better and better and better."

Thoughts on Ikem Ekwonu

"Ickey has got a long way to go at that position, but he's making steps and is getting better."

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