Panthers’ first-round pick didn’t practice Wednesday — but hold off on worrying for now

No Xavier Legette highlight reel this time.

The Carolina Panthers’ smiley first-round draft pick out of South Carolina — whose size and athleticism have already captured the imagination of Panthers fans — was on the field but didn’t practice on Wednesday. A team spokesperson said that he’d suffered a minor hamstring injury, and that his absence was a precautionary one.

Head coach Dave Canales expounded on why the coaching staff elected to sit him out.

“Just a precaution, you know,” Canales said. “What happens a lot with rookies is they come out here and (realize) it’s a different level of work. And it’s not like they haven’t practiced this long, but everyone’s fast. Everyone’s going. And of course, with their wheels turning, there’s a strain on the brain, there’s also a strain on the body.

“So he just looked a little bit stoved up yesterday, and just as a precaution, we said we need to pull back a little bit and just make sure we’re smart at this point in our program and what we’re doing with our sights on training camp.”

The absence, in other words, isn’t a big deal, Canales said. The receiver with DK Metcalf-like potential — and whose country elocution caught the attention of the NFL for a while — sustained the tweak Tuesday, Canales said.

“He just looked tight,” Canales added of Legette. “Yesterday, he just had a moment in practice where he started to slow down, the trainers started talking to him immediately. And we were like, ‘Well let’s not throw him back out there, let’s not try to rebound, let’s be smart about it at this point.’”

Here’s everything else you should know from Wednesday’s OTA session:

Kicker Eddy Piñeiro’s sustained absence

Any update on Eddy Piñeiro?

In the words of Canales: “Nope, same.”

Piñeiro, the Panthers’ place kicker the past two seasons, hasn’t shown up to any voluntary organized team activities this offseason, and that included Wednesday. Last week, Canales said that “we’re just focusing on the guys we have” and that he’s sure Piñeiro “has a plan for this whole thing.” He reiterated that Wednesday and added that Harrison Mevis, the Panthers’ undrafted rookie who’s been kicking amid Piñeiro’s absense, has been impressive.

“Watched Harrison kick today,” Canales said. “He did great today. He nailed all his kicks. Hit about a 57-, 58-yarder today, so he’s doing a great job.”

Mevis was perfect on field goals again Wednesday. Canales thinks he’s only seen Mevis miss twice all offseason.

Piñeiro is heading into a contract year in 2024 after signing a two-year deal before the start of 2023. He has just $150,000 in guaranteed money left on his deal. The Panthers would gain $1.85 million if they moved on from the 28-year-old kicker, who was a favorite of former special teams coordinator Chris Tabor.

Piñeiro had a solid 2023 in Carolina by the numbers: 25-of-29 with a long of 56 yards. He missed two games in that span; they were the last two, after he sustained hamstring tightness in pregame warmups against the Jaguars, which ultimately helped contribute to the Panthers’ two consecutive shutouts to end the year.

A joint Panthers-Jets practice — again

The Panthers and New York Jets are hosting a joint practice, Canales confirmed to local media after Jets head coach Robert Saleh did earlier Wednesday. The two teams did so last year, during training camp in Spartanburg, S.C., and they’ll do so again this year — this time at the new Panthers’ practice facility near uptown Charlotte.

For Canales, the pairing is a match made in heaven for a bunch of reasons. Among them: a rapport between the head coaches.

“Robert Saleh and I were quality control coaches together with the Seahawks. We were together for Super Bowl 48, and then he left shortly after that. So we had about a 13 or 14 year relationship, and we were able to practice with them last year in Tampa, so we just kind of talked about doing that again.”

Another advantage for both teams is the fact that they each employ vastly different defenses — and thus get important practice against two different schemes (a 3-4, which the Panthers run, and a traditional 4-3).

“We need that work,” Canales said. “They ask their defensive ends, their tackles, to play aggressively up the line of scrimmage, and that’s a lot different than how we play our two-gap systems, where guys are keeping their shoulders square and staying in gaps.

“So we need the different part of that rush. It feels totally different to the offensive line, the running backs, and the way we do that.”

Quick hits

▪ Ickey Ekwonu spoke to reporters after practice Wednesday. As the Charlotte native and N.C. State alum heads into his third NFL season, he was reflective on the sophomore slump he and the rest of his fellow offensive linemen sustained in 2023. Among the most notable things he said was that, in retrospect, he might have “rode the coattails” a bit of a successful rookie campaign and not used the resources available to him as much as he should’ve. Canales had a lot of positives to say about his left tackle. Among those things: “It’s a tackle-friendly offense” — considering the emphasis on running his offensive philosophy espouses — and “he is a mauler and we are going to run the ball, and I think when guys are able to just be aggressive and play to their nature, it gives them a lot of confidence in everything else that they do.”

▪ Also absent from team activities included K’Lavon Chaisson, a former first-round pick for the Jaguars who signed a one-year deal with the Panthers this offseason, and Jadeveon Clowney, the USC product and Rock Hill native whose arrival was a pretty substantial homecoming. Clowney participated in the first optional team activities — voluntary veteran minicamp — but hasn’t participated in the other two OTA sessions when media have been present.

▪ Jalen Coker, the undrafted free agent receiver who has found a bit of a cult following among some high-profile (and many local) NFL fans, was receiving punts with Ihmir Smith-Marsette on Wednesday. Canales has been on coaching staffs with track records of seeing UDFAs playing substantial minutes — most of whom got a spot on the 53-man roster initially as special team aces.