CHARLOTTE — The next 48 hours over the NFL are historically the hardest. Teams must cut their roster from 90 men to 53, a league wide cut of 1,184 players. Just over 500 will be brought back on practice squads, but that’s still a lot of lives taking a turn, dreams realized and dreams ended, with one conversation.
Panthers head coach Dave Canales has made a reputation as a coach of connecting personally with his players, and he won’t change his approach just to avoid the conversations that are coming over the next two days.
“It’s always been a heavy time for me,” Canales admitted Monday, while previewing roster cuts. “It should always hurt and if it doesn’t, I’m not doing it right, I’m doing it wrong.
“The connection—go for it. Don’t hold anything back for the sake of saying, you know, this guy may not be here. Just invest; invest in each other, enjoy every moment, enjoy every day, the challenge of the training camp.”
Canales plans to speak with each player that is cut over the next two days. While general manager Dan Morgan will take the reins during cuts, Canales said he owes it to each guy to speak to him.
“What I hope to do is, all the guys that we end up cutting, I will speak to them and I will give them some honest feedback,” Canales shared. “‘Here’s what you did well, here are the things that I think you need to improve upon that would have vetted well for you in terms of making this team.’ And I just want to give them some good honest feedback. That’s what I would have wanted.
“It’s not a requirement, but I just felt like if I was in their position I would want to have something going forward to the next team to say, ‘Ok, coach said I need to work on this and that, that gives me a real plan in terms of where I need to emphasize my improvement.'”
The bulk of these conversations will likely take place on Tuesday. Teams must be down to 53 players by 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday. But cuts can start right away, so Canales said the timeline might change after he speaks with Morgan.
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