Three takeaways from Friday, including keeping the focus on themselves, and injury updates

CHARLOTTE — Panthers head coach Dave Canales has been in this situation before, being short on people, so he knows of which he speaks.

So for the sheer amount of injury news coming out of Eagles camp this week, he’s doing everything he can to keep his team locked in on their own work.

Quarterback Jalen Hurts is out this week with a blood clot in his leg, leaving the starting role to Tanner McKee. And while wideout DeVonta Smith practiced Friday, running back Saquon Barkley was not present when reporters there were at practice, creating the possibility he’d miss a second straight game.

That’s a lot, but not what Canales is thinking about.

“Yeah, we can’t make it about the Eagles,” Canales said Friday. “While we will know what they’re doing schematically, we’re assuming they’re not going to show up and just have a completely different game plan than what everybody else has been practicing. I wouldn’t do that. We certainly wouldn’t. We try to have some things to offset that, but at the same time we’re counting on the Eagles being who they are, and focusing on those things.

“But it really comes back to us. It really comes back to our process and how we practice and prepare for whomever we’re playing, and this is no different, of course. I put myself in Nick Sirianni’s seat, you know, and we’ve been here before where we’ve had injuries, we’ve had different things happen to us, and for me, I just go to, OK, who are the guys that are playing? We love and trust these guys; we’re counting on them to go out there and play good football. So I’d be sitting in that seat, fired up to see the opportunity of these guys going out there and approach it that way. I’m sure he will too.”

Word of Hurts’ absence hit around 1 p.m. Thursday, when the Panthers were between walk-through and practice. Many saw the news immediately on their phones and started leaning into former Eagles like Kenny Pickett and Jaelan Phillips for info. But others, including Derrick Brown, didn’t know until midway through practice.

“I mean, I can honestly say my wife, my brothers-in-law, or my brothers get the same information a lot of times at the same time that I do when it’s not coming from this building,” Canales said. “We’re all kind of getting it at the same time, and so where I put my energy is making sure we’re really focused on what we need to do next, and things may change, circumstances may change, but we have to execute. We have to do our job and we have to be, we have to make sure we throw a great week and, and it felt like that.”