Three takeaways from coordinators on Thursday, including Brady Christensen’s return and changes on defense

“It’s been great, I think, having Brady back, opening his window, not only to just blindly insert someone into the spot, but to create the competition and make sure that everybody’s being pushed,” explained Idzik.

“You never want to, at any position, you never want anyone to feel just comfortable and complacent — not that our guys have that mentality, but bringing somebody in who’s played a lot of football for us at every spot, that just heightens the awareness of the group.

“It wakes everybody up a little bit of, ‘Hey, don’t skip over the basic questions as this guy’s coming back to maybe knock some rust off, he’s going to ask some of these basic questions,’ which continues to heighten the awareness of the room of like, ‘Hey, we’re never skipping steps in the learning of our material and our technique, all of those things.'”

The Panthers have three weeks to activate Christensen, but could do so at any time. Whether or not that happens this Sunday against the Broncos remains to be seen, but regardless, Idzik promises the line will reflect the best available, whoever that may be.

“Brady comes back, and he’s played all five spots, that heightens the group that way in both the meeting room and when he’s out there on the practice field,” said Idzik.

“So regardless of who ends up playing — we’re going to play the best five on Sunday — I just love what that does for the full group.”