Rivera wants to avoid fights with Dolphins in scrimmage

The Miami Dolphins will join the Panthers for sessions on Wednesday and Thursday in preparation for their preseason matchup on Saturday in Charlotte. “We want to practice and get quality practice”.

Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera said it is a “50-50 proposition” that middle linebacker Luke Kuechly’s contract extension gets done before the season.

Panthers defensive end Frank Alexander said he’s looking forward to the competition and expects the intensity to pick up. “Certainly there will be some heated moments”.

“You can plan not to be in one of those altercations, but you never know. But you never know”, Alexander said.

It’s not something the NFL is proud of, but fighting is a training camp tradition. “It’s a whole list of things that can take place”.

The NFL sent a memo to teams last week, reminding them fighting will not be tolerated in games.

“I think Philbin does a good job down there”. “They’re going to work”. And it so it had seemed that the Panthers would do the same thing with Kuechly. We’re up there to get some work done and compete against a really good team. The coaches also will try to make sure the action doesn’t get out of hand. Rivera said each team will conduct individual drills on separate fields, and they’ll come together for scrimmage periods. “If we have to take guys off the field, we’ll do it”. “The idea is to work”.

In terms of size, the biggest camp scuffles so far came in Richmond when several fights broke out while the Redskins and Texans held joint practices.

“This is a great opportunity for our football teams to grow”, Rivera said. Players will go live to the ball and they’ll be instructed to square up ball carriers.

And the guys in the red jerseys – Newton and Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill – are off-limits. While he may be sacrificing some money in the long run, Kuechly has said many times that he wants to remain with the Panthers, and getting an extension signed with the team gives him a sense of security. You want more. It’s important.

Gil Brandt, the former Dallas personnel director, said joint practices were common in the 1960s when the Cowboys and four other teams trained within 60 to 90 minutes of each other in southern California.

All practices are free and open to the public. “The truth of the matter is we have to find out where he fits and how to best utilize him”.