On Monday and Tuesday, the Carolina Panthers hit the practice fields with a few changes from the weekend, and shed some light on the potential of Carolina’ draft picks and aspiring starters.

Panthers right guard free agent pickup Keydrick Vincent practiced with the first team Monday, competing with Toniu Fonoti, who practiced with the first team over the weekend. Both Vincent and Fonoti will see more reps with the first team in order to decide who will win the starting job, not to mention how their performance in the preseason games.

Sticking with the offensive line, Panthers rookie Jeff Otah has held his own in the first four practices, even receiving an “outstanding” from the Panthers offensive line coach, during drills. If everything keeps to schedule, Otah should be plowing the road for both Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams. Speaking of Stewart, Stewart got off a couple of touchdowns during redzone drills as well as catching a few balls over defensive backs. If Stewart continues to show this kind of speed and catching ability, he may be able to not only win the starting job over Williams, but get the large majority of carries during the season.

The bing news over the past few days has been the comments that Jordan Gross made about his opponent during practice, Julius Peppers.

“I’ll say this with 100 percent confidence: I think he’s going to have his best year ever,” Gross said “He’s better than I’ve ever seen him. Barring anything unknown, there’s no reason he won’t go out and just set records. He looks really, really good.”

Gross of all people- besides Peppers himself- should have a pretty good idea of where Peppers is at, having practiced against him the past five years. The fact that Peppers looks faster and stronger, and is actually practicing better suggests that Peppers will be back to form this season, maybe even having a career year.

Tags: carolina panthers, keydrick vincent, Training Camp