CHARLOTTE – If you want to talk to cornerback Lou Young after practice, you're going to have to wait a while.
When the players start making their way into the locker room, Young finds football operations assistant Matt Worswick, and they begin their post-practice routine.
Young works on his ball skills for about a half-hour after each practice. It involves a wide variety of drills that takes him across the entire length of the field and back.
"I just try and get better every day," said Young, sweat pouring down his face after completing the workout. "Some days I practice at nickel or outside more than others, so I work on different breaks from the inside or outside. Sometimes they throw at me, sometimes it might be a day where I'm just running to the ball. I just have to stay in the routine of seeing the ball and catching the ball to make it a habit."
Worswick is the one tossing the passes relentlessly.
"Matt is like the godfather of the drill," Young explained.
The routine started last year with cornerback Josh Norman, the Pro Bowler who has since departed to Washington.
Now it's just Young and Worswick who work together until they're the only people left on the field.
"It started with J-No, and I saw the progress he made," Young said. "I got here late in his career here, but I saw his work ethic and I wanted to work on my craft."
Said Worswick: "It's morphed into whatever Lou wants to do. Whatever he wants to work on, I'm there to help."
The coaches aren't watching. There's no one to impress. This is Young's method to improve, and he wholeheartedly believes the extra work will pay off.
"There's no hoping – I know it's going to pay off," Young said. "I worked all season last year and eventually got activated (during the postseason). All that work wasn't for nothing. I'm just picking up where I left off and am trying to take it to another level."
