CHARLOTTE — The Panthers have a few bonus days of practice this week, as they prepare to go into regular season mode in advance of next week's opener against the Bears.

But for the most part, Panthers head coach Dave Canales was in regular season mode, beginning with his response to injury questions.

So if you wanted to know a lot more about Chuba Hubbard and Xavier Legette returning to practice, or Jonathon Brooks and Darren Waller working on the side, or any other particular players, there weren't a lot of specifics.

"For any other questions about injuries, I won't give anything specific until we get to game week," Canales said. "And we'll kind of honor those timelines as we go."

He did say that Brooks had "some soreness," but said he and Waller on the side was part of their "normal maintenance." Otherwise, he was conducting a press conference as if the Bears were watching.

And that fit, since he was also getting some practice in for the Bears. The Panthers started preparing their scout teams for next week, but Canales still mixed in some competitive periods, with the first offense and defense going against each other in a blitz and two-minute segment.

"We are now transitioning into where we have to get our scout teams ready, to be able to copy what the Bears are doing and try to get their schemes so we can get a good look at that," Canales said. "So this week is a great opportunity to start having some of those periods. But there's still also a lot of just core things that we want. There's wrinkles. There's things we need to iron out and sharpen as we go into it.

"And so I still like the competitive part of it, yes, we're doing some card periods, but then let's also go good-on-good so that we're making sure that the competitive element. Guys, at the end of the day, we're still playing football, keeping the conditioning, keeping the competitive element of that goal. So, a little bit of a mix this week."

Bobby Okereke jumping right into the mix

New linebacker Bobby Okereke took the practice field for the first time Tuesday, after general manager Dan Morgan said the intention was for him to start next to Devin Lloyd. And that's how they lined up with the first defense in the period of practice open to the media.

(It helps that he knows this system well from his days at Stanford with assistant defensive coordinator Peter Hansen.)

They gave the 30-year-old Okereke a helmet with a receiver in practice so he could familiarize himself with the language, but he said he was under no illusion that he'd be calling plays.

That's Lloyd's job.

"No, I've been telling Devin since I got here, it's his show," Okereke said. "I'm here to support him in any way I can. So yeah, I'm just excited to play whatever role they've got for me.

"Obviously coming in a little late, it just helps me acclimate better, but I think it helps me serve my teammates better, you know what I mean? I've been in Devin's shoes. I know what it's like when you're calling the plays, and you're running down the sideline, you've got to come back, and people are asking you the call. So as much as I can help him with the tendencies, the down and distance, ID the formation, however to help the team."

Finding the balance with five tight ends

The Panthers kept one more than the regular allotment at the tight end, but with Waller still ramping up, they hung onto the entire group that includes Tommy Tremble, Mitchell Evans, Feleipe Franks, and Ja'Tavion Sanders.

"I will talk about that group, and talk about the unique skill set from the tight end group and just having different body types," Canales said. "You have Mitch Evans, who is a big, wide, traditional body type who can body up with OLBs and defensive ends. You have Tommy, who's got versatility, physical in the run game, fast enough to stretch the field, and make things happen. In that way, you've got JT who does a little bit of all of it and can play in the slot some as a receiver. And then you talk about JT's ability to contribute on special teams, which he has improved over the course of time. Feleipe's one of the really premier special teams players in the league. And then watching his growth as a tight end and his pass-catching ability is really intriguing.

"And then, of course, rounding it off with Darren Waller. We know what he looks like on film. We know the element he can bring to us. So some things to work out there to see who we're going to have up helping us on game day.

"But a group that I feel really strongly about, Dan and I both felt that each guy has something unique that they bring to our team, and felt like it was a position we wanted to keep together."

On QB Haynes King's development

One of the other mild surprises of cuts was the decision to keep undrafted rookie Haynes King as a third quarterback. He didn't play since suffering a hamstring injury late in the Hall of Fame Game, but showed enough promise throughout the summer that they wanted to keep him.

Of course, given his running background at Georgia Tech, there's a curiosity about his use as a trick-play or special-package player. And knowing the Bears are listening, Canales said with a grin: "Anything's possible."

King can be in uniform each week as the emergency third quarterback, but can only play if the first two are hurt, and then they can't return to the game. For him to play, he'd have to be part of the active 48 on game day without the emergency designation.

But keeping him on the 53-man roster meant going short a position elsewhere, and Canales was sensitive to that. But ultimately, they saw enough in King to keep him.

"That was a hard one for me; I've been in the world where we keep two on the roster, we have one on the practice squad that gives you roster flexibility," Canales said. "There's a linebacker you can keep, a safety, a special teams player you can keep if you go with two quarterbacks. And then he didn't play in any game except for the Hall of Fame game. So that was a hard decision for me.

"He showed enough to us in practice, in the way he prepares, the way he speaks the language, calls, plays, makes adjustments. This isn't a 22-year-old rookie. This is a 25-year-old grown man, and with a real process for how he does it. Dad's a coach, loves the game, all the things you would hope for from your third quarterback, and then on top of it, the physical ability, the possibility of using him in different ways, Just because he's a, he's a true 4.47(-second 40-yard dash) guy, and has a lot of speed, which is also important we make sure we remember he's that type of athlete. Even just a soft tissue injury like a hamstring happens when you're that fast, and making sure that we're continuing to build him up the right way, not just as this pocket quarterback, but as an athlete in general.

"So, I'm glad he's here, and I see a future for Haynes in the NFL, and we wanted to have him around. We wanted to be able to continue to be part of his development. And we didn't really want to risk the the possibility of him being able to go somewhere else, help someone else when we can be here developing him and bringing him along."

Looking at return options

With running back Trevor Etienne on injured reserve for at least the first four weeks, the Panthers are going to have to find a new return man for the Bears game, and beyond.

During Tuesday's practice, Jimmy Horn Jr. and John Metchie III were out there fielding punts, and they'll look at others for kickoffs as well. Metchie's ability in that area, as well as on offense, was the key to keeping him as one of the six receivers, ahead of guys including practice squaders Ja'seem Reed and David Moore.

"It's huge," Canales said of Metchie's return ability. "And you know, Jimmy did a great job this summer as well in the return game. John showed he can do it. I would say the consistency that John showed throughout camp, and then just when we got into game-type situations, his ability to make yards after the catch. Catch it and accelerate, picking up 15-20 yards across the field, catching it, stopping. He had a bubble (screen) this preseason where he caught it, slipped up the sideline, made a guy miss, and got 9 on a bubble that probably would have been a 3- or 4-yard gain.

"All that hidden yardage, those things really piled up for Dan and I in our mind, a guy that we certainly could use."