CHARLOTTE — Rookie running back Jonathon Brooks wasn't the only guy making his practice debut Wednesday, but he was the quietest one.

Because when it comes to Sam Franklin Jr., you generally hear him before you see him.

The voluble special teams captain was back on the field and in uniform for the first time since breaking his foot during training camp. And he was back in the way everyone remembered.

"Barely noticed him; that guy doesn't have any personality at all," safety Nick Scott said with an eye roll and a laugh.

As he was taking the field, Franklin caught a few people unaware, but once he hopped off a moving golf cart and yelled, "Wake your (butt) up," everyone was as caffeinated as he was, and the Sam Franklin Experience was back in full effect.

"He's impossible to miss," punter Johnny Hekker said. "Sam is a presence. I'm so happy to have him back; he makes an impact. He brings that energy. It shows up everywhere. The world gets to see it on Sundays, but really, his attentiveness in meetings, he's not afraid to speak up. If something's not up to par, he'll call things out of the meeting, he'll make verbal checks. We see him at his seat; he does a good job of being a vocal leader. When he's on the practice field, he's doing the same thing.

"He's encouraging guys to communicate, talking a little bit of trash to up the stakes a little bit and just raise a sense of urgency."

That urgency was obvious from Franklin himself, who was bouncing and laughing through his day like always, as he has during the nine weeks he's been absent. He's in a three-week window to be activated, but he's obviously aware of the passage of time.

"You know, it's been 81 days since I played, but nobody's counting," Franklin said. "For real, 81 days since I played. So, it's been a long journey, taught me a little bit of patience.

"This is my first year ever where I haven't played in a single game in my football career this long, so it was very challenging. Literally, it was very hard for me coming off this injury and not knowing how it would be if I was still going to be the same Sam out here. So, today was like a good stepping stone for me just getting myself back on my feet back underneath myself and building a little bit of confidence."

No extra pressure on offense

The Panthers are 32nd in the league in points allowed, a situation that has created plenty of questions about what the offense has to do for the team to be competitive.

But quarterback Andy Dalton and head coach Dave Canales emphasized the need to keep things as normal as possible on their end.

"We want to score every time we're out there," Dalton said. "It's just kind of how these games have gone so far; we've got to keep scoring. So however it goes in each game, you know, for us, our mindset that when we have the ball, we're going to do everything we can to get to points."

Canales said that the only time it changes the way he calls plays is in some late-game situations because he's trying to build a stable base on offense.

"For the most part, we've got to just stay on schedule and we have to just stay balanced in the way that we want to play, our style of football," Canales said. "My investment is, as we continue to go in this season that we don't short-change the core of our systems by trying to be something that we're not. There's certainly a time in games where you've got to go. But we want to stay balanced as long as possible, so we can get those runs called, and we can get those play actions called, the boot game, the screen game, and all those things that we're counting on in the long term. We have to be able to just be really disciplined in our commitment to our system and our core on both sides really in all phases."

Injury updates

Tight end Tommy Tremble and center Andrew Raym were in red jerseys during practice, indicating they were off limits to contact. They remain in the concussion protocol but are in the final stages where they're allowed to run around a bit.

And even though wide receiver Diontae Johnson was among the nine players held out Wednesday, Canales said he expected him back on the practice field Thursday.

"He'll be out there tomorrow practicing; expect to see him just flying around and making plays," Canales said. "We're taking it day by day with him."