Excerpts from Ron Rivera's final minicamp media availability
Question: When Christian McCaffrey was drafted, you said his preparation was really impressive. Could you tell he was prepared for today?
RR: "Very much so. Today was a red zone drill, and one of the things that happened is Coach (Steve) Wilks had a blitz on. Christian was in there, I looked up and saw the blitz, and I saw the play called for Christian to read for protection which he did very well. So I knew it was something that he had to have studied because you not have known who to pick up or who to read."
Q: Do you think McCaffrey will be fine once the season gets here?
RR: "I do, mostly because he's a very smart football player. He understands the game, he knows the game, and I think that shows. I'm fairly confident that once we get to training camp, when we get going full blast, there's going to be no fall off. We're going to be right where we need to be."
Q: Are you able to say when you think Cam Newton will be able to start throwing?
RR: "I'm going to tell you when I think he's going to throw, but again, it's what I think, it's not what the doctor says. That's probably the biggest difference - my opinion on this and the doctor's knowledge. ... I'm hoping it's soon. It could be tomorrow; it could be next week. It's really when (head trainer) Ryan Vermillion and the doctors deem it necessary to start."
Q: What was your reaction to receiver Mose Frazier taking a swing at Luke Kuechly?
RR: "My reaction is that Mose isn't going to take it from anybody. At the same time, he's got to be smart because he gets ejected, and if our guy reacts to it, he gets ejected. That's basically what I told both those guys. 'Be smart, let's understand we all have Panthers on our heads and let's don't get thrown out of football games."
Q: Do you go into training camp thinking you'll have Michael Oher available?
RR: "We're going to go into training camp with the guys that we have. We'll have 90 on our roster, and we'll be ready to go with those guys."
Q: Of the guys sidelined for minicamp, do you have any concern for availability at training camp?
RR: "No. The anticipation is everybody being available except for Ryan Delaire. He's still rehabbing (his knee). There may be one or two that I'm not thinking of right now."
Q: How would you handicap that right tackle position between Daryl Williams and Taylor Moton?
RR: "I think Daryl's done a very nice job. Taylor's got a lot to learn, he's still growing, but I think Daryl came into camp and he's done the things we've needed him to do."
