Team waiting for word on Robinson's knee

SPARTANBURG -- Another day, another frightening injury for the Carolina Panthers.

They can only hope the news is as good this time.

Wide receiver Ryne Robinson went down Thursday with a left knee injury. There was no immediate word on his condition, and he was scheduled to go back to Charlotte for an MRI this morning.

His agent said Thursday night that Robinson seemed "upbeat," but didn't want to characterize the extent of the injury.

Robinson went down on a deep pass play, when safety Nate Salley took a bit of a flying leap at him, cutting Robinson's feet out from under him. He landed face-down, and trainers had to pluck the grass out of his facemask when they rolled him over.

While it wasn't a dirty play, coach John Fox said he was concerned about keeping his players mindful of the fine line between aggression and foolishness.

"It's part of the game, and you've got to practice it to avoid injuries when you get into real games," Fox said. "You try to do it as smart as you can and try to avoid it as much as you can. Occasionally, there is an injury. You try to minimize it the best you can, but it is part of the game."

Wednesday, the Panthers lost defensive tackle Ian Scott for a few weeks with a sprained left medial collateral ligament. He was taken down from behind during a short-yardage drill.

• UPON FURTHER REVIEW: Defensive coordinator Mike Trgovac said that much of the simplification on defense resulted from having such small turnover on the coaching staff. Since Fox took over in 2002, the staff has been fairly constant. Trgovac was the defensive line coach in 2002, but was promoted the following year when Jack Del Rio took the Jacksonville head coaching job.

Other than secondary coach Tim Lewis, who came aboard last year, the rest of the defensive staff has been around since at least 2004.

"When you're together as a staff for six years sometimes, you put something in and you put something in and you put something in, and you never take something out," Trgovac said. "We just thought it was time to go back and take a hard look at ourselves, and take some things out, and to try to not ... maybe we were thinking a little too much, and try to simplify the defense a little bit.

"When you've got new guys like (rookie safety) Charles (Godfrey) coming in and (defensive end) Tyler (Brayton) and some of the new guys we have, obviously the less you have to learn, the better we think it is. But we're starting to get a bigger turnover of guys at this point, so we just thought it was better to go back.

"We took a hard look at ourselves as coaches at what we did and decided to simplify a little bit."

• STILL SHORT AT DT: Defensive tackle Damione Lewis (leg) tried to practice but didn't finish, but for the most part, they seem close to the end of their rash of injuries at the position. Lewis said he thought he, Maake Kemoeatu and Darwin Walker were all "fairly close" to a return as well. The Panthers were down to three healthy bodies at the position when Scott went down Wednesday.

They brought another in Thursday, signing undrafted rookie Michael Marquardt. The Arizona State product spent some time in Cincinnati's camp this year, but was cut in July.

The numbers crunch caused them to avoid going live in their goal-line drills, but Fox was looking for silver linings.

"Yeah, any time you don't have guys out there, for whatever reason," he said when asked if it affected the quality of practice. "You prefer them being out there. We're getting good and we're getting valuable reps for the guys underneath them, and I think it helps their development."

• EXTRA POINTS: To make room for Marquandt on the roster, the Panthers waived third-string center Pat Ross. ... In addition to Robinson and the DTs, the Panthers were without running back LaBrandon Toefield (shoulder), linebacker Adam Seward (abdominal) and tackle Charles Spencer (knee) for the lone practice of the day. ... A crew of NFL officials arrived in town, to make a presentation to players and coaches about rules changes for the coming year. The crew in camp Thursday included back judge Jim Howey from Lancaster.

This story was originally published August 1, 2008 at 12:03 AM with the headline "Team waiting for word on Robinson's knee."