CHARLOTTE — Panthers left tackle Ikem Ekwonu just smiled when asked about his availability for this weekend, because we've entered the competitive advantage portion of the obfuscation season.

Head coach Dave Canales described him as "day-to-day," heading into Sunday's regular season opener against the Jaguars, and Ekwonu himself wasn't giving away anything about his availability. He didn't practice on Monday.

"I'm following the plan set forth for me, so I'm not going to rule anything out," Ekwonu said with a grin.

But mostly, he was smiling because he felt better than he had "in some time" prior to an emergency surgery to remove his appendix eight days earlier.

"Definitely feeling better every day," he said. "The whole experience is a little wild, definitely unexpected. But you know,

See Full Page