Reeder's Take

   The Carolina Panthers are keeping quiet about their plans on who’ll be the starting fullback Sunday against the New Orleans Saints.

   Fullback Brad Hoover admitted what we already knew — that he won’t play this week and that he’ll have a cast on his ankle for another week or so. And given that backup Tony Fiammetta likely won’t play after sustaining a concussion last week against the Arizona Cardinals, the Panthers will have to use a player who’s never played fullback before when they face the Saints Sunday.

   But for now, coach John Fox is going to keep the Saints guessing.

   –In other injury news, WR Muhsin Muhammad said he has a sprained MCL in his knee. He wouldn’t say how long he’ll be out, but a similar injury kept Jon Beason returned from his in about 20 days and Thomas Davis came back after about four weeks, although he wasn’t in as big of a rush considering it was still training camp.

   “The knee will tell me when it’s ready,” Muhammad said.

   –Defensive end Charles Johnson might just be the strongest guy on the team. He said he can bench-press over 500 pounds. Johnson is learning how to use his strength to his advantage, which is really helping with his pass rush this season.

   We’ll have more on all of this in the notebook a little later on…

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