Dave Canales on Terrace Marshall throwing a ball at D.J. Reed: 'It's dumb football'

Carolina Panthers head coach Dave Canales didn’t like what he saw from Terrace Marshall during a joint practice with the New York Jets. While speaking to reporters last Thursday, Canales reacted to the former LSU Tigers wide receiver throwing a football at Jets cornerback D.J. Reed, which led to a fight.

“It’s dumb football. We can’t have that,” Canales said. “Guys fighting, … we want to celebrate with each other, we want to make big plays and give the opponent nothing. This is the exact type of stuff that I’ve been hitting them on, especially going into this practice. He got excited; he made a great play on a really good player. Leave it at that. A great football play. How about we celebrate that?

“So, he and I talked about it out there, and we put it behind us, but it’s just, these are the moments; it’s too hard. Football is too hard. The margins are so tight in this league. You can’t afford to give the opponent anything, not the ball, not a penalty, not anything, not false starts and pre-snap things aligning offsides. Those are all the things; they’re marginal, they just add up, and they flip the field, and it makes it even harder. So something we’ve got to continue to work on getting away from.”

Marshall spoke out on the incident and apologized for his actions. “I was just in the moment,” Marshall said, per the Panthers’ official website. “Like I said, I wouldn’t do nothing to hurt the team if it was in a game, but it was just in a moment of excitement, and I leave everything out on the field.”

Terrace Marshall takes over for an injured Diontae Johnson

Marshall moved on from the incident, catching two passes for 14 yards in the preseason game against the Jets on Saturday. On the depth chart, Marshall is behind Diontae Johnson who didn’t play on Saturday due to a groin injury.

Marshall was selected by the Panthers in the second round of the 2021 NFL Draft. During his rookie season, Marshall caught 17 passes for 138 yards in 13 games. In 2022, the Louisiana native played in 14 games and caught 28 passes for 490 yards and one touchdonws. He only played nine games in 2023 and tallied 19 catches for 139 yards.