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Losing Thomas Davis for the season hurts. On a scale of 1-10, it’s a 10. All the intangibles he brings to the table, no matter what else happens our defense is going to be at a disadvantage because Thomas won’t be on the field. But I still have confidence in our guys on defense to step up and play at a higher level and make a commitment to their position to take up the slack.

It also hurts because Thomas is a person I look up to as a big brother. One of the things that make him so special is his ability to take a lot on his shoulders in terms of his family and being active with his Foundation in the community. He always goes above and beyond the call of duty. He puts pressure on himself to take on responsibilities and he doesn’t mind it at all.

He is such a good person, he does everything the right way, yet he is forced to deal with these setbacks.

On the field Thomas is a guy who is fiery, he wants to win at all costs. The thing I like about him is that he’s always in the moment, he’s all about emotion and heart. Watching him strive to be his best really helped me elevate my game because I try to keep up with him. He’s such an exceptional athlete, he has so much ability to really do whatever he wants, whenever he chooses, and he always challenges me to continue to play at a high level and I challenge him back. Instead of competing not only against the offense, we compete against ourselves to see how productive we can be as linebackers. Who is going to make that big play to change the outcome of a game? Anybody who knows about competition knows that pressure forces you to continue to make play after play and not get tired.

We will miss him, on and off the field this season. That’s another reason why I fully understand that I have to be exceptional this year as a captain, as a leader and, most importantly, at whatever the coaches ask me to do.

Here we are, the day before we report to training camp, and I’m not certain what position I’m going to be playing.  It doesn’t bother me, because either way there will be pressure on me, and where there is pressure, there is an opportunity to do great things.

Will I stay at middle linebacker or take over for Thomas at the Will? Where will I most help the team? There are two schools of thought:

1 – Players are groomed to be selfless and do whatever the coach says. When I was in high school and early in college, I played a lot of different positions. Whatever it took to get the job done.
2 – Coach Shannon always figured that once you’ve done something well, you should stick to it and try to really excel and take it to new heights.

I’m fortunate to have dealt with both situations, and I think you can get the job done both ways. It’s all in the way you approach your opportunity, whether you’re a middle linebacker or a quarterback, you have to go in with a positive mindset, learn the position and keep the passion for whatever it is you’re doing.

I practiced as the Will linebacker the last three days of OTAs and I definitely made some mistakes. I’m not fine-tuned at that position as I am at the Mike. It could end up with me playing different roles, lining up at different spots depending on the package we’re in.

No matter what, I think I can still be very productive, it’s just a matter of how it’s going to help us win as a team. Sometimes a guy can play well and dominate his position, but the defense as a whole is not doing well and the team is not winning. You don’t want to sacrifice and end up with one player with great individual stats while the team continues to lose.

Either way I’m excited for training camp because I love the game of football. There’s the grind of training camp, the heat in Spartanburg, the competitiveness and the pain, but it’s more than a necessary evil. It’s where you grow team cohesiveness and camaraderie and build relationships between one another. And of course you also get into football shape. There are plenty of guys who can run and lift weights and train all day, but there’s no substitution for putting on the pads and tackling somebody to get ready for the season.

I’ll tell you what, I’m definitely going to have rookies carry my pads. They better not say they’re not going to carry my pads. I had a lot of respect for the veterans when I was a rookie and I was more than willing to carry pads for Dan Morgan and Na’il Diggs. I’m sure the young guys now will have that respect for me, and I’ll show them respect as well. They know carrying pads is just part of the drill.

This is going to be a new experience for me in training camp this season. I can’t help but say I’m looking forward to it, just because it’s going to be an absolute battle every day, every practice. There will be a lot of young, hungry guys looking to make the team. This year we don’t have the luxury of too many guys having their positions sewn up, so the young guys will be gunning for those jobs and that’s great.

Competition breeds greatness. The best 11 guys will be on the field, the last 11 standing at the end of training camp.

Carolina Panthers All-Pro middle linebacker Jon Beason writes a blog for www.playerpress.com at www.jonbeason.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jonbeason.