The limited NFL offseason and training camp didn't give players much time to prepare for the season, but for cornerback Rasul Douglas, there were only four days with two practices to learn his new team after the Carolina Panthers claimed him off waivers a week before their season opener.
When starting cornerback Donte Jackson went down with an injury early in the first quarter in Week 1 versus the Las Vegas Raiders, Douglas was the next man up in an already thin Panthers secondary.
"I basically tried to just learn the whole defense Wednesday and Thursday," Douglas said. "Those were my two days to get as much information as I could. I made a lot of mistakes in practice and Friday is when things started clicking. On Sunday I expected just to be a cheerleader for the team and root for the guys and when (Jackson) Jack went down, coach told me to go in."
Douglas ended up playing 81 percent of Carolina's defensive snaps against Las Vegas and was rated by Pro Football Focus as the ninth-best cornerback in Week 1 with a 75.6 out of 100 overal defensive grade.
Douglas had two pass breakups, including a big third-down stop late in the game. He was targeted three times and allowed to completions for 24 yards.
"He walked into our offices for the first time on Wednesday and on Sunday, he's playing the entire football game," head coach Matt Rhule said. "(He) Stepped up on third down to make the big stop to get us the ball back to go take the lead. So I thought there were some guys like Rasul who stepped up and were some unsung heroes."
Drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in the third round of the 2017 draft, Douglas hasn't been a stranger to stepping in as a replacement.
He started in 18 of 46 games during his time in Philadelphia and had 25 tackles, 2 interceptions, and 11 passes defended as a rookie when the Eagles won the Super Bowl.
That experience helped him on Sunday.
"The defense is not similar to Philly but it has kind of the same twos but they just mean different things," Douglas said. "Our cover one might mean cover four in Philly or something so I tried to just put key words in my head to remember what it means and I just played ball from there."
Douglas does see the potential that the Panthers have and know there is work to do.
"I like it here," Douglas said. "I think in Philly we built an identity so we knew who we were as players andas a team. Here, we're young so it's our first time with the coaches and as a team. It's building our identity of who we want to be as a team. When people see us and the Carolina Panthers, what do we want them to say? So we're kind of building that resume right now."
With Jackson healthy and expected to play in Week 2, defensive coordinator Phil Snow says Douglas will be a part of a cornerback rotation with Jackson and Troy Pride Jr.
"He's really a good size corner," Snow said about Douglas. "For this week, that's important with the big wideouts. I think he's got a real good feel for football. When you watch him play in zone and man he's just really aware. He's played a good bit in this league. We're not dealing with a young guy."
Even while Douglas has received plenty of praise after playing so well despite limited preparation, he still isn't satisfied.
"It was just okay," Douglas said. "At the end of the day we lost, so who cares about any individual stat that we all had. That means nothing to anyone of us. Our team goal is to go 1-0 every week and we didn't accomplish that. But the best thing about that is it was the first week and we got another one this week."