Coach Ron Rivera pushes tempo for Carolina Panthers at Thursday practice

Two light days and a break for Christmas meant the Carolina Panthers had to take it up a notch on Thursday.

Panthers coach Ron Rivera made sure his guys got in extra work Thursday before they got Friday off to be with their families.

“We pushed them on upping the tempo because they’re going to get tomorrow off,” Rivera said. “It’s something we’ve done the last two seasons and the players seem to have come back in better spirits. That’s the one thing that’s encouraging about doing it the way we’ve done it.”

The Panthers had a light practice on Tuesday and had to practice in the convention center ballroom due to rain on Wednesday.

“I think our preparation was good. We went pretty hard today, just to kind of fine tune some things,” tight end Greg Olsen said. “We do a good job of maximizing those so-called physically light days. We do a good job of dialing in, making those reps count and this time of year those reps are really valuable. You get the mental rep, you get the timing, the spacing and the scheme down, and at the same time not beat everybody up.”

This story was originally published December 24, 2015 at 3:47 PM with the headline "Coach Ron Rivera pushes tempo for Carolina Panthers at Thursday practice."