The Panthers’ brain trust is now in place. A week after hiring former assistant GM Dan Morgan for the general manager position, one of Morgan’s first acts on the job was to hire a head coach.
Dave Canales will take over as Panthers’ head coach, becoming the fifth person to hold that position in the last 31 games.
Compared to owner David Tepper’s previous two hires — Matt Rhule, who was one of the most in-demand college coaches looking to move up to the NFL, and longtime player and head coach Frank Reich — Canales is a relative unknown.
He never played in the league and played his college ball at NAIA school Azusa Pacific. He then spent much of his early coaching career on the West Coast, first as a high school offensive coordinator, then moving to USC and then the Seahawks based on a relationship with Pete Carroll — the two met at coaching clinics in the Los Angeles area.
Like Morgan and previous GM Scott Fitterer, Canales has strong ties to the Seattle organization. He spent 13 seasons on Carroll’s staff, coaching receivers for eight years, quarterbacks for three and then two seasons as passing game coordinator.
Canales has never been a head coach at any level and has only one year of experience as an offensive coordinator, this season at Tampa Bay.
In his time in the NFL, Canales has earned a reputation as somewhat of a quarterback whisperer. As passing game coordinator for the Seahawks in 2020, quarterback Russell Wilson had one of the best seasons of his career, posting personal bests in touchdown passes and completion percentage, his second-best yardage total and third-best passer rating.
Once Wilson departed for Denver, Canales helped the Seahawks avoid a full-scale rebuild, helping journeyman Geno Smith have a career year under his watch. Smith led the NFL in completion percentage and won Comeback Player of the Year honors.
Last year in Tampa, Canales worked his magic with a player familiar to Panthers fans. Baker Mayfield, who didn’t last the year with Carolina in 2022, had career bests in yardage, completion rate and touchdowns in his one year working with Canales.
The Panthers’ logic in going after Canales is fairly obvious. Top overall pick Bryce Young struggled in his first year as an NFL starting quarterback, and the hope is that Canales will be able to help him get on track.
Unlike the other quarterbacks on Canales’ resume, Young does not have several years of experience in the league, so the new head coach will have to prove he can have a similar impact on a promising young player.
With Tepper earning a reputation across the league for having a quick trigger finger when it comes to souring on coaches, Canales reportedly received a six-year contract from the team to help attempt to create a sense of stability at Bank of America Stadium.
Canales is busy working on assembling his staff, and it appears there will be wholesale changes on the offensive side. Interim head coach Chris Tabor and offensive line coach James Campen both parted with the franchise. Thomas Brown, considered a promising up-and-coming coordinator when hired by Reich last year, will not return. Canales is reportedly trying to talk to several assistants from the Bucs and Seahawks to build a staff on the offensive side, with Tampa receivers coach Brad Idzik the early favorite to serve as Canales’ coordinator.
On the defensive side, the team is still hoping it will be able to hold onto Ejiro Evero, another up-and-coming coaching star who had a successful year in his first season as Panthers defensive coordinator. The team reportedly has blocked requests from the Dolphins and Giants to interview Evero for their own coordinator spot. The Rams are also reportedly interested in luring him to a similar position.
The biggest threat to Carolina’s ability to keep Evero on staff is Seattle. The Seahawks have already interviewed Evero for their head coaching position, to replace Carroll, and he’s reportedly lining up a second interview. Unlike teams seeking to give Evero a lateral move, the Panthers cannot block Evero from getting a promotion to the top spot with another franchise.
With a relatively short track record at the positions of highest responsibility in the NFL, Canales appears to be a relatively high-risk hire for a team that has not had success in its recent front office personnel moves. However, he brings the promise of stability and improvement, two things that have been in short supply with the Panthers in recent seasons.
