CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WGHP) — The Carolina Panthers have decided on the man they want to lead the franchise going forward.
On Thursday, several NFL insiders reported that Dave Canales will be the next head coach of the Carolina Panthers.
That begs the question, who is Dave Canales?
Resume
2023: Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator
The 42-year-old Canales was most recently employed as the offensive coordinator for the Panthers’ NFC South rival Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
In his first and only year on the job, Canales helped lead Tampa Bay to a third consecutive NFC South title.
Many experts anticipated that the Buccaneers would take a step backward in light of the retirement of Tom Brady — who is widely viewed as the greatest quarterback of all time.
However, Tampa Bay improved on their 8-9 record in 2022, going 9-8 en route to winning the division and upsetting the defending NFC Champion Philadelphia Eagles in the Wild Card before losing a tightly contested game to the Detroit Lions in the Divisional round.
A large factor in Tampa’s surprising success was the play of quarterback Baker Mayfield, a name Panthers fans are rather intimate with.
Mayfield struggled mightily in his six starts for Carolina last season going 1-5 in those games with very poor passing statistics before he requested his release from the team and the Panthers obliged.
Mayfield would have arguably the best season of his career with Canales this season in Tampa throwing for over 4,000 yards and throwing 28 touchdowns to only 10 interceptions.
2022: Seattle Seahawks quarterbacks coach
Before landing in Tampa Bay, Canales served as the Seattle Seahawks’ quarterbacks coach in 2022.
In Seattle, Canales played a key role in another career resurgence for a down-on-their-luck quarterback replacing a legend.
In March 2022, the Seahawks traded away their nine-time Pro Bowl quarterback Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos, leaving their backup Geno Smith as the likely starting quarterback.
Smith was considered by many to be a draft bust after two poor years as a starting quarterback with the New York Jets after they drafted him in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft.
Smith spent the next seven seasons as a backup quarterback, three of those seasons in Seattle.
With Canales as his quarterbacks coach, Smith had a career-best season throwing for 4,282 yards and 30 touchdowns to just 11 interceptions. He also completed nearly 70% of his passes and was named the NFL Comeback Player of the Year.
The Seahawks finished the season with a 9-8 record and made the playoffs after many experts predicted that they would be among the worst teams in the NFL.
2018-2021: Seattle Seahawks passing game coordinator/quarterbacks coach
Canales worked with the aforementioned Russell Wilson in the previous three seasons as both passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
In 2018, Wilson posted a career-high quarterback rating of 110.9.
In 2019, Wilson posted another high quarterback rating season at 106.3 and threw for over 4,00 yards while throwing 31 touchdowns to only 5 interceptions.
In 2020, Wilson had arguably the best season of his career as he completed a career-high 68.8% of his passes for a career-high 40 touchdowns to 13 interceptions. Wilson was also just seven yards short of his career-high for passing yards in a season.
In 2021, Wilson’s play began to regress as he struggled with injury, however, then-backup Geno Smith performed well in the four games he played — throwing five touchdowns to one interception and completing 68.4% of his passes.
2010-2017: Seattle Seahawks wide receivers coach
Canales cut his teeth in Seattle as the team’s wide receivers coach before transitioning to working with quarterbacks.
Doug Baldwin, who was an undrafted free agent in 2011, developed into one the NFL’s best wide receivers during that time. Baldwin made the Pro Bowl in 2016 and 2017.
The Seahawks won Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014 and won the NFC Championship in 2015.
Relationship with Panthers GM Dan Morgan
Dan Morgan, who the Panthers hired as president of football operations and general manager on Monday, worked with Canales in Seattle from 2010-2017.
Morgan, a former Pro Bowl linebacker for the Panthers, got his start as an executive with the Seahawks.
The Bryce Young factor
The Panthers hope that Canales’ previous work with quarterbacks translates to their quarterback Bryce Young, who experienced a dreadful rookie season after the Panthers mortgaged their future to move up and select him.
The Athletic reported in December that the Panthers had a “Hunger Games-style culture” within the organization.
The lack of progress and success from Young was a large factor in the dysfunction within the building.
Complicating matters was the fact that the Panthers finished with the worst record in the NFL and are currently projected to hand the No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft to the Bears, a disastrous outcome in a trade that was viewed as the final piece the Panthers needed to compete to win the NFC South.
Stroud led the Texans to the playoffs and to a win in the Wild Card round over the Cleveland Browns.
Meanwhile, Young has struggled mightily, having thrown over 1,300 yards less than Stroud while playing in one more game than him.
Young also fumbled the ball 11 times, six of which were picked up by the opposing team.
The end result was the Panthers firing head coach Frank Reich after a 1-10 start to his tenure in Carolina before limping to a 2-15 finish.
Reich’s tenure was among the shortest coaching stints in NFL history.
The ability to help Young improve upon a dreadful rookie season was almost certainly one of the key factors in Canales’ hiring.
What’s next?
Now Canales will look to assemble a coaching staff to join him in Carolina.
Many expect that the Panthers will look to maintain most of the staff members on a defense that was among the best in the NFL last year despite the Panthers’ poor team performance.
Carolina blocked their defensive coordinator Ejirio Evero from interviewing with the Jacksonville Jaguars for the same position. A key sign that the team hopes to retain him.
Evero is still a candidate for the Seattle Seahawks’ head coaching vacancy.
