The Carolina Panthers have assembled themselves a murderer’s row of coaches. And this week, it was time for some of them to speak.
Here are the biggest takeaways from this week’s string of press conferences.
Frank Reich will be calling plays on offense
With one of the most respected offensive minds in the game as their head coach and a first-year coordinator settling into his new gig, the Panthers hadn’t made it quite clear on who would be calling plays. Well, Reich did on Tuesday, stating that he’ll eventually hand over the duties over to Thomas Brown.
“There is gonna be some point where I pass it off. I know that’s gonna be hard. I’ve been laughing. I’ve laughed with Thomas about it already. I said ‘I’m gonna pass it off at some point. I don’t know when.’ And I think there will be a time and a place and I think it will become apparent when that is.
“I think the right thing for me to do for our team and for our offense right now is to continue to use my experience to draw on. I’ll lean heavy on Thomas. I’ll lean heavy on him. I can already tell.”
Reich, however, couldn’t give a specific timeframe as to when that’ll come.
“I don’t know. I do know it’s gonna be hard to let it go. But I do know I do wanna let it go. I talked to Thomas just a couple times and I think, ‘Ok, it’s gonna be pretty easy to let go to a guy like this.’ Just feeling his presence already. Feeling his poise.”
Panthers will run a 3-4 base defense
Even before new defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero got to the lectern on Wednesday, Reich also cleared up what the base defense will be.
“Yeah, Ejiro’s been 3-4. It’ll be a base 3-4 scheme. But when we get in sub, it’s really multiple. It’s really multiple. There’s four-down, three-down, five-down. It’ll all depend on how Ejiro and the defensive staff wanna take advantage of our players’ strengths. We’ll be very multiple. But in our base defense, we’ll be 3-4.”
David Tepper has committed his resources to assembling the best possible coaching staff
Tepper may have learned a hard and costly lesson from his crush on Matt Rhule, whom he hired as his first head coach despite having nearly no prior experience in the NFL. And Reich may have confirmed it, stating that Tepper has used his greenbacks to get this team the best coaching staff possible.
“And to Mr. Tepper’s credit, he never flinched on that statement. He’s been around the block a few times in a few ways. That doesn’t mean it’s open checkbook. That just means we’re willing to do what it takes to get the right coaches and put the right team together.
“So it was a good checks and balance, but he backed up what he said—I can tell ya that. And we were able to compete against other teams who were vying for similar candidates where we came out on top because of that backing.”
George Li has been hired as a game management coordinator
Reich squeezed in a little nugget about a new name for the staff—game management coordinator George Li.
“But really, the role with Coach Caldwell—it’s gonna be a little different. He and I have talked about this and think the best value is that if he is intertwined—almost like I am as a head coach—he’s intertwined in the game management stuff with George Li, our game management coordinator, with Chris Tabor on special teams, with Ejiro on defense and certainly us on offense.”
Jim Caldwell was attracted to the familiarity of Carolina
Caldwell, who wasn’t expected to entertain any other opportunities outside of head-coaching jobs, surprisingly joined the Panthers as a senior assistant. He explained that his relationship with Reich, impressions of Tepper and general manager Scott Fitterer and the location factored greatly into the decision.
“Yeah, ‘cause it makes sense in a number of different reasons. And when you say outside of the relationship with Frank, I think that’s one of the main reasons. Guy who I’ve worked with, who I know. He knows me. He knows my strengths, my weaknesses as well—and there are many. So that’s a huge reason.”
“But also the organization. I had an opportunity to visit with Mr. Tepper and Scott and the rest of the crew that were doing the interview process and felt a really good synergy there as well. So that was also part of it.”
Ejiro Evero wants his scheme to fit the players
When Evero got his chance to speak about the defense on Wednesday, he said it’s more important to have his scheme fit the players—not the other way around.
“You know the players from afar—and there’s probably some crossover tape and things like that you see—but you really don’t know ’em, know ’em. So it’s really studying ’em, what they do well, what they can do to improve, how they fit into our system. But at the end of the day, we gotta make the system fit around them.”
Dom Capers is back because he enjoys the game
The 72-year-old Capers said he’s still chugging along because he can’t see himself doing anything else—even at this age.
He also gave a little detail about his role as a senior defensive assistant.
“Well, I’ll have my hands full. Scouting the opponent, the defense, the tendencies, those types of things. So that’ll be where a lot of my focus will be—looking at the upcoming opponent, presenting their tendencies and those types of things.”
Thomas Brown wants his quarterback to be a point guard
Brown and the rest of the staff haven’t gotten too deep into quarterback evaluations just yet, so he couldn’t really give much of an opinion on the upcoming draft prospects. But when asked about what he wants out of the position, he provided a few notes.
“A really good one,” he said with a smile. “I think it’s a lot of guys that kinda come in all shapes and sizes. But to me, it’s an ongoing conversation. We had some great dialogue the last couple days. It’s about who fits into this system, but also having a point guard mentality. Being able to distribute the ball to your playmakers and on third down, red zone, two-minute, go play Superman.”
Duce Staley really wants D'Onta Foreman back
Staley, the new assistant head coach and runnings back coach, believes it’s highly important that the team bring back the soon-to-be free agent in Foreman. But he also acknowledged that he isn’t the general manager.
Nonetheless, he praised Foreman and the Panthers for being a hungry group—one he can’t wait to get started with.
“It’s all about grit,” he stated. “And I just left a team in Detroit, that’s all about grit. I see a bunch of hungry men. And I can’t wait to get out there with ’em and go to war with ’em.
“One of the things for me when it comes to coaching—there’s a couple things. No. 1—putting them in position to make plays. That’s No. 1. No. 2 is getting them to run through a brick wall with me and not for me. ‘Cause I’ma be the first one to run through the brick wall. I’ma lead the charge.”
