Carolina North is still alive and well.
As announced on Friday morning, Al Holcomb has been named the new linebackers coach for the Buffalo Bills. Holcomb, who served as a senior defensive assistant up in Orchard Park this past season, previously spent eight years on the sidelines for the Carolina Panthers.
The first of those years came in 2013, after Holcomb began his NFL coaching career as a defensive quality control coach and defensive assistant with the New York Giants. The New York native headed Carolina’s linebackers—a group that boasted the likes of Luke Kuechly, Thomas Davis and Shaq Thompson—between 2013 and 2017.
In 2018, Holcomb followed Steve Wilks to the Arizona Cardinals as his assistant head coach and defensive coordinator. He’d team up with Wilks again a year later as the linebackers coach and run game coordinator for the Cleveland Browns.
Holcomb returned to Charlotte in 2020 as their defensive run game coordinator. He’d eventually assume the roles of assistant head coach and interim defensive coordinator after Wilks took over for Matt Rhule in the middle of the 2022 campaign.
