Quote:CHARLOTTE — There was obviously criticism, but Panthers head coach Dave Canales never wavered.

So even after a rough season for a defense in a constant state of personnel flux, Canales knew who he wanted calling the plays for him on that side of the ball — defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero.

"Ejiro will be back with us as our defensive coordinator," Canales said simply on Monday as they wrapped up the 2024 season and began looking ahead.

"We have a lot of things to evaluate over the next couple of days and then certainly into the offseason to reflect on our schemes, to reflect on our personnel, to reflect on the guys we have here, going forward."

Since he walked in the door, Canales talked about working against Evero as a coach from their days in the NFC West. So he's confident in the system because he's seen it work. Of course, the Panthers are coming off a year when they allowed the most points, the second-most total yards, and the third-most rushing yards in NFL history, so there's obviously work to do. But he trusts Evero to do it.

"I've played against this defense, I've played against it in Seattle with the Rams for a bunch of years, I played against it twice last year," Canales said. "I know what this defense will look like, and I'm committed to that. Ejiro's committed to that, so it's about developing the players that we've brought in and evaluating our schemes. So we have to be able to look at our schemes and be really critical of all those things as well.

"And it's about seeing who's out there to challenge our roster and who can help us to get to get this defense to the place where we know we can."


CONTINUED... Adam Thielen on 'returning'.;  "Futures" signings

(01-06-2025, 07:19 PM)Ladypanther Wrote: Doubt he   gets a HC job...but prolly will get a couple of interviews.  Don't think it is fair to judge Evero..  His roster was bad.  Focus on the D this year Dan......keep the coach.