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The combine has been underway for a few days now, and the workouts have taken everyone’s attention. But prior to all that, the combine served as a gathering place for NFL decision makers and the media to interact with one another and get some nice juicy headlines for the offseason. Dave Canales, Dan Morgan, Brad Idzik, and even Brandt Tilis got at least one chance to get in front of a microphone. The Panthers posted around two hours of interview content. We hit the highlights to save you some time.
Dave Canales
We start with Canales getting up on the podium to answer questions from various members of the media. Right out of the gate, Canales said he’s handing play calling duties over to Brad Idzik. He said the move is to free himself up to take more of a management role for the entire team on game days while also letting Idzik take another step as an offensive coordinator. He is already the primary architect of the offense, so it’s natural to let him call the plays. He talked about emulating John Harbaugh as a leader as a head coach. As for running the offense, he said his philosophy is about building what you think will create an explosive offense that will score points and then finding what parts of it tailor to the personnel you have, especially the quarterback. He wrapped up by saying that Dom Capers is departing to join the Browns.
Canales followed that by answering more questions from reporters in front of a wall. I don’t know why this was separate from the press conference, but whatever. There wasn’t much more of substance here, which is partly because it’s really hard to hear the questions he’s answering with all the background noise. The only thing was that he talked about the plan to add some competition to the quarterback. He predictably dodged a question that kinda dragged Andy Dalton for being slow.
Lastly, Canales sat down with Anish Shroff for a kind of internal one on one interview. There was more talk about the play calling handoff with Dave reiterating that he felt this was the best decision to make the Panthers better. He talked about prioritizing the development and recovery of current players to improve the team. Then comes looking for players that are culture fits that can be brought in to challenge the roster. When talking to players at the combine, he talked about looking for players with self awareness as those players tend to be the most likely to develop and reach their potential because they know how they got to how they are and know how to take the next step.
Brad Idzik
With Canales announcing that Idzik is going to be calling plays this upcoming season, the latter obviously became a focus of media attention at the combine. And he obviously got asked a ton about his new role calling plays. He says he’s ready for the challenge, and he’s called plays in the preseason, so it’s not an entirely new thing for him. He was asked if he’s going to call plays from the sideline or the booth, and while he’s open to both options, he thinks he’s going to prefer calling plays from the sideline so he can have the pulse of the team.
Idzik also spoke with Drain Gantt, who has more flow with the hair than I realized. He again said he’s gotten reps in scrimmages during the spring and he’s looking forward to doing that again knowing that he’ll be preparing for that role in real games next season. He also talked about the influence his father, who spent nearly 30 years in various jobs around the NFL, has had on him. He found out that he was going to become the play caller by Dave Canales coming into his office and telling him while he was doing some self scouting. He wasn’t surprised because Canales has put so much emphasis on developing his staff and preparing them for their next steps, so he knew this was coming at some point.
Dan Morgan
In his press conference, Morgan talked about trying to attack the linebacker position in free agency and the draft. He was asked about NIL in college, and he says it’s actually beneficial from an evaluation standpoint because it gives them a chance to see how a young player handles having a lot of money. It’s hard to hear the questions, but I think he was asked about Bradley Chubb and said it was a situation they would evaluate. He was asked about some other positions but generally kept going back to the idea that he’s trying to improve the entire roster. He did say he believes in Chuba Hubbard as a lead back and that the team is excited about both Jonathon Brooks and Trevor Etienne. He was asked about Rico Dowdle, and while he said that the door is open for him to return, the way he answered the questions seemed to suggest it’s very unlikely that happens.
In his in-front-of-the-wall press conference, he was asked directly if he liked linebackers and edge rushers at 19, and he said there will probably be players he likes at both of those positions there. He said the team is definitely bringing in a quarterback to “compete” with Andy Dalton. He seemed to suggest that they’re going to let all of their pending free agents see what’s out there on the market, but they would like to bring plenty of them back if it works out. He was asked several questions about Dave Canales and the transition to Brad Idzik as play caller and repeatedly said that he lets Canales make the decisions about his coaching staff and stays away from putting too much input there.
Morgan also spoke with Anish Shroff. He talked about the importance of acquiring players that show leadership skills and love football. As for the combine, it matters, but you don’t want to overvalue it relative to the tape. When drafting, he and the team will always prioritize the best player available, but tie goes to positions of need. He was asked about off ball linebacker scheme fits, and he said he doesn’t think it particularly matters what system they played in college. Offensive line was always going to be a priority, with or without Ikem Ekwonu’s injury.
Brandt Tilis
Brandt talked to Anish Shroff about the Panthers roster and his moneyball approach. He said he had no real background playing sports at a high level, so reading Moneyball showed him that he could find a role in sports without being a good athlete. For the combine, he talked about the measurables having some role in the evaluation process, but it’s not going to completely override what shows up on tape. As for managing the cap, he said he is always looking a year or two ahead, so there’s no concern about what the cap looks like right now. He mentioned that the organization has not had extension talks with Bryce Young yet.
It’s interesting to hear Tilis talk. He’s clearly a very bright guy about football and math in general, not just the salary cap. The Panthers are going to want to keep him in the building as long as possible.