Carolina Panthers
Lea & Fernandez react to Canales being introduced by the Carolina Panthers
Chris Lea and Louis Fernandez react
All right, Lewis for the second time in a year. The Carolina Panthers have a brand new head coach almost to the day, almost to the day. And this time it is Dave Canalis. He's the new head coach of the Carolina Panthers. We were here for the introductory press conference, him and also the new general manager and Dan Morgan. Uh, first off as you're here, you were here with me. What are your initial, I guess reactions to what you saw in the press conference with both guys? Well, we said it on the drive. I pretty sure that, uh, Dave Canal is gonna win the press conference. He's just a charismatic guy. That's what these press conferences are all about. Getting a chance to showcase your person, showcase your personality, put your message, put your culture out there. So, um, you get that, you get a lot of energy, uh, 42 years young, he's, uh, one of the younger coaches in the NFL and one year of, uh, experience. I mean, a play caller in the NFL as an offensive coordinator. Um, so you pick up on that youth, you pick up on that energy that exuberance. Um Now the question is how does that translate to what they do as a team? The Caroline Panthers there? He's definitely a lot different than Frank Reich, who is a little bit more laid back, a little bit more subdued, sometimes, felt sleepy at times when, when you think about that and maybe what that could do for a football team. What are your thoughts on that? I mean, some of it's just about, you know, leadership being a leader of men and all that kind of stuff. And I, I think especially when you're talking with, um you know, younger players and things like that, you, you need a little bit more of that energy. He, he's definitely got that for sure. Um uh When I looked at what he does in general, right, as an offensive coordinator, only one year as a play caller. So the sample size is pretty small, but we saw a lot of explosive plays, maybe going on with that his personality a little bit. Um And, and what, what you saw was a lot of passes deep down field, they were second in the NFL in yards and uh passes that were thrown 20 or more yards down scrimmage completed. That is Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. So, um and they work a lot with really good wide receivers, uh you know, Mike Evans, uh Chris Godwin in Tampa Bay and then you go back to his days in Seattle even most recently Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf. Um So I, I think hopefully what I think Panthers fans are hoping to see is a transition to, uh a lot more exciting explosive offense. Some of that's gonna have to deal with who was brought in as players and that's gonna be on new general manager Dan Morgan who of course, has been a part of the team for the last three years. One of the things I thought was very interesting, he looked at some of the former players, Jonathan Stewart, Mike Tolbert, uh Thomas Davis Muhsin Muhammad among some others and said we need to get back to that while also having current players over to his right saying, hey, we need fire, we need passion, we need guys to step up to the level. We need to make sure that when people roll up to 800 South Mint Street and they see this logo here that they fear the logo, this logo isn't feared anymore. What were your takeaways on, on that? And did you feel like he was kind of calling out the current players in a way? I think it's more of trying to establish that culture right? Immediately you come off and you know what you're expecting when you look at the history of the Carolina Panthers, right? You think of a lot of that kind of hard nosed, tough defenses, whether it be uh you know, on the run to the Super Bowl with Jake Glom and all them or whether it be, you know, most recently with Ron Vera Cam Newton, you know, Thomas Davis Luke Kuechly, all of them in the, the 2015 Super Bowl run. So, you know, I, I think that there's a lot that the, the Panthers need to do. And one of the big things whenever you bring in a new coaching staff is establishing that culture, getting a belief building that from the inside out. One of the words that we heard, uh, throughout this press conference was alignment. And that's one thing that the Carolina Panthers didn't seem like they had before. We heard reports of coaches going behind each other's back. Uh, we heard that there were some fractures within that and then some folks who probably just didn't get along with David Tepper himself. Uh, when you look at the situation where they got the GM beforehand, then got the head coach because that didn't happen for Scott Fitterer. He never got a chance to pick Matt rule and it wasn't his choice for Frank Reich. That was David Tepper's choice. Dan Morgan worked with Dave Canalis in, in Seattle. They've known each other and they legit looked like they were good friends. They looked like they enjoyed being around each other. How much do you think that that's gonna work towards their advantage? Just one already, having some chemistry and having actual alignment between head coach and GM? What you want to be on the same page, right. That's, that's so key. One thing that, you know, um, that Dave Canalis said from the very beginning is we want to take advantage of what players like quarterback Bryce Young do well and build around them and make sure everyone can succeed from that way. Um, you know, he said back in their Seattle days, um, you know, him and, and Dan Morgan were a couple of doors down from each other. Um, even themselves, one thing they brought up in the press conference was a lot of times with the most successful NFL franchises, you almost have this working relationship, this dynamic between the general manager and the head coach. So, you know, it's at this point it's all sounds great. It's all kind of, you know, pie in the sky. Wow, fantastic. You have to wait to see what actually happens on the field. Uh And that's, that's gonna be key for, for Canalis and Morgan and all that just make it, make it be successful and get more than two wins. I think that's where the bar needs to reset, work from there. If you triple your wins from last year, you get six, I think pans or fans would definitely take that. Uh, it's just math, uh, at the end of the day and you're absolutely right at the end of the day, it's, you know, everybody's gonna be right now, but what happens on the field in the stadium that's behind us. Once the play starts in September, we'll see. But as for right now, Dave Canalis, new head coach of the Carolina Panthers. Dan Morgan, new general manager of the Carolina Panthers, things looking up. We'll see how they look during the season.