Perhaps out of left field, the Panthers have their new head coach in Dave Canales, who was the offensive coordinator in Tampa Bay last year after 13 years as an offensive assistant/position coach in Seattle.
An interesting hire as he was seemingly not on the radar of hot candidates around the league and has just one year of experience at the coordinator level…but is he there by default?
“We talk about ownership in the NFL, and that's really where it starts and ends. If you got a great owner, you got stability there, someone who is all about the team and putting all the effort and money and everything that a team needs and support, then you're probably gonna have sustained success,” Gio said.
And then, there’s Carolina.
“You got guys like David Tepper who have to hire people that were on nobody's radar because he's a maniac that has fired multiple coaches and had to pay multiple coaches to not coach,” Gio said. “He fired Matt Rhule before the season was over, he fired Frank Reich eight games in this season in his first year, and now he’s throwing drinks on opposing fans’ heads at games…and hires Dave Canales? No disrespect to Dave Canales, maybe he turns into the next Sean McVay, but there wasn't a single person on Earth that had this guy linked to a job before this hiring cycle.”
Not true, says the actual NFL insider on the morning show.
“Last week, Mike Valenti asked me during our Kickoff Show to give him coaches and where I think they may land, and Dave Canales was on that list,” Boomer said. “I said that since Tennessee did not go with Bobby Slowik, I figured Canales or Bobby Slowik would be the type of guy that would take a job like Carolina.”
According to Booms, it’s a ‘prove yourself’ environment, with a somewhat blank slate.
“In other words, they're taking a guy that is an assistant coach, who nobody ever thought that he would be a head coach, and good for him, he got the job,” Boomer said. “It’s one of 32, but it was going to be a guy like this that is going to be accepting of Dan Morgan, who is their new general manager and has been in that building for years – and they may have a relationship somewhere along the line – but all I can tell you is that he's one of these young and up-and-coming coaches. This is one of those guys that if he does hit, and he makes it, he's gonna have a long-term future. He’s going to want to cut his teeth and make his name here and, and try to get this thing turned around.”
Yeah, Gio’s not feeling it.
“Listen, I know that he has a nice resume, and working with Baker Mayfield and he's done a good job with these quarterbacks, but when you say that someone like that is going to be who David Tepper is gonna hire, when I hear that, it's like someone like that, that no one else would have hired,” Gio said. “The only way Dave Canales is getting a job is with the Carolina Panthers, because no one else wants it!”
“Somebody like that would have to take the job, so it's much easier to hire an assistant coach who has never been a head coach before and bring them into your building, and then have him conform to what your building is,” Boomer said, “as opposed to hiring a head coach who's already had a job, and now he comes in and he wants to change the building.”
Let’s just hope, as Boomer thinks, that Canales doesn’t end up as the second straight Panthers coach to be fired before his first season ends…