Panthers HC Dave Canales shares how a disrespectful sequence inspired his play-calling
· Yahoo Sports
Play-calling at the NFL level is probably one of the most misunderstood aspects of the game. It's simple for fans to recognize when everything is going wrong offensively, and it's also not hard to see when a gifted coach is fully in his bag—as Chicago's Ben Johnson and San Francisco's Kyle Shanahan so frequently are.
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Anything in between can be hard to discern, based on a countless number of factors that go into every single call. It's definitely easier said than done.
A new piece from Nick Kosmider and Joe Person at The Athletic goes into depth on the subject, and they include some helpful advice that Carolina Panthers head coach Dave Canales got from his former boss Todd Bowles. Bowles apparently told Canales to "let it rip," among other things during his time as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator.
Canales also shared this interesting anecdote about his preparation for a matchup against defensive coordinator Brian Flores, where he watched a five-year old tape where Flores called zero blitzes against quarterback Jared Goff for the entire game:
"He came across film of a game against the Los Angeles Rams in which Flores sent a zero blitz at quarterback Jared Goff on an incredible 23 of his 34 dropbacks."
Well, that's a fascinating exercise you normally don't see outside of an online Madden match. Canales seems to have had a lightbulb come on over his head watching the wild disrespect that Flores was handing out to Goff.
"So I have that in the back of my mind: What if he just keeps calling it?” Canales said. “What are you gonna do next? What are you gonna run next? (Do you) have enough people to block? How are we gonna take advantage of it down the field? Making sure we were prepared for all those scenarios."
Interesting stuff.
Even though Canales was clearly hired for his current position based on how well he called plays for the Buccaneers, he decided to hand those duties off to offensive coordinator Brad Idzik in 2026.
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This article originally appeared on Panthers Wire: Panthers HC Dave Canales shares how a disrespectful sequence inspired his play-calling