Despite a historically-bad campaign, the Carolina Panthers are planning on retaining defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero for next season. But why?
Head coach Dave Canales, who affirmed the decision with reporters on Monday, explained his outlook on Evero and the defense moving forward.
“Yeah, I’ve played against this defense,” Canales stated. “I’ve played against it in Seattle with the Rams for a bunch of years. I played against it twice last year. 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 we brought in. It’s about 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, who can help us to get this defense to the place that we know we can.”
Evero’s first year with the team, 2023, was a success. The Panthers allowed just 293.9 total yards per game—the fourth-fewest in the NFL that season.
His second year, however, has proved to be quite the difference. Not only did Carolina set a new NFL record for points allowed in a season (534), but they were also the only team to give up over 400 total yards per game (404.5) and they relinquished, by a 38.4-yard margin, the most rushing yards per game (179.8).
To be fair to Evero, the group did suffer from a handful of key injuries. The Panthers lost Pro Bowl defensive tackle Derrick Brown after Week 1, team captain and linebacker Shaq Thompson after Week 4 and Pro Bowl cornerback Jaycee Horn after Week 16.
But as Canales stated, there’s certainly some work to be done—from all angles of the unit.
