Bucs OC Dave Canales completes head coach interview with Panthers

Canales is one of a number of candidates the Panthers have interviewed over the last few weeks.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are getting ready to play the Detroit Lions in the Divisional Round of the NFC playoffs. And while offensive coordinator Dave Canales is preparing for that, he also had to prepare for something else.

The Carolina Panthers announced Thursday Night that a virtual interview had been completed with Canales for their head coach vacancy. His interview came after the team virtually interviewed Houston Texans offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik and Cincinnati Bengals coordinator Brian Callahan.

While Bucs fans may perhaps be wary that Canales’ preparation for this interview could distract him from the team’s game against Detroit, Canales has a different outlook — in fact, he told reporters Thursday that the best thing he could do to try and win the hearts of the Panthers is to continue to dominate offensively with the Bucs.

“I think, for me, the biggest thing is, your film is your resume,” Canales told reporters. “The biggest thing I can do for any opportunities is to really focus on having another week like last week, where we were in rhythm, the mix of the run and pass, [and] everything coming together. That was a full focus on the opponent.”

He certainly did well for himself in that regard during the Wild Card Round, putting up 30 points of offense against the Phildelphia Eagles. Should he do that against the Detroit Lions and make the NFC Championship to boot, Canales would do quite well for his head coach aspirations.

To even further quell doubts, Canales said that being a head coach is something he’s thought about for a long time — so much time, in fact, that he’s had quite a bit prepared in advance for this scenario since he was in Seattle with Pete Carroll.

“Again, this is something I’ve been thinking about for a long time, so I have some stuff prepared that I’ve had for a couple of years,” Canales said. “I’m really fortunate to have been with Pete [Carroll] for 14 years. His approach was always grooming us for what the next thing is to continue to expand our mind and be prepared.”

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