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Dave Canales is now the seventh full-time HC in Carolina Panthers history.
A new era of Carolina Panthers football is about to begin.
The team has officially hired Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Dave Canales as their head coach, ending the second such search in as many seasons. He is now the seventh full-time head coach in franchise history and the 10th overall to assume the position.
Here, with the new guy included, is every head coach that has led the sidelines for the Panthers:
Who replaced Bear Bryant, Don Shula and John Madden and how did they do?
During one of the craziest weeks of football in recent memory, we saw the end of an era for legends like Bill Belichick and Nick Saban.
Belichick, 71, and Saban, 72, are easily two of the greatest coaches that the sport has ever seen. Next season, college football will look very different without Saban coaching Alabama. Meanwhile, the NFL will also look very different without Belichick coaching the Patriots.
Both teams will have huge decisions about how to fill these massive shoes. While there are some interesting candidates for the gig in New England and the job in Tuscaloosa, can either live up to the reputation that Belichick and Saban built?
We looked back at some of the most legendary coaches in football history, both in the NFL and in college football, to learn how these replacements have typically fared.
The results are a fairly mixed bag but if there is one thing we learned, it is that it is not easy to replace someone as accomplished as either of these two Hall of Fame-caliber coaches.
Former 49ers and Panthers HC George Seifert was named one of 29 semifinalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024 in the Coach/Contributor category.
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As officially announced on Wednesday, the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Seniors and Coach/Contributor Committees returned their list of the 60 semifinalists for the class of 2024. Among them, courtesy of the latter group of 12 deciders, is former Carolina Panthers head coach George Seifert.
Seifert, of course, built much of his Canton-worthy reputation out west with the San Francisco 49ers. The San Fran native was a part of five Super Bowl championships for his hometown squad—with one coming as a defensive backs coach, two as a defensive coordinator and two as a head coach.
The first of those last two rings was captured in the 1989 campaign, after Seifert’s Niners stomped the Denver Broncos for a 55-10 win in Super Bowl XXIV. The second came in 1994—when they’d rout the San Diego Chargers, 49-26, in Super Bowl XXIX.
Five years later, Seifert became the second head coach in Panthers franchise history. Carolina went 16-32 over his three seasons at the helm.
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As Sean McVay and Zac Taylor look to win their first Super Bowl Sunday, we shall never forget Joe Gibbs won three Super Bowls with three different quarterbacks.
How is it that one coach stands out in contrast to all Super Bowl champion coaches?
Vince Lombardi won the first two Super Bowls with Bart Starr as the Green Bay Packers starting quarterback. Don Shula and Miami won two with Bob Griese. Tom Landry steered Dallas to two Super Bowl trophies with Roger Staubach at the helm. Chuck Noll and the Pittsburgh Steelers won four Super Bowls in the 1970s with Terry Bradshaw behind center.
Tom Flores and the Raiders won two with Jim Plunkett as the leader of the offense. Bill Walsh was the head coach with Joe Montana the field general for three Super Bowl crowns for the 49ers. The 49ers won two more with head coach George Seifert coaching and Montana and Steve Young as signal-callers.
Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer both coached the Cowboys to Super Bowl rings with Troy Aikman taking the snaps from center. Denver’s Mike Shanahan as head coach and John Elway in the pocket for the Broncos won it all twice.
Tom Coughlin’s NY Giants took the crown twice with Eli Manning the on-field general. Last but certainly not least, New England’s Bill Belichick won six rings with Tom Brady as the quarterback.
Seifert is the only one above to win a second Super Bowl with a second quarterback (Montana and Young).
There is also Marv Levy and the Bills who went to multiple Super Bowls with Jim Kelly under center — and lost. Likewise, Dan Reeves led Elway and the Broncos to three Super Bowl appearances — they also lost all three.
Yet, there is one other coach to win more than multiple Super Bowls with more than one quarterback, Joe Gibbs of the Washington Redskins. Gibbs not only won more than one Super Bowl with more than one quarterback, he accomplished the feat three times!
Gibbs led Washington to Super Bowl trophies with Joe Theismann, Doug Williams and Mark Rypien winning Super Bowls XVII, XXII and XXVI.
Starr, Griese, Staubach, Bradshaw, Montana, Young, Aikman and Elway are already in the Hall of Fame. Without question Brady will be in the HOF and Eli Manning a 2-time SB MVP is likely to be elected to the HOF. Only Jim Plunkett is likely to not make the HOF.
By contrast, Theismann was only an All-Pro once (1983), and Williams and Rypien were never All-Pro. Rypien had a great year only in 1991. Williams though never even a pro-bowler, was a veteran leader and had huge moments like the playoff win at Chicago (1987) and a nearly perfect 2nd quarter in Super Bowl XXII, earning the MVP.
Joe Gibbs is distinctive among Super Bowl coaches with multiple wins, doing so with three non-Hall of Fame quarterbacks. Hats off to Coach Joe, who is remarkably now age 81. The Washington franchise and fans were certainly blessed to have enjoyed Joe Jackson Gibbs as head coach.
Houston Texans coach Bill O’Brien is entering risky territory doubling up as general manager. Here are nine NFL coaches who did so and failed.
In an earlier entry, Texans Wire took a look at nine NFL coaches who doubled up as their teams’ general managers, like Bill O’Brien has done with the Houston Texans, and had success.
Now, here are nine NFL coaches who weren’t so fortunate.
Davis may have been what the Cleveland Browns needed after returning to the NFL in 1999. Chris Palmer mustered five wins over the first two seasons, and Davis was brought in from the University of Miami to get the Browns at least to where they were in 1994, their last playoff appearance. After going 16-16 the first two seasons, including the organization’s last playoff appearance to date, the Dog Pound got hit with distemper as Cleveland followed up with a 5-11 record. In 2004, Davis went 3-8 before being fired midseason and replaced by Terry Robiskie.
In hiring coach Matt Rhule, owner David Tepper shows this is his team now.
There no longer is any question about who is running the show for the Carolina Panthers. It’s become increasingly obvious that it’s owner David Tepper.
The latest – and, perhaps, strongest — evidence of that came Tuesday morning when the Panthers hired former Baylor coach Matt Rhule as the fifth coach in franchise history. This hiring has Tepper’s fingerprints all over it.
Like many things that have happened since Tepper bought the team from founder Jerry Richardson, this breaks from franchise history. Richardson had a pattern when it came to hiring head coaches. He went with rising NFL coordinators when he hired Dom Capers, John Fox and Ron Rivera. He broke from style a bit when he hired former 49ers coach George Seifert.
But you get the picture. Richardson always went with coaches with deep NFL experience. Rhule doesn’t have that. He has only one season of NFL coaching experience, coaching the offensive line for the New York Giants in 2012. But he impressed Tepper enough to get a seven-year contract that could be worth up to $70 million.
In breaking with franchise tradition, Tepper is going with the current curve in the NFL. This move shows he realizes the NFL is becoming more like the college game. Many teams on both levels are using the read-pass option offense. It’s also obvious Tepper wanted a coach with a reputation for building in a hurry.
Rhule has that reputation. Let’s take a look at Rhule, what he’s gotten himself into and what he needs to do to succeed in Carolina.
Rhule has a history of building teams and turning them around in a hurry. That’s one of the main reasons he got the job. At Baylor, the Bears went 1-11 in Rhule’s first season (2017), but went 11-3 in 2019. He previously coached at Temple, where he led the Owls to consecutive 10-win seasons for the first time in school history. Can he build as rapidly in the NFL as he did in college.
It’s going to be tough. The Panthers were 5-11 this season. The New Orleans Saints have dominated the NFC South recently. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers appear to be a team on the rise. The Atlanta Falcons have enough talent with quarterback Matt Ryan and receiver Julio Jones to bounce back from two disappointing seasons.
