Tag: Jeff Nixon

Panthers RB coach Jeff Nixon to interview for Cowboys’ OC job

Per Joe Person of The Athletic, Panthers RB coach Jeff Nixon will be interviewing for the Cowboys’ OC vacancy on Wednesday.

The Carolina Panthers didn’t end up hiring former Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator Kellen Moore as their new head coach. But, in a bit of twist, they could have his replacement.

As reported by Joe Person of The Athletic on Tuesday morning, Panthers running backs coach Jeff Nixon is set to interview with the Cowboys for their offensive coordinator vacancy. Dallas will now be looking to fill that void left behind by the departure of Moore, who has quickly moved into the same role for the Los Angeles Chargers.

Before joining the Panthers staff in 2020, Nixon spent three years at Baylor University as their co-offensive coordinator and running backs coach. He was carried over to Carolina by former head coach Matt Rhule, who’d begin by putting him in charge of the team’s backfield.

The following season, Rhule and the Panthers dismissed offensive coordinator Joe Brady through 12 games—leaving the play-calling duties to Nixon for the final five outings of the 2021 campaign. He’d then play a role in an impressive 2022 for Carolina’s running backs—as the team, even after the trade of star Christian McCaffrey, finished 10th in rushing offense (130.0 yards per game).

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Panthers promote Al Holcomb, Jeff Nixon to assistant HC posts

The Panthers continued to fortify their staff on Wednesday, promoting both Al Holcomb and Jeff Nixon to assistant head coaching roles.

The Carolina Panthers had a bit of leakage on their coaching staff from the 2021 campaign. So now that everything is seemingly in its place, they decided to fortify the ship on Wednesday afternoon.

As first reported by Aaron Wilson of Pro Football Network, the team promoted Al Holcomb to assistant head coach of the defense. Holcomb has served as the run game coordinator for the past two seasons.

The 51-year-old is currently in his second stint for Carolina, with the first coming back during the Panthers’ most sustained run of success in franchise history. That happened when the Ron Rivera and Cam Newton-led squad ripped off three straight NFC South titles and a Super Bowl 50 appearance between 2013 and 2017, where Holcomb was the linebackers coach under defensive coordinators Sean McDermott and Steve Wilks.

Holcomb was joined in his promotion by Jeff Nixon—who, according to The Charlotte Observer‘s Jonathan M. Alexander, was bumped up to assistant head coach of the offense. Nixon, after being brought on as the running backs coach in 2020, took over as offensive coordinator this past season following the dismissal of Joe Brady.

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Panthers will reportedly start search for offensive coordinator next week

According to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, Matt Rhule and the Panthers will set out on their search for a new offensive coordinator very soon.

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While he has promised to build a winner, Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper is also man of tremendous pride. That is why, even amidst the most embarrassing season in franchise history, he’ll be sticking with his guy in Matt Rhule.

And that was just one of the nuggets in Saturday’s report from ESPN senior NFL reporter Jeremy Fowler. The other, in what could be perceived as a second chance of sorts for the struggling second-year head coach, notes that Rhule and the team’s brass will set out on a search for their new offensive coordinator starting next week.

Rhule has already swung and missed on his first choice of play-caller in Joe Brady, a hire in which he admitted (or alleged) was out of his “comfort zone.” The Panthers offense never found a comfort zone of their own either under the young coordinator—as the unit finished 21st in yards per game and 24th in points per game in 2020. They took a further step down through Brady’s 12 games in 2021, ranking 28th and 23rd in those categories, respectively.

Senior offensive assistant and running backs coach Jeff Nixon has taken over since, to even less success. Rhule’s longtime pal has paced Carolina, in his four performances, to just 12.8 points and 265 total yards per game.

Whoever Rhule’s next (and perhaps final) choice ultimately is, they’ll certainly have their work cut out for them. Godspeed to the individual who has to fix that quarterback situation and that group of gentlemen they’ve been trying to pass off as a professional offensive line.

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Panthers HC Matt Rhule: OC Jeff Nixon ‘did a nice job’ in Week 14 loss

Despite the end result, Panthers HC Matt Rhule was content with OC Jeff Nixon’s play-calling on Sunday.

The Carolina Panthers didn’t get what they were ultimately looking for in their Week 14 clash with the Atlanta Falcons. Head coach Matt Rhule, however, did get what he was looking for out of his new offensive coordinator.

Following his team’s 29-21 loss to their NFC South foes, Rhule told reporters that he was satisfied with the play-calling from Jeff Nixon. Nixon, who replaced the departed Joe Brady last week, called plays for the first time in his NFL career on Sunday.

“26 runs—which, when you’re behind, that would’ve been in the 30s had that not happened. We ran the quarterback. We’ve had more completions than we’ve had,” Rhule said.

Between quarterbacks Cam Newton and P.J. Walker, Carolina completed 21 of their 35 passing attempts for 243 yards. Newton, additionally, went for a team-high 47 rushing yards on 10 takes, with the Panthers totaling 91 yards on those 26 runs.

But Rhule, as adamant as he’s been about establishing the run, also said the change at offensive coordinator was about improving the aerial attack.

“I think a lot of people think some of the decisions I’ve made was because of the run game,” Rhule went on. “It’s really, we haven’t thrown the ball very well in previous games. This game I thought, at times, we threw the ball better.”

Sunday, despite the pair of ill-advised interceptions from both Newton and Walker, marked the first time Carolina totaled at least 200 passing yards since Week 4 against the Dallas Cowboys. So, yes, technically they did throw the ball better in this one.

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4 takeaways from the Panthers’ 29-21 loss to Falcons

If the Jacksonville Jaguars never hired Urban Meyer, the Carolina Panthers may be the NFL’s hottest mess of 2021. 

With their messy 29-21 loss to the Atlanta Falcons in Week 14, the Carolina Panthers have now gone five straight games at home without a win.

Speaking of homes, actually, will this latest showing cause head coach Matt Rhule to start looking for a new one pretty soon? Let’s tackle that, and three other takeaways, as we run down yet another embarrassing result.

 

Carolina Panthers vs. Atlanta Falcons game recap: Everything we know

A bye week apparently didn’t do much to fix the current mess that is the 2021 Carolina Panthers.

The Carolina Panthers had a chance entering Week 14. Albeit a slight one, this 5-7 crew could’ve started their steep climb to a potential playoff start with a win Sunday over the Atlanta Falcons.

Well, it seems as though they didn’t bring their hiking gear.

Panthers score TD on OC Jeff Nixon’s first drive

The Panthers began the (Jeff) Nixon administration on a strong note in Week 14.

At 5-7 and losing their playoffs lives at an alarming rate, the Carolina Panthers needed a change and they needed one quickly. And even though the dismissal of Joe Brady may or may not have been the prudent call, something did—in fact—happen quickly in the offense’s first drive without him.

On the opening possession of the Week 14 contest against the Atlanta Falcons, and the first under new offensive coordinator Jeff Nixon, the Panthers trekked into the end zone for a nine-play, 65-yard drive. The smooth trip was capped off by a 12-yard touchdown run by quarterback Cam Newton to give Carolina an early 7-0 lead.

Newton’s rushing score was already his fourth (through three games and a not even a quarter) of the 2021 season. He also went three-for-three on his passes for 33 yards on the drive.

Those three passes were a complement to the six runs called by the offense. That ratio, obviously, will be something to keep an eye on as head coach Matt Rhule looks to keep establishing the run.

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Panthers OC Jeff Nixon: ‘This isn’t Jeff Nixon’s offense’

New Panthers OC Jeff Nixon isn’t looking to reinvent the wheel in Carolina just yet.

Carolina Panthers receiver Robby Anderson summed up the switch at offensive coordinator yesterday—with or without Joe Brady, the offense is still the offense. And the guy who’s now heading that offense agrees.

On Thursday, Jeff Nixon took the podium for the first time as the team’s new play-caller. He asserted that, even with a change at the headsets, the attack and focus as a whole for the unit will not.

“This is not, all of a sudden, Jeff Nixon’s offense. This is the Carolina Panthers’ offense,” he said. “We have such a great offensive coaching staff, who obviously did a great job for Joe and now, obviously, doing a great job for myself and Coach [Matt] Rhule. So that takes a little bit of the pressure off me.”

Before taking on his latest role, Nixon has served as the Panthers’ senior offensive assistant and running backs coach for the last two seasons. Prior to his jump to the pros, he also called plays as Baylor University’s co-offensive coordinator under Rhule from 2017 to 2019.

Clearly, the two go back, way back when VHS tapes were a thing. So they, and the rest of the staff, will still be on the same page to close this campaign out.

“We have a lot of offense in our system,” Nixon said when asked if he’d be adding to the approach. “At this point, like I said, we’re just building on what we’ve done well this season and trying to correct the things we haven’t done so well. I think it’s impossible to put in a whole new offensive system in two to three days.”

If things go well, perhaps Nixon and Rhule can put together another highlight tape of this final stretch here in 2021.

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Report: Panthers making 2 more changes to Matt Rhule’s staff

Matt Rhule’s new coaching staff for the Panthers is nearly complete but he’s still making tweaks.

Matt Rhule’s new coaching staff for the Panthers is nearly complete but he’s still making tweaks. A couple changes have been reported in the last hour.

According to Ian Rapoport at NFL Network, the team is moving running backs coach Jake Peetz over to the quarterbacks coach position.

The team had interviewed three former NFL head coaches for this spot, so it’s interesting that they went with Peetz. He has previously served as the quarterbacks coach for the Raiders and also worked as a QB analyst for Nick Saban at Alabama a couple of times.

In related news, Pete Thamel at Yahoo Sports reports the Panthers are hiring Jeff Nixon.

Nixon’s role has not yet been confirmed, but he has extensive experience working with running backs, so we can reasonably assume he’s taking over for Peetz.

As Thamel mentions, he brings plenty of pro experience to the table. Nixon’s first coaching job in the NFL was as an offensive/special teams assistant for the Eagles. From there, he moved on to be the running backs coach for the Dolphins five years. His most recent gig at this level was the tight ends coach for the 49ers in 2016.

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