Panthers fans are on the brink of watching biggest offseason frustration flip on its head and it would put Dave Canales in a tough spot
Ejiro Evero’s position with the Carolina Panthers isn’t as safe as many thought and it’s outside the team’s control.
The Carolina Panthers made a controversial announcement earlier this week when head coach Dave Canales confirmed that defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero would return in 2026 and had more security with the team than many anticipated.
“We aligned [Evero] and Dave up before the season and, you know, we think highly of EJ,” Panthers general manager Dan Morgan said. “EJ has a really great football mind. We love this defense. It’s a really aggressive defense, and I think as we continue to add players to the defense, I think that you’ll see this defense kind of come together.”
Evero, to his credit, led a much improved unit during the 2025-26 season compared to the horrible season the unit had before, but some areas still weren’t up to par by any means. Yet, the team isn’t putting any of that on the leader of the defense.
“He’s really good at developing players. It’s my job as well to equip him with the right personnel, and again, it’s a patience thing to where we’re going to attack those needs, and we’re going to get better across the board,” Morgan added. “I think as you see us keep adding talent onto our roster, players on our roster developing, I think you’ll see that defense keep ascending.”
From the fans perspective, many weren’t happy with that decision to retain Evero and seemed to sour on the defensive coordinator with the way things ended in the wild card loss to the Los Angeles Rams. For those specific fans, good new might be on the horizon. And it’d be bad news for the Panthers.
Ejiro Evero advances to the second round of head coaching search, with interest from other teams as well
On Saturday, it was reported that Evero is moving into the second round of the Las Vegas Raiders head coaching search and will meet in-person with the team’s brain trust, which likely will include Tom Brady and John Spytek, in South Florida next week.
The Raiders aren’t the only team interested in stealing Evero away from Carolina. The Atlanta Falcons and Pittsburgh Steelers also requested interviews with Evero for their head coach vacancies. Atlanta seems to be close to hiring another candidate within the next few days, but the Steelers lurk as a potential team that could view Evero as a dark-horse candidate.
Evero has a lot of respect in league circles after helping lead the Los Angeles Rams defense to a Super Bowl LVI championship and running a top-ranked defense with the Denver Broncos. It’s not a shock to see teams interested in bringing him in, despite the recent performances his unit has had the last two seasons with the Panthers.
The NFL coaching carousel is starting to spin faster and we’ll start seeing some seats filled sooner than later. It is a possibility that Evero finds his way into one of those empty chairs.
Dave Canales would be behind the 8 ball if he loses Ejiro Evero to a HC opening
Now, nothing isn’t determined yet, but losing Evero certainly would put Canales and the Panthers in a tough spot and left scrambling to find a new defensive coordinator.
Saying Evero lands one of the vacant head coach openings around the league, the Panthers would likely have to explore an outside candidate to take over that role and run the defense. There’s plenty of suitable candidates such as former Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris that would make sense for the Panthers.
There’s still a lot of moving parts to this whole process but it’s best to plan for any and every outcome to avoid falling behind if something definitive ends up happening.
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