The Carolina Panthers are looking to build off the success the team had last season entering what will turn out to be a pivotal year for quarterback Bryce Young, who’s looking to earn his first long-term extension with the team.

Despite all of that pressure, the Panthers are making a big change on the offensive side of the ball in 2026 with head coach Dave Canales handing over the reigns of the offense to offensive coordinator Brad Idzik. A decision ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky was very vocal about earlier this week.

“I think if you’re hired because of your play-calling you should not give up play-calling,” Orlovsky said on the Pat McAfee Show. “I think Canales is good as a play-caller…I don’t like the fact that Coach Canales is giving up the play-calling… For me, I don’t understand how that happens. I know at some point everyone has to call their plays for the first time, I don’t know if it should be with a quarterback that’s having an enormous year on top of his shoulders.”

"I think if you're hired because of your play calling you should not give up play calling..

I think Dave Canales is a good play caller so I don't love that he's giving it up" ~ @danorlovsky7 #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/tv3YfhRJqb

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) May 28, 2026

Why Dave Canales is in the right handing over play-calling duties for the Carolina Panthers offense

This was a decision Canales made earlier in the offseason and during organized team activities this week, we got to see that big change in action with Idzik calling the plays while allowing Canales to observe and work with other various position groups.

“It just allows me to bounce around and see what’s happening at different positions,” Canales told reporters Tuesday. “…I was really looking forward to that. Just so that every area of our team knows I care about them, I care that we have a high standard for how we’re working. It makes to me so that no group feels that they’re not getting that attention. And I’ll be honest, whichever group I go around, there’s a little bit of an uptick in terms of the effort and what they’re doing.”

That’s exactly the kind of coaching presence this team needs to have from Canales going into his third season as head coach and something the team wasn’t able to have when Canales was tasked with running the offense.

And to Orlovsky’s point, Canales wasn’t hired because of his play-calling. He only had one year of being a play-caller prior to joining the Panthers. He was hired because of his leadership traits and his ability to set a culture within this organization.

That’s something Canales is finally taking ownership of now while also giving his coordinator an opportunity to grow in his role as well.

Brad Idzik isn’t some new offensive coordinator with the Carolina Panthers

Orlovsky also noted that Idzik is a “new offensive coordinator” and that should tell you how out of touch he is with this team. Idzik has been the offensive coordinator for each of the last two seasons under Canales. Prior to that, he was with Canales in Tampa Bay and Seattle. No one understands this offense better than Idzik, who also had play-calling experience during the preseason.

OTAs was a great sandbox for the team’s offensive coordinator to embrace his new role and Canales made sure to give Idzik proper experience while watching from the side.

“In two-minute is a great example where he’s driving the scenario that he wants to hit while he doesn’t have to focus on the next play-call,” Idzik explained. “Sometimes when you’re running situational drills, he might throw a little penalty in there or say ‘Hey, he didn’t catch that, let’s run that back’ just to throw a screwball at both the play-caller and the offense so they can react to scenarios. . .

That happened [Tuesday] and that’s great reps for me as a play-caller, but that’s also great reps for everybody to hit a hard reset and react to a situation. That’s real, live, football. For Dave to be able to take a step back and incorporate those things into practice – the uncontrolled variables – that’s made possible for him in this new context.”

Darrell Bevell’s presence adds another experienced voice to help Brad Idzik

Canales isn’t the only voice helping Idzik out as he takes over the offense. The team also added Darrell Bevell to the staff as the team’s new assistant head coach, who brings 15 years of experience to the staff either as a head coach or offensive coordinator.

“As Brad’s running the practice, we have Darrell back there kind of seeing the whole picture and just bringing up little things,” Canales said. “Things about alignment, things about splits, things about the timing of different concepts. Just bringing a lot of experience from a few different places and some wrinkles we’re able to factor into our system.”

For all of the concerns Orlovsky voiced on a national media outlet, his concerns are honestly nothing more than an overblown narrative. The early signs show this change being incredibly beneficial for the entire roster and coaching staff.