Dave Canales - Offensive Coordinator, panthers Event: Press Conference | Date: 2026-08-09 | Full transcript (primary source).
On August 9, 2026, Dave Canales, the Offensive Coordinator for the Carolina Panthers, addressed the media during a press conference following a practice session. The focus of the conference was on the team's preparation for the upcoming preseason game and the physicality of their training, as well as updates on player injuries, including Kane's King's hamstring issue.
Transcript
Canales: Hey, welcome back. Great to get on the grass, padded up today, just trying to get the physicality. Talked about the line of scrimmage in the first preseason game. And I know our starters didn't play, but it's our group. We're all practicing together. So I just wanted to make sure we're emphasizing and reinforcing great habits. And when you play in pads, you have to play low. You have to get your butt down. You got to play with bent knees. And so just a great opportunity to do that. The guys did a great job capturing a couple days off. The effort was there, all that. A little bit of sloppiness. The starters haven't practiced since Tuesday. The guys who played, they're a little stoved up still. But it's a choice. And this is what Wednesday feels like in a season. So a great opt to just teach off of that. And they responded the right way and practiced with the right energy.
Reporter: Dave, what can you tell us about Kane's King in the hamstring flare-up?
Canales: Yeah, I mean, from what I understood, it was on that last play where he kind of like lunged and dove for the goal line and really gave everything he had, literally. And so got his hamstring there. And we'll just keep evaluating him on a weekly basis. I do not see him coming back for this game for sure. We'll re-evaluate him on the following week to see when we can get him back out there.
Reporter: Right after he scored, he got up. And in the scrum, it looked like his leg buckled. Did that contribute at all, do you know?
Canales: I don't know about that. I didn't see that. I would imagine if it was already hurt on the play. And then he's jumping around with his buddies. I mean, then his hamstring wouldn't be feeling great in that situation. But caught up in the moment. The guys are there to celebrate the whole team. And so he wanted to be a part of that, too.
Reporter: Speaking of free season. Did you plan on playing the starters?
Canales: Yes. Yes, we will play. We will play this week for sure. We'll take it week to week. We'll get them out there, probably play something similar to what Kenny and that group played in the Hall of Fame game. So it'll be somewhere between 10 and 20 plays, depending on how those drives pan out, so we can just get some good work in. And really, it goes back to the night before. Leading up to the game, knowing you're playing, regardless of how many snaps you're playing, it changes how you prep. It changes how you eat, how you wake up, what you do in the morning, when you get to the locker room, how you set your things up. And you go through your whole routine. It's just a great opportunity to put your mind in game mode. And so we've got to take advantage of some of those.
Reporter: Coach, can you talk about the third and fourth offensive line, the holes and the clean pockets that they were showing, and what better advantage Miles Davis did with the line?
Canales: Yeah, I'm proud of that group going in there, just a mixed group of guys being able to finish the game. If you can sustain a drive, the rush slows down. They get fatigued on the other side as well, so that really helps out and gave Haynes some time there. And then he was able to pick some up with his legs. Those guys got to redirect and chase that too. Then your rushes starts to get, you start to dig deeper and deeper into their rush package and all that. But it was great to see our guys sustain those drives. Great to see Miles make a couple of nice plays, showed some good hands on screens, had the really nice long run that we talked about. So I'm really excited to see where he goes from here.
Reporter: I know you've been bouncing around in the position room and in the office defense. What have you noticed from Devin Lloyd's temperament and involvement in the defense meeting rooms, but also the defensive huddle, and how has he impacted that group?
Canales: He's got a real great urgency and focus about him. He's one of the first guys out on the field, going through his routine, making sure all this technique is right, how he gets off of blocks, his footwork, all those things, meticulous about it. Always doing something with his body, whether it's recovery or whether it's a workout or getting different things in there. And so I just love the way that he brings that. And then his energy, like there's just, when he's in front of the huddle and he's talking and he's giving the calls in there, he calls it in such a way that makes you feel like this is really gonna work. There's a confidence there. So I just love having that presence in the middle of it.
Reporter: Is Derek, what was the sort of Derek on the sideline?
Canales: Yeah, so Derek's working back through. He's got some knee soreness. You know, we sat him out on Tuesday to see if we can get him to rebound. It's still pretty sore. So I don't wanna put him back out with the full group until he feels ready to go back in there. He had a great session on the grass today, ran around, did some stuff inside. So he's trending in the right direction with the guys. And then, you know, we'll just keep tabs on that for when we can roll them back into practice.
Reporter: Obviously, Steve Smith in the building today, any like, Doug, it's dropped or anything, any comments that have been to the receiving court or anything?
Canales: I'm just always picking Steve's brain about, you know, how do you make an NFL team and, you know, how to read punts? You know, we're just talking about that walking off the field and certainly just competing. You know, that's kind of his deal is just like the fiery competitor. That was every day. And from what I understood, I was never around him, but from what I understood, he got after it every day and because he understood, you know, if you can practice at full speed and if you can bring that intensity, then the games become easier and you're ready to go. So just kind of, some of those are our side conversations.
Reporter: Kath, with Bobby Brown, is that what you told us?
Canales: He's fine. Bobby's fine. It was a personal deal.
Reporter: And we didn't get a chance to ask you about what Ryan's been talking about.
Canales: Personal, also.
Reporter: Damien's been out for a couple of weeks now. Is calf injury exacerbated? Has the timeline changed at all?
Canales: No, he's doing a lot better in RTP. He's closer to getting out there. No setbacks. This is just kind of the, you know, we're just on pace with just evaluating him every day to see if we feel good about the load we're putting on him and all that before we put him back out there. He just, he plays so hard when he's out there. I want to make sure he's in the best shape possible, you know, in terms of his calf and all the other things too. So, soon.
Reporter: Does it get him ready for pre-season game?
Canales: Yes, I hope so. Yeah, I hope so. You know, I was hoping for this week, but again, we have to listen to the player, the body, test them, see where the fatigue is, and do all that stuff.
Reporter: Guard depth in general has been hit throughout this summer.
Canales: Yeah. It's all same act practicing in guard.
Reporter: How creative have you had to be during this entire process of the summer?
Canales: Just a couple of moves, but these are guys that we cross train and we've seen over the years how valuable that is when guys can play multiple positions. We brought Jake Kerhan back who's played tackle and guard. So, there's another guy who brings versatility. So, some of the moves. Nick playing a little bit of guard. He's done it. He hasn't done it since he's been with us, but, you know, you get into that Hall of Fame game and we only have a certain amount of guys. And so, he was ready to do that. We gave him some reps heading into that. JT Carter has done tackle and guard as well. That's been really helpful for us. We saw a glass, same thing. Started off with the tackles, moved them inside the guard once we started to lose some depth there. So, it's great for us as coaches to just gather information, great for the players to just get comfortable knowing, hey, we only get so many guys up on game day. You got to be able to play multiple positions.
Reporter: Coach, we saw Kyle working with Will Herringer and then Brad. How nice is it to have somebody who's already familiar with the system, your words, and how do you kind of see Kyle fitting in?
Canales: That's great. Yeah, I love Kyle. We had a great year in 2023 in Tampa was Baker, Kyle. We're competing for the job for most of camp. And people don't know how well Kyle did in that process to figure out who our starter was gonna be. And it was probably, I don't know, two and a half weeks into camp when Baker really started to make strides and find that chemistry with Mike and find that chemistry with Chris. But Kyle did a fantastic job. Our scheme is very similar to the ones we've added wrinkles over the last couple of years. But I would say 60 to 70% of the words that he heard in the last day, since he's been here, are familiar. And so he made some really nice throws today and some concepts he knew. And there were a couple other ones that he just, he needs to get a feel for. But I'm so glad to have Kyle here. We're gonna need him as we go through this preseason.
Reporter: You said week to week on Hanes. Would you guess he'd have a shot that maybe the last preseason getting in turn?
Canales: I don't know. I hope so. I hope so. Again, we're gonna keep retesting him, rehabbing him. And we're gonna really try to say, okay, is this the week? Okay, is this not the week? Okay, now is this the week? We're really gonna take that approach with him.
Reporter: Maybe we're gonna get on table one on Icky at all.
Canales: No, not really, yeah. Yeah, I can't, you know, I can't see this part of his recovery and the process of it can go a bunch of different directions. So I really just have to trust what Denny and the group are doing. But he's in great spirits. He feels stronger, he's doing more pushing sleds, that type of movement stuff. So that's a really promising thing.
Reporter: If you're looking at how important is it for the touches to be accessible for him? We talked about it last year, we've manufactured touches. Would that be return game possibly? Would it be something in the offense that looks a little different? And how's he doing again?
Canales: He's doing fantastic. Any opportunities we can to see what he can do with the ball, we'll look at. Right now, he's just done a great job of being one of the leaders in terms of just knowing what we're doing, how we practice, the effort that he does things, how he's prepared for meetings and all that. This is a guy going to a third season. We've all had a chance to really grow together. And I'm really proud of where he's at right now. The minor setback the other day with the stinger thing has seemed to be resolved. He had a great practice today. So I'm excited to see him out there in Buffalo.
Reporter: Brad seemed to be in his bag a little bit during the preseason game. How do you balance getting some of those plays in but also not showing too much because it is a preseason?
Canales: Yeah, what we do is we just organize the call sheet so that we're really not doing too many things that might be new wrinkles. There's a lot of film of us over the last two years. So nothing's really hidden in this league but at the same time, we have enough calls on that call sheet. Brad did a good job of bouncing in and out of some different schemes to take advantage of it. But I just love the balance of the run game and the play actions to be able to create some explosives. And then of course how we handled the two minutes situation and then end a game to put us in a position to put the players in a position to have success. And that's really all I can ask from Brad but the rhythm of it was great. The personnel's were in early. The calls were in early. Some of those were the things I challenged. I even had them make his headset go out on the second drive. Actually, no, that happened. So we got a live, that happened to me the first drive of 2024 against Tampa at home. First drive, the headset went out and we were just basically signaling plays in there for the first couple of plays in that drive. That can't happen. Brad handled it well. Just hollerin', yellin' at Kenny. Kenny came over. We had a stop clock. Kenny came over. He told him, here's the play. And then the next one, here's what you have at your disposal. And Kenny managed that really well and ended up getting a nice completion to get out of the backed up situation. So some good stuff showed up for us and I'm proud of how we handled it.
Reporter: He was very stoked after the game. Just what was that, everybody, what was that conversation like between you two?
Canales: Yeah, just a lot of gratitude and a lot of pride for me. Gratitude from Brad just to get the opportunity to do it. But he's earned that. It's come from trust and just a lot of pride for me for the conversations that we've had over the years. And especially the last three as we've really built this offense together. Brad and I in Goody and just continuing to add wrinkles. And so I just love the fact that he gets to do that. And we're always looking for the next growth moment, the next growth curve. And this is certainly that for Brad.
Reporter: He's called preseason games before. Yes. Like how much better wasn't this time? Just kind of knowing like this is gonna be his.
Canales: Yeah, just more and more comfortable because he kind of goes through the process of the week. Saturday night, he's the one with the group in the walkthrough. We woke up on game day, Thursday morning. He's operating the walkthrough and brings them up and has some final notes and final words. That was me before. So now this is his group. This is his group. They've put the work in together. I'm a part of it as well. But it's really, really just great to see that confidence and that leadership really start to emerge from Brad.
Reporter: Clarity on Turks.
Canales: None right now. Just again, same thing. You know, they're just continuing to monitor what he can and can't do. He's running his tail off right now. He's in great shape. But again, it comes back to like, when can we get him cleared for contact? And so we just have to go by what the doctors give us.
Reporter: Last one. In your time here, you've had a couple of former professors going to the Hall of Fame now. How helpful is that to be able to point to them for this team, especially if I let you around the building all the time?
Canales: Yeah, Julius Peppers, Luke Kuechle, Luke's around a lot more. Julius popped in and out a couple times. I had him just talk to, you know, when Julius came, I just had him say some words to the team. He talked about relationships. He talked about the same thing Luke said in his speech. It's the locker room. It's the travel. It's in the hotels. It was at Wofford, you know. Those types of moments are the things that you remember. And both guys just like, they played with everything they had. And to be great, it takes that kind of that standard, you know, and you can't really control the opportunities or your ability to be one of the, you know, leading players defensively making sacks in the NFL. You can't be Luke Kuechle. He was all over the place necessarily. But if you want to have a chance to do it, there's a way you have to work. So that's the standard that the guys can live up to and then let everything else handle itself.
Reporter: Thanks coach.
Canales: Thank you.