Dave Canales - Offensive Coordinator, panthers Event: Press Conference | Date: 2026-09-16 | Full transcript (primary source).
On September 16, 2026, Dave Canales, Offensive Coordinator for the Panthers, addressed the media during a press conference focused on the team's preparations for the upcoming game. The session followed a recent game and emphasized the importance of returning to fundamentals and evaluating player performance as the team looks to improve.
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Transcript
Canales: All right, work Wednesday, love Wednesday. You just get right back at it. Regardless of what happens the week before on Sunday, you go through your process, look at your evaluations, talk to the guys, you get into the game plan, and then once we hit that grass on Wednesdays, it just brings us back. It brings us back to right to the fundamentals, right to the basics, the things that we need to continue to improve on, and the things that are working for us that we need to make sure that we make a feature of what we're doing, so it was great to be back out there today.
Reporter: Jaylen told me on Monday that he felt like he's going to be fine this week, and after seeing him move around a little bit today, did you share that assessment?
Canales: Yeah, I'm confident we'll get him, we'll ramp him up a little bit. He was able to do a little something in team today, had an extended warmup on the side, got him going, he's been getting treated. We were able to get him out there for a couple of snaps just on some things that we're looking for, for him to be able to execute. The hope is to ramp that up a little bit more tomorrow, and then cut him loose Friday, so I expect him to play on Sunday.
Reporter: Dave, what was the thought process behind waving Jimmy Horn? I know you brought up Tyrell, but what was the thought process there, especially with Rich Herndon?
Canales: Yeah, the roster spot drove it, but certainly for Jimmy, and we had a great conversation. He and I, Dan, talked about it, and wanted to make sure that he understood, we see the progress that he's making, we see the strides, and right now with what the roster was doing, I didn't want him to go in the tank and be discouraged. We want him to come back. We want him to be here on a practice squad, because he brings a lot to what we can do, and this isn't the end of that story. This is just a part of it, and right now, we have to make the best decisions. I have to make those hard decisions, along with Dan, to make sure we get guys out there that we feel confident with. This is an opportunity for John Metche to step up in a row to see how he can help us, and then on top of that, just having the other roster issues with getting Tyler up.
Reporter: Tyrell? Sorry, philosophically, how difficult is it with today's era of roster building to have a designated returner, a guy who's proven with the depth in the league right now?
Canales: It's a valuable position, and it certainly is an opportunity to, there's all the hidden yardage that happens with the returner. When it's filled in cleanly, certainly, can't turn the ball over, but when it's filled in cleanly, when a guy can just transition quickly, those yards stack up. When there's hesitation, when things aren't hit the right way, it's eight yards, it's 10 yards, all of that matters. The hidden yardage in the return game is super valuable, and you can see why teams invest in having that returner that they can count on. Trevor's our guy. Unfortunately, he's not with us right now, but in the meantime, we have guys that we can count on that we'll be able to be good with.
Reporter: How do you approach an uncertainty, really, with the quarterback situation you all know? I mean, how do you approach it?
Canales: Yeah, we just have to look at the history of Kevin Stefanski's offenses and what he values and what he's trying to get done. The good part is no singular quarterback that they have is kind of a standout in terms of being a runner. You know, like where, when you have pocket passers and these are all quarterbacks that I think are good quarterbacks and certainly, you know, 2-0, we've seen Michael Penix play at his best, you know, and Cooper Rush, who's been around a long time. So these are guys that can really operate as a former quarterback's coach. I value what they can do. There isn't a dynamic of the zone read type of element, a guy that kind of creates that extra special element so we can really treat the system and the offense, you know, true to the integrity of what Coach Stefanski is trying to get done.
Reporter: Dave, Bryce statistically has had more success against Atlanta than any other team. Why do you think, especially in those last two trips to Atlanta, he's benefited from that match?
Canales: It would be all speculation. I don't have an answer for that. I'm glad that he's found, you know, success playing in that stadium, but, you know, hope it happens again. For Bryce, you know, to show up, but for me, it's just about consistency. You know, it's not about the team we're playing. I don't think there's any magical geographical thing behind this at all, but for Bryce, I just want to see him build off a last week. You know, he had a phenomenal game, in my opinion, but there are some things that he left out there that he knows he'd be up here telling you about the same plays, and I just want to see him take another step.
Reporter: Dave, back to John Metzger.
Canales: Yeah. I think he's only had an NFL, his info career, something like that. What makes you confident that you can step in and get the ball?
Canales: That's not his primary purpose for coming up. It's the stability at wide receiver. Jalen, we got to see how that, you know, pans out throughout the course of the week, but John will be ready to be able to take over similar different roles. You know, he took a lot of those reps for Jalen today, where Jalen wasn't able to go his normal load on this Wednesday. John gives us a guy that we trust, that Bryce knows, and has, and he also has returned for us. He's done a good job in the preseason. We wanted to give him those opportunities to see if he could help us in that way, and I feel confident he'll do a good job.
Reporter: You faced this defensive coordinator last year twice. What is it about his salad attack that sticks out to you? What do you have to do to be successful against him?
Canales: What I respect the most about Jeff Ulbrick is the way that he gets his team to play together, and the common denominator, as we've faced him, as we've watched their film, they play hard for this guy. They play hard for Jeff, and the guys sacrifice their bodies. They're flying around. The tempo coming off the ball. This is a penetrating front. The tackles are trying to get upfield. The ends are rushing off. There's some cool pressure packages that he's had, even going back to the Jets days, in some of the packages that he's developed, and so a guy that I really respect, a defense that I do respect, and knowing that they got some ball hawks back there in the secondary, so they're able to show some disguises and do some different things with Jesse Bates back there, and with Xavier being back there as well.
Reporter: Look like, at times, Bears were rolling coverage toward TMac. How has Jalen been able to take advantage of that, and do you think, as he continues to have more and more success, you'll see different coverage?
Canales: It's what you hope for, to have that balance, and your offense has to have a feature. There's no secret. Our offense in the past game runs through TMac, and we're trying to move him around and feature him in different ways, and when that happens, and when they're number one corner, or they have something deployed that way, they didn't do that a lot in the game. They had a few snaps where they tried to help out there, but it's the matchups. We have to be able to take advantage, and that's where Jalen's got to eat. Xavier's got to eat. Xavier's going to see some great matchups as we go throughout the season, and that's where he can really make hay and make a difference for his team.
Reporter: Thank you for asking me about that. Your first season, you guys finished on a pretty big high, and that overtime win. What do you remember about that game?
Canales: I remember Miles Sanders. I remember it was kind of up in the air whether he was going to play, and, you know, I wasn't going to force him to. I wasn't going to push him in that direction. It's like it was all up to Miles, and I give a credit to the guys in the locker room. They all talked together, and Miles wanted to get out there with his teammates one more time and in fitting fashion, you know, to be able to run the ball in and to see the guys just celebrate, and it was a special moment because that's what I picture. That's my dream for our locker room is that it's a group of guys that love playing for each other, and, sure, the coaches were involved, and we spend a lot of time together, but the connection and camaraderie, that was a big stride for us as a program to be able to put the game together and to see us play the way that I know we can play when we do things right, when we play with our style and the physicality and all those things, and so it was something good for us to just kind of put a pin in and say, guys, this is Panthers football. This is how we can finish. This is how we can do things, and that helped us along the way.
Reporter: David, Coach, Xavier was first round around, right? I mean, Jalen was undrafted. Why do you think Jalen has thrived here or his Xavier has kind of struggled, I think is a fair way to say. Why do you think that's happened? Anything you point to with what Jalen's done well and what Xavier has done well?
Canales: The NFL is no respecter of rounds, and Super Bowl 49, Seattle Seahawks, the entire wide receiver crew is undrafted. These are tough guys that cared. They were intentional about their work. They made plays when the plays were there to come to them, and it's as simple as that for X, for Jalen, for T-Mac, all these guys, for the tight ends. When the quarterback gives you an opportunity, make the play, he'll come back to you again, and it's that confidence. It's that chemistry with the quarterback and all those things that need to continue to build. And for XL, it's coming. I truly believe it, and I think I've said this a lot of times up here, but hard work works, and that's what I've seen out of him, is he just grinds. He had a fantastic practice today, and he's a part of our game plan. We're counting on XL, and so I can't wait to see him continue to take those strides.
Reporter: And then Jalen, what have you seen from him that he's started rolling probably?
Canales: Yeah, I mean, the minute we put him in and started playing with him, he was making plays and catches. I think it goes back to the Denver game in, was that 2024? 2024. Yeah, and to watch him make this amazing catch on the sideline, and he still didn't have a full grasp for what our system was and the adjustments and all that. All he knew was he had a one-on-one opportunity, the ball was in the air, go get it. And Jalen's got that type of gamesmanship. If you talk to him, he's the nicest kid in the world. When he gets between the lines, it's a different animal, and he's huge. You guys saw in the last touchdown of the game, it was just a six-yard out route. He gets the ball in his hands, feet in the ground, breaks a tackle, and walks it in, and that's the type of ruggedness he has and he brings to the team. And then that's why he's become a part of what we're trying to feature and what we're doing offensively.
Reporter: Thank you, Coach. I just have a last question on special teams.
Canales: Yep.
Reporter: Recall last week you reflected on your time playing special teams. Yep. You don't know how much you liked it. Number one, how do you assess your kickoff return and thumb return on how they did your squares? And number two, do you have a comment on that Tyler Owens and Commander's players play?
Canales: I didn't see that one, but I could talk about our return. I think, you know, as far as our coverage units and our return units, Tracey and I are so fired up about the group that we have here that we've collected of amazing players. You talk about Thomas N. Coomb, Felipe Franks. You know, Isaiah Simmons, our tight end room really, you know, Mitch, Tommy, all those guys kind of throwing there, you know, being able to help in different ways. And they've done a great job. This is, this goes into back into the preseason and now showing up into the games. We're blocking guys, we're staying on and staying connected. There's room in their space there. And that's why it's so important. We continue to challenge the returners to get what's blocked and go get more. We have options out there and I got to give a lot of credit to Tracey. I get a, I got to give a lot of credit to Darren Bates, you know, Dwayne Stukes helping out there and TJ Rushing who's, who was a returner in the league for a long time is on staff with us and he's helping with the returners. That's a group that I hope to see really big things from, but it's got to be collectively and the returners got to go get those yards out of there.
Reporter: What's that?
Canales: I had none that I can remember. It was just kind of, you know, I will say this just a quick side story. My last year at Azusa Pacific, I was the, I was the kick side, I was the kick side two. My little brother was a kick side one. He transferred back in from University of Pennsylvania. Probably the highlight of my sports career was being able to be on kickoff cover like crazy men, just like we were at the park when we were kids running down, trying to blow stuff up and, but it's always near and dear to my heart, you know, and Saturday night, you know, on our team meeting, the first thing we did was had the kickoff team stand up. And like, these are the guys that are going to represent our style of football first. And they certainly did all the way through the game, even late in the game, as things were getting out of hand, Felipe Franks runs down the field, avoids and just this beautiful, beautiful play. But that's the type of style of football that I love. And I can't think of a phase where it embodies everything that we stand for and everything we care about then kickoff.
Reporter: Last question, what's that?
Canales: My brother's name is Coba. He's the VP at Seattle Pacific University now.
Reporter: Last one from me.
Canales: Yeah. Yes. Absolutely. That's a great, I was hoping somebody would talk about Bijon, okay. Yes, we got to have radars up. We got to know where sevens at all times. This is a guy that can run slugos. He can run slant and go on the outside, the perimeter screens, the run game, the whole thing. He's got it all. We got to be cognizant of that. I'm sure the Falcons will continue to grow to learn how to use him directly and then also use him to open up other things. Those are things we have to be aware of. It is imperative that we team tackle, that we hustle, because the first guy has to be able to use his teammate to contain him. He will bounce it. He doesn't need very much space on the sideline and he'll try to pierce vertically if you're not squeezing. So it's a lot of discipline that comes with the tackling plan for Bijon. We're aware of that. We're on top of it. And that's a great challenge for us coming in this week.
Canales: Thank you.
