Dave Canales - Head Coach, panthers Event: Press Conference | Date: 2026-09-18 | Full transcript (primary source).
On September 18, 2026, Dave Canales addressed the media during a press conference for the Panthers, reflecting on the team's recent performance and the energy within the organization. He also took a moment to honor the late Kippy Brown, a former mentor and coach, before discussing player updates and the impact of injuries on the team's defense.
Transcript
Canales: All right, beautiful day feels like an extension of summer here. We've had some amazing work guys got after it this week and finished off with an awesome Friday. A lot of good energy in the building today. I wanted to just mention really quick Kippy Brown. He was a mentor of mine. Recently passed away a couple weeks ago the whole Brown family Jennifer Jerome Dion all of them, you know. Just coming together. They're celebrating his life this weekend around the Tennessee football game and he coached there for a number of years he was our wide receivers coach in Seattle a huge mentor of mine a great influence and just wanted to mention that because today was a lot of fun a lot of hard work. We try to find joy in what we do and but I remember about Kippy as he had a way of just bringing joy to the job. And the hardest days he'd say something light to kind of loosen up the staff a little bit. But just wanted to mention that and give a little appreciation for anybody who knew Kip or was connected to him.
Reporter: Dave, talking about this week. Pat Jones is questionable. Obviously what does he bring to this defense that perhaps y'all needed?
Canales: Well, what Pat brings uniquely is just his physical style of play. He's a big man, you know, and floats around 260 pounds 6 foot 5 and plays with violence with great effort and strain all those things. And so that's unique in its own way. That's his style of all our guys play their tails off as well, you know, but Pat certainly does make a difference when he's out there, you know, in the run game and he's versatile in terms of how he can rush sometimes inside sometimes on the edge. So it just has a lot of things that he brings to the group and you know, we're gonna kind of take this thing now day to day probably all the way up to game day to see if we can get him out there. But again, we're always gonna make decisions in the best what's best for the player.
Reporter: Reporting that Cooper Rush is gonna start. What did you see on him from that week one tape?
Canales: Well, not just week one, but his career, you know, if you just take the totality of his work, you know, this is an efficient quarterback a guy that I really respect his game and he's been in this role, you know, different times throughout his career where he's asked to step in and, you know, keep the ship moving and did that in Dallas for a while and so what I expect this guy is gonna be ready, you know, if it's him, you know, he'll be prepared. He's got a lot of weapons out there in terms of the skill position and you know, we got to be ready and available and prepared for that. Absolutely, you know, right in front of us and saw what he's capable of and that's that's right in our rearview mirror. So a guy we certainly respect and we understand that, you know, he can make this system go as we learn how they're trying to get the ball to the different skill players. And so again, I kind of mentioned this before but we were prepared for different types of guys. The style of it right-handed versus left-handed changes a little bit in terms of where the progression starts. But in general, you know, this isn't a an extreme departure from anything in terms of just if there was say like a mobile quarterback who might have more zone read or different actions that way where you have to prepare but they could certainly do Wildcat. They got Bijan. So we got to be ready for that as well.
Reporter: I mean is there for the quarterback situation? Is there even more now defensive onus to kind of hone in on seven there and just do what you can and contain them?
Canales: You certainly have to know where he's at. That's no different than how we would approach it any time we play the Falcons. You got to know where any team's great players are so we got to be aware of Bijan and where he's at.
Reporter: The inside outside aspect of Nick and Pat was pretty much a part of your plan all summer to have both those guys out. How much do you think that affected this past week? And how much do you think having somebody who can do both of those things helps you kind of plan and an attack?
Canales: I'll just talk about Travis Gibson, you know, he's got versatility as well. He's been able to help us and give us quality downs. He's played well all through camp preseason and in the game a guy that can kind of do it all. He can go inside and rush he can rush from the outside he can play on first and second down and he's certainly helpful on special teams and a guy that we were able to get last year and has become one of my favorite guys in terms of just the great energy he brings every day big smile connects with his teammates plays his butt off. So love that we have a guy that can step into those roles.
Reporter: How do you feel about John after a week of getting him ready for this punt returner job?
Canales: Yeah, you know, this is something that we're gonna ask him to do and he's taking to the opportunity. He loves this challenge of it. This move wasn't about punt return wanted to make that clear. This was about a guy that Bryce trusts a guy that's shown us versatility. Very important this week with the question marks on Jalen Coker early in the week as he progressed. He was a full participant today was able to do everything. But we had to have John ready to step into that role to give Bryce a guy that he can really count on.
Reporter: And he happens to be a returner that we're excited to see him have some opportunities.
Canales: Back on Cooper is now that soon to be official. Will you guys go back now and tweak anything game plan wise or how does this change maybe the next 48 hours?
Canales: It doesn't again kind of goes back to the way I answered it, you know, whether it's Cooper or whether it's Michael. Michael had when he was playing had a little bit more of the play action intermediate, you know, dagger concepts over the middle those types of things that he really did a good job with. I've seen Cooper throw those in Dallas and those types of things he can still do it. So small differences, you know, both players that I really respect the ability to move the chains and throw an accurate ball. So fortunately, if it is him we have game film as recent as you could get from last week of him playing with those guys.
Canales: It's hot for everyone. It's a dome for everyone. That's the way you have to approach it. We've had such good heat acclimation here, especially with the warm last couple of weeks we've had. Trusting that we're in condition to play we have a plan for reps and rotations, you know, whether it's inside or outside, you know, there are guys that we just have to make sure we get exposure. So we want them to be out on the field. There's guys that are out on the field that we want to make sure we gradually get them into a place where they can start to increase their load.
Canales: Yeah again, I don't know if it's any type of like Bermuda Triangle geographical thing what I've seen about Bryce is just a confidence in his play. The grasp of the system in the game plan the intent of the calls those types of things. I mean for me as being the play caller in those games, you know end of 2024 and then last year as well. Just I just remember how freely I could just call the whole it just felt the call sheet felt bigger than it actually was when Bryce is locked in like that and being aggressive and making smart decisions and all that and so and that's what he looked like last week. I just want him to continue to have that and then just take the next steps and the things that we've been talking about and improving on.
Reporter: Piggybacking on Cassidy's question EJ mentioned one of the issues with the run defense Sunday was conditioning. Was that typical week one stuff or was there any kind of level of concern for you there?
Canales: I had no concern about the level of conditioning. We've had these guys in a great spot to play. Time of possession is the thing so you could be a better conditioned team. But Chicago did a great job of extending drives finding those first downs making explosives, which keeps your defense out there. Our offense made some plays made yards scored some points. We also had some three and outs we had fourth down missed opportunities we had a turnover. We had a punt fumbled when you do that the defense has to go back out there. That's just human nature. We got to be able to withstand that we had some good responses to some of the adversity. But over time that's what we count on. That's why we believe in the run game if you stick with it and the keeper game and you make the defense move and run as the drive extends the defense the rush slows down a little bit more you start to get a little bit better movement at the line of scrimmage, that's what Chicago was able to accomplish last week. We were on the other side of the time of possession deal there. So I feel great about it. Josh Hinks done a fantastic job Denny Calinton the whole group just getting our guys game ready. Nobody had a longer camp than us in the Arizona Cardinals. We were ready. We just have to make sure we're more efficient get off the field. Offense extend drives so that we can flip that time of possession deal.
Reporter: You don't want to talk about the Bermuda Triangle, but from the standpoint of you've coached a lot of players individually like in baseball they say certain guys just there's places where they like to hit or is there a sense of like a level of comfort in like a surrounding though that you experience like Ross or even Gino like just you feel good in that surrounding like you you have like kind of the support system of the environment I guess so to speak?
Canales: Sometimes I think that is a natural deal and it comes from success, you know. And so when you go to a place and you've done well before there's a cool self-talk that happens says I did it before I'm gonna do it again and there's a confidence that comes with that for me it was Gardena high school and we played we played our Fox Sports games there. We played them again against each other sometimes at home sometimes at Gardena. But we ended up playing in that in that bowl probably two or three times a year because it could seat more people. And so the energy of it under the lights all that I loved it. I know that meant something to me. Maybe this means something to Bryce.
Reporter: Yes, you will. What does he bring to?
Canales: Yeah, yeah cam he's ginormous, you know. He's a pocket pusher in terms of pass rush and in the run game, you know, he's stout. He's hard to move and has great length, you know, he is our biggest human on the team. And you know, he's a guy that just continues to take the right steps being in this program being in that room, you know, with the likes of Derek Brown and watching how they work and all that and so I'm excited for cam to get an opportunity to show everybody what he's been working on.
Reporter: Last one Dave not sure if you saw the Jets employed Oh five personnel last week. Any inspiration that you could draw from that?
Canales: I did not personally see that. I will go look at it now though. You know for me it's like if you're gonna you know, if you're gonna go crazy like that, you know, you got to have guys that multiple skill set and I think that's kind of that's a cool part about coaching and one of our responsibilities to get the best 11 on the field and I remember Bev, you know just we had we used as much as many personnel as possible if the guys were up and they could bring something to it we tried to deploy that if a guy can throw try to give him an op to throw. You know if there's a receiver can carry the ball. You can do different things that way too. So pretty cool, though.
Canales: All right. Thank you.
