New Carolina Panthers coach Dave Canales plans to tailor the NFL team’s offense to quarterback Bryce Young. And the first step in the process, as with any step, starts with the feet – in this case, Young’s.
“We’re going to become the concepts where Bryce looks most confident,” Canales said during an appearance on NFL Network while attending the NFL’s annual meeting in Orlando, Florida. “And how do you tell that? Look at the firmness of the back foot on the delivery. Whether it’s a plant throw or one-hitch, there’s just this really solid look and an aggression just exploding off that back foot.
“You see it all across the league. You see those anticipatory throws. Well, these are concepts that these guys love. We’ll start to hone in on some of those, but we’re going to have to throw a lot at him to kind of discover those.”
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The 2021 Heisman Trophy winner, Young joined the Panthers from Alabama as the first pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. In Young’s rookie season, Carolina had the fewest points and the fewest yards of any offense in the NFL on its way to a 2-15 record.
After 11 games, Young got a new coach when the Panthers fired Frank Reich. Special-teams coordinator Chris Tabor held the reins for the rest of the campaign.
In January, Carolina brought in Canales, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ offensive coordinator, as its coach for 2024.
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Canales has coached Russell Wilson, Geno Smith and Baker Mayfield during Pro Bowl seasons. He said Young would follow the preparation plan that buoyed the performances of those quarterbacks.
“We talked about the footwork part, right?” Canales said. “That’s every year, every quarterback, we go right back to the basics. We start with the stance under center. We balance the feet, get your left foot into the instep of the right. My chest is up, my eyes are up so I can see every part of the field. We take it from that basic starting point, regardless of how many years a quarterback’s been in there.
“Then we start to build the drop. Then we build the footwork. And then specifically what you’re seeing, we look at the concept and say: How can we make this footwork intelligent to this concept? Because if you watch, most quarterback footwork, they take about three steps from the gun. But there’s all kinds of three-step drops from the gun, and that’s the part where you start to grow. What kind of three-step drop? How many hitches? Is it one? Is it plant? Building his library with that type of inventory within the drops.
“And also, how much can we eliminate presnap so that he can play with an anticipation and say: OK, I can eliminate the first progression because this coverage or that, now I can start on two to get to three. Because you really don’t have a lot of time down in and down out to go one, two, three consistently. Sometimes you got to go: One’s not there; start with two to three, and then kind of on your way.”
The Panthers start their offseason program on April 8.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.