OFFICIAL: Panthers Fill Special Teams Coordinator Position
Late Thursday evening, the Carolina Panthers announced the hire of Chris Tabor as special teams coordinator. He will be replacing Chase Blackburn who was one of four assistants that head coach Matt Rhule fired a few weeks ago.
Tabor comes to Carolina with a ton of NFL coaching experience having been in the league since 2008 where he was an assistant special teams coach with the Chicago Bears for two years. From 2011-17, Tabor was the special teams coordinator with the Cleveland Browns and then returned to Chicago for the same position which is where he has spent the past four seasons.
Special teams is one area where the Panthers need to improve in. Whether it be from a punt/field goal protection standpoint, coverage, or the return game, the Panthers struggled with consistency in each area. At the beginning of the season, Carolina had a rotating door at kicker going from Joey Slye to Ryan Santoso to Zane Gonzalez to Lirim Hajrullahu and had issues at punter seemingly all season long. Prior to getting injured in pregame warmups in Buffalo, Gonzalez seemed to have been the answer for the Panthers at kicker making 17 consecutive field goal attempts dating back to Week 5 against Philadelphia.
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