Quick Hits: Dave Canales' Pre-Draft Analysis

Panthers head coach Dave Canales met with the media ahead of next week’s draft.

One week from today, Dave Canales will enter his first NFL Draft as a head coach. He's learned a lot throughout the pre-draft process, including understanding how much film has to be consumed when you're overseeing the entire operation.

Thursday afternoon, Canales met with the media to discuss his thoughts on the roster as currently constructed and how it can be improved via the draft.

Austin Corbett playing center/thoughts on drafting a center

“My approach, our approach is really how can we challenge this roster every year? So if it’s free agency, if it’s through the draft, let’s attack all of our spots because we don’t want any of our players to just be complacent sitting there like hey, I got this, no big deal. That’s another position right there where I think it’s a great opportunity for Corbs. I think for him, the way that he’s wired, the person, it’s a great opportunity for him. And if somebody falls to us that can challenge that position and that spot, then we got to take a serious look at it and that goes across the board.”

If the team should focus on still adding to the skill groups on offense

“I feel great about playing football right now with the group we have. I know that there’s guys that are going to be able to help us that can really challenge our play, elevate our play. This makes us all better. You birng in fresh blood, a rookie, who’s excited to go at whatever position I think it turns on the whole room where everyone sits up a little straighter, you start to feel a little more agile and start to dial in your notes a little bit more. It’s part of the competitive nature of this thing and yes, I think we should still target playmakers at every position skill-wise on the offensive side.”

Getting the coaching staff/scouting department on the same page

“Dan had the great idea right off the bat when we came in to have the two staffs, once our staffs were set, let’s bring them in here and talk about our schemes to the personnel department. So we literally went big picture offensive philosophy. Ejiro (Evero) comes in and talks about big picture defensive philosophy. Each position coach talked about the traits that they’re looking for. Then we were able to kind of bring that picture to life from a coaching standpoint and that was before the scouts all started going out on the roads for pro days because that was a big part of it.”

How much of the pre-draft conversation is about putting more people around Bryce Young

“For me, it’s not about surrounding Bryce with great players. It’s about building a great team and Bryce can just do his part of it. That’s my goal. I want him to come in and feel like he just has to do his one-eleventh. If he can just do his part, you look at the great teams he was a part of at Alabama… he won a lot of games when he had a good offense and a good defense. He did his part and he played big in big moments and I would love to create that here. The pass game will be specific to Bryce. We’ll become that.”