Dave Canales talks opportunity to play NFC opponent in primetime | Carolina Panthers

Dave Canales talks opportunity to play NFC opponent in primetime | Carolina Panthers

a beautiful day. Uh just just great to get back on the grass. Uh almost felt like a by-week having a bonus day, you know, at this point. We’ve been going week to week, you know, for a while here. And um I can just feel there’s a little bit more in the tank uh with the guys and um we’re happy to be back out on the on the grass and uh focusing on this opponent. I understand that we’re going to get the injury report later, but we didn’t see Christian Roseboom or Trevon Wallace participate. You brought in Jacobe Winman. What is the linebacker position looking like as you guys start prepping for San Francisco? Yeah, we’re we have to evaluate uh first and foremost, we have to evaluate uh Trevan, see where he’s at for this week. So, again, told you he was week to week on that. Um and we’ll have more information on that, but uh brought Kobe in here, a guy that’s familiar with what we do um from a special team standpoint and linebacker standpoint. Love what Claude did in the game. Um Chris Barnes, another guy that’s been around that’s ready to go. And um uh Muma Jong Meta, he got into the game a little bit at the end as well. So, we have a couple of guys, couple options there. The picture will be get a little bit clearer once we know what’s going on with Trevan. Great. First time out with an ankle that he injured on Sunday. Yeah, he was a full participant in in practice today. He was able to move around and uh you know, execute what we needed him to do today. Are you preparing to go without Rose? We are. We are right now. But again, you know, we’re we’re putting him through the tests. Um you know, making sure to see where he’s at and his availability availability for the game. We’d hate to put him out there for a limited amount. you know, knowing how he plays, the style, the aggression, physical nature that he plays with, we want to make sure that he’s healthy first and foremost. Just for clarity, you’re not ruling Trevan out this early. Not yet. Yeah. Uh Dave, facing someone like Christian McCaffrey would pose uh would pose problems for any linebacking core. How does that how does the injuries that you have in that position affect your defensive scheme, your defensive game plan? Yeah, we have to be aware of the way that they use him in the pass game and the run game. Um all those different things. is a versatile player, a guy that I really respect, you know, for a long time now. And the stories I’ve heard from being here around, you know, the guys around the players, uh, the staff that have been around him in terms of his preparation, the way that he takes care of his body, um, how intent in intentional he is with his, uh, with the game plans and executing, you know, his fundamentals, stuff that I really respect about him. And of course, the product is great, you know, and and, uh, he’s able to make plays in different ways. We have to be aware of that part and make sure it’s not just about the linebackers, right? It’s the whole thing tied in. um in the run game and the pass game. Dave, this is a a pass defense that’s had trouble getting a pass rush going with the injuries to Bosa and and Mel Williams and others. Um how do you think you might be able to take advantage of that? I know they didn’t get to Jacobe at all last Sunday. Yeah, this looks like a a Robert solid defense and um it’s it’s hinged upon great fundamentals counting on each other and rallying to the ball and that shows up in every area. Even in the third and long situations where you feel like you can get a completion and get some run after catch, they rally to the ball. They play a physical style of football and um and there’s they have good scheme. They have great things that they’re doing. Um you know, I got finished, you know, last night looking at some of their, you know, third downs and some of the pressure packages they have. They have a way to create pressure. Um, we can’t forget Bryce Huff is over there and, you know, on any given play, you know, he’s he’s electric and he’s got great pass rush tools. Um, but this is a group that’s playing well together and, you know, they haven’t produced the numbers maybe um to get pressure on the quarterback, but the whole thing’s tied together and whether it’s the linebackers and the and the secondary playing concepts well. That’s what I see right now on film. Dave, are you balancing with the young guys, hey, go out, enjoy Monday Night Football, enjoy this opportunity that we have, the position that that we’re in with maintaining focus and and one game at a time, championship mindset. And what a great opportunity for us to play an excellent opponent, a team that I really respect um from a players and coaching standpoint on Monday Night Football. There’ll be a bunch of cameras out there. Um a lot more action that way. you know, you get to be the the show of the week. And um that’s something that prepares us to to uh handle these types of situations, you know, with class and with the right intentionality and focus. And that’s why we try to preach every game as a championship opportunity so that you don’t all of a sudden have to get up for Monday Night Football. But it’ll be special. It’ll be great. I encourage our guys to take in the moments, take in the opportunities, look around, hear the sounds, feel it, feel all of it, and still get back to our execution and be able to have a great focused week. Um, so there’s a lot of excitement, but at the same time, you know, we have to treat this as as another game. Playoff implications, all those things right right in front of us. Um, with the Niners continuing to to battle, to find ways to win. Um, and this is a great opportunity for us. Dave, for you as a human being, do you get bored on Monday waiting to kick off until 8, whatever it is? No. Uh, there’s lots to do and, you know, there’s there’s obviously always checking in with your players to see where we’re at. Um, you know, the the game does take a long time to get there and it’s not like normal on Sundays where you you can sit there and watch games um until it comes, but you know, it allows you to get a good night’s rest. Um, we’ll have some version of a walkthrough and and some brief meetings in the morning to just make sure that our brains are locked back in. Um, but everything is about that game, you know, and just getting yourself prepared from physical standpoint and a mental standpoint so we can go and perform well. Piggy backing off of kind of piggybacking off of that, when you guys are so regimented and you’re used to having the same routine this whole time, how do you try to balance that or keep it the routine similar for these guys even though you’re playing every night? Yeah, we took our bonus Monday and then basically just started off, you know, our week a day later so that we could just be in the rhythms and the flows of what we’re doing. And that’s what it felt like today. You know, I know it’s Thursday for the rest of the world, but in our minds it’s Wednesday, you know, it’s our work Wednesday and went through our meetings and our preparation the same way. So that helps to just kind of get back in that rhythm, you know, and then of course following the Monday night game, then you have a different set of opportunities to look at a shorter week and how do we condense our game plan and try to make it feel as normal as possible for the preparation. David, with you guys being in the playoff conversation and Bryce having another aggravation of his ankle, do you guys have to consider putting Mike White up on the 53 just so you have that emergency option as you go down, you know, what this is the final stretch of the season? It’s an option. Um, right now that’s not the plan for this week, but it is an option. I’m glad he’s here. Uh, continue to hear our words, prepare with the guys, have the conversations, be a part of the protection meetings, all those things. Um, so that if we need him, we can call on him. you talked about him, but um do you have to defend him differently than you might other running backs because of his versatility? You do have to respect the the variety of routes that he can run from the backfield and split out. Uh he’s got a pretty developed route tree out there. From a run game standpoint, it’s going to require just good team fits, um good team football and rally into tackle. We know that he can make moves and and make miss at times. So, we respect all those things, but again, it’s going to come down to our fundamental execution and and just being aware of the different route tree that they can present when he’s, you know, out wider or when they scout him out. I asked JC Horn about this, but what benefit or advantage did it give you guys seeing Bejian Robinson just last week, Alvin Chimera the week before that just kind of prepare you for those pass catching running backs out of the back field? Absolutely. And that and that goes back to the conversation where every game truly is an opportunity for us to play at our best and it prepares us. it continues to get our minds right for different styles of attack. You know, we haven’t even talked about George KD. You know, this is a fantastic player. We’ve we’ve played a lot of really special tight ends, you know, throughout. I think about Arizona early on. Um, you know, I think about uh Atlanta with Pitts, you know, and the different things that he can do. And so, it allows us to just be aware of how teams try to utilize these tight ends in different ways in play pass, in regular dropback situations. And, um, you know, we certainly have to make sure we we give those guys the right attention they deserve. you brought up studying tendencies last week and and something you do every week. How do you kind of balance that with maybe like they can alternate what they do because hey, we know this is a weakness or hey, we’ve seen this as a trend like if you’re attacking a certain area and they, you know, flip the switch and you have to kind of improvise. How how how much do you have to weigh that going into um we do we do think about that and and some of that happens in between series as we look at our pictures are still shots of how they’re trying to deploy their defense. What I’ve seen from a Robert Solid defense is they’re going to call their calls and they’re going to play it with discipline and and they keep a simple mentality. A lot of it’s disguise. Um but they end up in the right spots. And when you when you can really narrow your focus and you look at all the concepts, you’re able to play them well because you have fewer calls and guys are in position to play them. And that’s what I expect. I expect them to fit the run game the way they’re coached to be and be in their spots and their spot drops, you know, and they’ll mix some men in there as well. They got some nice coverage players out there. Um, but we try not to tweak too much. You know, that’s why we develop concepts that allow you to progress, allow you to get to other things if the defense tries to attack you in a different way. We’ll do a couple more. Alex Kim’s crew will officiate the game on Monday. How much stock do you guys place into kind of looking at the officiating crews and some of their tendencies, some of their calls and things like that? Yeah, we’re aware of that. Coach George Lee does a great job on Saturdays talking about uh each officiating crew and what they call, what they don’t call, and it gives our players an expectation for um what to be looking for and what to be aware of. You know, keeping your hands clean. some groups they say, “Hey, they’re going to let the defensive backs play, you know, as far as being aggressive and all that.” So, the guys don’t be, you know, looking around fishing for calls if this is a crew that allows that, you know, and um they all have a little bit of diff of of a different bent crew by crew. And then on top of that, there’s always the weekly emphasis of things that are happening around the league that the league wants the officiating crews to address. We make our teams aware of that as well. Hey, they’re really looking at the offensive tackles, making sure their helmet doesn’t break, doesn’t create any space, but from the belt line of the center. You know, there’s different things that come up that we make our players aware of so that we can, you know, execute and uh and try to stay away from hurting ourselves with some of those penalties. Last one. Last one from Joe. Whoever had one can go. Okay. With the win against Atlanta, um, and then being in the playoff hunt, this team is getting more national attention than I’ve seen in recent years. Do you pay attention to that kind of stuff or do you remain relatively isolated from the from the outside noise? Well, it it doesn’t help us. Um it’s unavoidable and that’s something that we talk to our group about and trying to maintain focus as this happens and we have so many amazing opportunities just the way that our schedule played out. um being on the road early, seeing a lot of AFC teams early, you know, there there were some opportunities there missed, there were some opportunities made preparing us for this stretch, but now we’re sitting here looking at a bunch of NFC opponents, four out of the five that are in front of us, you know, in the playoff picture. And um so that there’s a real focus and opportunity for the group to say, “Let’s go one game at a time. We’re playing the Niners this week. We’ll worry about the next one when we get to the next one.” But big picture-wise, understanding our work is is right in front of us. Can we execute? Can we maintain our focus and not be distracted by the rest of it? Because what is it? What’s it going to come down to? Fundamental execution. It’s going to come down to blocking, tackling, throwing, and catching, and making our plays when they come to us. And that’s never going to change. Um the there’s going to be more cameras. It’s going to be a the field’s going to be the same size. Um it’s another opponent, you know, and we have to make sure that we stay on that track so that we’re disciplined about our approach and we don’t let up on any of that bes besides everything else that might be coming from us. Yep. Thank you. [Music] [Music]

Canales spoke on facing familiar faces in the league – Robert Saleh and Christian McCaffrey – as the team prepares to play the San Francisco 49ers.

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