Dave Canales on refocusing ahead of Week 11 against Falcons | Carolina Panthers

Dave Canales on refocusing ahead of Week 11 against Falcons | Carolina Panthers

All right. Uh, great day. Great to get back on the grass. Um, it’s always what brings us back. It’s the work. It’s the focus required as we got another opponent, division opponent, uh, going down to Atlanta this weekend. And, um, excited about just getting this thing back on track in terms of our execution, our fundamentals, some of the things that we talked about coming out of the game. Is Derek’s knee his surgically repaired knee? It’s on that side, not related. Um, this is just something that came up and we decided to just limit him a little bit today. Um, just to try to get him back on track. He’ll be ready to practice tomorrow. Are any of those injuries IR worthy? They are not. So, no. No, you’re good. Yeah. So, with those short-term injury outlooks, it’s a pretty decent amount of names. How do you kind of factor in the plan this early in the week when you do have just generally that many? Yeah. We just have to consider all of our options and uh look at who can help us, you know, get some get some guys up in those positions if they’re not able to make it. Um I think outside of uh let’s see uh Trevan Trevan will be week to week really right now and uh you know this the shoulders aggravated. He’s been dealing with some things as as you’ve all seen um in games. Wasn’t able to finish the game and um just you know we put all of our all of our uh brains together and you really saw an opportunity to just try to get him on top of this get out in front of it get him back to you know his full confidence and strength and mobility and all that. So um that’s uh that’s Trevan. Uh, Lean injured his hand in the game. Um, had a little bit of a a surgical procedure to clean some stuff out and that just happened yesterday. So, today was, you know, we couldn’t put him out there in a practice in any way, shape, or form. We’ll track him dayto day. See if we can get him out there in some capacity tomorrow. Um, and then not sure what his uh status will be like for the game. Um, it it all depends on how this thing heals up and and calms down. So, Trevan will not play on Sunday. Yes, he will not. Trevan will be out this week. Rico, Rico. Rico’s just dealing with the quad, so we just decided to give him the day off and uh, you know, treat it and uh, just take him off his feet today a little bit. The plan is to get him back out there tomorrow. We’ll evaluate him in the morning, but the plan is to get him out there uh, to practice, to take some reps, and uh, and get himself going. And the hand procedure, do you have any details about what that was? I don’t really want to go into specifics, but he just had to had to have uh, basically generally he had a wound cleaned out. And so, um, you know, anytime you have some type of a surgical procedure, it’s just we got to be careful about it getting banged around, especially when it’s fresh, you know, but, um, I’ve seen these things turn around quickly, but we have to be smart. We have to take it dayto day. With Rico and the quad, it seems like that’s something that popped up in the Green Bay game and you guys have a monitor last week. Knowing that he’s had those physical kind of situations here and you cramped up earlier, does that lead you to kind of think that maybe getting a little bit more rotation in there may make sense even though you’ve kind of rode him the last couple weeks? could be. Um, you know, my thought is to just continue to try to play him the way we’ve been. Um, but Chuba got in there, you know, when he had to come out a little bit in the game and ran hard. Um, had some really nice runs. So, again, it’s a good situation for us, a great opportunity for us to have both guys that I really trust to be able to do that. You think kind of, you know, gained his footing again just over the last couple of games, kind of showing his burst? He certainly is looking stronger and stronger, you know, and this is attributed to his hard work and the way that he attacks, taking care of his body and um getting himself back, you know, to to where he wants to be. So, um really just like, you know, tip my cap to Chuba for the way he’s attacked it and that’s that’s the way he attacks everything and uh you know, he’ll have his opportunities in there and I expect him to, you know, continue to contribute. Out or with Trevan out, what kind of opportunity does that open up behind him and what do you see from those guys there? Yeah, I can talk about Claude Cherless. got in at the end of the game um and uh he really, you know, did some good stuff. Played some physical ball, knocking things back, made an really nice tackle inside the 5yd line. Um they were moving the ball, you know, pretty good in that drive, but uh he certainly flashed and he’s been doing an excellent job on special teams. So, this creates an opportunity for Claude um and the whole group, you know, and they all have to be ready to go. Um it’s what we ask our guys, prepare like you’re about to go in and and have that mentality, and Pete Hansen’s done a great job of preparing these guys that way. You’ve obviously been in the league for a while, but the veteran on the practice squad status thing is only a couple of years old. How has that kind of helped the outlook with injuries and planning and knowing that you have somebody like Chris Barnes for instance on practice squad that you can go to? Yeah, it’s been very valuable, you know, over the course of the last year and a half. Um, to have guys that are here in the building getting the training, um, and have playing experience, you know, which is so valuable to have a guy that a guy like Chris Barnes who has called defenses, you know, he’s been the the mic, the green dot, you know, in different places. And, um, you know, that always gives us a lot of comfort. And it’s also just that room as they have conversations, they’re watching film, uh, the more heads you have to more eyes you have on things, you know, it just really strengthens the group. based on or speaking of green dot, will Christian get it again? Now, we’re we’re working through that. Uh Nick Scordon, what have you seen from him in recent weeks? And then also, you know, he kind of spoke up a couple days ago and talked about the practice from last week, something you also addressed, but is is that unusual to see that kind of uh I don’t know, leadership, I guess, from a rookie like Scorton? you we really we really want the guys to earn respect and the way you earn respect in this league is by how you play, how you prepare and the hard work that you put in. I believe Nick has done those things um early on, you know, in his career here is to show consistency in how he practices, how he prepares and watches film. Um he’s taken coaching. Um AC Carter’s done a great job with Nick just bringing him along. He seems to add things every week and play with technique and um a lot of stuff he can clean up, you know, from the game. Certainly, you know, that’s every week. Um, but just like his mentality. I like the way that he’s just attacks it and, you know, the juice that he brings on game day, chasing things down. So, I’m really proud of the way he’s played, you know, and just about the comments and all that stuff. I think it’s a it’s an opportunity. It’s a learning opportunity to say, okay, you know, for us, for our guys, like, you know, speak for your own performance. um if you want to make a general comment, you know, about hey, when we lose, we’re upset, we’re disappointed, you know, but the specific part of it like that, we can do a better job of just keeping those things with within us, you know, and the stuff that we talk about after the game on Monday and all those things. Your team respond, you mentioned a practice or more last week not being up to standard. How did they respond today? It was an excellent response. You know, really really all day in the building. You know, there’s a there’s a sense of focus and and this appreciation that we have to approach every single game the same way. This is a championship opportunity. It’s not a lie. It’s not selling something. It’s true. All these games, especially when you play your division, your division opponents, you know, these are so important opportunities for us as we continue to set up our season going into it. You know, you hate to look back and say, “Wow, we missed an opportunity because we didn’t play our best.” And it always comes down to the same things. It’s about fundamental execution. It’s about making our blocks, making our tackles, you know, having great technique, um, and doing the right thing play in and play out. You know, it’s it’s gonna always come back to that. And, uh, the group certainly understands that. We have a process that we believe in, and the goal is to get back on that. And today was a good step in that direction. JC JC was pretty hard on himself Sunday. Like, how have you seen him respond? And how crucial is that to have your leaders hold themselves accountable? Yeah, accountability is important for all of us. It starts with me and and whenever we come out into a game and it feels like we’re off as a group, I have to look at the way that I set up the week, the way that we approach the guys and my messaging, I have to evaluate that part, talk to the different coaches that we have on staff and bounce ideas and say, “How can we get these guys more prepared? Let’s talk about when this happens.” When you come off of a of a win going to Lambo like that, the refocus and the the reset to continue to work and capture that part. Those are all important. And certainly JC certainly the different guys on our teams you know taking accountability for the part that they contributed that’s talking about their specific performance you know and um and I love guys taking that and and JC also has to understand too this is a group effort you know this is all of us um who didn’t play up to our standard that day bouncing back from bad losses what what is it about that sort of opportunity to refocus and is there anything about maybe going on the road this weekend and sort of refocusing and sort of getting together in that regard. Yeah, this game is humbling because every single week you play a group of professionals regardless of what the record says. These are pros and there’s phenomenal players in every group and if you don’t play to your best, if you don’t execute and we don’t play complimentary football together, you can lose every week and you can also win by playing a certain way and by taking care of the details and the critical parts of our game. So, um, it’s a reminder, you know, and it’s a wakeup call and for a team, you know, now with me, at least for a year and a half, like we have to make sure that we lean on our processes. We lean on the things that count on that we count on to get our bodies right, to get our minds right so we can be confident and we can play fast on Sundays. Yep. How’s the player side of Dan Morgan um help you through some of these moments with the up and downs and what you guys are going through and trying to Dan is an incredible resource uh especially because he’s been a captain, he’s been a leader, he’s been in the middle of this and so there’s an expectation that he had for his teammates. And so when he sees things, when he reflects on and I go and we sit down and talk, you know, I can always kind of pick that part of his brain to say, “What does this feel like to you?” um being on the really good teams that you’ve been on, you know, over the course of the of of your career or dealing with injuries, dealing with off-field issues, all that. He’s lived a lot of these things. And so, he’s an amazing resource that way. Um and you know, and has a really positive approach about it, too, about finding solutions to things um versus trying to find excuses for why things happen. He’s always good about finding solutions. Okay, so how do we go about this? Um how do we attack this uh this issue? We’ll do a couple more. It was an excellent response. go really uh T-Mac has pretty uh wildly like wide variance in his first and second half splits. Um what are you noticing from him in the second half and the way coverages are attacking him maybe differently than early on the games? Um to make it more general, I think this is specifically talking to our pass game as a whole. Um and we’re all a part of that, you know, from the coaching staff to the players, um to the protection unit and all that. And this is something that we’re continuing to attack that we’re working through uh to try to make this part of our game come alive. You know, we’ve had flashes of it and we can see we can see the flashes that our guys our different players bring, you know, and um we have to be consistent with it and we have and it’s our job as a coaching staff to make sure that we do the right things to put guys in position to be successful and not make it so easy for a defense, you know, to hone in on where T-MAC is in formation and what is he running out of these. We got to protect the angles of the cut, you know, and um and we got to move move guys around and and make sure that the other guys come alive. I’d love to see Jaylen and Xavier come alive in their ways in the tight end group, which I have a lot of respect for. All these guys can be really useful. We just have to put it all together and find our rhythm. This is a Falcons defense that’s really gotten after the quarterback. Like, what jumps out when you watch them on tape and how do you negate that? Yeah, it’s effort and depth. They have a really good group of rushers, whether it’s inside or outside. And then, you know, and then Alice comes in there in a mug type of situation and he’s got an excellent way of being a part of the stunts and adding himself into a fiveman rush. And they use their DBs also, you know, with different blitzes. And I think Jeff Olrich has done a really great job of having variety in how they attack the pass game uh from a rush standpoint. Um, but at the end of the day, they got some talented guys and they got some young speed on the edges and they got Leonard Floyd, too. And on any given play, he looks as good as he ever did. So, uh, this is a group I really respect. We’re aware of that. You know, we have to be mindful of of the different ways they’re going to try to create that rush. Um, and bottom line is it starts with effort and this is a group that really plays hard. They’ve looked like that since the beginning of the season. Jimmy Horn um because you’re getting more yards than you had in the game. There been any considerations for him on special teams more than he’s practicing. Yeah, he’s practicing getting ready for the return game and all those things. Back will he’s step back in at right guard. We’re working through that right now. Um, we have some good options. Uh, both guys that I really trust and, uh, you know, this is, you know, for me it’s like another opportunity for competition. I think it brings out the best in the guys. Um, so we’re working through that. Yep. All right. Thank you. [Music]

Canales spoke on the team using preparation for a divisional opponent as an opportunity to grow and have fundamental execution.

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