CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) – The next phase of Carolina Panthers offseason workouts started on Tuesday as they hit the filed for organized team activities (OTA).
It didn’t start in a great fashion as a five minute monsoon greeted the guys with the frame work of their new indoor practice facility behind them.
“I mean what a tease,” said Panthers head coach Dave Canales. “You got this beautiful structure going up right in our background and we get this heavy rain.”
But in typical coach fashion, they used this moment as a reflection on the possibility of facing these kind of adverse conditions on a game day. They had a rain game at home versus the L.A. Rams and no one will forget the monsoon in Tampa to wrap up the 2025 regular season.
That rain led to a sloppy start to practice, but it also brought out some leadership from quarterback Bryce Young. After a few dropped passes, Young got on his team mates and implored them to pick up their play. Something that put a smile on the face of coach Canales.
“Once the rain had passed, he was like ‘hey, let’s lock back in– we got to come up with these balls.’ He said it with a little more colorful language than that, but I love it. I love the fact that he is taking ownership and the guys see that and rally around that and something they all appreciate.”
Tuesday was the first practice where coach Canales wasn’t calling the offensive plays. After last season, he turned play calling duty over to offensive coordinator Brad Idzik.
Now, coach goes from group to group, helps out with the drills, and is getting a bigger picture of the entire team. But he admits, it’s still weird not calling offensive plays.
“Sometimes I’m not sure what to do with my hands and if I ever feel like that, I just b-line over to another group and try to add a little juice and a little bit of excitement to what they are doing. I like that role.”
Another benefit that coach sees in this new role is more effort from the players because the head coach is watching.
“Whichever group I go around, there’s a little bit of an uptick in terms of the effort and what they are doing. The guys are always competing. I just love being that presence and love supporting the coaches as they do their thing.”
Copyright 2026 WBTV. All rights reserved.