Andy Dalton has always been stoic, but he seemed enthused about the progress the Carolina Panthers are making this offseason saying the Panthers are “in a really good place right now.”
Andy Dalton On Coach Canales
While Dalton hasn’t spent too much time with head coach Dave Canales, he has enjoyed that time, saying “It’s been fun for me to get to be around him. Kinda knowing what he’s done, his time in Seattle and obviously last year in Tampa.” Dalton, on his fifth team, knows what it’s like to be a new face in the huddle, but has noticed Canales’ eagerness to make a lasting impression saying, “I just think from the beginning, Dave has come in and he’s tried to build relationships with everybody as quick as he can,” Dalton said.
Video of Canales greeting the players by name shows his intentionality of creating a new culture in the Panthers locker room and as Andy Dalton said, it’s all about the relationship. “It’s all about building that personal relationship, and he’s been trying to do that in a lot different ways with a lot of different guys. Obviously, when you’re new and there’s a lot of new faces, it takes a lot. But you can tell how important it is to him.”
Andy Dalton on the Offense
New coaches always bring with them new ideas, new playbooks, and new schemes to the drawing board, and in Dave Canales’ case, he’ll also be bringing a new identity; on offense at least. Dalton said, “It’ll be a different style than last year,” but first they want to “build an identity of who [they] are,” and then they can go from there “installing the offense,” but the real magic comes during training camp, that is when Dalton says they will learn who they are.
When pressed on specifics, Dalton continued saying, “I will say this and this has nothing to do with last year this is everything to do with what we’re doing right now Dave and Brad (Idzik- offensive coordinator) came in and they know exactly what they want, they know what they want it to look like, they know how they want to install it, and they have had a plan from the very beginning and it’s been known.”
Ready to hit the ground running, neither Canales nor Idzik wasted much time in sharing their vision for the new Panthers offense as Dalton recalled, “One of the first conversations that I’ve had with both those guys was this is how we’re going to do it, this is how we’re going to install it, and it’s going to build throughout OTAs then into training camp.”
Andy Dalton Managing Expectations
While Andy Dalton acknowledges the Panthers have “a lot of really good pieces in place right now,” he also understands that there is “definitely a ton of room for improvement from what [they] did last year.” Every Panthers fan and player would love to forget about last season, but it’s important to not forget the painful sting that the 2023 NFL season brought the Panthers.
While the memories are still stinging, Dalton said “last year was last year and we’re moving on.” He really likes the “approach that Dave has brought here,” and Dalton believes that the success of the season begins with “the work that [we’re] putting in right now that is going into effect once training camp starts.”
Andy Dalton also said for Bryce, experience is the best medicine, as he looks to shake an awful rookie season. “The best thing that you can do is have the experience of being out there and Bryce got that last year and this year we’re still unknown we don’t know what’s going to happen but it’s set up for Bryce to take a big jump.”
