Panthers’ Jim Caldwell – Done in search of NFL head-coaching jobs

Carolina Panthers senior assistant Jim Caldwell, one of many faces of the NFL when it comes to Black head-coaching hires the previous few many years, mentioned he would not plan to pursue one other head-coaching job.

“Right now, the only job that I’m concerned about is the job I do here, right here and now,” the former Indianapolis Colts and Detroit Lions head coach said on Tuesday. “I’m not apprehensive concerning the future or the rest. I do not plan on being a head coach from this level ahead.”

Caldwell, 68, was fired as the top coach of the Lions after the 2017 season. He has interviewed for greater than half a dozen head-coaching jobs since, together with the Panthers’ and Denver Broncos’ openings this season.

Frank Reich employed Caldwell as a senior assistant to report back to him on all phases of the sport after getting the head-coaching job following Carolina’s search that included 9 candidates.

“When I didn’t get a head-coaching job, I immediately sort of changed the plan in terms of what I was looking for next,” Caldwell said. “I knew I used to be on the stage the place I wished to be again within the constructing someplace.

“And so, I did have some opportunities to kind of look at, and I was happy when Frank called.”

Of the five teams with head-coaching openings this offseason, only the Houston Texans hired a minority coach — DeMeco Ryans. Only the Texans, Miami Dolphins, New York Jets, Pittsburgh Steelers, Washington Commanders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers currently have minority head coaches among the 32 teams.

Caldwell said he will continue to strive to get more Black head coaches in the league. He just won’t be part of that group.

“When you have a look at the numbers, they converse for themselves,” he mentioned of the league’s observe document for hiring Black head coaches. “There’s been volumes and volumes of articles written and reporting on television about the lack of diversity in terms of the head-coaching position.

“But there’s been numerous issues within the background to attempt to enhance that.”

Caldwell applauded the trouble of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and govt vice chairman of soccer operations Troy Vincent for “trying to scratch and dig and find different ways to enhance” minority hirings.

Caldwell said he will remain part of the Quarterback Coaching Summit aimed at getting more offensive-minded Black coaches in the college ranks ready for the NFL and head-coaching positions.

Caldwell said that seems “to be the avenue to reaching a head-coaching place.”

One cause Reich, the unique quarterback of the Panthers in 1995, was employed by Carolina proprietor David Tepper was his expertise as a playcaller.

Reich confirmed on Tuesday that he plans to proceed calling performs for the Panthers with the objective to someday flip over that job to new offensive coordinator Thomas Brown, who’s Black.

Reich additionally employed a Black defensive coordinator in Ejiro Evero, who had the identical function with the Broncos final season.

Those are all steps that Caldwell says will assist pave the highway for Black coaches to grow to be head coaches sooner or later, however for him, his time as a head coach has handed.

“My focus is on doing the absolute best job for this organization at this particular point in time,” said Caldwell, who has called North Carolina home since 1993, when he was the head coach at Wake Forest in Winston-Salem. “Me, at my station in life, I wish to be pretty much as good as I presumably can at this.”

Caldwell is one in every of two former head coaches on Reich’s employees. The different is Dom Capers, the unique head coach of the Panthers, who’s a senior defensive advisor.

Reich has put collectively one of the veteran staffs within the league. With solely a decent ends coach but to rent, his employees has 191 years of NFL teaching expertise and one other 75 years as gamers.

That group has a mixed 10 Super Bowl rings, together with two received by Caldwell, in 2006 because the assistant head coach of the Colts and in 2012 because the offensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens.

Caldwell joked that he did not have to present reporters an analysis of the Carolina roster as a result of whenever you’re not the top coach, “there’s some questions I don’t have to answer.”

Reich also was vague on the roster, particularly at quarterback, the team’s biggest need. Asked if Carolina would pursue former Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Derek Carr, he said “that is an attention-grabbing query,” including it is too early within the course of to reply.

That Carolina at the moment is on the decrease finish of the NFL in wage cap area will affect that.

But Reich did thank Tepper for residing as much as his remark that there is not a wage cap on hiring coaches because it pertained to assembling a employees of veteran coaches like Caldwell.

“That doesn’t mean it was an open checkbook,” he said. “It simply means we have been prepared to do no matter we wanted to get the fitting coaches.”

Caldwell, who was on the Indianapolis employees when Reich first turned a coach there in 2006, is grateful for his new alternative.

“You have to have a level belief in that person,” Caldwell said of Reich. “You should have a reasonably good understanding of what his character is like as effectively. All these have been identified components with me and Frank.

“Plus, the function in itself. I actually like this function. It was tailored only for me. It was superb as a result of I can use all of the items God has given me on this function.”