Was Kaelin Clay’s TD the culmination of something special for Panthers’ special teams?

Panthers speedster Kaelin Clay may have received the game ball after his punt return for a touchdown last weekend, but the hands of a dozen or so teammates and several coaches were all over it.

Clay’s 60-yard gem in the win against the Jets broke a three-year drought between punt return scores and felt like the culmination of an emotional transition for the Panthers’ special teams.

It’s been nearly a year since the death of former assistant Bruce DeHaven, the successful and well-liked special teams coach who lost his battle to prostate cancer last December.

Thomas McGaughey, who took over for DeHaven last summer, says it took most of the 2016 season for players to settle into his system. But Clay’s big play and the success of kicker Graham Gano, punter Michael Palardy and the punt coverage team are signs that things are now clicking.

“Bruce was a great guy and we miss him everyday,” special teams captain Ben Jacobs said. “I think T-Mac’s done a great job of stepping in and demanding the best out of all of us, no matter who’s in there.”

The Panthers’ special team core includes a mix of young players, veterans such as tight end Ed Dickson, safety Colin Jones and running back Fozzy Whittaker and pretty much every linebacker other than Pro Bowlers Luke Kuechly and Thomas Davis.

McGaughey and Panthers coach Ron Rivera said the glue that holds the group together is Jacobs, a reserve linebacker who gained ‘Creedbombing’ fame in 2015 (Google it).

Jacobs, in his fourth year with the Panthers, breaks the image of the reckless, special teams kamikaze who’s willing to throw his body into a three-man wedge block.

Not that Jacobs is unwilling to do that, but McGaughey says there’s also a cerebral aspect to his game.

“His notes are immaculate. When you look at his notebook, it is like a coach’s notebook. And he studies it like a coach,” McGaughey said. “Sometimes he’s here when I’m walking out the door.”

But Jacobs is quick to deflect praise on other special teams regulars like linebackers Jared Norris, David Mayo and Shaq Thompson, and Whittaker, who both returns and covers kicks.

“I might be the guy that says, ‘Hey, quiet down, meeting’s starting.’ … But it takes a lot of guys, not just one,” Jacobs said.

“All of us in that special teams room are just guys that, we know our role and we’re going to play it. You ask us to do something and we’re going to do it. And that’s true for everyone.”

McGaughey went so far as to suggest the special teams core guys might even volunteer their services, something their agents might protest.

“These guys love football. These are the types of guys that would do it for free,” he said. “They enjoy being out there on the field with each other. They enjoy being in the meeting room. They enjoy practicing. They enjoy being around each other.”

McGaughey and assistant Chase Blackburn, who played special teams for the Giants and Panthers, changed the way they taught a couple of techniques this past summer and also gave players more of a voice.

Whittaker says the special teams room is now more of an “open space to talk,” especially when discussing scouting reports.

While Jacobs and Co. provide the brawn (and brains), McGaughey’s said the special team’s success starts with Gano, who’s having a career year, and Palardy, the left-footer who’s helped the Panthers to a top-five ranking in punt coverage.

“If you can’t get direction and hang (time) and all that stuff, you’re not going to have a chance,” McGaughey said.

McGaughey said he also likes the welcoming tone set by veterans Gano and long snapper J.J. Jansen, who is in his ninth season in Carolina.

“We’ve had a bunch of specialists through here the last year and a half. And you think everybody’s family when you walk in,” McGaughey said. “You’re not going to upset the apple cart with those guys. Those guys are who they are.”

Mayo, who started at middle linebacker against Chicago when Kuechly was in the concussion protocol, leads the team with six special teams tackles. He’s followed by Russell Shepard and Jones with four apiece, while Jacobs is among those with three special teams stops.

After Clay’s touchdown last week, Rivera said he was happy for all the special teams contributors because the Panthers had been close to breaking a long return on punts (with Clay and Christian McCaffrey) and kickoff (Whittaker and the injured Curtis Samuel).

“It’s kind of what we’ve been preaching on all year. Making sure we do the little things good, so that whenever it’s time for us to make the big play we’re ready and we’ve already prepared for that,” Whittaker said.

“It’s been what we’ve been working toward all year, starting from training camp.”

Jacobs said he’d lost count of all the times this season when coaches would stop the game video to point out how just one man missing his block had blown up a big runback.

“And it’s not easy. I know it’s been me a few times where everyone’s got it blocked up perfectly and I let my guy get out,” Jacobs said. “You don’t want to be that guy when you stop the film and say, ‘If you get your guy we’re out the gate.’ That’s a bad feeling.”

It all came together midway through the fourth quarter in the Meadowlands when Clay fielded Lachlan Edwards’ punt, found a seam when Daryl Worley and Kevon Seymour occupied the Jets’ gunners and made a pretty pirouette to elude long snapper Thomas Hennessy and was off the races.

The Fox broadcast shows Jacobs pumping his fist while Clay motioned for the whole punt return team to join him in the end zone. Much screaming and jumping around ensued, a scene that would repeat itself a short time later when Rivera presented Clay with the game ball.

“That’s our job. Our job is to get Kaelin or Christian, whoever’s back there, getting them in the end zone,” Jacobs said. “So if those guys are getting game balls, that means as a core, as a group, we’re doing something well.”

This story was originally published November 28, 2017 at 3:32 PM with the headline "Was Kaelin Clay’s TD the culmination of something special for Panthers’ special teams?."