How up-and-coming Panthers assistant coach has made major impact on offensive line
First, it was Austin Corbett.
Five games later, it was Brady Christensen.
And three games after that, it was Cade Mays’ turn.
The Carolina Panthers’ center spot has been a turnstile this season because of a rash of injuries — both at the position and around it. But despite starting three different players in the middle of the offensive line, the position has thrived under the guidance of assistant offensive line coach Keli’i Kekuewa.
“Talk about three guys that really care about football and care about this team,” Kekuewa told The Observer last week. “Those guys are what you want — a guy that wants to play, but also wants to put it on the line for his other teammates.”
As part of a unique three-man coaching operation, Kekuewa, along with assistant head coach/run game coordinator Harold Goodwin and veteran offensive line coach Joe Gilbert, helps prepare the unit for success.
Goodwin focuses on guards in practice, while Gilbert trains the tackles, and Kekuewa, easily the youngest and least experienced of the trio, works with the centers.
Despite being a relatively young assistant NFL coach, Kekuewa, 31, has been tasked with preparing three newbies at center. And through 10 games, the trio has given up just one sack, three QB hits and nine total pressures as a group, according to Pro Football Focus.
“He teaches us the nuances of playing center,” Mays said. “And having him just solely with the centers, it makes your job just so much more detailed.”
Bringing it all together
When head coach Dave Canales was constructing his offensive coaching staff, he brought along several former colleagues from his stops with the Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
He hired Goodwin, 51, to be his top assistant and brought along Gilbert, 59, as the team’s offensive line coach. The three had worked together in Tampa Bay last year, and they shared a similar image for the offensive line.
Canales then hired Kekuewa, with whom he worked with during his final three years with the Seahawks, as the group’s assistant offensive line coach.
“I couldn’t wait to get Keli’i into the building,” Canales said. “And Joe and Goodie and I worked together in Tampa last year, but Keli’i really allowed me to really fill in some of the pieces that I couldn’t quite get to in Tampa — kind of the first year in the system.
“It was really important for me to build off of what we started.”
Goodwin, a longtime offensive line coach, has an all-encompassing approach to coaching the line. Instead of focusing on one position at a time, he prefers to separate the positions during practice, allowing the three assistant coaches to teach individual positions.
In the meeting room, the three-man crew works in unison to bring everything and everyone together.
“It’s something I started in Indianapolis (in 2012), when me and Joe Gilbert first started working together,” Goodwin said in October. “In my young days in the league, it was always like the assistant O-line coach would sit back, the O-line coach kind of micromanaged everything, and I just felt from that standpoint, a lot of guys were just standing around, not getting work.
“So, ever since I became an offensive line coach, where I had my own room, I’ve liked splitting it up so that everybody gets work, everybody is doing something, and you develop guys quicker that way.”
Last season, the Panthers gave up 65 total sacks to opposing defenses. Through 10 games this season, they’ve surrendered just 18 sacks. The group is on pace to give up around 31 total in 2024, which would be fewer than half of what last year’s crew gave up under a different staff in 2023.
And in regard to the ground game, top running back Chuba Hubbard entered the Week 11 bye with the third-highest rushing total in the league. The line has opened up consistent holes for Hubbard as he’s churned out 818 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns.
Goodwin, Gilbert and Kekeuwa — based on those numbers — are making a difference.
“We work really well together, kind of a three-man team, rather than one guy overseeing all,” Kekuewa said. “I mean, (Goodwin) is that guy — but there’s no limitation of ideas, no limitations (on) what you should do or not do — kind of working together through all of those things.”
Education and versatility
Corbett, Christensen and Mays entered this season with 6,001 combined regular-season snaps of experience. None of those 6,001 snaps were at center.
So, Kekuewa — a Puna, Hawaii native — had his work cut out for him as all three of his potential starting centers converted to a new position in the spring and summer.
Corbett, the team’s former starting right guard, was displaced in March after the $100 million contract signing of Robert Hunt in free agency. The front office — led by first-year GM Dan Morgan — thought Corbett could transition to center because of his background of playing the position in practice while with the Cleveland Browns and Los Angeles Rams early in his career.
“Austin Corbett (played in) a very similar system when he came from the Rams, which we have with our offense here now,” Kekuewa said. “We’re not 100 percent the Rams, but the background — let’s call it the structure — scheme-wise is in that family of offenses. So, him being our center to start, that helped a lot, where he understood how we are trying to ID things, how we want to hit blocks, how we want to do things.”
Corbett started the first five games of the season before suffering a campaign-ending biceps injury. In those five games, Corbett excelled, allowing just one sack during his initial run at the new position.
Christensen, the team’s former starting left guard, then replaced Corbett at center.
After missing all but one game last season with a biceps injury of his own, Christensen was initially knocked down the depth chart when the Panthers signed Damien Lewis to another big-money contract in this year’s free agency. Christensen worked as a backup guard, tackle and center in the offseason, but he never settled on a true position. He would also play tight end as an extra blocker in the offense’s jumbo package during the first five games of the season.
“He’s a smart player,” Kekuewa said. “He works at it, he’s taking notes, he’s asking questions. He’s not afraid to ask questions, he’s not afraid to do things wrong, he’s not afraid to try things and then fix those things — so he’s a very mature player in that aspect.”
Christensen — who has since moved to left tackle to fill in for Ikem Ekwonu while he nurses an ankle injury — was prepared for his three-week foray at center because of his individual work with Kekuewa.
“He’s a great coach,” Christensen said. “He’s very into the fundamentals, and just helping us play with confidence. (The coaches) keep their schemes relatively easy … and get everyone on the right page. So, really, his goal is just to get us to play fast and play physical and play with our hands. And he does a great job at coaching that up and demanding that.”
With Christensen bouncing to left tackle in Week 9, the Panthers needed a third starting center.
Mays, who was in Charlotte throughout the offseason, had a brief stint with the New York Giants practice squad after being waived in August. Mays was brought back in October after Corbett’s injury and served as Christensen’s main insurance.
The Panthers cashed in on that policy during the 23-22 win over the New Orleans Saints. Mays performed admirably, not allowing a single pressure up the middle.
The next week in Munich, Germany, Mays went up against the best pass-rushing interior defensive lineman in the game, Dexter Lawrence, and his former team, the Giants, at Allianz Arena. According to PFF, Lawrence came into the Week 10 matchup with 33 total pressures in nine games (3.7 pressures per game). In the 20-17 overtime win against the Giants, Lawrence added three pressures to his stat sheet, but Mays only gave up two of them.
Lawrence was also held without a sack, despite averaging a sack per game entering the matchup.
“I was happy with his performance against Dexter,” Kekuewa said about Mays. “In the spring, because we moved him into center — not right away, but he was playing primarily center, backup guard — we discussed how things were in the past and how to get things better, and he’s taken those (tips) every single day and tried to get things better.
“And when we went into the game, he had a lot of confidence, even going into the game last week (against the Saints), before going up against Dexter this week, he built that confidence with the repetition of the same techniques, over and over and over again.”
The connection with the coaching staff
The Panthers’ offensive line has been one of the few consistently reliable aspects of the team’s 3-7 start.
The entire group was in shambles last season. And after a pair of big-money additions and some position changes, the unit is now shining.
The coaching has helped, too.
“It starts with (Goodwin), he’s our main guy, and then my assistant head coach, and Joe Gilbert, those guys have worked together for a long time,” Canales said. “And then Keli’i Kekuewa — he’s a young, really talented coach and was in our system in Seattle for a bunch of years, so tying that all in. And then Dean Petzing is our quality control coach. There are four dudes in there offering their expertise.”
Kekuewa, whom Canales first met in Seattle in 2020, has become a developing educator under the head coach’s guidance. Kekuewa began his coaching career in 2015 at Wake Forest, and nine years later, he’s now a key cog within Canales’ coaching roster.
“He’s done a fantastic job being able to work with the centers, understanding the schemes,” Canales said. “He’s been in our system for a while. I think that that really helps transition guys, onboard guys, if you will.”
And while Canales is benefiting from Kekeuwa’s inclusion on his staff, the young assistant offensive line coach is seeing his stock rise in the NFL as well. Just 10 years removed from his college playing career at Bowling Green, the ascending teacher is appreciative of his opportunity with Canales and the Panthers.
“The impact that he’s had on my coaching career — it’s been great,” Kekuewa said. “Just letting me think outside the box, but also making me think about more than just the run game. More than just protection, but to branch myself out into other things. And him giving me the resources and opportunities to do such things has been awesome.”
This story was originally published November 18, 2024 at 5:30 AM.
