Ejiro Evero will be back. How about Panthers vets Shaq Thompson, Eddy Piñeiro, others?
As far as head coach Dave Canales is concerned, the 2025 season has already begun.
He made that point clear in his first locker room clean-out Monday as a head coach — “No longer a rookie coach, thank you very much,” Canales said with a smile — and also made that clear in his statement on who will run the defense next year.
“Ejiro will be back with us as our defensive coordinator,” Canales said. “We have a lot of things to evaluate over the next couple of days and certainly into the offseason to reflect on our scheme, to reflect on our personnel, to reflect on the guys we have here going forward. And so there’s a lot of really important conversations about all those factors that would be great to have.”
Ejiro Evero, the Panthers’ defensive coordinator since 2023, was the captain of a porous ship in 2024. Sunday’s finale against the Atlanta Falcons cemented the Panthers in some regrettable history: The unit officially gave up the most points in NFL history — 534 points, edging the 1981 Baltimore Colts by a single point for the top spot.
Still, Evero has credentials. And with the right players to effectively carry out his 3-4 scheme — which was a Top 5 defense in 2023 — Evero can thrive in Carolina, Canales said. Canales has played against Evero’s scheme with the Seahawks and as coordinator/playcaller for the Bucs, and he said his vision for what this team could be involves Evero.
As far as any changes on the rest of the defensive staff?
“Those are all conversations that (Evero) and I have to have,” Canales said. “And again, it’s the day after the (final) game, we just have to process all of it from a schematic standpoint and try to make sure we put the Panthers in the best possible situation.”
Evero’s return being more or less set in stone isn’t the only news made on Monday. Here’s a notebook as a result of a trip around the locker room on clean-out Monday, including insight from many of the team’s 21 players who are set to be free agents come March.
Eddy Piñeiro has discussed his future with the coaches
Among the highest-profile names on the Panthers’ free-agency list is Eddy Piñeiro, the team’s kicker who had a roller coaster of a season.
There were undeniable highs. The kicker from South Florida woke up the morning of Nov. 18 as the NFL’s all-time most accurate kicker in terms of field goal percentage. He also took partial ownership of the record for most consecutive makes in Bank of America Stadium with 41 — tying with Panthers great Graham Gano.
Even still, there were lows. He finished the season 22 of 26 — a 84.6% field goal percentage that ranked 18th in the league among kickers — and missed three of those four over 40 yards.
He told The Charlotte Observer on Monday that “it’s tough to say” exactly what 2025 holds. He plans to go back to Miami, take a couple of weeks off and start training again and “see what happens.”
“I talked to the coaches and staff, and they said right now they don’t have an answer for what they want to do,” Piñeiro said. “They want to sit down and kinda just weigh all their options. And they said they would reach out to me and my agent in a couple weeks.”
Piñeiro isn’t new to the free-agency process. He was one just two years ago, after all, before reuniting with then-Panthers special teams coordinator Chris Tabor in Carolina. The 29-year-old kicker signed a two-year, $4.1 million deal with the Panthers ahead of the 2023 season.
As far as the roller coaster season?
“It’s just part of kicking,” he said. “You make kicks, you miss kicks. And I’m just really proud, in my personal opinion, of what I’ve done the last three years here and performed for the Panthers. I gave it everything I got, and regardless if I come back or not, I’m just really happy that I know that I truthfully gave everything I did to the city, to my teammates, and to my coaches. So I’m just happy about that.”
He added: “I would love to definitely be back. I think we have a good group going. I want to be part of the change, and I feel like the change is coming. And I would hate to be back and not see it come to life, being a part of it.”
All three specialists — Piñeiro, punter Johnny Hekker and long-snapper JJ Jansen — are free agents, too.
Shaq Thompson wants to finish his career in Carolina. Will he?
Shaq Thompson, the team’s smiley veteran linebacker who missed a bulk of the season with an Achilles injury, didn’t say anything he hadn’t said before Monday.
He said he wants to be in Carolina, a place he’s been since the Panthers selected him with the 25th pick in the 2015 NFL Draft. He said the injuries he’s sustained in the past two years — the fractured fibula in Week 2 of 2023 and the Achilles tear in Week 4 of 2024 — don’t reflect the durability he’s showcased since his arrival in the league.
He said Evero has his full faith, and that any scheme could work so long as you have “ballers” on the defense, a luxury the Panthers didn’t have come the CVS-receipt-length injury report before Week 17.
What else did he say?
“I would love to end my career here,” Thompson said, “and be one of the guys in history to play with one team. But it’s up to them. These two injuries were fluky. Everyone knows about the one last year, and about this one this year, of course there was nothing I could do. But it happened. Get better. And come back stronger.”
Thompson saw the final two years of his contract restructured ahead of the 2023 season, which kept the Panthers’ unquestioned defensive leader in Carolina on a pay cut, The Observer reported at the time.
One thing he made clear: He has plenty left in the tank.
“You think I’m done?” he said with a smile. “Probably got about three (years). Three or four left in me. Then I’m walking up out of here.”
Austin Corbett knows a prove-it contract is coming. Will it be with the Panthers?
When you’re talking about leaders dealing with injuries, you can’t neglect Austin Corbett, the veteran offensive lineman who started at the center position for the Panthers with aplomb before a biceps injury ended his season after Week 5.
Corbett was replaced by Brady Christensen and Cade Mays at different points in the following weeks — all three are free agents. Corbett, who played most of his career as a guard, said he’d love to return to Carolina to finish building the offense that has begun to flourish under the command of Bryce Young.
But he also knows the reality of a lineman who has sustained multiple season-ending injuries in his tenure in Carolina, he said.
He seems to think a “prove-it,” short-term deal is on his horizon.
“As soon as I got hurt I knew that’s what was going to happen,” Corbett said. “It’s just the nature of the game coming off three surgeries. And you know, it’s one thing if all those surgeries were related, and if it was the same injury coming back and forth, but all three of them are completely separate incidents and just the game of football sneaking up.
“Back in 2022, started all 17 games then. And 63 additional games before that, back to L.A. (with the Rams). So I know I’m plenty capable of doing it. It’s just a matter of getting back to that state.”
Corbett said he’s physically “great” and that he was scheduled to talk to his doctor later Monday and that he’ll soon be “back to 100%.”
“It’s a 12-week injury,” Corbett said, smiling. “You get hurt Week 5, 12 weeks from there is the end of the season. But I feel amazing.”
Adam Thielen contemplating retirement
Veteran wide receiver Adam Thielen said he is seriously contemplating retirement after his 11th season in the NFL concluded Sunday. In the past few years he’s taken a few weeks at the end of each season to ensure he wants to keep playing, he told reporters Monday.
“I’d say I’m leaning a certain direction,” Thielen said. He smiled: “I’m not going to tell you what that looks like. But yeah, it’s such a grind, mentally and physically when you’re at this point in the season, there are lots of things in your head. So that’s why I just got to take some time, not focus on football, focus on my family and then make a real decision after that.”
The contemplation isn’t a product of a down year by any means. The 34-year-old receiver and the Panthers’ Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee hauled in 48 catches for 615 yards and five touchdowns — and that was only with 10 games played as a hamstring injury after Week 3 sidelined him.
“Obviously to end this season healthy is a huge bonus,” Thielen said. “When you end the season healthy, you’re like, ‘Alright, I feel good. Let’s get back to training and I’m excited for next year.’”
Quick hits
▪ Derrick Brown, the Panthers’ only Pro Bowler in 2023 who tore a meniscus in his knee after Week 1 of 2024, said he is healthy and expects to be back by Organized Team Activities in May. His presence as one of the best run-stoppers in the NFL was sorely missed on a defense that gave up 3,057 rushing yards in 2024.
▪ Robert Hunt advocated for all of his offensive linemen to return, including the three who are set to become free agents. The right guard — and second alternate to the Pro Bowl — didn’t mince words: “It’s big to keep the same guys, man. I will throw my pitch in to get everybody back: Cade Mays, Austin Corbett, everybody. Brady (Christensen). So excited to see what we can do.”
▪ Bryce Young has received a lot of love lately. He got it from Panthers legend Cam Newton as well as from one of his closest friends and fellow standout young quarterback CJ Stroud — who said Sunday that Young “inspires me to keep going.” Young responded to that love a day after his five-touchdown performance against the Falcons: “CJ, that’s my brother. I’m always rooting for him. I always appreciate it. I’m always a fan of his, too, in the same way.”
This story was originally published January 6, 2025 at 3:05 PM.
