He’s ‘unbelievable.’ This coach gives the Panthers advantages no one else sees
Think back to any moment in this replete-with-big-moments season, and you’ll know all the characters.
You might think of Bryce Young eluding tacklers on an end-of-game drive. You might see Tetairoa McMillan stomping into the end zone on a gutsy fourth-down pass-and-catch. You might imagine head coach Dave Canales lifting his arms in joy or relief or both — not only because he dialed up the right play, but because he had the gall to call it.
But look hard enough on game day, up in the Carolina Panthers coaches’ booth, and you’ll find someone you might not know but whose fingerprints are all over these moments.
His name is George Li. His job is to give the Panthers the advantages no one else sees.
And he’s someone Canales calls “unbelievable.”
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Li is the Panthers’ game management coordinator. The 44-year-old NFL coaching veteran does all his work in the game’s margins: in the tedium of the rule book, in the idiosyncrasies of referee tendencies, in the minutiae of situations that make or break games and seasons and careers.
Whether he takes credit for it or not, Li is a massive reason the Panthers are playing in their first playoff game since 2017 and their first home postseason game since 2015 when they host the Los Angeles Rams at 4:30 p.m. Saturday in Bank of America Stadium.
“In my role, all I’ve ever cared about is what gives us the best chance to win,” Li told The Charlotte Observer.
That has meant dwelling in the unseen.
But bringing his impact to light.
Panthers are 7-3 in one-score margins
In order to understand what Li brings to the table, consider the delightfully confusing way Carolina got to this point: at 8-9, hosting a playoff game in a city bursting with excitement.
By most metrics, the Panthers were inconsistent. They won and lost games in metronomic succession in 10 straight weeks down the stretch, beating teams with realistic Super Bowl chances and losing to several who didn’t make the playoffs.
But the Panthers were also quite consistent in some ways. Take the Panthers’ proclivity for close games. Of the Panthers’ eight wins this season, seven have come in one-score margins. Carolina is 7-3 in one-score contests.
Such a run has required limiting coaching mistakes and maximizing opportunities.
In other words: where Li makes his money.
Li’s job ranges widely during the week. He didn’t divulge any state secrets in an interview Thursday, but his responsibilities alone paint a picture of his value. He watches endless amounts of Panthers tape, studies opponent tendencies, researches official groups, designs portions of practice that could shape the Panthers’ situational strategy that week and more. And then on game day, he’s a master of many: a resource for NFL rules, a well of expertise in every situation imaginable — of when to go for a fourth down, when to attempt two-point conversions, how to manage end-of-game drives.
Canales appreciates all of that. When asked about Li on Thursday, the head coach referenced how Li keeps him “ahead of schedule” on game day — how he’s such an important resource for someone who not only bears the responsibility of head coach but also play caller.
Also? He’s invaluable to Canales’ development, too.
“We have conversations all throughout the week,” Canales said of Li. “He plans our situations during our walk-throughs. George goes through the league to see fun, critical situations that have come up with other teams — or, if there’s one that we need to repeat, we’ll see that on a Wednesday or Thursday.
“Those are such great reps. They’re invaluable for (defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero) and I. We get to call it against each other: when to use timeouts and not, in different field zones so you can have your play menu ready and so the guys know what to expect.
“So George has been unbelievable.”
Secret weapon behind Carolina going for it on fourth down
It’s true that all of Li’s expertise has come in handy this season.
But the fourth-down element has been in the spotlight.
The Panthers go for it more than any other team in the playoffs and finished the regular season with the second-most fourth-down attempts in the NFL. They finished with 40 fourth-down attempts; the New York Jets finished with 41.
The Panthers are 27 of 40 (67.5% conversion rate) on the year on fourth down. Young, in fact, is statistically remarkable on fourth down — 15 of 20 for 285 yards and three touchdowns for a passer rating of 156.3 on the season, according to Football Database — and all this is a massive reason the Panthers’ season is still alive.
Li doesn’t call the fourth-down play calls. That’s a head coach’s decision, one that has endeared Canales to this fan base and has drawn some comparisons to “Riverboat” Ron Rivera, the winningest coach in Panthers history.
But Li is certainly involved in such decisions, he said.
Li explained that he and Canales “spent a lot of time this past offseason going through different games and watching sequences” that changed the fates of teams across the NFL. Li added that “we watched a lot of Washington and how they sequenced their play calling, which helped spark their playoff run.”
But it’s not just the action of going for it on fourth down where Li and Canales collaborate. It’s the lead-up to the action, the plays before the play; the third-and-7 play-call that makes a fourth-and-short manageable. Li brought this up pre-emptively on Thursday, explaining that there’s a reason why their fourth-down conversion percentage (fourth best in the league) is so much higher than their third-down conversion percentage (25th).
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It’s all situational, the area in which Li specializes.
“He has that information on first down,” Li said of Canales, when discussing whether the Panthers are in four-down territory. It’s a product of their collaboration during the week.
“I think that’s been really good, having that information early, confidently, clearly defined,” Li said. “… Everybody knows, ‘Hey, if we get to this position on the field, this is the personnel, and this is the play.’ It’s just a comfortable environment for us to live in.”
“Comfortable” is one word to describe it.
Another?
“It’s fun,” offensive coordinator Brad Idzik said Thursday. “It’s a lot of fun when you have a coach who’s willing to go for it on fourth down. … And for the defense, it just becomes that much harder.”
Idzik added that going for it on fourth down has helped this team: “They’re young. But we put them in those situations so many times that they don’t blink when the moment’s big. (That was never) more obvious than two of the touchdowns in the second half of the first (Rams) game: Jalen Coker, ripping down the field on the go-ball, and then the crossing routes we had to TMac on fourth down. Those are huge plays where our guys don’t blink.”
Running back Chuba Hubbard agreed.
“I think it’s just a tribute to Coach Canales believing in us, and then us also executing,” Hubbard said. “He always tells us when we get into that third-and-short type of range: Be ready for that fourth down. And so we’re always ready for that. We’re always confident in it. So obviously when you can extend a drive — and score, we’ve done that too — it’s obviously a big play.”
George Li thinks about who he can celebrate with
Li undoubtedly has a lot of things on his mind this week. All of it is in service to win for this franchise, this city — and players like Hubbard, Taylor Moton, Derrick Brown, Jaycee Horn, “guys that work so hard and have fought through injuries to battle to get to this point.”
And though Li has won playoff games before in previous stops, with previous teams, winning Saturday would be a nice moment for himself, too.
Li grew up in Millbrae, smack-dab in the middle of the San Francisco Bay area. (San Francisco is home to this year’s Super Bowl; Li, understandably, “won’t let [his] mind travel there yet.”) He was the first in his family born in the U.S. His father, Kirk, immigrated to America from Taiwan, attended Ohio State for grad school in the Buckeyes’ heyday of the 1970s and fell in love with football there — a love Kirk passed on to George as well as George’s mother, Helen Chang; George’s older brother, Jason; and George’s younger brother, Victor.
George played three years of high school football and attended the University of California, Riverside. He graduated in 2003 and spent years around the game, working as a production coordinator for ESPN Zone Anaheim while writing up high school football game stories for the Orange County Register on the side.
In 2005, Li got a job as a researcher at ESPN headquarters. Ten months after that, he was brought on by NFL Network, where he met his wife, Denise, and spent five years there. Then in 2011, thanks to some crazy connections and hustling, he dove into the team side of the NFL — where he spent six years with the Oakland Raiders and five years with the Indianapolis Colts.
When Frank Reich was hired to be the head coach of the Panthers in 2023, Li came to Charlotte with him. And even though Reich was fired in his first year, Li stayed on with Canales, and Li and Canales’ relationship started well in 2024 and blossomed in 2025. Li credits that to their shared ground — both are from California, both are open about their Christian faith — as well as Canales’ unending effort to collaborate.
In three seasons, the Panthers have shown steady improvement. Two wins in Year 1. Five in Year 2. Eight (and counting) in Year 3.
Li’s job does not guarantee wins. But it guarantees confidence, he said.
And that’s a dangerous quality for a team like the Panthers to have — underdogs, but at home.
“I take this role so seriously because I know how hard everyone in the entire building has worked to get to this point,” Li said. “And I want them to have full confidence knowing that if the game’s on the line, or times get tough, they can trust that I’ve done the work.
“I’m doing everything I possibly can to ensure that we have an advantage — that we’ll explore every way to try to pull out this game.”
This story was originally published January 9, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
