Carolina Panthers retaining key offensive line, special teams coaches

The Carolina Panthers announced Wednesday that they will be retaining three key assistant coaches as new head coach Frank Reich continues to fill out his coaching staff.

Offensive line coach James Campen, assistant offensive line coach Robert Kugler, and special teams coach Chris Tabor will all remain on the Panthers staff heading into the 2023 season after showing promise and improvement in their respective position groups.

Campen and Kugler played an integral part in the improvement of Carolina’s offensive line unit last season, a group that went from allowing the fifth most sacks in the NFL in 2021 with 52 sacks to just 36 last season.

Campen was a former offensive lineman at Tulane and spent eight seasons playing in the NFL for the New Orleans Saints and Green Bay Packers before starting his 15-plus-year coaching career.

Kugler also has collegiate and NFL playing experience at the offensive line position, playing at Purdue and for the Buffalo Bills. He’s made stops as a graduate assistant at UTEP and Washington before assuming a quality control position at Appalachian State, which was followed by an assistant offensive line coach job with the Houston Texans before assuming the same role for the Panthers.

Similarly, Tabor also improved the team’s special teams units in 2022 in his first season at the job. The Panthers were ranked 28th special teams unit in the NFL according to Rick Gosselin’s annual special teams rankings, and improved to a historic No. 4 in 2022.

Tabor will enter the 30th season of his coaching career in the fall, making special teams coordinator stops with the Cleveland Browns and Chicago Bears prior to landing the job with Carolina in 2022.

Carolina Panthers announce addition of former NFL head coach Jim Caldwell as senior assistant role

The Carolina Panthers announced Tuesday that former longtime NFL coach Jim Caldwell will join their staff in a senior assistant role. Caldwell will reportedly help newly hired Panthers head coach Frank Reich with the team’s offense, defense, and special teams moving forward.

Caldwell brings over 15 years of NFL coaching experience with him to Charlotte, and was actually one of nine coaches that interviewed for the Panthers head coaching job earlier this year.

Reich and Caldwell worked together for the Indianapolis Colts under Toney Dungey in 2006, Reich as coaching intern and Caldwell as the assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach. The two were a part of the Colts Super Bowl XLI victory, one of two Super Bowl staff’s Caldwell was a part of during his career.