Carolina Panthers hire Peter Hansen as new linebackers coach under Frank Reich

The Carolina Panthers added Peter Hansen as the team’s new linebackers coach, according to a team release.

Hansen joined new head coach Frank Reich’s new staff with the Panthers. Reich previously hired Ejiro Evero as the new defensive coordinator.

Hansen is familiar with Evero though. He coached under Evero with the Denver Broncos last season when both men were in the same roles under Nathaniel Hackett.

Prior to the Broncos, Hansen coached at UNLV from 2020-21 as the program’s defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach. Hansen had additional college experience from 2014-19 as well.

He coached at Stanford under David Shaw for six seasons as the linebackers coach. Before Stanford, Hansen coached under Jim Harbaugh with the San Francisco 49ers from 2011-13.

The 43-year-old Hansen played football and basketball at the University of Arizona.

Reich takes over as the Panthers head coach after a nearly five-year run as the Colts head coach. Previously he was an offensive coordinator with the Philadelphia Eagles, where he won a Super Bowl in 2018.

Reich played in the NFL as a quarterback, spending much of his career as a backup to Buffalo Bills legend Jim Kelly. After 10 years in Buffalo, he spent one season with the Panthers in 1995 as the first starting quarterback in the history of the franchise, before brief stints with the New York Jets and Detroit Lions to finish his playing career.

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Additionally, Reich is the first head coach in franchise history to come from a background of playing and coaching offense. All the pervious coaches, from Dom Capers in 1995 through Matt Rhule and Wilks in 2022, every Panthers head coach had been a defensive coach prior.