Turns out the Carolina Panthers have past members of the “Rams House” on their 2023 staff. Thomas Brown isn’t the only beloved member of Sean McVay’s Los Angeles Rams staff in Charlotte. The Panthers additionally swooped up another high-profile coordinator from that same Super Bowl 56 staff to bolster the defense in Ejiro Evero.
Ejiro Evero Had Top-10 Defense in First Role as DC
Evero’s last year with McVay was the run to the Super Bowl title in 2021, when he was working with the secondary and serving as the Rams’ pass defense coordinator.
Evero’s name, however, ascended while witnessing a crumbling franchise in 2022.
Despite the Denver Broncos sinking to 5-12 and firing first-year head coach Nathaniel Hackett after 15 games, Evero produced a defense that ranked seventh in yards allowed in his first crack as defensive coordinator. Additionally, Denver allowed the fifth-fewest passing touchdowns in the league and produced an All-Pro in cornerback Patrick Surtain II.
Even after the Denver debacle, Evero’s work cemented his name as a potential head coaching candidate. He interviewed with the Indianapolis Colts and the Houston Texans. But ultimately, the Panthers swooped up a big fish in the defensive coordinator realm to bolster their own unit.
Evero’s Rise as an NFL Coach
Evero, 41, has gone from former practice-squad player for the Oakland Raiders to one of the fastest-rising names in NFL circles.
The native of Colchester, England, got his coaching start at UC Davis, his alma mater. He joined the Aggies’ staff as an assistant coach just one year after his last football game with the team.
In 2007, Evero earned his first NFL opportunity through the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the team’s defensive quality control coach — a role he held until 2009.
After dipping back briefly to the college game in 2010 as special teams coordinator and safeties coach for the University of Redlands, Evero returned to the NFL for good in 2011 with the San Francisco 49ers.
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In the next four seasons, Evero held roles in quality control, offensive assistant, and defensive assistant with the 49ers. He then joined the Green Bay Packers in 2016 as defensive quality control coach.
Then, when McVay was hired on as the youngest NFL head coach in league history in 2017 at age 30, Evero was named to the staff in that same year. Evero then spent his next five seasons with McVay and the Rams — which includes two Super Bowl trips and the 2021 season title.
Following Denver, Carolina becomes Evero’s second DC gig in a coaching career that’s nearing two decades.
What Will Carolina Defense Look Like Under Evero?
Evero is planning to run a 3-4 look. For longtime Panthers fans, this scheme will bring back memories of the Dom Capers days of 1995. Those early Panthers defenses were spearheaded by the late Hall of Famers Sam Mills and Kevin Greene. Lamar Lathon was another integral part of those Panthers defenses.
Ironically, one of Evero’s mentors is famed veteran defensive coordinator Vic Fangio — who was Capers’ DC during the time he was head coach.
Does this mean a similar blitz-happy scheme? One wrinkle this unit plans to have is the “disguised” fourth rusher, as Evero described to the Charlotte Observer in February 2023.
“You don’t know where that extra rusher is coming from,” Evero explained. “It’s that extra level that the offense has to grow through to figure out what you’re doing.”
Evero is taking over the league’s 19th-ranked unit from a year ago. But he gets a stacked mix of Pro Bowl talent and young, rising talent to work with.
Names like Pro Bowl edge rusher Brian Burns, second-year cornerback Jaycee Horn, fourth-year safety Jeremy Chinn, six-year linebacker Frankie Luvu (who delivered a career-best 2022 in sacks, tackles, and solo stops), and a member of the Panthers’ Super Bowl 50 team Shaq Thompson, all get their crack at igniting Evero’s scheme.