It doesn’t matter to Dave Canales.
The Carolina Panthers coach attempted to downplay the personal emotions he may feel before certain matchups on the 2025 NFL schedule, which was announced Wednesday night.
Canales spoke optimistically that, following a Week 14 bye week, the Panthers close with two NFC South matchups versus the Tampa Buccaneers, the club he served as offensive coordinator before accepting the Panthers’ job before last season. In Week 17, the Panthers travel to face the Seattle Seahawks, the franchise with which he served in several roles for 13 seasons.
During Week 1, Panthers rookie Trevor Etienne will face off against his older brother, Jacksonville Jaguars running back Travis Etienne. To Canales, while the family affair is important, he wants to focus on kickoff.
“Honestly, I love every game,” Canales said during Thursday’s video conference. “And so I think there are just such great teachable moments from each game. And my message to the team is going to be consistent. It’s going to be like, ‘No game is bigger than the other one.’
“And if we can make them all big games – they all matter, this is all going to create our team, these are all the best opportunities that we have as a team and then individually as players – like, this is the best game you have.”
@Panthers rookies show off their #NFL special teams gunner skills … pic.twitter.com/lxMzpcVhVA
— Jeff Hawkins (@WriterHawkins) May 11, 2025
Dave Canales: ‘Love opportunities to play those types of games’
While analyzing the schedule, Canales addressed that the Panthers, who have dropped five of their past six regular-season openers, are open with consecutive road games, and three of their first four are away from Bank of America Stadium.
Entering his second season as Panthers’ coach, Canales remains poised to coach in his first Monday Night Football matchup, at the San Francisco 49ers on Nov. 24.
“I just love the opportunities to play those types of games,” Canales said. “There’s a couple of extra cameras, and you get to play under the lights and play against a great opponent, and those are the types of games that we need to become who we are. And the challenge is to go on the road, go across the country, and really feel the high-stakes games, as we build this and compete to win the division.
The hope is that we are working ourselves into the mentality of, ‘This is just another game.’ We go about our preparation and our work the same way, so we can go out there and just play our best.”
For a franchise that has not made the playoffs since 2017, Canales said the team’s early road schedule will provide late-season benefits.
“(When) you’ve got a lot of road games early on, so that means we’re going to have more home games as the season goes on, and that’s when we can bring our show home and show who we are to our fan base and get them excited about what we’re doing,” Canales said.
To the Panthers’ coach, the 2025 opponent doesn’t matter.
“Every game is important,” he said.
Getting to work – one way or another … pic.twitter.com/AIVOK2BnEO
— Jeff Hawkins (@WriterHawkins) May 11, 2025
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