Carolina Panthers expected to hire Bert Watts as new safeties coach

NFL insider Ian Rapoport reported Thursday that the Carolina Panthers will be hiring former Denver Broncos outside linebackers coach Bert Watts as the team’s new safeties coach. Watts only brings two years of NFL coaching experience to Carolina, but 14 years of collegiate coaching experience as well, and is regarded within coaching circles as a future defensive coordinator according to Rapoport.

Watts was a part of a Broncos defense that was one of the best in the league last season, ranked No. 7 in yards allowed per game and allowed only 21.1 points per game.

He was a part of the Broncos staff in 2012 as well as a staff assistant for a Denver team that finished the regular season with the best record in the AFC at 13-3. Watts has humble coaching beginnings, starting his career as a high school coach, a coach overseas in Austria, and as a defensive technical intern at Colorado before landing the staff assistant job in Denver.

Following his one year in Denver, he’d go on to coach his alma mater University of California-Davis for four seasons as their defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach. He’d then coach linebackers at Fresno State before getting promoted to defensive coordinator for the Bulldogs, which he did for two seasons before taking the job as the linebackers coach at Memphis in 2020.

His last collegiate coaching stop would be at Auburn, where he was the special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach for one season in 2021.

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.