Panthers Fire Defensive Coordinator Ejiro Evero After Loss to Packers

The Carolina Panthers fired defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero on Friday, less than a day after a 27-19 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Thursday night, the team announced. Defensive passing game coordinator Jonathan Cooley was also let go.

Defensive line coach Todd Wash takes over as interim defensive coordinator and will call the defensive plays for head coach Dave Canales. Outside linebackers coach AC Carter will coach the defensive line in Wash's place, and secondary coach Renaldo Hill keeps charge of the defensive backs.

The change came fast. Carolina has allowed 70 points across two losses in five days, 43 to Tampa Bay on Sunday and 27 at Green Bay on Thursday. The Panthers are 3-4, and their defense is giving up 27.6 points per game, the sixth most in the league. Carolina went into the week ranked 22nd in total defense and last in the league against the run.

Evero, 45, is the first NFL coordinator fired this season. He joined Carolina in 2023 under head coach Frank Reich and stayed on when Canales took over. Before Carolina he ran the Denver Broncos defense in 2022. General manager Dan Morgan had announced in January that Evero signed an extension through the 2027 season, which makes Friday's move a sharp turn.

Searches for Evero's name spiked on Friday morning, with Google listing his name as a new trending search in the United States at more than 100,000 searches. Canales is expected to speak about the changes later on Friday. Carolina's next game is in Week 9 against the Denver Broncos, the team Evero coached before joining the Panthers.

The firing is the first major coaching move Canales has made since he took over as head coach in 2024, the Associated Press reported. It also lands after a heavy offseason spend on defense. Carolina added linebackers Bobby Okereke and Devin Lloyd and pass rusher Jaelan Phillips, a group that was expected to lift the unit toward the top ten, according to Sports Illustrated. The results never came. Against Green Bay on Thursday, Evero sent an all-out blitz on third-and-13 with backup cornerbacks on the field, and the Packers converted, a sequence Sports Illustrated singled out in its account of the firing.

Carolina had opened the season 3-2 before the losses to Tampa Bay and Green Bay dropped the Panthers to 3-4. The defense's numbers explain the urgency: 27.6 points allowed per game, the sixth most in the NFL, and a run defense ranked last in the league entering the week. Wash, the interim coordinator, now gets the Denver game in Week 9 as his first test calling the defense.