For Dave Canales, the value of a primetime schedule is not just exposure. It is preparation. The Carolina Panthers head coach said in May 2026 that the club’s three primetime games can help them get ready for the kind of stage that matters most: the postseason.
That is a notable shift for a team that had no primetime games in 2025 and then used that season to climb to an NFC South title and a playoff berth. Canales argued that the night windows matter because they force a team to operate in different conditions, with different rhythms and different emotional pressure. In his view, that is exactly the sort of rehearsal a contender needs.
“We’re a fun team to watch,” Canales said, pointing back to a 2025 season in which the Panthers played competitive football in games that many people did not expect them to win. “Last year, [there were] a couple of games that no one really gave us a shot at, and we were able to play competitive football and win some of those.”
Why the primetime games matter
Canales said the benefit is practical as much as psychological. Night games, standalone windows and even Saturday games create a postseason-like feel that can help a team learn how to manage its week, its energy and its focus. “For me as a head coach, I just get excited about the primetime games because as we all know, as we get playoff opportunities, these are night games sometimes,” he said. “Sometimes they’re just standalone games, the way they stagger them. It helps us to be able to practice and be able to play in different environments: to play at night, in odd windows, sometimes it’s a Saturday game.”
His point is hard to dismiss. A team that expects to play meaningful football in January has to prove it can handle more than just the standard Sunday routine. The Panthers will get that chance in 2026, and they will get it against excellent opponents that Canales said the team respects. “All that just prepares you for the postseason. And for those opportunities. I’m excited to have that and play some excellent teams that we respect,” he said.
A coach shaped by a long climb
The timing also fits the arc of Canales’ career. He worked as offensive coordinator at Carson High School in Carson, California, from 2004 to 2005, then moved to El Camino College as the special teams and tight ends coach after two seasons of high school coaching. In 2009, he joined the University of Southern California staff as an assistant strength coach, and in 2010 he followed Pete Carroll to the Seattle Seahawks.
That path eventually led to a Super Bowl with the Seahawks’ coaching staff in 2014, then to a season as quarterbacks coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2023 before the Panthers named him head coach in 2024. By 2025, he had already delivered an NFC South title and a playoff berth. So when he talks about using the regular season to prepare for January, it sounds less like a slogan and more like a coach who has spent two decades learning how high-level football is built.
What it means next
Canales also spoke about the personal roots behind that climb. He said his grandparents were church planters and missionaries to Mexi-Cali, and described the work they did serving families and spreading faith through food, water, clothes and shelter. He said they taught him that “all work is noble,” and that it is a point of pride in his heritage to do every job with pride and to the best of one’s ability.
That background gives his message a little more weight. The Panthers are not being asked to treat three primetime games like a reward. They are being asked to treat them like part of the job, part of the education and part of the process of becoming a team that belongs in the playoff conversation every year. If 2025 showed that Carolina could surprise people, 2026 will test whether it can do something harder: make pressure feel normal.
