Panthers wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan has been the betting favorite to win offensive rookie of the year for some time and he officially became a finalist for the award on Thursday.
McMillan was a first-round pick last April and he posted 70 catches, 1,014 yards and seven touchdowns for the NFC South champs. If McMillan wins the award, he’ll join Cam Newton as the only Panthers to receive the honor.
Saints quarterback Tyler Shough might have surpassed McMillan as the favorite with more time in the starting lineup. Even if he falls short of hearing his name announced at the NFL Honors event in February, Shough’s provided reason for hope about the future in New Orleans.
Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart, Buccaneers wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, and Patriots running back TreVeyon Henderson are the other finalists this year.
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The Raiders have completed a second interview with Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports.
The team has complied with the Rooney Rule after interviewing Evero and former Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel, who appears headed to the Chargers as offensive coordinator. That allows the Raiders to hire a new coach at any time.
Evero has served as the Panthers’ defensive coordinator since 2023, first taking the job under former head coach Frank Reich. While Carolina finished at the bottom of the league defensively in 2024, Evero helped turn the unit around to finish No. 16 in yards and No. 15 in points allowed in 2025.
Evero has coordinated two top-10 defenses — first with what the Broncos in 2022 (No. 7 in yards allowed) and then with the Panthers in 2023 (No. 4 in yards allowed).
He has also worked for the 49ers, Packers and Rams.
The Raiders also have Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady, Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, 49ers offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak, Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, Rams offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur, Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, Rams passing game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase, Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula and Broncos quarterbacks coach Davis Webb among their candidates.
With each coaching hire that the Steelers nail — and they’re three-for-three since 1969 — the pressure builds to get the next one right, too.
So here they are, 19 years after their last search. With plenty of good options from which to choose.
The problem with having a bunch of quality candidates is that, eventually, a choice needs to be made. So who will they choose?
For now, the candidates are: Rams pass game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase, Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula, Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores, Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver, Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero, 49ers offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak, Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, and former Cowboys and Packers head coach Mike McCarthy.
As to the franchise’s three most recent coaches, dating back to the first term of the Nixon administration, each one (Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher, Mike Tomlin) was a defensive coordinator with no previous head-coaching experience. That formula, if followed again, would point to the likes of Shula, Weaver, Evero, and Minter.
But here’s the basic reality. Since hiring Tomlin in 2007, the game has changed. It has skewed more and more toward offense, with the post-2009 emphasis on player safety making it harder to play old-school, hard-nosed, Steel Curtain defense.
When the NFL started aggressively flagging and fining players for illegal hits on defenseless receivers, there was a disconnect between the league’s application of the rules and the manner in which Tomlin was coaching them. Eventually, the league put Tomlin on the Competition Committee in part to get him to buy in to the new way of playing the game.
As of 2026, it’s impossible for the Steelers to ignore the evolution of the game. And, frankly, their offense has been sluggish at best in the years after the retirement of Ben Roethlisberger. If the Steelers intend to never be in position to draft a franchise quarterback, they’ll need to find and develop one another way, either by hitting on a lower draft pick or getting more out of a veteran than he has done elsewhere. Having an offensive mastermind as the team’s head coach will help.
Then there’s the question of whether they want another coach who’ll stick around for 15 years or longer. The availability of Pittsburgh native Mike McCarthy is intriguing, but he’s 62. Noll (23 seasons), Cowher (15), and Tomlin (19) were each in their 30s when hired.
At first blush, Shula feels like a perfect fit, given that his grandfather, Don, recommended Noll for the job. Only 15 days after Don Shula and Noll worked together in Super Bowl III (which their Colts lost to the Jets), Noll was hired by the Steelers.
But perfection is revealed after the fact. With a coach who isn’t fired because he performs well enough to not be. Plenty of first-time coaches fail, largely because the coordinator and head-coach skillsets are very different.
Wherever it goes, the weight of hiring three straight Super Bowl winners is palpable. And if it’s obvious from the outside, it’s inescapable on the inside.
The Raiders are beginning to set up second interviews with head coaching candidates.
Per Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, Las Vegas is setting up an in-person interview with Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero next week.
Evero interviewed virtually with the Raiders on Wednesday.
Evero has been the Panthers’ defensive coordinator since 2023, first taking the job under former head coach Frank Reich. While Carolina finished at the bottom of the league defensively in 2024, Evero helped turn the unit around to finish No. 16 in yards and No. 15 in points allowed in 2025.
Evero has coordinated two top-10 defenses — first with what the Broncos in 2022 (No. 7 in yards allowed) and then with the Panthers in 2023 (No. 4 in yards allowed).
Fowler notes the meeting between Evero and the Raiders is set to take place in South Florida.
Evero is also on the Steelers’ radar for their head coaching vacancy.
The Raiders have interviewed two more candidates for their head coaching job.
Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter and Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero are the new additions to the list. Both interviews were conducted virtually and both coaches will be available for second interviews after the divisional round since their teams have been eliminated from the playoffs.
Minter has received interview requests from every team looking for a head coach other than the Steelers and has been making the rounds this week. Evero has several requests as well, including one that the Steelers made on Thursday.
The Raiders have also interviewed former Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski, Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, Broncos quarterbacks coach/pass game coordinator Davis Webb, Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, and Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak.
The Steelers have added another name to the list of candidates to succeed Mike Tomlin as their head coach.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that they have requested an interview with Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero.
Evero has spent the last three seasons running the defense for Carolina and he was the Broncos’ coordinator in 2022. His name has come up in conjunction with several head coaching searches in recent seasons, including those being conducted by the Falcons and Raiders this month.
The Steelers have requested interviews with a number of coaches since Tomlin stepped down earlier this week. Team owner Art Rooney II said on Wednesday that he will not be putting an exact time frame on how long he’d like the process to take.
The NFL previously applied the term “super” to the wild-card round of the playoffs. This year, the ratings were.
Via Sports Business Journal, the six games televised by Fox (which had two), CBS, Prime Video, NBC and ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 attracted an average of 31.9 million viewers.
That’s a 13-percent increase from last year, and the best since the NFL expanded the playoffs from six teams to seven in 2020, which grew the wild-card round from four games to six.
The total average is the best since the four-game format attracted an average of 32.6 million in 2016 for these games: Raiders-Texans, Lions-Seahawks, Dolphins-Steelers, and Packers-Giants. The smallest victory margin that year was 13 points, with an average score of 30-11.
This year, four of the games went down to the wire. Two of the games were lopsided.
Usually, the first game of wild-card weekend is expected to be a clunker, relative to the rest of the slate. This year, Rams-Panthers was anything but.
The 34-31 shootout, with four leads changes in the fourth quarter alone, racked up 28 million viewers on Fox. It was a seven-percent bump over last year’s early Saturday wild-card game between the Chargers and Texans on CBS and Nickelodeon, and the biggest audience for the Saturday afternoon wild-card game since Saints-Seahawks in January 2011.
The quality of the Rams-Panthers game helped overcome the reality that the Panthers were viewed as playoffs ratings poison, with an 8-9 record and a division title earned with a Week 18 loss followed by the Falcons beating the Saints the next day.
If the game had gone like last year’s 32-12 win by Houston over L.A., the number for Rams-Panthers likely would have been a lot lower.
Bryce Young is set for at least two more years with the Panthers.
Young is heading into his fourth season and General Manager Dan Morgan told reporters on Tuesday that the team plans to exercise their option on the quarterback’s contract for the 2027 season. The salary for that option year is expected to be around $26.5 million and it will be fully guaranteed once it is officially exercised.
The prospect of the Panthers picking up Young’s option seemed unlikely when he was benched early in the 2024 season, but he showed clear improvement once he returned to the lineup after Andy Dalton’s injury and he showed more progress while helping the Panthers to the NFC South title in 2025.
There was still enough inconsistency to fuel doubts about whether Young will become the kind of star that the Panthers hoped to land with the first overall pick in 2023, but picking up the option gives Young time to show that he can reach that level in Carolina.
Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero is getting looks as a head coaching candidate from multiple teams, but his current employer wants to hold onto him.
Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports that the Falcons have requested an interview with Evero. The Raiders also put in a request to speak to him on Sunday.
Evero finished his third season with the Panthers on Saturday and head coach Dave Canales said on Sunday that he “absolutely” wants Evero to remain on the staff in Carolina.
“I have complete trust in Ejiro,” Canales said, via the team’s website. “Love the way that he’s brought this group to play quality football together, and he’s got my full support. Love our scheme, love what we do there, and getting our guys to play together when we execute this scheme, it’s really difficult to play against, and the guys have found a way to play together, communicate together.”
Evero will be able to have a virtual interview with the Falcons, Raiders and any other interested teams this week. Any in-person interviews for coaches currently employed by other teams will not happen until after the divisional round of the playoffs.
