Carolina had the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft in April and, as the league’s worst team this season, would have picked first this year, too, except the Panthers traded into the top spot in 2023 to select Alabama quarterback Bryce Young.

Carolina won one of its first 11 games and fired Frank Reich in his first season as the Panthers’ coach. Special-teams coordinator Chris Tabor completed the season at the helm as Carolina finished at 2-15.

On Thursday, three days after hiring former Panthers linebacker Dan Morgan as general manager, Carolina chose its next head coach, picking Dave Canales over more seasoned coaches who interviewed for the job, including former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel, The Associated Press reported.

Canales served as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ offensive coordinator during the 2023 season. The Bucs defeated Carolina 21-18 and 9-0 in NFC South games this season.

Tampa Bay finished 20th in points and 23rd in yards among the 32 NFL teams during the 2023 NFL regular season.

Before joining the Buccaneers in 2023, Canales spent 13 seasons on the staff of Pete Carroll with the Seattle Seahawks. He served as the wide-receivers coach for eight seasons, quarterbacks coach for three seasons and passing-game coordinator for two seasons.

As a rookie, Young started 16 of the Panthers’ 17 games, missing one because of an ankle injury.

The 2021 Heisman Trophy winner completed 315-of-527 passes for 2,877 yards with 11 touchdowns and 10 interceptions and ran for 253 yards on 39 carries. Young’s 73.7 passing-efficiency rating was the worst among the 32 NFL quarterbacks with at least 250 passes in the 2023 season.

Canales will become Carolina’s seventh head coach since David Tepper purchased the Panthers in 2018.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.