Nine 40-Point Games Later, Carolina Finally Stopped Waiting

The Carolina Panthers spent three and a half years insisting Ejiro Evero's defense was better than the scoreboard said. On Thursday, roughly 14 hours after a 27-19 loss at Lambeau Field dropped them to 3-4, they stopped insisting. Evero and defensive passing game coordinator Jonathan Cooley were fired, and defensive line coach Todd Wash was elevated to interim coordinator with the play-calling duties.

The number that made the decision inevitable: since Evero was hired in 2023, Carolina has allowed 40 or more points nine times, more than any team in the league over that span. That's not a slump. That's an era.

What the numbers actually say

The 2026 profile is a strange one, because the Panthers aren't bad in aggregate — 27.6 points and 360.3 yards allowed per game, against 25.4 points and 383.1 yards gained. They out-gain people. They just don't out-score them consistently, and the gap between those two facts is where Evero ran out of runway.

The recent form is worse than the season line. Over the last five games, Carolina has scored 21.4 points per game while allowing 26.2 — a minus-4.8 differential and a defense that has quietly stopped getting off the field. The pass rush that was supposed to be this team's identity this season never fully arrived, and the edge group has been thinned by injury.

Then there's the home split, which is the part that should genuinely alarm the building. In three games at Bank of America Stadium, the Panthers are allowing 42.7 points per game and have been outscored by 15.3 per contest. On the road, that number is 16.3 points allowed across four games. Whatever Evero's scheme was doing, it did not travel well in either direction.

The timing is not gentle

Wash inherits this with the Denver Broncos (6-2) arriving on Nov. 8, then a road trip to New Orleans, a home date with Baltimore, and visits to Tampa Bay and Minnesota. He has a bye-week's worth of runway and no cushion at all.

His résumé is credible for the assignment: he was Jacksonville's defensive coordinator in 2020 and coached Seattle's defensive line from 2011-12 before joining Carolina's staff. The interim tag also means he's auditioning for a job in a league that notices.

Offensively, Bryce Young's season looks sturdier than his last month does. On the year: 1,921 yards, 13 touchdowns, five interceptions, 89.2 passer rating and 7.1 yards per attempt. Over his last three games, though, that rating falls to 72.7 with a 53.3 completion rate and 5.0 adjusted yards per attempt. Green Bay sacked him six times. He's been taken down 23 times in seven games, a 7.9 percent sack rate, and the offensive line issues ESPN flagged in the trenches remain unresolved.

That matters for Wash specifically. A coordinator change mid-season usually produces one of two things — a simplified menu and more pressure packages — and both put stress on a defense that will be asked to hold up while an inconsistent offense finds its footing.

The division is doing them a favor

Carolina at 3-4 is still tied atop the NFC South, with Atlanta and Tampa Bay both 3-5 and New Orleans 2-5. The Panthers' rating in this site's power rankings sits at minus-3.9 points against an average team, down 1.3 this week, ranked 19th. That's a below-average team in a bad division — which is exactly the circumstance where a defensive reset can be worth two or three wins.

The market has Denver as a modest road favorite with a total in the low 40s, which frames the matchup as a low-scoring, prove-it game for a rebuilt defensive staff.

One thing we can't assess yet: personnel. The Week 9 injury report hasn't been released, so it's unknown whether Akayleb Evans, Jaelan Phillips and Bobby Brown — all listed among Carolina's notable injuries — will be available for Wash's first game. The Panthers have been publicly optimistic about getting reinforcements back. Whether those bodies arrive before the schedule gets mean is a different question.

For now, the story is simple. Carolina decided the defense it had been defending for three years wasn't the defense it wanted.