Jim Caldwell Explains Decision to Join the Panthers, His Role + More

Thoughts on the roster

"We haven't done a whole lot of in-depth study yet, we're kind of in that process right now where we get a chance to look at the roster and make some assessments and things of that nature but we're far from that right now."

Why Carolina

"It makes sense for a number of different reasons. When you say outside of the relationship with Frank, I think that's one of the main reasons. A guy who I've worked with, who I know. He knows me. He knows my strengths, my weaknesses as well and there are many. But also, the organization. As you know, I had the opportunity to meet with Mr. Tepper and Scott [Fitterer] and the rest of the crew that were doing the interview process and felt a really good synergy there as well, so that was also part of it. But the location is great because of the fact that we've kept our home here in North Carolina. So, my kids all became fans. My kids are all around these areas, my grandkids are around the area. So, it makes a lot of sense in that regard."

His role

"I'm just going to be a little bit of everywhere in terms of the offense, working with the defense some and then also with the special teams unit. I get an opportunity to kind of move around place to place, room to room. Listen. And if there's questions asked of me I can give my advice. But specifics in terms of quarterbacks, we have a lot of really quality quarterback folks in that room, so I don't think they need my two cents."

How important it was for him to just get back in an NFL building

"Oftentimes in your career you gotta do resets once in a while, right? Right now, the only thing I'm concerned about is the job that I do here. Right here and now. I'm not worried about the future or anything else. I don't plan on being a head coach from this point forward but my focus is on doing the absolute best job for this organization at this particular point in time."

If he thought he was done coaching 

"No. Matter of fact, I've stayed active. Even though I may not have been on the sidelines, I did a lot of consulting. Stayed involved in a number of different programs and did just a lot of the evaluations for different teams on different players and things of that nature, so I've stayed involved. I know at some point in time I'd get to this point where I am now. I'm happy about it."

Lack of diversity in head coaching hires

"Number one, when you look at the numbers, they speak for themselves. There's been volumes and volumes of articles written, reporting on television about the lack of diversity in terms of head coaching position. But there's been a lot of things done in the background to try and improve that. I think the league and Troy Vincent and Roger Goodell have done just a great job of just trying to scratch and dig and find different ways to enhance that particular position. They've added the accelerator program where they give a lot of the top minority candidates in the National Football League to attend the owner's meeting. Meet with the owners, talk with them so they're familiar with them and get a chance to really engage them. Then also, we've run a quarterback summit. Which is really devised to try to get more guys that are coaching the quarterbacks, that seems to be the avenue to reach a head coaching position. What I like to see is the league is not just talking about it, they're doing something about it."