Expert predicts Bengals’ Brian Callahan is next head coach of the Panthers

This feels like the year Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan will break through and land a coveted head coaching gig.

The problem is the where part of the discussion.

Callahan has had or will have interviews for head coach vacancies with four different teams, with one team already requesting an in-person second interview.

But whether it’s the Falcons, Chargers, Titans or Panthers is tough to say.

ESPN’s Dan Graziano, though, predicts that Callahan will be the next head coach of the Panthers:

Callahan hasn’t been the playcaller in Cincinnati, but he has a lot of responsibility in the offense and has been instrumental in the Bengals’ success in recent years. And he has the experience that Tepper could be looking for this offseason. The work Callahan did with Jake Browning this season after Burrow’s season-ending right wrist injury has caught teams’ attention.

Callahan and the Panthers do seem like an ideal younger developmental mix that would fit well. He’d get to handle yet another No. 1 pick, this time quarterback Bryce Young, while rebuilding a program.

While the Panthers aren’t the team to request the second interview with Callahan, at least as of this writing, the fit indeed would make sense for both parties while likely leaving the Bengals with promoting quarterbacks coach Dan Pitcher.