The Carolina Panthers‘ coaching staff changes extended beyond new head coach Frank Reich all the way to the defense. There is plenty of optimism on that side of the ball and justifiably so.

New defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero will call plays after doing a phenomenal job a year ago in his only season with the Denver Broncos. The Broncos finished seventh in total defense.

So what will Evero bring to Carolina?

He’s a 3-4 guy, a Vic Fangio disciple. They two worked together with the San Francisco 49ers when Fangio was the defensive coordinator and Evero was a defensive assistant. A lot of Evero’s fronts start in the 3-4; a lot of the coverage out of that base defense; and a lot of coverage out of that sub-defense are things we’ll see in Carolina.

Evero is not as aggressive as some of the other defensive coordinators, but he was reasonably aggressive as the play-caller in Denver last season, so we can anticipate more of that.

He’ll probably have the guys line up in a base 3-4 — so three defensive linemen, two outside linebackers and two inside linebackers. In the secondary, it’ll be two safeties and two corners with base personnel not in that much.

Evero has surrounded himself with a good staff, starting with bringing in Dom Capers as a defensive assistant. He’s been in the league for a thousand years, but he’s a great defensive coach and a brilliant mind. Fangio always surrounded himself with guys like that, and having Capers there to help Evero is good.

He has some good personnel, too. They’ve got some defensive linemen and edge guys who Evero is going to have a fun time with, particularly Yetur Gross-Matos and Brian Burns. Burns is a game-wrecker who had 12.5 sacks last year. In the secondary, he has cornerback Jaycee Horn, plus safeties Jeremy Chinn and Vonn Bell, who Carolina picked up in free agency.

So Evero will come in and implement this two-high-safety defense where there are deep safeties, at least pre-snap, and he’ll run a lot of Fangio-type stuff. Evero is all about fundamentals. He’s all about technique. With him, it’s all about communication.

As is the case with any new staff, getting things right will take some time. That was how it was in Denver last season when it took a little bit for the defense to get used to Evero calling the plays. But the Carolina guys will get used to it.

The Panthers are going to play fast. They’re going to be aggressive and technically sound. There will be a lot more zone coverage than man coverage, but he won’t be afraid to get after opposing teams when he has to.

Chuck Pagano is a former NFL head coach and assistant. He is best known for his tenure with the Indianapolis Colts where he won two straight AFC South titles.