Panthers news: Bobby Slowik, Ben Johnson, Bryce Young and Baker Mayfield

Carolina Panthers interview Bobby Slowik

As previously stated, the Carolina Panthers have been busy over the past few days interviewing prospective head coaches. It's an exhausting process, but those in power need to explore every potential avenue in the hope of finding the right guy to take this struggling franchise forward at long last.

One name going relatively under the radar compared to most is Bobby Slowik. Although there are five interview requests tabbed in his direction, the Houston Texans offensive coordinator's recent comments suggested he was going to wait until their playoff engagement at the Baltimore Ravens concluded before speaking with other teams.

Or so we thought.

The Panthers - somewhat surprisingly - announced they'd conducted a virtual interview with Slowik on Thursday afternoon. This is the only team he's spoken with so far. No national NFL insider picked up the news beforehand. It was cloak-and-dagger stuff, which seems pretty significant.

Slowik is another descendant from the Mike Shanahan coaching tree. Even though he specializes on the offensive side of things, there is some defensive background thrown in for good measure. His sterling development of rookie sensation C.J. Stroud is another reason teams are interested in securing his services.

If the Panthers cannot convince Ben Johnson this is the destination for him, then Slowik is not a bad consolation prize by any stretch of the imagination.