CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Whatever he draws up for the first play against the Chicago Bears on Sunday, it will be hard for Brad Idzik to top his lone call from the 2020 Pro Bowl.
Idzik was in his first year as a low-level offensive assistant with the Seattle Seahawks, whose staff was selected to coach the NFC team after an early exit from the 2019 playoffs. Brian Schottenheimer, the Seahawks offensive coordinator, tasked the 28-year-old Idzik with coming up with a trick play for the game in Orlando, Fla.
Idzik landed on a double pass that tiny Presbyterian College had completed against Wake Forest shortly after Idzik's playing career with the Demon Deacons ended. So at an NFC offensive meeting, Idzik explained to superstars like Drew Brees, Russell Wilson, Davante Adams and Ezekiel Elliott the play would start with a backward lateral off the artificial turf at Camping World Stadium, with the hope being the defense would assume the play was dead because the ball hit the ground.
"As you can imagine, a mid-20s (coach) standing in front of this group of Pro Bowlers, Drew Brees and all these guys, showing them this Presbyterian (film) cut-up of them throwing the ball down the field," Idzik recalled. "I'm like, 'All right, boys, this is what we're gonna do.'"
Schottenheimer found a spot in the second quarter to try it. Wilson skipped a pass to Adams, who sent a wobbler to Kenny Golladay for a 34-yard completion. A play caller was born.
"You can go back and find it. We ended up throwing the bounce pass for a completion in the Pro Bowl, which I thought was the coolest thing ever," Idzik said. "That was my first one and it's like, 'Hey, all this stuff can work if you design it right and get the right guys doing the right jobs.'"
The Bears' defense will be playing with a higher intensity than the AFC's when Idzik debuts as the Carolina Panthers' play caller. He's 34 now, no longer the NFL's youngest offensive coordinator as he was when he was hired in 2024 but still six years younger than Panthers long snapper J.J. Jansen.
Idzik's youthfulness, and the fact he's not the head coach, help him connect with quarterback Bryce Young and the Panthers' other offensive players on a different level than coach Dave Canales, who announced in February [he was handing off the play-calling duties](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7068047/2026/02/24/panthers-dave-canales-play-calling-brad-idzik/).
When Idzik was hired in Seattle, he impressed Canales with his football IQ, work ethic and love for a game he'd grown up with as part of a three-generation NFL family.
"You could feel there was a sense of legacy with him. You could feel there's a lot of passion with him and he's shown that," Canales said. "I can confidently say Brad Idzik is the hardest worker on our staff. I can also say he's the most conditioned and in shape coach on our staff as well. I've been chasing him for 10 years now, trying to keep up with that guy.
"It's his work ethic. It's how much he cares about the players, how much he cares about being excellent that gave me the confidence to give him this opportunity."
Before the Panthers opened the preseason in Canton, Ohio, Idzik visited the Pro Football Hall of Fame's archives, where he found the bio for his grandfather, John Idzik, in the media guide for the Super Bowl-champion 1970 Baltimore Colts.
After a four-year stretch as the University of Detroit's head coach, John Idzik had stops as the offensive backfield coach for the Miami Dolphins and Colts before serving as the offensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Jets. He died in 2013 during Brad Idzik's senior year at Wake.
"My dad says it all the time," Brad said. "He's like, 'Man, I wish you could have seen him coach. I wish he could have seen you coach.'"
But Idzik had an early exposure to the NFL through his father, also named John, who worked in the front offices for a handful of teams, including a two-year stint as the Jets general manager in 2013-14.
Brad Idzik's earliest football memories were sweating in the metal bleachers at the old Tampa Stadium when his dad was the Buccaneers' coordinator of football administration. When his children were old enough, John Idzik would have each of the three join him on separate days at the Bucs' training camp at the University of Tampa.
"We'd go spend the night and go to the food hall," Idzik said. "You'd jump in the golf cart with him going from practice to meeting and dropping you back off at the hotel where they're staying."
As a middle schooler in Arizona, Idzik would do a mock draft every year of who the Cardinals should select. In 2006, he thought the Cards should take Georgia tight end Leonard Pope. It turns out the Cardinals' decision-makers also liked Pope, and had decided to take him in the third round. John Idzik, the team's director of football operations, called his son and let on like he had influenced the pick.
"I said, 'Now you cannot tell anybody. Nobody knows this. We're on the clock right now. But we're gonna pick your guy, Leonard Pope,'" John Idzik said with a laugh.
"He wasn't just a fly-by-night, pick the Topps card candidates for the draft. He would study guys," John added. "When I would go to a school or a practice or a game, he'd ask me about guys."
Idzik's interest in the draft continued through his years at Wake Forest, where he was a special teams player and reserve receiver after transferring from Lehigh following the second of two ACL surgeries. Idzik and fellow walk-on Jordan Garside would reserve a lecture hall in the business school, write their mocks on the whiteboard and throw a two-person draft party.
"We just ordered pizza and hung out. I don't think anyone else really shared the interest that him and I did," Garside said. "It wasn't like a casual thing for us. We were diving into the players and what their next pick was."
Even at a school like Wake Forest, Idzik's academic pursuits stood out. "I think he might have been the only player on the team majoring in mathematical business," Garside said.
He likely was also the only player who spent his last semester studying abroad at Cambridge. Idzik might have gone into the scouting or business side of football had he not sent an email to Stanford coach David Shaw, who brought him in as a graduate assistant. Idzik was at Stanford for five seasons, leaving with a master's degree in liberal arts and a familiar career direction, but one of his own choosing.
"I always appreciated that about my dad. He always made sure that I wasn't doing football because he was in it," Idzik said. "He wanted me to carve my own path."
John Idzik, who's retired and lives in Florida, said he and his wife, Carol, encouraged their children to follow their dreams. Bryant, their older son, is an engineer for SpaceX, while their daughter, Holly, is an elementary school teacher and yoga instructor.
"We've got three kids (with) different interests and personalities," John said. "And as parents, all we wanted is to find your passion, chase your passion and we'll help you any way we can. And Brad's just happened to be football."
Idzik helped Canales prepare for offensive coordinator interviews when both were in Seattle, then accompanied him to Tampa when Canales landed the OC job with the Buccaneers in 2023. Two years later Idzik had his first coordinator gig.
"I remember his first year here, he was always in cleats running around, doing routes and stuff like that. I'm like, 'That's our OC? Just running around doing that?'" Panthers tight end Tommy Tremble said. "But he's a cool cat, man. We've got a lot of respect for Brad."
Idzik's energetic personality is a nice complement to Young's even-keeled demeanor, according to offensive pass game coordinator Mike Bercovici.
"The pre-snap communications, getting (Young) hyped after a great play in practice -- that's definitely our culture here is keeping things upbeat and showing appreciation for guys when they do it right," said Bercovici, who is Idzik's assistant. "That's just a cool thing to watch them grow, whether they're chest-bumping or radioing, 'Great play.' Making our quarterback smile or laugh is always a win. … They've got a great thing going."
Idzik plans to call plays from the sideline, in part so he can talk to players between series about what they're seeing and consider any suggestions they have. "I want that to be my flavor," he said. "I want to be receptive to everyone around me and make sure they feel heard in our offense, while also making sure it meshes together with how I want it to come off."
It remains to be seen how the Panthers' offense comes off in Idzik's first season directing it. They begin the year without both starting tackles and unsure what they'll get from Jonathon Brooks in his return from a second ACL surgery. But Young has playmakers in Tetairoa McMillan, the Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2025, Jalen Coker, Chuba Hubbard, Brooks, Tremble and veteran tight end Darren Waller.
Canales and assistant head coach Darrell Bevell, the former Seahawks offensive coordinator, will weigh in with their opinions. But Canales wants the offense to be Idzik's. Said Idzik: "Dave's all for, 'Fire the gun, Brad. Let's go. And we'll evaluate it as we go and we'll grow together.'"
The same goes for John Idzik. The former GM will come to a few games, talk through different scenarios and serve as a sounding board for his son, who he believes is well-equipped for the next step in his career.
"I kind of laugh at (people saying), 'Boy, he's a young coordinator,'" John said. "I'm like, ehh, he's young by age but not young by experiences. He's done this a long time. He's been exposed to it for a long time."
This article originally appeared in [The Athletic](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7566351/2026/09/07/carolina-panthers-brad-idzik-offensive-coordinator-play-caller/).