CHARLOTTE — Dave Canales knows exactly what he's getting in Darrell Bevell.

That means the truth, whether he's ready for it or not.

And that's something the third-year coach is wise to add to his staff, according to one of his predecessors.

By making the longtime NFL assistant his associate head coach, among a number of staffing changes announced on Wednesday, Canales has added another experienced voice to his staff, who can help in several ways. Along with making offensive coordinator Brad Idzik his play-caller and bringing in longtime NFL assistant Carl "Tater" Smith as a senior offensive consultant, it creates the opportunity for Canales to take on a more big-picture role and grow as a leader.

"I think the biggest influence that he'll have is just that he's done every part of it," Canales said of Bevell. "So he'll help me evaluate all that we're doing from that experience that Brad and I don't have. We don't have the years and years and years of it, so he can kind of look at it and say, 'We can be better here. We can be better there."

And Canales knows, based on their experience, that Bevell will tell him straight.

The two have known each other since 2011, when Seahawks coach Pete Carroll let his young assistant sit in when he interviewed Bevell for their offensive coordinator job. Canales was still in the quality control phase of his coaching career, eyes wide open.

Bevell got the job, of course, after five years as offensive coordinator with the Vikings, and Canales immediately latched onto him as he tried to grow and learn.

"So I brought him into the offensive conference room and he started talking about the pass game and progressions, and he was just with Brett Favre in Minnesota and Sidney Rice and, young Percy Harvin and he was kind of just talking about how they built it and the influences he had on the West Coast pass game and the influences that they had on him.

"And, right away, you could tell this guy, just the amount of information, the detail that went into every pass, the progressions, and all the different things and adjustments. And I was just like, oh, this is going to be really good."

So, having secured a mentor as he learned on the fly about being an NFL coach, Canales also found someone willing to tell him what he needed, not what he wanted to hear. After spending two years as a quality control coach and then adding assistant quarterbacks coach to his title in 2013, Canales was eager to grow and take on more responsibilities. He just didn't necessarily know how.

"I would say probably the most critical moment in my career," Canales recalled. "I had been working for him for two years. I was getting to a point where, all right, it's time to be a position coach of some sort, quarterbacks, wide receivers, probably. So I asked him, hey, this is what I would like to do, what do I need to do to prepare myself for that?

"And he's like, let me think about it."

So after Bevell thought about it, they sat over lunch at High Velocity in the JW Marriott during the scouting combine, and Bevell told him in explicit detail.

"I could sense his frustration at how I did things," Canales said. "And at the same time, he was very respectful. He knew, this is what his capacity is currently, and he's working hard. So, I could sense that he respected that part of it, but then I asked, and he just gave me a window, an opportunity, and he took advantage of that to say, 'It could be better. It can be way better.'"

Canales has always had an easy way with people. His relational ability is part of what landed him with Carroll to begin with, as a coach with connections in Southern California when he worked Carroll's camps at USC. But what Bevell was challenging him to do was to be more detailed in how he drew plays, presented information to players, and filed reports. To drill deeply into the fine points of football. But also spelling, and being precise with the words they used (like Carroll, Bevell was a big "no synonyms" guy, insisting that they use the same words when describing plays or concepts, creating a clarity for players who heard their messages daily).

And the way he told Canales made an impression on a young coach.

"He had a list and he just kind of ruthlessly just went through the things that I needed to improve to be excellent," Canales said. "And he's like, excellence is going to be how you impress the people around you, your mastery of the information, the detail of your work, because that's all you have to go off of. People are going to say, well, this is how he does his work. This is how he's going to do the next job.

"And he really challenged me to step it up and to get things up to standard and to make sure that when I gave my work to him, it was really hard for him to find mistakes, and he challenged me that way. I didn't like it. I heard him, though. What came natural to me was connecting with people and investing in people, encouraging them, coaching guys. What didn't come naturally to me was being very organized and very detailed and meticulous about my work, and that's the part that I took his challenge."

That 2013 season, of course, included a Super Bowl win, so there was a lot to celebrate in Seattle. But when they got to Indianapolis again following the season, there was another lunch.

"And we're sitting there talking, and he said, let's have lunch again," Canales recalled. "He said, I challenged you with all these things, and you nailed it. You crushed it, and I respect that, and I won't forget that. And that meant a lot to me. I had to really get my world in order. And from that point on, that's how I've gone about my business.

"I can always sit down and talk to somebody and connect with them, but can you get to a goal by being really organized and really detailed, and he helped me with that, right?

Having that kind of mentor, the one who will be honest with you, is critical for a young coach.

Ron Rivera is a fan of the work Canales is doing, but he knows from his own time that getting a little tough love can be crucial, because once you're in the big chair, there will be some outside criticism, but there will also be a parade of people telling you how smart you are.

"I think Dave is a really good coach; he has that ability," Rivera said. "But every coach needs somebody to tell him what he needs to hear, not what he wants to hear."

Rivera found that guy in his second year as head coach, when Steve Wilks joined his staff. Wilks has never been a beat-around-the-bush guy, and as Rivera learned, that was critical in his development as a first-time head coach.

"I was fortunate, I had a couple of people who could tell me, Ron, you might have f-ed that up," Rivera laughed. "And when you have that guy that's not afraid to tell you the truth, all of a sudden you begin to realize stuff."

Rivera made Wilks his assistant head coach in 2015, the year the Panthers went to the Super Bowl, and he remembers those lessons around the way.

"When Steve came to work for us, that was probably one of the best things that happened for me," Rivera said. "He sees things the way they should be, and that's the thing that I've always loved about him because if he sees it and he thinks it can be a better way or a different way, he's going to give you his opinion."

So for Canales, having a guy like that in Bevell is huge as he enters a year in which the Panthers are trying to take another step.

There's all the stuff about offense, and that's going to help. During his early days here, Canales said the emphasis was on "downloading" all the concepts from Bevell's time in Mike McDaniel's Miami offense, so they can add new wrinkles to the offense here.

But mostly, Bevell offers Canales that kind of clear-eyed vision of what he's doing.

"He's very meticulous," Canales said. "I was his primary quality control guy in Seattle, so I got to live that firsthand, and he was very detailed and, and very particular about how he wanted things presented from a visual standpoint, and really felt that if we're asking for excellence out of our players, then as coaches, we need to present things with excellence that's that's visually appealing that is the right information, it's exact. We don't use synonyms, we say this this way, this is how we talk about this route, this is how we talk about this read, so a lot of the details and beliefs come from spending the time on the front end.

"So he brings that, and he's also just a, a very honorable guy, in the time that I've known him, you know, he's a man of his word and a man of integrity. He treats people with respect. He has high standards, but he also treats people with a lot of respect."

Canales found that out over lunch in Indianapolis over a decade ago. And that's why it was important to bring Bevell here now.