Jim Caldwell is in his second season with the Carolina Panthers serving as senior assistant. Reporting directly to Head Coach Dave Canales, Caldwell will assist the team on offense, defense, and special teams.
Caldwell enters his 44th season coaching football, and his 20th in the NFL. He has 15 years as a head coach, including seven seasons leading the Indianapolis Colts (2009-11) and Detroit Lions (2014-17), where he compiled a 62-50 (.554) regular-season record, four playoff berths, two 11-win seasons, and one conference championship. He also won Super Bowls as an assistant coach with Indianapolis (Super Bowl XLI) and Baltimore (Super Bowl XLVII). Overall, teams on which he has been part of the coaching staff have qualified for the playoffs 13 times in 17 seasons.
In his most recent position, Caldwell served as the assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach for the Miami Dolphins (2019).
In his four seasons (2014-17) as Detroit's head coach, Caldwell went 36-28 (.563) with two playoff appearances for a team that made the postseason once in their previous 14 years, and became the first Lions head coach to have a winning record since 1972. The Lions accumulated a .667 winning percentage against the NFC North during his tenure, marking the team's best four-year divisional winning percentage since divisional play began in 1967.
In 2017, quarterback Matthew Stafford continued his ascent under Caldwell as he established a new single-season franchise record with a 99.3 passer rating. Cornerback Darius Slay was named to his first-career Pro Bowl after tying for the NFL lead in interceptions with eight. Detroit finished with winning seasons in back-to-back years for the first time since 1994-95.
In 2016, his third season at the Lions' helm, Caldwell guided Detroit to a 9-7 record and a trip to the playoffs for the second time in three seasons. By earning a playoff berth in 2016, Caldwell joined Buddy Parker (1952, 1953) and Bobby Ross (1997, 1999) as the only coaches in Lions history to lead the team to the playoffs twice in their first three seasons with the club. The Lions trailed in the fourth quarter in eight of the team's wins in 2016. The eight fourth-quarter, come-from-behind wins set a new NFL record, surpassing the previous total of seven set by the 2009 Indianapolis Colts (also coached by Caldwell), for the most wins in a season after trailing in the fourth quarter.
Following a 1-7 start to the 2015 season, Caldwell led the Lions to a 7-9 record on the shoulders of a 6-2 surge to finish the year. Detroit became the fourth team since 1991 to start a season with one or fewer wins in the first eight games and finish with an NFL-best 6-2 record. It marked the Lions' best second-half finish since the team finished 7-1 in 1995.
In 2014, Caldwell was named Detroit's head coach and helped the Lions compile an 11-5 regular-season record. He became the third coach in team history to lead the Lions to the playoffs in his first year with the team (George Wilson in 1957; Bobby Ross in 1997). The Lions' 2014 defense ranked second in the NFL in total defense (300.9 yards allowed per game) and third in points allowed (17.6 points allowed per game). The team's No. 2 ranking in total defense was the highest finish for the Lions since 1970, and the 300.9 yards allowed per game were the fewest yards allowed by a Lions defense since 1993. Detroit had the NFL's top-ranked rush defense in 2014, yielding just 69.3 yards per game, which not only set a team single-season record but was also the ninth-best single-season run defense in NFL history.
With the Ravens for two seasons (2012-13), Caldwell started as the quarterbacks coach (2012) before he was promoted to offensive coordinator with three games left in the season. Baltimore responded by going on to win Super Bowl XLVII. In the team's final seven games, including four in the postseason, the Ravens averaged 400.6 yards per game and 27.3 points per game, including 410.3 yards per game and 31.0 points per game in the playoffs. The Ravens' 31.0 points per game in the postseason was the highest playoff scoring average in NFL history by a Super Bowl team who advanced from the Wild Card round and played four playoff games.
Caldwell spent 10 seasons (2002-11) with Indianapolis, ultimately serving as head coach for three seasons (2009-11). The Colts tied an NFL record with nine consecutive playoff appearances (2002-10), won six AFC South titles, two AFC championships, and Super Bowl XLI during his tenure. As the team's head coach, he compiled a 26-22 record (.542), winning the AFC South twice and earning an appearance in Super Bowl XLIV. He became just the fourth person in NFL history to win 24-plus games and earn a berth in the Super Bowl in their first two seasons as a head coach, and the second rookie head coach in NFL history to win 14 games as Indianapolis went 14-2 (2019).
Working with the quarterbacks (2002-05) at the start of his Colts tenure, Caldwell was promoted to assistant head coach/quarterbacks (2006-07), before being named associate head coach (2008) and then head coach (2009). He helped quarterback Peyton Manning and the team total eight top-10 finishes in total offense and six top-5 finishes in his 10 seasons.
Caldwell's NFL coaching career began in 2001 as quarterbacks coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Before that, he spent eight seasons (1993-2000) as head coach at Wake Forest. Caldwell had extensive experience as an NCAA assistant coach with stints at Penn State (1986-92), Louisville (1985), Colorado (1982-84), Northwestern (1981) and Southern Illinois (1978-80). He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, Iowa, in 1977.
A four-year starter at defensive back for Iowa (1973-76), Caldwell and holds a bachelor's degree in liberal arts from the school.
Along his wife, Cheryl, the couple launched the Jim and Cheryl Caldwell Foundation in 2009. The foundation is committed to the educational empowerment of children through digital technology and "preparing young minds for advancement to the 21st Century." The Caldwells also support several other charities throughout the country.
In 2016, Caldwell's hometown of Beloit, Wis., dedicated the Jim Caldwell Gymnasium at the newly opened Fran Fruzen Intermediate School in his honor. He was inducted into Beloit High School's Hall of Fame (2011) and the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame (2013).
The couple has four adult children – Jimmy, Jermaine, Jared, and Natalie – and four grandsons, James III, Joshua, Larry III and Landon.
1977 | University of Iowa | Graduate Assistant
1978-80 | Southern Illinois University | Defensive Backs/ Defensive Coordinator
1981 | Northwestern University | Defensive Backs
1982-84 | University of Colorado | Outside Linebackers/ Wide Receivers/ Quarterbacks
1985 | University of Louisville | Defensive Backs
1986-92 | Penn State University | Quarterbacks/ Passing Game Coordinator
1993-00 | Wake Forest University | Head Coach
2001 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | Quarterbacks
2002-08 | Indianapolis Colts | Assistant Head Coach/Quarterbacks
2009-11 | Indianapolis Colts | Head Coach
2012 | Baltimore Ravens | Quarterbacks/ Interim Offensive Coordinator
2013 | Baltimore Ravens | Offensive Coordinator
2014-17 | Detroit Lions | Head Coach
2019 | Miami Dolphins | Assistant Head Coach/Quarterbacks
2023-pres | Carolina Panthers | Senior Assistant
