Bruce DeHaven came to Carolina in 2013 expecting to wind down a long and successful career with a low-profile job. But the Panthers needed him to step back into a brighter spotlight.After the mess that was the Panthers’ special teams in 2014, head coach Ron Rivera reassigned special teams coordinator Richard Rodgers earlier this month. DeHaven was elevated from the unit’s assistant to its coordinator, making him the head of special teams for his fifth NFL team.Before he arrived in Charlotte, DeHaven had racked up 26 years of league experience. Two stints with the Bills bookended jobs in San Francisco, Dallas and Seattle. After his second stop in Buffalo, he figured his time as a coordinator had run out.”For some reason, it’s not as you get older, but as you get more experienced, the league starts to think that you can’t do this job anymore,” DeHaven told reporters Thursday at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis. “So you don’t know if you’re ever going to get that shot to be the guy in charge.”

“I’m excited that’s what has transpired.”Before DeHaven accepted Rivera’s offer to take over Carolina’s special teams, he was sensitive to how that would sit with his former boss. Rodgers was being demoted to a defensive assistant, but the coaching swap made too much sense not to happen.When Rodgers took over the Panthers’ special teams in the 2012 season, it was midway through his first year as an NFL coach. He did have 23 seasons of college experience before that, mostly on defense.

PANTHERS 2014 SPECIAL TEAMS	NFL RANK
Net Yards Per Punt	32nd
Average Yards Allowed Per Punt Return	32nd
Points Allowed	32nd
Average Yards Allowed Per Kickoff Return	31st
Rick Gosselin/Dallas Morning News	31st
Football Outsiders Rating	30th

“I wanted to talk to Richard because I had been his assistant for the last two years, and I wanted to make sure that he was ok with this move. He told me he was. He’s had a lot of interest in the defensive side of the ball,” DeHaven said. “If he hadn’t been all right with it, I don’t think I would have taken the job.”With Rodgers moving to defense, DeHaven revealed Curtis Fuller, Carolina’s defensive assistant/defensive backs coach in 2014, will become his special teams assistant. And when asked about adding more ‘aces’ to his unit, a personnel strategy Rivera and general manager Dave Gettleman each talked about last month, DeHaven mentioned safety Colin Jones and defensive end Mario Addison as current Panthers who could fit those jobs.The Panthers allowed four special teams touchdowns last year and finished last in the league in net yards per punt and average yards per punt return. DeHaven has his work cut out for him, but he may be turn out to be an answer that was already on the roster.“The first thing we want to do is eliminate mistakes, eliminate big plays. We’d like to finish the season without having ever cost ourselves a game on special teams,” DeHaven said. “The next step after that is we want to do some things to help us win.”

BRUCE DEHAVEN FILE

• 2013-14: Carolina Panthers special teams assistant
• 2010-12: Buffalo Bills special teams coach; unit set franchise records in punt return average and kickoff return average in 2012; unit led NFL in kickoff coverage in 2011.
• 2007-09: Seattle Seahawks special teams coach; unit was second in the NFL in kickoff return average in 2008.
• 2003-06: Dallas Cowboys special teams coach; unit led NFL in gross punting average in 2006; unit led NFL in kickoff coverage in 2004.
• 2000-02: San Francisco 49ers special teams coach; unit led NFL in punt return average in 2002.
• 1987-99: Buffalo Bills special teams coach; was considered one of the best special teams coaches in the league until he was fired after the Titans’ “Music City Miracle” in 1999; unit helped Bills make four straight Super Bowls, winning six AFC East titles; unit led NFL in fewest punt return yards allowed in 1991; unit led NFL in kickoff coverage from 1987-90.