Panthers elevate Rodgers to secondary coach

The Carolina Panthers announced Richard Rodgers as the secondary coach on Tuesday in the wake of former defensive backs coach Curtis Fuller resigning for inappropriate conduct.

Fuller resigned May 4 amid complaints about inappropriate workplace conduct. The Charlotte Observer reported that Fuller, 39, who joined the Panthers as a coaching assistant in 2013, sent inappropriate texts and emails to an unknown number of female staff members.

Rodgers is in his seventh season with the Panthers and was the assistant defensive backs coach since 2015 after initially joining the team as a special teams' assistant in 2012.

Last season seven of Carolina's nine interceptions in the final nine weeks were from its secondary, helping the Panthers accumulate the league's third-best turnover differential at plus-eight. Since 2015, Carolina's 51 interceptions are second in the NFL.

The Panthers also named Jeff Imamura as assistant secondary and cornerback coach. He is expected to handle the cornerbacks while Rodgers will focus on the safeties.

Imamura is in his second season with the club.

Additionally, Vincent Rivera was named a defensive quality control coach.

Rivera, who is the nephew of head coach Ron Rivera, will be responsible for defensive game planning. He is in his first season with the team after finishing his college playing career as a wide receiver/running back at Cal in 2016.

Besides the coaching moves, the Panthers also named Mark Carrier as a senior advisor to general manager Marty Hurney. Carrier previously was Carolina's director of player engagement since 2011.

In another front office move, Jeff Morrow was elevated to senior director of college scouting after spending last season as the director of college scouting. Morrow has spent 20 of his 23 seasons in the NFL with Carolina.

In other moves, Eric Stokes and Mike Szabo were named regional directors of college scouting. Stoke has been with the team since 2016 while Szabo has worked for the Panthers for 16 years and recently served as their national scout.

The Panthers also made four other front office moves, naming Mike Martin as southwest area scout, Rob Hanrahan assistant director of pro personnel, Austin Bergstrom college scouting coordinator and Chris Herbert assistant video director.