Eric Washington is unruffled.
He is the Carolina Panthers’ defensive coordinator, promoted a month ago. The responsibility facing him is enormous, but in seven years as the team’s defensive line coach he has been a master of pressure.
The only things that give away the stress of the task Washington, 48, faces are the single gray hair that has emerged in his left eyebrow and the hundreds of notes he has scribbled into his iPad. They are reminders and ideas, teaching tools and endless lists. New notes appear as soon as tasks are checked off, but Washington has these handled, too.