New York Giants' defensive assistant Al Holcomb has been hired by the Carolina Panthers to be their new linebacker coach, following the firing of Warren Belin early this off-season.

The salary cap situation for the Carolina Panthers might be bad, but at least Dave Gettleman is keeping his coaching expenditure down. Bringing Holcomb aboard represents another low-cost hiring, and another addition of inexperience to the coaching staff. If the plan is to turn the 7-9 Panthers into a playoff team quickly, they have a funny plan for doing it.

Arriving in the NFL in 2009, Holcomb has no NFL experience as a position coach. In fact, his only position coach experience was working with the defensive line from 2006-08 with tiny Lafayette College. In 2009 he arrived in New York as a defensive quality control coach, and became a defensive assistant in 2011.

The good: He's an immensely hard-working, and self-sacrificing football coach. Holcomb and his family lived apart for much of his time with the Giants so he could pursue his coaching dream.

It's hard to get excited about many of these hirings. In an off-season that should have promoted growth through the addition of experience, the organization have double-downed on small-name coaches and inexperience at key positions. Perhaps in a year we'll see the logic behind these moves, but for now the Panthers don't look like a team pulling out all the stops to win now.