TAKING STOCK: CAROLINA PANTHERS

BY ADAM GREENE

For the Carolina Panthers, the seeds of their utter destruction in 2022 were planted in 2019 when the team fired Ron Rivera, the best head coach in the history of their organization. They replaced him with Matt Rhule, a guy that barely had a record over .500 at the NCAA level and tossed him the keys to an NFL franchise that, just four years before, had gone to the Super Bowl and had made the playoffs in four of the previous seven seasons.

Now, Rhule was definitely and up and coming college coach and he’d done well at Baylor. If he’d been hired by a team like Mississippi State, UCLA or North Carolina State, it would have made perfect sense. To jump from Baylor to an NFL team was absolutely ridiculous and, to no one’s surprise with the exception of then new owner David Tepper, it led to a direct faceplant into a pile of elephant manure. After a 1-4 start to the 2022 campaign and consecutive five-win seasons in the previous two, Tepper had finally seen enough and loaded Rhule into the trebuchet and fired him over the nearest castle wall.

There were plenty of other mistakes made, from trading for 2018 first round bust quarterback Sam Darnold to trading for 2018 first round bust quarterback Baker Mayfield. Or, you know, trading former All-Universe running back Christian McCaffery the one year he wasn’t injured and they were legitimately in the playoff hunt.

With Rhule out of the picture, former Arizona Cardinals head coach Steve Wilks took over as the interim commander and had the team in playoff contention down to the final week. To repay Wilks’ outstanding coaching job in the face of half a season of Mayfield, half a season of Darnold and only half a season of McCaffery, the Panthers promptly fired him and their entire coaching staff, bringing in former Indianapolis head coach Frank Reich, who himself had been fired partway through the 2022 season.

Wilks, who is now the defensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers, righted the Panthers’ ship, to everyone’s surprise, and finished 6-7 in spite of the Mayfield flame out and eventual cut and being forced to start Sam Darnold once again. A six-point loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 17 kept Carolina out of the playoffs and from claiming the NFC South title. Yes. That is a true statement.

CAROLINA PANTHERS

2022-23 Record: 7-10

Playoffs: N/A

2023 Super Bowl Odds: +6600

2023 NFC Championship Odds: +2800

2023 NFC South Odds: +325

NOW WHAT?

If Tepper wasn’t going to keep Wilks as his head coach, and no one seriously thought he would (though plenty of us thought he should), hiring Frank Reich is the first smart thing the dude has done since buying the team. Reich, in spite of his trip down the toilet shoot over his final season and a half with the Colts, was a successful head coach. He currently holds a 41-35-1 overall record with a 1-2 playoff mark. Before 2022, he’d only finished wit a losing record once, in 2019, the year Andrew Luck took off to heal up. Even the famous nosedive the team took in 2021 still came with a 9-8 final mark.

Reich has also assembled a much more talented team than he took over back in January when he was first hired, and we’ll get to those talent additions later on as we discuss the draft and free agency.

The schedule is a gift for the Panthers. There’s every chance they could open 3-0 before taking their first loss when they host the Minnesota Vikings. They probably won’t, but even if they’re underdogs in their first three games against the Atlanta Falcons, New Orleans Saints and Seattle Seahawks, it won’t be by much.

That Vikings game begins a three-game losing streak, almost guaranteed, but then they’ve got a three-game reprieve right after. It doesn’t get a lot harder from then on, with only three games against 2022 playoff teams in their last seven and two of those are against a completely rebuilding Bucs squad that the Panthers beat last season with a significantly worse roster. This is a team that could finish anywhere from 6-11 to 9-8.

THE DRAFT

Carolina traded multiple first round picks and wide receiver DJ Moore (their best offensive weapon left on the team) to the Chicago Bears for the rights to the No. 1 overall pick in April’s NFL Draft and used it on Alabama quarterback Bryce Young. Young is a tremendous talent and worthy of the top pick. I liked CJ Stroud out of Ohio State better, but a lot of that was due to what I saw as a pretty even skillset and Stroud’s actual NFL body. Guys Young’s size, like Kyler Murray and Tua Tagovailoa, have struggled to stay healthy in the league.

They earned a B+ in my draft grades, thanks to taking what looks like starters and contributors in the second and third rounds, Ole Miss wide receiver Jonathan Mingo and Oregon edge rusher DJ Johnson. Of course, none of that matters if Young washes out or gets hurt. It’s important to note that Young is the third quarterback the Panthers have taken in the first round since they entered the league in the 1995 season. Both the other guys, Kerry Collins and Cam Newton, started Super Bowls (albeit Collins did it for the New York Giants) and both those guys led the team into the postseason within two years of being drafted.

FREE AGENCY

Reich and general manager Scott Fitterer addressed the losses the franchise traded away last year early in free agency, signing wide receiver Adam Thielen from the Minnesota Vikings and running back Miles Sanders from the Philadelphia Eagles. Tight end Hayden Hurst comes over from the Cincinnati Bengals, guard Justin McCray from the Houston Texans, wideout Damiere Byrd from the Atlanta Falcons, wide receiver DJ Chark from the Detroit Lions and quarterback Andy Dalton from the New Orleans Saints, a guy who you’re happy to have as a back up and never, ever, and I mean EVER, want to see starting a game.

On defense, they brought in safety Vonn Bell from the aforementioned Bengals, defensive tackle Shy Tuttle from the Saints, defensive end DeShawn Williams from the Denver Broncos, safety Eric Rowe from the Miami Dolphins and outside linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill from the Arizona Cardinals.

NFC SOUTH

I feel like with the addition of Derek Carr and the offensive skill positions around him, the Saints must be your favorites to win the NFC South. No other team, but its division winner, will be making the playoffs out of this crew. That being said, Carolina has a shot and it’ll probably all come down to their head-to-head match ups with New Orleans. I don’t’ think the Panthers will claim the title this season, but they’ll set the stage to possibly do it in 2024.

Follow Adam Greene on Twitter @TheFirstMan.

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