The competitive disadvantage Panthers will have in 2020 is like nothing I’ve seen
When the Panthers hired Matt Rhule in early January, the new coach from Baylor knew he was taking over a team that had disintegrated in the final months of 2019 while losing its last eight games in a row.
But he also knew he inherited a roster that included former Pro Bowlers like Luke Kuechly, Cam Newton and Greg Olsen, and that he would also be awarded the extra minicamp the NFL gives new coaches to become acclimated to their teams.
Rhule would meet everyone no later than April, get a feel for his team and his new coaching staff by June and hit the ground running at a full-go training camp in Spartanburg in late July.
Of course, none of that happened.
The Panthers will enter the 2020 NFL season with the biggest competitive disadvantage I have seen up close in professional sports, and I’ve covered every Carolina season in franchise history.
Some of this is by the Panthers’ own doing, of course — they didn’t have to part ways with Newton, Olsen, James Bradberry, Trai Turner, Graham Gano, Mario Addison and so many others. Some of their wounds are self-inflicted. They didn’t have to lead the NFL in “dead cap money” in 2020, meaning they are gulping down one old contract after another in hopes of clearing space for a brighter future.
But some of it is also just bad timing.
COVID-19 has affected everyone in the world. I certainly don’t mean to equate losing a few football games with the havoc this global pandemic has wreaked. The NFL will be very fortunate if it gets the 2020 season in at all, but whether it does or does not is completely insignificant in comparison to the 150,000-plus deaths the coronavirus has caused in the U.S.
The fact remains, though, that if the NFL does play this season, the Panthers are almost always going to look like they are running uphill on that 100-yard field.
With the exception of star running back Christian McCaffrey, the Panthers don’t have elite talent. They don’t know each other very well. They never got that extra minicamp. And there’s no way to fix any of this right away.
The Panthers are the only NFL team this year replacing their head coach, their quarterback, their star linebacker and both their offensive and defensive coordinators, and they are doing so practically in the dark. As of late this week, Rhule hadn’t even seen several of his players in person, even though he’s been on the job nearly seven months.
“I still haven’t met all the players yet,” Rhule said Wednesday. “Guys are going to be walking in and I’m going to be introducing them to me and (saying) ‘Hey, I’m Matt Rhule’ and meeting them through masks and all those different things.”
Since mid-March, pro football has shrunk to the size of a computer screen. Players have learned from coaches in virtual meetings. Coaches have watched film and made hiring and firing decisions based purely on pixels.
I asked Rhule this week during his press conference if he felt like the 2020 Panthers were at a competitive disadvantage.
Said the coach: “Yeah, I mean it’s less than ideal…. But it just is what it is, right? There’s nothing worse than a football coach who complains.”
There are a few things worse, but the point is valid. There’s no sense whining about all this. These Panthers purposefully started tearing down their foundation in December, when owner David Tepper fired Ron Rivera. COVID-19 just accelerated the process.
Oddsmakers at BetOnline have ranked the Panthers as the third-most likely NFL team to post the fewest wins in 2020. Only Jacksonville and Washington — Rivera’s new team — are ranked “above” them in that category.
It wouldn’t be a terrible thing if this Panthers team only won a couple of games, either. If the Panthers post the fewest wins in 2020, they would likely have their pick of Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence or Ohio State QB Justin Fields in the 2021 draft. Remember, the Panthers’ 2-14 season in 2010 gave them Cam Newton in 2011. Their 1-15 season in 2001 provided Julius Peppers in 2002.
Rhule understands the “tear down to build up” approach very well. He was 2-10 in his first season at Temple; 1-11 in his first year at Baylor. These Panthers, playing in a strong NFC South, were never going to be a playoff contender, but that’s OK. Rhule has a seven-year contract and a mandate from Tepper to do whatever he needs to do to build a team that has sustained success.
“We all have to do the best we can within it as a challenge,” Rhule said. “It’s like anything else — when you go through something like this, when things go back to the way they were…. you’re that much more grateful for the things that you had.”
We will have most of those things again, one day. So will the Panthers.
In the meantime, wear a mask and brace yourself. It’s going to get better.
But 2020, as you already know, is going to be very tough.
This story was originally published July 31, 2020 at 2:34 PM with the headline "The competitive disadvantage Panthers will have in 2020 is like nothing I’ve seen."
