Panthers haven’t fixed their problems in 2 years of Matt Rhule. They’re making new ones
Everyone knew this was going to be a long haul, that the future for the Carolina Panthers was way over the horizon somewhere. Look no further than Matt Rhule’s seven-year contract, an owner’s concrete commitment to giving a coach the time needed to orchestrate a complete, top-to-bottom rebuilding.
But by the middle of Year 2, you’re supposed to be fixing more of the old regime’s mistakes, not correcting errors of your own. The bye-week firing of offensive coordinator Joe Brady is the latest dire sign that all is not proceeding according to plan.
Rhule has come under some criticism for admitting he went outside his comfort zone to hire Brady, instead of someone he knew better. That’s actually fine. There are more than enough Temple and Baylor connections running through the Panthers already.
The gamble was to build a staff of elite if unproven coaches, all being asked to translate college success to the NFL: Rhule was the culture-builder with the lengthy contract to establish his mandate. Brady was the offensive whiz kid. Phil Snow was Rhule’s trusted defensive guru from Baylor.
Rhule’s error was going outside his comfort zone for the wrong guy, a product of LSU’s offense rather than the fulcrum of it — yet another offensive misevaluation for the Panthers, who have made too many.
Snow, at least, seems to know what he’s doing. Brady apparently did not, although it’s hard to ask anyone to make chicken salad out of the worst offensive line in the NFL week after week. Brady also didn’t have the Mr. Miyagi hands to keep Christian McCaffrey healthy or the skill players he had at LSU, most of whom were arguably better than anything the Panthers have now.
Brady was never the offensive genius a few credulous people said he was. But this wasn’t all his fault, either.
As for Rhule, if he’s actually built any kind of culture or identity, it’s not apparent. It’s a fragile team, flying high in fair weather and collapsing in the face of adversity. There are too many good players — smart players, tough players — for the Panthers to be this erratic from week to week. That starts at the top.
In the end, all that matters is whether Tepper sees tangible progress. Are the Panthers where he thought they would be now? It’s hard to believe the answer is yes, but it may be. And it also doesn’t mean this can’t be fixed.
There was indeed promise in that 3-0 start, a vision of what the future could be like, with a dominating defense and an offense good enough to make layups and do no harm. The trick is doing it against someone other than the Jets. The trick is doing it without McCaffrey, which is a future the Panthers are going to have to embrace. At this point in his career, contract aside, he has to be considered a bonus, like an extra fortune cookie in the bag — nice to have when it happens, but you can’t plan on it.
They’re still hanging a help wanted sign at quarterback, where Cam Newton and Kyle Allen and Teddy Bridgewater and Sam Darnold and Newton again have all been found wanting. With Newton, at least, absence made the heart grow fonder for both fans and player. He belongs with the Panthers
Still, how much does Newton really have left in the tank? Is that really the future the Panthers want to embrace? A tandem of Newton and Darnold — let the least-damaged man win — doesn’t sound like a recipe for NFL success.
Even the alternative is grim: Behind this biohazard zone of an offensive line, a rookie QB would end up as twitchy as Darnold is — and a first-round pick used on a quarterback is yet another not used on the line. The Panthers have drafted two offensive linemen in the first or second round since 2012, and one was titanic bust Greg Little. (Taylor Moton was the other.)
Unlike any other position, an offensive line is like a 401(k). It needs to be reliably fed for a long period of time to pay dividends. The Panthers have for years invested their prime draft assets elsewhere. To take that analogy too far, the Panthers are heading into retirement with a handful of nickels and a $2 bill.
There hasn’t been much Scott Fitterer could do about that in his first year as general manager. Penei Sewell didn’t fall to the Panthers, and there’s nothing wrong with using a top-10 pick on a lockdown corner. You need those, too. The jury is out on third-round pick Brady Christensen. Moton was kept over Curtis Samuel, the right decision. Fitterer made the duct-tape signings of Cam Erving and Pat Elflein in free agency, but that’s no way to build a foundation for long-term success.
Since Tepper bought the Panthers in 2018, it’s hard to discern the construction of any long-term foundation at all. It took two years to figure out they wanted to move on from Newton (sort of!) and Ron Rivera and that whole group. They wasted a year moving on from Marty Hurney. They wasted another season and a half with Brady running the offense.
This was always going to be a long process. That much was a given. Success was never guaranteed. But at some point, Tepper and Rhule are going to have to start fixing problems they inherited and not ones they created.
This story was originally published December 11, 2021 at 8:00 AM with the headline "Panthers haven’t fixed their problems in 2 years of Matt Rhule. They’re making new ones."
