On the eve of the one-year anniversary of Carolina hiring Frank Reich as head coach, media reported on Thursday the Panthers had discovered their new HC: Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Dave Canales.
In 2023, Reich was heralded as a superb offensive coach with head-coaching expertise, however Panthers proprietor David Tepper fired him after he began the season 1-10. Canales — who resurrected QB Baker Mayfield’s profession this season — might face a way more tough job than Reich in Carolina.
That is due to Tepper, who has a horrible monitor file hiring head coaches.
Since shopping for the crew from authentic proprietor Jerry Richardson in 2018, Tepper is on his third full-time head coach. He changed Richardson-era holdover Ron Rivera with a rebuilding specialist from faculty soccer in Matt Rhule, who went 11-27 and was fired halfway by means of the third season of his seven-year contract.
Tepper’s soccer strikes have led to disastrous outcomes for the Panthers, who completed the season with an NFL-worst 2-15 file. Beneath his possession, Carolina is 31-68 and has not had a profitable season.
“Tepper is method too concerned within the crew.” Mike Florio of Professional Soccer Discuss wrote in late November. “Each proprietor is concerned, nevertheless. Some simply do a greater job of hiding it than others.”
In 2022, Tepper accredited the commerce of star working again Christian McCaffrey to the San Francisco 49ers. He additionally signed off on the commerce that despatched vast receiver D.J. Moore and a 2024 first-round draft decide (and extra) to Chicago for the highest decide within the 2023 NFL Draft.
Per Florio, Tepper pushed to make use of the highest decide on Alabama QB Bryce Younger as a substitute of Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud. (In late November, Tepper mentioned, “I imagine it was a unanimous choice from the coaches and the scouts.”) Behind a horrible offensive line and with out satisfactory weapons on offense, Younger flopped, whereas Stroud led the Texans to the playoffs.
Most of the soccer choices by Tepper have come again to chunk the Panthers, so why ought to followers anticipate any totally different from this one?
Early returns on the anticipated hiring of Canales are optimistic.
Reich was a freshly fired head coach with dropping inventory after Indianapolis let him go. Canales, in the meantime, is an up-and-coming offensive thoughts with a monitor file of maximizing the manufacturing of the quarterbacks he works with — specifically Mayfield, who failed in Carolina in 2022.
However for the franchise to actually escape the opening Tepper has dug, he should present he has discovered an important lesson of all for homeowners: step again. Let the soccer folks make the soccer choices and supply the assets for them to take action.
If he continues to meddle within the soccer operations and undermines his head coach, it will not matter who has the job. The Panthers will proceed to be horrible, and the folks within the Carolinas will discover different methods to spend their Sundays.
