What the NFL combine taught us about Matt Rhule and this new era of the Panthers
The first Combine of the new era in Panthers football is wrapping up. The last players are running their drills and the Panthers coaching staff will head away from snowy Indianapolis and back to Charlotte.
This is a team that still has a lot of questions to be answered. A lot of unknowns that will be smoothed out in the months to come.
But what was important about this Combine for the Panthers? What takeaways can be gathered with the draft just under two months away?
New CBA
Everyone in the NFL world is waiting for the players to approve the agreement between owners and the player’s association. It came up in many conversations in Indianapolis and multiple people said things will move really quick if the deal is agreed upon. All that is left now is a vote by all of the players sometime in the next couple weeks. If agreed to, the new agreement will change the way players are paid and adjust the number of franchise/transition tags teams can use. Because of the change in how players would be compensated, teams are waiting on using franchise tags and teams are doing less with rosters and contracts at this time.
It will be worth keeping an eye on when that it agreed upon and what announcements come in the days to follow.
Baylor and LSU players show support for Rhule and Baylor coaching staff and Joe Brady
It was impossible to talk to a Baylor player at the Combine (there were six in total) and not hear positive comments about coach Matt Rhule and the Panthers’ new coaching staff.
“Coach Rhule, I mean, if he sat up here and talked like you guys have heard him, you’re ready to run through a brick wall for him,” defensive end James Lynch said. “Whatever he says, he has that vision, and it’s vision for you, so it makes you want to buy into it. You’re down for him, and he’s down for you.”
Lynch also shared that when Rhule recruited him, he was very open and told him from the start that he wanted to one day coach in the NFL.
“Yeah, so the first time he came to my house, like when he recruited me for Baylor, he told me, ‘I want to be an NFL head coach.’ And then obviously at the time that didn’t mean as much to me,” Lynch said. “But by about our second or third year, my last year, you could tell he was ready for it.”
In terms of the Panthers new defensive coordinator Phil Snow, everyone brought up his nickname, ‘Yoda’ that was created based on how wise he is.
“My freshman year, we learned offense before we even learned defense. The way he did things, he did it backward, and people kind of thought it was weird at first. We were kind of like, ‘Why are we doing this?’ And then we realized, we called him Yoda, like the Yoda of football. He didn’t even know who Yoda was. He’s like, ‘I don’t watch movies. All I do is watch film,’” Lynch said. “It’s kind of like just things like that, like subtle things, and he’s coached some of the best players that ever played and he’s been around some of the best coaches.
“His knowledge is unmatched. It’s just unreal what he knows, and he was kind of like the coach where you could meet with him all day. He was there basically 24-7, really I would say. He would sleep in his office and make sure he was ready for us and we knew what was going to be on Saturdays. He was the best coach we had. I loved him so much.”
There are 16 LSU players at the Combine in total, including quarterback Joe Burrow. But it was running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire who best described what the Panthers have in store with their new offensive coordinator.
“He’s going to bring a cool and collected personality. Younger guy. He’s going to be able to communicate pretty much eye-to-eye with them and not talk down upon them,” Edwards-Helaire said. “Joe Brady was a guy who saw eye-to-eye with us. He would come in, come sit with us. He would come eat with us. And everything was pretty much like, not really like homeboy talking but he got things across in the form or fashion that nowadays [is] how we talk to each other. It’s how we communicate. Being able to have a guy around the same age or a little younger, with a different little slang to the way that he talks is going to bring some composure to their offense. And also, man, the athletes they have on that offense, it’s gonna be pretty fun watching them next year.”
The LSU back also said that Christian McCaffrey was going to have plenty to be excited about with the team’s new offense, saying “his eyes are going to light up.”
Expect starters to be named at positions later than usual
Once the Panthers roster fills out, it may seem apparent who many of the team’s starters will be. But don’t expect Rhule or any other members of the coaching staff to come out and say it until much closer to the start of the 2020 season.
While the headlines from Rhule’s press conference Tuesday all concerned a certain quarterback, it also revealed some of the mentality that the coaching staff is bringing into its first season.
No player is going to enter the year as a presumed starter.
“I don’t think I’m gonna say anybody’s a starter, yet. Just in the first year. I think it’s really important to me as I go in there that first year, I want to create a culture of competition, I want to create a culture where nothing’s promised to anybody. I think in years two and three, maybe it’ll be a little bit different,” Rhule said. “But that being said, I don’t think that has anything to do with Cam. That just has to do with overall philosophy.”
Maybe it will force some established players to step up. It certainly shows the openness of the coaching staff. While there might not have been many answers about Newton himself this week, there was some insight gained on the coaching staff’s plan.
But what about Cam Newton?
We’ll keep this brief. We’ve covered Newton this week and what Rhule’s comments on “absolutely” wanting to coach the quarterback next year.
There’s a whole bunch of quarterback dominoes that need to fall. What will Tom Brady do? What about Ryan Tannehill and Jameis Winston? There may not be anything new on Newton for quite some time, it just depends on how it all shakes out. Patience, as David Tepper would say, may be required.
What’s next?
Nothing particularly spicy happened at the Combine, but there is a lot of work and changes still to come.
The Panthers coaching staff got to know hundreds of players at the Combine. In March they’ll get to work attending Pro Days and bringing 30 prospects in for draft visits to Bank of America Stadium.
They’ll be discussing deals with future Panthers free agents’ agents and finalizing a draft board. Based on conversations at the Combine, many of the free agents on the team’s roster last year won’t be back, as expected. Using the franchise tag on cornerback James Bradberry is unlikely, especially with the team in the process of rebuilding. Newton’s health will be further looked at. Every option will be explored. So buckle up, we’re just getting started.
“Philosophically, we will always — whether it’s in the business office or roster-wise — we will always explore every opportunity to improve our roster. But again, that has nothing to do with any one player. That’s us in general,” Rhule said. “I think the best teams in this league think outside the box and listen to everything. We’ll do that forever, no matter who it is. I’m not going to comment too much on the guys who aren’t under contract, but the guys on the roster, my job is to help them be the best they can be. And we have some good ones, I think.”
This story was originally published March 1, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
