Panthers mailbag: Expectations for Carolina’s season and addressing racial inequality
This offseason has been unprecedented for the Panthers.
Outside of COVID-19, which has impacted the entire sports world, Carolina has had a transformation over the last few months from the coaching staff to the roster after almost a decade of stability.
Matt Rhule and his staff are continuing to navigate through the virtual offseason that is scheduled to end June 26. Most of the team has never met each other in person and their first opportunity to come together as a team won’t take place until training camp in late July.
The 2020 season will be remembered as a transition year for the franchise, no matter how the new coaching staff performs, for a variety of reasons, including the team taking down Jerry Richardson’s statue last week.
With all of that in mind, let’s get to some of your questions in today’s mailbag:
Should we prepare ourselves as fans realistically for anything from one to just three wins this season? This schedule looks brutal.
— Alan
One win seems a bit on the dramatic side to me, but the Panthers do have a difficult schedule in 2020. Any time you have to face Drew Brees and Tom Brady twice in a year, things are going to be tricky, but add to that the defending Super Bowl champions and another trip to Green Bay, and the schedule gets terrifying.
I think the defense is a big cause for concern for this team, especially the young secondary. Having Tre Boston back there will help, but there will also be plenty of growing pains. Multiple young players will be seeing the field early. With less time together in-person prior to the start of the season than normal, this defense will see some tough stretches.
We received a separate question asking about how good the team’s offense can be, and I think that plays a massive role into how many games they win. The Panthers have strong offensive weapons for Teddy Bridgewater, from Christian McCaffrey to DJ Moore to Robby Anderson. Bridgewater will be in an offense suited to him as designed by Joe Brady, who is familiar with what the quarterback can do from their time together in New Orleans.
The offensive line, with no clear starting guards, will be the big question mark. Even with that, this offense should be able to put up enough points to win a couple of games on its own if everything comes together as it looks on paper (and that’s a big if with a new offense). I think the Panthers pull out four to five wins, potentially taking them out of the conversation for Trevor Lawrence/Justin Fields.
In just a few minutes, the Panthers wiped out the most visible person of color in the Panthers organization from coaches to players. Is there any gauge of diversity in the coaching staff or front office and how they compare to other teams?
— @The_Bernanke
This is an important topic that doesn’t have an immediate answer in terms of actually seeing this issue be corrected. As The Observer has written previously, of the 24 members of the Panthers’ coaching staff photographed on the team website, 16 are white, including both coordinators. For comparison, 17 of the 25 members of the Saints coaching staff are white and 16 of the 26 coaches on Washington’s staff are white. The Panthers have a white general manager in Marty Hurney. There are only two Black general managers in the entire NFL — Andrew Berry (Browns) and Chris Grier (Dolphins).
The diversity of the Panthers’ staff, at a glance, is normal for the league. The league is taking action to change hiring practices in an attempt to increase diversity in coaching staffs and front offices. Carolina just took part in the hiring process, firing Ron Rivera and bringing in Rhule, so it’s easy to point fingers. But this is a league-wide problem, not something that is just a Panthers problem.
Rhule and owner David Tepper have spent time recently listening to players and learning from their experiences. It will be interesting to see what action comes from that (outside of taking down the Richardson statue).
Out of all the Zoom calls you’ve had this offseason, which one was your favorite and why?
— Patrick
I love this question. Because of COVID-19, all of the team’s media availability since March has been conducted virtually, meaning press conferences and availability have all taken place over Zoom, a video-conferencing service.
It’s been an interesting way to get to know the new players and draft picks, giving a glimpse of their homes and personal lives, while also changing the one-on-one interactions that would be more commonplace between reporters and players that can’t take place in a traditional way after a Zoom call ends.
My favorite that we’ve had as a press conference so far was the Zoom call that took place recently with linebacker Andre Smith, tight end Chris Manhertz and defensive end Stephen Weatherly. This felt more like a conversation to me. It also was an opportunity to listen to the players that are part of the team’s Player Impact Committee and hear what is important to them and the steps that plan to take to help out in the Charlotte community.
Too much of the time, I don’t think we take the time to ask questions about what’s important to athletes and the why behind decisions that are made. It’s so important to have conversations that allow people to learn from other perspectives. I’m glad that the Panthers and the players allowed reporters the opportunity to do so and hope it happens more often.
Should we expect any more free agent signings? Also, I’m curious to your thoughts on fans/no fans this season?
— Greg
A veteran cornerback was the team’s biggest need and they filled that spot by signing Eli Apple. There isn’t a glaring hole that the Panthers are still trying to fill, but they’ll likely to continue to adjust and adapt the roster as needed, especially if they find a fit on the offensive and defensive lines. There are a lot of players available that still cannot get physicals done at team facilities.
When it comes to fans for the season, I don’t think we should expect a completely full stadium next year. It just doesn’t seem realistic at this point. The numbers are not trending in the right direction in North Carolina, but if we’ve learned anything in the past few months, it’s that things change quickly. Limited fans in the stands seems like the most likely possibility, but if things continue the way they are, no fans, at least to start, will become that much more likely.
As you have written about previously, the changes to the offseason programs have the highest chance to be detrimental to the Panthers with their new coaches, quarterback, etc. With such a big change, what can they do to minimize this impact, if anything?
— Rob
You have a valid point. I think it’s hard to understate how much of a disadvantage the Panthers have with an almost entirely new roster and coaching staff during a time of condensed offseason programs.
To minimize this, the team can take advantage of every hour of the virtual offseason program — some teams are ending their sessions early, but the Panthers are not among them. Players getting together on their own to practice, which some like Bridgewater, Anderson and Seth Roberts have done, is also helpful.
This seems simple, but the players also need to have more conversations among themselves. Boston said last week that most of the players barely know each other. Locker rooms will likely not return to how they were previously in the near future, and that played a huge part in teammates getting more familiar. The players need to take extra time to continue to talk and be comfortable talking to the people they’ll be playing with. That can’t be another hurdle once training camp starts.
But with this unusual offseason, there will be an inherent disadvantage for the Panthers that other teams won’t have to deal with. How they respond to that over the next couple months once training camp begins will be interesting to watch.
