You’re up, Dave Tepper: It’s time to hire Steve Wilks and find a new QB for Panthers
Now warming up for the Carolina Panthers:
Owner Dave Tepper.
That probably scares you if you’re a Panthers fan, and it should. Since Tepper bought the Panthers in 2018, they have suffered through five consecutive losing seasons.
But that’s where we are following Carolina’s 10-7 win at New Orleans on Sunday. The Panthers’ season is over. Carolina finished 7-10 and ended up in second place in the NFC South and will hold the No. 9 selection in the 2023 NFL draft.
Tepper now must make a critical decision that will set the stage for many more: Who will be the Panthers’ next head coach?
As I’ve written before, I believe it should be interim head coach Steve Wilks.
Wilks managed to lead the Panthers to a 6-6 record after Matt Rhule was fired following a 1-4 start. That was despite Wilks losing his best player when running back Christian McCaffrey was traded only one game into his 12-game tenure. Yet the coach still kept the Panthers in every game except one.
If DJ Moore hadn’t taken his helmet off in Atlanta, we might be filing stories about the playoff-bound Panthers right now.
Tepper will have plenty of other choices, of course, and will need to go through an extensive interview process (as he should). He has already had a conversation with Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, although it sounds like that isn’t going to happen. There are a lot of other candidates out there, with big names and small names, and undoubtedly a couple of them would work out fine.
But this is a “bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” situation.
We know already that Wilks would work out. The players respect him and generally want him to return. He grew up in Charlotte and is deeply rooted in the Queen City. He needs to find a new offensive coordinator and, even more importantly, a quarterback (along with a tight end, safety, nickel corner and wide receiver).
But give Wilks the players and the man will get it done.
If Wilks doesn’t get the job, though, at least he went out with class on Sunday. In a game that really didn’t matter for the Panthers — or the Saints, for that matter — Wilks survived a terrible passing-game performance by quarterback Sam Darnold to direct a win. Darnold went 5-for-15 for 43 yards with two interceptions and no TD passes for a QB rating of 2.8.
To put all that in perspective, the low-water mark to me for Panthers passing efficiency has long been Jimmy Clausen, who went 1-9 in 10 games as a starter for a horrendous Carolina team in 2010. But the fewest yards Clausen threw for — at least in those 10 games that Clausen started — was 61. Darnold didn’t even reach that.
Darnold only had 22 passing yards until Carolina’s final drive, when he nearly doubled his output with a 21-yard strike to Terrace Marshall to put the Panthers in field-goal range. Eddy Piñeiro knocked in a 42-yarder as time expired and Carolina won (a loss would have meant Carolina drafted around No. 7, but who’s counting?) Darnold, who to be fair threw for 341 yards against Tampa Bay a week ago, ended up 4-2 in his starts for the Panthers this season.
The game doesn’t deserve a lot of ink, because it wasn’t important in the scheme of things. But to synopsize: These were two below-average teams. New Orleans (7-10) scored on its very first drive, when 35-year-old cornerback Josh Norman missed a tackle and Chris Olave took a short pass 25 yards to score.
But then the Saints didn’t score again. Carolina’s defense played well, even without Brian Burns.
And Saints quarterback Andy Dalton played no better than Darnold after that first drive. Darnold fumbled a ball into the end zone in the third quarter that reserve guard Michael Jordan pounced on — yes, Michael Jordan scored for a Charlotte-based team, finally!
Two players were thrown out for a scuffle — New Orleans defensive lineman Marcus Davenport and Carolina running back D’Onta Foreman. Even without Foreman, the Panthers kept running the ball, because Darnold couldn’t throw it (and it didn’t help that his receivers couldn’t get open and about a third of the time he was running for his life). Eventually, Carolina kept us all from facing the unpleasant prospect of overtime in a meaningless game when Piñeiro made the game-winning field goal.
Yeah, the whole thing wasn’t much to look at. But Wilks used the word “proud” four times in his press conference to describe what he felt like in regard to his team. The West Charlotte and Appalachian State graduate knew that going 6-6 as an interim coach sounds a lot better than 5-7. He’s given himself a chance. Carolina went 5-3 in the season’s last eight games.
Now Wilks has to give himself a better shot by establishing who his new offensive coordinator will be and showing Tepper “What’s next” as opposed to “What just happened.” No, Wilks is not an offensive genius. That doesn’t mean he can’t hire one.
Most significantly, the Panthers have to solve the quarterback issue. The No. 9 overall draft pick should help with that or with another impact player (Luke Kuechly, it should be noted, was the Panthers’ choice the only other time they picked ninth). Maybe Matt Corral will work out. Maybe Darnold — despite Sunday — could be a bridge quarterback for another year.
A lot of important things are about to happen for the Panthers, but all of them will be off the field. One day the Panthers will be in the playoff conversation again at this point of a season.
It won’t be this season. But Wilks can get them there.
This story was originally published January 8, 2023 at 5:38 PM.
