What Panthers’ Thomas Brown said about Carolina’s second play-calling shake-up in a month
Thomas Brown took the high road Thursday when assessing his personal feelings about losing the Panthers’ offensive play-calling duties after just three games.
According to Brown, head coach Frank Reich told him about his decision take back play-calling responsibilities on Sunday. Brown said he didn’t see the move coming in previous weeks but knew it was a possibility following discussions with Reich after the 16-13 loss to the Chicago Bears last week.
Despite having the rug ripped out from under him as a play-caller, Brown didn’t publicly question the decision. Instead, Brown — who led just two touchdown-scoring drives in three games — accepted the flip-flopping of responsibilities.
“This is a grown man’s business, and I’m going to handle this the same way as I would every other situation moving forward, and that’s as a grown man,” Brown said. “When you talk about true leadership, the role of a leader is to make people in situations better. Right? So I’ve been that way and committed to that my entire career before being here, since being here, and will continue doing that going forward.
“One thing a leader does not do is tuck his tail between his legs and find ways to run and hide from conflict or adversity. To me it’s the exact opposite: Stand tall, keep chopping wood and you find ways to fix problem. And help people. That’s what it’s about.”
Brown, 37, was hired as Reich’s offensive coordinator in February. The former assistant head coach of the Los Angeles Rams had never worked with Reich before, but he was hired as the Panthers head coach stressed the importance of a diversity of thought throughout the staff.
While Reich discussed handing off play-calling duties during his tenure at his introductory press conference in January, the head coach held onto those responsibilities through an 0-6 start to the regular season. The Panthers averaged just 16.3 points, 20.7 first downs and 294.7 total yards of offense per game during those first six matchups.
After handing over the play-calling duties to Brown in Week 8, the offense regressed even further with averages of 11.3 points, 16.3 first downs and 273.3 total yards per matchup.
“The overall product offensively has not been good enough all year,” Brown said. “As a competitor, that pisses me off. But the reality is that we have to do a better job as coaches of coaching our players, demanding more and putting these guys in better spots to have a better product on game day, and from a player’s standpoint, when we have opportunities on game day, to make plays. We gotta make them.”
When Brown was handed the play-calling duties, he joined Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Brian Johnson and Washington Commanders offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy as one of the three Black offensive play-callers in the NFL. When Brown was initially given the duties, he said he hoped the opportunity would open up further avenues for other Black coaches to rise up the ranks on the offensive side of the ball.
After just three weeks though, that opportunity has vanished. Still, Brown, again, took the glass half-full approach when asked if the second switch in a month was a setback for him and fellow minority coaches.
“Personally and for other people, I would say no,” Brown said. “That’s a future decision to kind of see what happens down the road. In the same respect of leadership, I have a tremendous faith and belief in God, and His vision and plan with my life. And so, just like you talk about leadership and not cowering down and backing off because things aren’t going well, I’m going to have the same, if not more, belief and faith because — one, based on what I choose to believe in, but also because of past history.
“There have been a lot of things I’ve been through in my personal life, in my coaching career, and it didn’t always seem like it was going to work out in the long run. But one thing that I’ve never been about doing, and not going to start doing now, is worrying about the future. I’m worrying about today.”
Brown echoed Reich’s point on Wednesday in regards to the offensive coordinator’s job following the switch up. While he is no longer the play-caller, Brown will still run meetings and practices on the offensive side of the ball throughout the week.
“It’s not a different job,” Brown said. “Other than not calling plays, nothing else has changed. We’re still game-planning every day. I’m still running install meetings. I still have a big role and responsibility in practice.”
Brown alluded to another source of consistency on Thursday.
“I was raised by the best leaders I know,” Brown said, referring to his mother, Louise, and his father, Thomas Sr., “and so I’m going to try to continue to find the best way to lead I know.”
Alex Zietlow contributed to this report.
This story was originally published November 16, 2023 at 1:14 PM.
