Carolina GM Dave Gettleman: 15-1 Panthers have ‘our strongest roster ever’

Panthers general manager Dave Gettleman broke his usual rule of not giving interviews during the season and talked with Charlotte reporters Thursday during Carolina’s bye week practice.

The third-year general manager talked extensively about the roster’s makeup, praised former general manger Marty Hurney and his staff and expressed how difficult it is to go 15-1 in a regular season.

Now Gettleman goes into his third postseason with the Panthers with an eye on the Lombardi Trophy that he won three times on six trips with Bills, Broncos and Giants.

He addressed a variety of topics, edited here for clarity and brevity:

Gettleman on whether he could have ever imagined, at the start of the season, being 15-1 at this point. When Carolina was 14-0, only the 1972 Dolphins, 2007 Patriots and 2009 Colts had been there before:

“Really and truly, I got to be honest, no. There have only been seven teams that have ever been 15-1. And there have only been two that have gone undefeated and one of them was in the 14-game season. Did I envision this? No. Did I envision us playing well? I know when I spoke to you guys before the season started I felt it was our strongest roster ever. But 15-1 … who expects that? Because it’s so stinkin’ hard to win games in this league. What Ron (Rivera) and the staff and the players have accomplished is special. We’re excited to continue.”

Gettleman inherited Cam Newton as his quarterback when he became the general manager in 2013. Two years later, Gettleman offered Newton a five-year contract extension worth $103.8 million. Now Newton is poised to win the NFL MVP award. Gettleman’s thoughts on Newton:

“He’s fulfilled everything we thought he could be. And he’s just had a great year. The franchise quarterbacks make everybody better. That’s what they do. Great quarterbacks do that. And he’s made us better. He’s made his team better, through his leadership, certainly through his play and who he is as a person. I’m certainly very excited that we were able to get that contract done.”

At the time he met with the media, there were seven coaching vacancies in the NFL. The Panthers stuck with Rivera through some growing pains and now they’re the No. 1 seed in the NFC and Rivera is likely to win his second Coach of the Year award in three seasons. Gettleman on sustained success:

“The Steelers, the Giants, they’ve proven what continuity does. I haven’t had one moment where I regretted anything. Working with Ron has been just a joy. We communicate, and the continuity is huge. There are so many moving parts to what we are doing that when you constantly intersperse more moving parts, it just doesn’t work.”

Cornerback Josh Norman was selected to his first Pro Bowl and could be named first-team All Pro when it’s announced Friday. Norman, who led all cornerbacks in opposing quarterback rating at 54.0 according to Pro Football Focus, is set to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. Gettleman on whether the Panthers could lock him up with a long-term contract or place the franchise tag on him this season:

“Josh has had a great year, I am not going to deny that. He’s been great for us. And we love him. But you know I don’t talk about contracts.”

Defensive tackle Kawann Short finished this season with 11 sacks, tied for the most in the league at defensive tackle. As a second-round pick, Short doesn’t have the fifth-year option like first rounders. The Panthers will likely seek to extend Short this offseason so that he doesn’t go into his fourth year with free agency looming. Gettleman on Short:

“All right I want everyone in here to raise their hand who laughed when we took defensive tackles back to back. I told you then we had a first-round grade on KK. We had Star rated above him. And I was convinced that Star would not be there in the second round. He has done what we thought he was capable of. He’s tied for the league lead for sacks by inside guys and he’s a having a helluva year against the run and he’s a legitimate three-down defensive tackle. We’re thrilled to have him.”

Gettleman spent a decade and a half with the Giants in the personnel department. He speaks fondly of his time in New York, and before the Week 15 game there he was very popular in the press box among Giants scribes, former players and others. Asked about how his team handled the Odell Beckham Jr. incidents, Gettleman decided not to say much.

“I don’t want to go there. It’s over. It happened. I went through the tape and, in that situation, our guys handled it well.”

Gettleman on Tom Coughlin, the former Giants coach of 12 years who resigned earlier this week:

“Tom’s a wonderful man, and he taught me so much, and he’s a helluva coach. I just want what’s best for him. He’s a true ambassador of the game. He loves the game. He’s a ballcoach. And you don’t know what the lord has planned for him, but he’s a helluva coach and a helluva man.”

If anyone thought the Panthers would win the NFC South for a third straight year, that thought took a shot when Kelvin Benjamin tore his ACL in training camp on Aug. 19. Yet somehow the Panthers are 15-1 with Benjamin. How?

“The bottom line is the narrative that starts in the spring, ‘They went 7-8-1, they’re in a crappy division. They played Arizona, who had the third-string quarterback out there.’ Go to Seattle, play them tough and get no credit for it. And then me believing that we had the best roster we’d had since I’ve been here. And like I said having faith in our evaluation process and the players we have on the roster and our coaches. Was I concerned? I’d have to be a moron not to be concerned when Kelvin went down, but again we believed in these guys. I know Philly struggled during the preseason and that was a major concern. But they all kept working, kept getting better and better, and Cam’s had a great year.”

But Gettleman didn’t have to stay the course. After Benjamin went down there was a great chorus of people telling him he should sign Charlotte resident Randy Moss out of retirement. What about Terrell Owens? Reggie Wayne, perhaps? Well...

“When Kelvin went down people wanted me to sign every 95-year-old receiver that ever put a pad on. But the bottom line is you have to trust in your evaluation.”

This story was originally published January 7, 2016 at 3:23 PM with the headline "Carolina GM Dave Gettleman: 15-1 Panthers have ‘our strongest roster ever’."