Panthers Tracks: David Tepper is trying to build his own Pittsburgh Steelers
When Panthers owner David Tepper sat down with the members of the media hours after he fired Ron Rivera on Dec. 3, there was a message that he got across about what was next and the time it would take to get there.
“If you think something great gets built in one second, then that’s wrong. You shouldn’t expect it, fans shouldn’t expect it,” Tepper said. “I’m not talking about one year, I’m talking of a standard that will be built and sustained. There has to be a degree of patience to build sustained success. Sustained excellence.
“… I’m not going to sit here and BS people. It’s a building process. You heard about Rome, right?”
With Tepper having been a minority owner of the Steelers, there’s often a comparison to Pittsburgh that comes with his vision for the future of Carolina. When announcing the hiring of new head coach Matt Rhule on the team’s website, Tepper loosely associated Rhule with Chuck Noll, a bold and unfair comparison. But what Noll and the Steelers built in the 70’s is what any team is trying to accomplish.
When hearing the phrase “sustained excellence,” which you will many times over the offseason, that’s the image that should be associated. Being among the best for many years. For over a decade.
With the hiring of Rhule, the Panthers are taking a chance. His seven-year, reported $62 million contract is interesting for many reasons, but more because of the years than the actual amount he’s being paid.
Tepper and the Panthers are putting their trust in Rhule for a significant time. By signing him to a seven-year deal, they are giving him time to build a team and not just awaiting overnight success. Coming from almost solely coaching college teams, Rhule will need that time to get adjusted to being in the NFL, no matter how much of the actual team ends up changing.
The chance that the Panthers are taking is that he will be able to put the right people around him and lead them to the elusive “sustained success,” while giving him the time to do it.
The team put that trust in him partly because he has a history of turning programs around. In his first season at Temple, the Owls went 2-10. The next season they were 6-6, and then two consecutive 10-win seasons. The same happened at Baylor. After gutting the program, the Bears went 1-11 in his first year. Then 7-6 in 2018, and this past year was one of the best in school history, finishing 11-3.
You can see how Rhule would be the guy to build up a team on the brink of transition, at least to an extent. He has already done it twice before.
Tepper, general manager Marty Hurney and Rhule are going to be working together to build something. Rhule will have access to any resource the team needs, from sports science to the new practice facility in Rock Hill that is scheduled to be completed in August 2022.
The hiring of Rhule should emphasize that the Panthers have a vision for the future. How quickly that comes to fruition remains to be seen, but Tepper is building something, his own Pittsburgh, and now he put his money (literally) on who he wants to guide that building process.
“We’ve got a master developer that never had the resources before and has shown what he can do with less,” Tepper said. “What do you think he can do with more?”
Required reading
+ What we learned about Matt Rhule’s plan for Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers
+ Fowler: With Matt Rhule in charge, the Carolina Panthers feel like an expansion team again
+ Hiring Matt Rhule was just the start of the Panthers’ to-do list. Here’s what comes next
+ What made Matt Rhule the right fit for the Panthers? He’s no BS’er
+ Fowler: Matt Rhule isn’t an ‘offensive genius.’ He’s a fixer, and the Panthers need fixing
+ How successful are college coaches in the NFL?
This story was originally published January 10, 2020 at 4:00 AM.