If Tepper is to fire Ron Rivera, he better make sure Panthers can find someone better
READ MORE
Panthers at Saints
Expanded coverage of Carolina’s Week 12 loss at New Orleans
Expand All
Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper is in a bad mood again today.
And it seems more likely with each passing week — and each passing loss, and each storm cloud that gathers over Bank of America Stadium — that Tepper is about to make some big changes.
The Panthers played better Sunday but still lost, 34-31, on the road to the New Orleans Saints. It was a terrific effort by Carolina, because the Saints might be the best team in the NFC.
But it was undone by kicker Joey Slye — who missed two extra points and then a 28-yard field goal with 1:56 left — and then a defense that again allowed Drew Brees to do what Drew Brees does. It all turned into yet another defeat for a Carolina team that has lost three in a row.
The loss drops Carolina to:
▪ 5-6 this year.
▪ 12-15 since Tepper bought the team.
▪ 29-30 since the 2015 Super Bowl season.
▪ 195-199-1 in franchise history.
In other words, the Panthers aren’t doing too well — not in the short term and not in the long term. “Mediocrity” would be a kind way of describing it.
And Tepper — who made himself a billionaire a dozen times over by picking winners and then by picking smart people who have continued his own personal monetary winning streak — won’t stand for that.
In Tepper’s spur-of-the-moment gathering of more than a dozen Charlotte-based reporters for a media availability last Monday, the owner talked about despising mediocrity and about being upset after every Carolina loss.
What he didn’t talk about was the future of Panthers coach Ron Rivera and general manager Marty Hurney. It was a ground rule of that session with the owner that Tepper could be questioned regarding just about everything except their long-term future employment prospects.
It’s fair to ask the question, though. With the Panthers almost certain to miss the playoffs for the third time in the past four seasons after the loss to the Saints, will Rivera and Hurney be around after “Black Monday”?
This year, Black Monday — the day after the NFL’s final regular-season Sunday, and traditionally a day where numerous coaches and GMs lose their jobs — occurs Dec. 30th.
That’s the day, five weeks from now, when the Panthers players will be clearing out their lockers. It’s only a matter of time before Carolina is officially eliminated from playoff contention.
Has Tepper already made the decision on Rivera and Hurney?
I doubt that he has.
Carolina has five games left and there’s no real reason to do anything at the moment. The Panthers are in the process of throwing a Hail Mary from their own 10, needing to go 90 yards in a single play to make the postseason, but the ball hasn’t landed yet.
Also, and this is important: If Tepper is going to fire Rivera and Hurney, he better have a good replacement plan in place.
Rivera would get another head-coaching job somewhere else, and pretty fast. He’s a two-time NFL Coach of the Year and has earned a lot of respect in nine years as an NFL head man. Tepper needs to make sure he can do better than the Panthers’ all-time winningest coach.
With that said, maybe Tepper thinks he could do better, with the hiring help of his new GM (because Rivera and Hurney surely will either stay, or go, together). Somewhere out there is the next Bill Belichick. But how would you find him?
To play out a hypothetical scenario a little further, if Tepper did fire both men sometime in the next 5-6 weeks, it would be the new coach and GM who would then make the call on Cam Newton’s uncertain future in Carolina by February or early March.
If Tepper keeps the status quo at the top — figuring that Rivera and Hurney did their best but were hamstrung by losing Cam Newton just two games into the season — then Rivera and Hurney will make the Cam call. They’ll have input from the doctors, of course, about Newton’s foot injury, but the buck ultimately stops with them.
Rivera, Hurney and Tepper are in no mood to talk about all this now. They likely are in no mood to talk about much of anything — not after a devastating loss like that.
But the question can’t be put off for much longer.
This story was originally published November 24, 2019 at 8:04 PM.
