The Panthers’ season is thankfully over, but what coach can put out this dumpster fire?
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Expanded coverage of Carolina’s Week 17 loss to New Orleans
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Few NFL teams will be happier to get to 2020 than the Carolina Panthers. Their 2019 season morphed into a two-month dumpster fire, one that New Orleans threw a final gallon of gasoline on Sunday during the Saints’ 42-10 rout of the Panthers.
Now comes the interesting part. The Panthers have huge decisions to make at head coach and quarterback as they start trying to rebuild a team that once was an enormous deal in the Carolinas — and one day will be again — but which played in front of about 60,000 empty seats in the fourth quarter Sunday.
And that was in a season finale. Against a big divisional rival, with about half of the 10,000 fans remaining wearing the Saints’ black and gold.
The Panthers find themselves deep in another valley, watching the playoffs at home yet again and wondering how to fix a team that went 5-11 and lost its final eight games.
When asked what it would take to do that, Panthers safety Eric Reid said Sunday: “We need better coaching. We need better play from players. That’s what rebuilding is.”
The Panthers could soon hire Mike McCarthy, the former Green Bay Packers coach. ESPN has reported he’s already interviewed for the job.
I’d be fine with that — McCarthy is a proven commodity and seems to have made a real effort to learn from his mistakes in the year he has spent away from the game. Much like former Panthers coach Ron Rivera, who’s about to get hired somewhere fast, McCarthy has won a lot, seen a lot and could assemble a top-notch staff in a hurry.
That’s not the only option. There are a number of current NFL offensive coordinators (Minnesota’s Kevin Stefanski, New England’s Josh McDaniels and Baltimore’s Greg Roman among them) who could be in play.
Patience for next regime
The new Panthers coach will almost certainly be hired before the Cam Newton decision is made. Newton has a year left on his contract — he’s owed $21 million for 2020 — so the Panthers don’t actually have to do anything right away. He’s also turning 31 in May and coming off a foot injury that made him miss 14 of 16 games in 2019.
As I’ve written before, Newton and the Panthers would be best to part ways now, with Carolina either trading or releasing him rather than trying to make him throw a rebuilding team on his back. The Panthers could save $19 million under the salary cap by releasing Newton, who has led them to four playoff berths in his career. Or, if they keep him, they should not commit to another long-term contract to a QB who has so much mileage on his body (two shoulder surgeries, one foot surgery in the past three years).
But I think Newton is more likely to have played his last game with Carolina. Same goes for tight end Greg Olsen, who was telling everyone close to him how much they meant to him Sunday just in case it was his last go-around.
“If that is my end,” the 34-year-old Olsen said, “I walk out of this building with so much appreciation for the people here. No hard feelings. I couldn’t say enough good things about being a part of this organization.”
Whatever happens, it’s disingenuous to think this will all get turned around quickly. When Panthers owner David Tepper fired Rivera on Dec. 3, halfway through what became an eight-game losing streak, he was asked afterward in his news conference about how much patience would be required with the new coach and his rebuilt Panthers.
“Do you think I can promise to anybody that things are going to be great in one year?” Tepper said then. “Do you believe in the tooth fairy? Santa Claus? ... If you don’t think it takes time to build something great, if you think something great gets built in one second, then that’s wrong.”
New coach and QB?
By Sunday, the Panthers were in shambles. New Orleans led 35-0 in the second quarter. It was like watching LSU pulverize Oklahoma in the college playoffs Saturday night — the Saints could have named their score.
“They’re missing Shaq Thompson,” Saints defensive end Cam Jordan said afterward of the Panthers. “They’re missing Cam Newton. Their leadership, in terms of Ron Rivera, is gone.”
To me, the most likely scenario is that Carolina starts over with a new QB and coach just as they did in 2011 with Newton and Rivera, drafting another quarterback in the first round of the 2020 draft with their top-10 pick.
That rookie quarterback competes with Kyle Allen and Will Grier for the job in training camp and, at some point in 2020, gets his shot. All of those QBs, at least, would have the luxury of getting the ball to Christian McCaffrey, hopefully in front of a far better offensive line.
After 25 years of franchise history, the Panthers are basically starting over again. They need to be. Sunday was a “disaster” on the field, as Olsen put it, and there have been a whole lot of Sundays like that over the past two months.
It’s time to get to January, to resolutions, to something different.
These Panthers just don’t work anymore. Time to go shopping for a new model.
This story was originally published December 29, 2019 at 7:12 PM.
