The Carolina Panthers unexpectedly became the first NFL head coaching opening off the board when they hired… not Sean Payton… not Demeco Ryans… not Steve Wilks… but Frank Reich. (?)
I was almost sure the Panthers would give Wilks the job after he led them to a 6-6 interim record after Matt Rhule’s firing and nearly getting them back into the playoffs. He did all that with an incredibly unstable quarterback situation as well.
But alas, Carolina opted for Reich, who had a 40-33-1 record in Indianapolis before getting let go earlier this season. In fairness, Reich finished three of his four full seasons with a winning record and built a reputation as one of the league’s better offensive minds.
Additionally, Reich is fairly well connected to Carolina himself; he threw the franchise’s first touchdown and lived in Charlotte for the majority of his post-playing life, raising his family in the process.
Reich’s daughter, Hannah, was also recently hired by the Panthers’ marketing department.
For Carolina and Reich, it’s a move that makes a lot of sense, but I still can’t help but wonder if they should’ve stuck with Wilks.
When Rhule was fired, the Panthers looked like one of the league’s worst teams. Wilks came in and immediately turned them into a team that wasn’t easy to play and probably turned a few wins into losses with late-game blunders like this one from DJ Moore:
Carolina very well could have made the playoffs under Wilks. I’m surprised the team was so quick to move on from him, especially considering the way Reich’s Colts tenure ended.
Reich spent pretty much every year trying (and failing) to find a good starting quarterback, and much of the argument for letting him go was based on his inability to identify an adequate signal-caller. Each year of his tenure started with a different quarterback at the helm.
It’s funny to me that Carolina, a team without a clear answer at quarterback, hired a head coach that has a history of struggling to identify a franchise guy. I could see the same thing happening in Carolina that happened with Reich in Indianapolis.
Hopefully for Reich, the Panthers get this year’s draft right and get themselves a franchise quarterback and avoid the year-to-year QB shuffle that cost Reich his job in Indy. However, I fear that drafting someone like Will Levis or Anthony Richardson won’t be the answer.
Does that mean a trade? A big free agent swing? Derek Carr? I’m not sure, but Reich’s first big bit of business will be that quarterback position. The Panthers have talent all over the field on both sides, but bad QB play and those crunch-time mistakes just killed them in games.
I think Carolina is only a quarterback away from being a real problem in the NFC, but hiring Reich feels like a bit of a reach, especially given the candidates they probably could have gotten.
74/100… Embers
