Christmas Wish List for the Carolina Panthers

Will Santa bring the Panthers anything good?

First of all, we at All Panthers would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We truly thank you for your support throughout another year of Panthers coverage! We look forward to continuing to grow our community here on SI Panthers in 2022 and beyond.

With it being Christmas, I figured it would be a great idea to discuss what should be on the Carolina Panthers' Christmas wish list.

Find a quarterback

I mean, we all knew that this would be at the top of the list, right? Sam Darnold will have a chance to earn the job in 2022 depending on how he plays down the stretch but I don't see that happening. We've seen enough of Sam Darnold by now to know that he is never going to turn into a franchise caliber quarterback. Whether it be trading for Deshaun Watson, Jimmy Garoppolo, or another veteran or even draft a quarterback, the Panthers need to get this position figured out or it will cost Matt Rhule his job.

Retool the offensive line

Cameron Erving has had an awful 2021 season at left tackle. My gut says that the Panthers will have a new starting left tackle in 2022 which will mark their ninth different starter at the position in as many years. Really good tackles rarely hit free agency and no one is going to be willing to trade them away, so the Panthers are going to have to address this need through the draft. Fortunately for them, this is a very deep offensive tackle class. Charles Cross (Mississippi State), Evan Neal (Alabama), and Ikem Ekwonu (NC State) are all viewed as top ten picks. Carolina needs to grab one of these three with their first round pick instead of a quarterback.

Lock up Haason Reddick

Haason Reddick has really blossomed into one of the NFL's best pass rushers. Last year he came out of no where and recorded 12.5 sacks. Many felt like it was just an anomaly and he wouldn't continue to have that type of success. He has proved a lot of folks wrong as he's already notched 11 sacks with three games remaining in the season. If Carolina can keep the Reddick and Brian Burns pass rushing tandem, that will give this team a foundation to build out from. 

A healthy Christian McCaffrey

Since Matt Rhule became the head coach in 2020, running back Christian McCaffrey has played in just ten games. Prior to the 2020 season, McCaffrey had not missed a single game in his NFL career. Now, the narrative is that he is injury prone and is going down the path that so many backs go down at some point in their career. If McCaffrey were to be healthy for an entire season, it would completely transform this Panthers' offense. 

An experienced offensive coordinator

Hiring Joe Brady was a bit of a gamble for Matt Rhule considering Brady had never called plays in the NFL and had really never been a true offensive coordinator before. At LSU he was the passing game coordinator so he didn't have full control of the Tigers' historic offense in 2019. Before coming to Carolina, Rhule had just one year of experience coaching in the NFL and that was back in 2012 with the New York Giants. This means he doesn't have quite as many coaching connections in the NFL as most other head coaches would. Regardless, he has to bring in someone that has experience calling plays so that this offense can actually make some progress.

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