Reich Responds to Herbstreit's Comments About the Panthers Not Having the Personnel to Win
Kirk Herbstreit was on the call alongside Al Michaels for the Carolina Panthers, Chicago Bears game last Thursday night and in his weekly appearance on the Pat McAfee Show, Herbie explained his feelings on the situation rookie quarterback Bryce Young is dealing with and why folks shouldn't give up on him.
"I'm just saying, if you put Bryce Young in a place like San Francisco you guys would all be saying, 'How about this Bryce Young guy? This guy is amazing!' And I'm just saying a quarterback is a product of the system that he plays in and the people that he has around him. It's as simple as that. And he doesn't have that. Right now, they're in a transition mode where they're running an offense that was six offensive lineman, inside zone, downhill...and now they're trying to take the personnel from that offense and become a "college" offense - spread, gun, tempo, play in space. So they're caught in between right now. They don't have the personnel to run the kind of offense they want to run that they're going to run eventually with Bryce Young. To me, you need to pump the brakes on giving up on Bryce Young or thinking he sucks. I'm a believer."
We've been saying this for weeks on the Bleav in Panthers podcast. For whatever reason, the front office and coaching staff didn't structure the roster with the right personnel to fit the scheme that is currently in place. I really don't think it's a factor of the offensive line not having talent, it's just they're being asked to do things outside of their strengths. They don't fit.
During his press conference Monday afternoon, head coach Frank Reich was asked about what he thought of Herbstreit's comments.
"Listen, I love our players. We have all the players we need to win football games. Are we always evolving and developing as an offense? Yes, of course. With the vision we have for our offense this year, we don't need anybody else. We got winning receivers, winning tight ends...we just have to play winning football. That starts with me, I have to do a better job as a head coach getting our offense playing more consistently to win football games. But when I look at our position groups and I look at our opponents, I see opportunities to win. When I watch the tape, I see plenty of evidence that we are making winning plays. Are we doing it consistently enough? No, we're not doing it consistently enough. Do we have the playmakers to win football games? Absolutely, we have the playmakers."
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