A Six-Step Plan to Fixing the Panthers

A few steps to bring the Panthers back to relevance.

The Carolina Panthers are a broken franchise.

In 2023 alone they have the worst record in football, the worst offense in football, an interim head coach who has been in charge one one game in his career, no first round pick in the upcoming draft, an offensive line that picks its quarterback off the ground more than it knocks defenders to it, and a rookie first overall pick that the future was mortgaged for having the one of the worst quarterbacking seasons in the recent history. Dark times.

However, we’ve seen other franchises reach these depths recently and bounce back to playoff contention pretty quickly. Most notably, the 2021 Jaguars fired Urban Meyer three-fourths of the way through his maiden season and they were a playoff team in 2022. Meaningful football in Carolina seems miles away but in reality it may be closer than it appears. Here’s a few steps on how the Panthers can be fixed.

Clean house in the front office

This says nothing about the job that Scott Fitterer has done. Other people and outlets have dove deep into the details of his roster management in Carolina, that isn’t going to happen here.

For a franchise to be successful, there needs to be congruency between the front office and the coaching staff. Matt Rhule was hired in January 2020 by former general manager Marty Hurney. Hurney was fired by David Tepper in December of 2020. Scott Fitterer was hired in January of 2021 to work alongside Matt Rhule. Rhule, after working alongside Fitterer to build the roster in their image for almost two years, was fired in October of 2022. Frank Reich was hired in January of 2023, given ten months to work with a roster of players mostly assembled to fit the vision of Matt Rhule, and was dismissed earlier this week.

The head coach works for the general manager, and Fitterer had his shot at hand-picking the head coach alongside David Tepper and it clearly blew up in their faces. In order for the franchise to reverse course and move into a new era, the front office needs to be revamped and bring in a coaching staff of their own.

Nail the next head coaching hire

This is a bit of a “no-duh” statement, but this next hire is the most important in the history of the franchise.

All Panthers detailed eight potential head coaching candidates earlier this week, and while they all come with pros and cons of their own, all of them are good potential options to be the next head coach in Carolina. The oddsmakers list Ben Johnson (+250), the offensive coordinator of the Lions as the favorite. He fits the Mike McDaniel, Sean McVay mold of a young, offensive-minded, risk-taking, analytical-minded head coach.

Behind him are two stalwarts across the football landscape, Mike Macdonald (+400), the Ravens defensive coordinator, and Jim Harbaugh (+500), the head coach of the Michigan Wolverines.

Whoever it is, they need to be fully aligned with the front office and be given the time and resources to reshape a roster void of talent. Which brings me to number three…

Don’t be afraid to gut the roster

Like point number one with Scott Fitterer, this says nothing about the players on the roster and me calling for anyone’s jobs. But, as stated earlier, the new regime needs the opportunity to reshape the roster in their image. The best example of this is looking at the current offensive line.

Ekwonu, Bozeman, Corbett, and Moton were all apart of the offensive line at the end of 2022 that was road grating defensive lines and creating lanes for D’Onta Foreman to run wild from week eight on.

That same offensive line (give or take a few weeks of those aforementioned players missing a week or two) has been abysmal in 2023.

Frank Reich has tried to take that square peg of an offensive line into the round hole of his offensive system.

Football is a business, and if the new regime doesn’t see a fit for players that have been stalwarts on Mint Street (which honestly, there aren’t many), they can’t be afraid to upset fans and move on from players that are fan-favorites.

Draft and develop offensive linemen

This is a long-term play, but the first pick in the second round needs to be an offensive lineman. Of the top ten rookies in receiving yards, seven of them were drafted in the back half of the second round or later. If one of JC Latham, Amarius Mims, or Graham Barton slip to the beginning of the second round, Carolina should jump on one of them instead of drafting a wide receiver there. There are other options to find talent in the play-maker department.

In this scenario, a potentially controversial move would need to happen. Moving Ickey Ekwonu to guard. Talent evaluators across the league have said that Ekwonu would make for an All-Pro guard if tackle doesn't work out (which it doesn't seem like it's going to.)

An offensive line of rookie, Ekwonu, Bozeman, Christensen, and Moton has the potential to be potent. 

Get Bryce Young a big-time weapon

We’ve seen the playbook happen over and over again. A young quarterback struggles due to a lack of weapons. The team acquires a big-time receiver, and the trajectory of the young quarterback’s career changes for the better.

Joe Burrow got Ja’Marr Chase.

Tua Tagovailoa got Tyreek Hill.

Josh Allen got Stefon Diggs.

Trevor Lawrence got Calvin Ridley.

Tee Higgins, Michael Pittman, and Mike Evans headline the class of free agent wide receivers. The draft class is deep with talented guys ranked in the 60s on the PFF Big Board like Troy Franklin, Brian Thomas Jr., and Ladd McConkey. There are many options to bolster the receiving room that the team can explore while still drafting a lineman at #33.

With the way the receiver room looks right now, Carolina should both sign a big-name free agent, and draft a receiver with their third round pick.

Retain Ejiro Evero and let him run the defense

Self-explanatory. Evero has done a good job with with the revolving door of personnel he’s had on defense this year. His play-calling and schematic acumen is worth building around and keeping long-term. 

Assuming that Tepper hires an offensive-minded coach, retaining Evero is a smart decision. 

With all of that said, here's what the team would look like if some of these big changes happen. 

New general manager (Adam Peters, assistant GM in San Francisco),
New head coach (Ben Johnson, offensive coordinator in Detroit),
Rookie offensive lineman (JC Latham, Amarius Mims, or Graham Barton),
New outside playmakers (Michael Pittman and Troy Franklin).

Carolina lacks a first round draft pick, but they boast the 13th most cap space in the league and can make an impact in free agency by signing new players and retaining some of their own free agents. The roster will look very different come 2024, and after what we've seen this year, that is not a bad thing. 

Fixing the Panthers is easy to do in words on a page, but it will be significantly harder to do in practice. I do not envy David Tepper, the new head coach, or the potential new general manager, but the passionate fanbase is there and those three men will be lauded as heroes if they can bring a winner to Charlotte.

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