Panthers making bold decision by bringing Ron Rivera back for 2019

The Panthers better hope that they are making the right decision.

This is certainly an interesting piece of news, especially after the result of Sunday’s game. It appears as though head coach Ron Rivera will hold the same title in the 2019 season. Per multiple media reports, the Panthers are expected to bring him back.

Sunday, Ian Rappaport of NFL Network spoke on NFL GameDay Morning prior to the Panthers contest against the Falcons and said that Rivera is expected to come back in 2019.

This is an interesting piece of news here. Rivera has made a couple of questionable decisions over the course of the season. His conservative play-calling and willingness to seem to want to play for field goals instead of touchdowns has been one of his more noticeable tendencies this season. In addition, his substitution patterns have proved to be questionable and it seems as though he has struggled at times to properly evaluate and observe the tendencies of his players.

I am not here to call for his head. He obviously knows a lot more about football than me. I will say that I think a new voice as head coach in 2019 would not hurt the team. This year more than others, he seems to have a lack of awareness in regards to the inner workings of his team. It was not until Cam Newton basically said his arm was falling off that Rivera decided to replace him with Taylor Heinicke for Sunday’s game. It was his conservative playcalling during the team’s loss to the Washington Redskins that may have cost  them the game.

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He is almost too loyal to his players. His comments after the team’s loss to the Seahawks felt like a rehashing of every press conference since the team’s tough loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday Night Football in the first week of November. “We have to do a better job, and we have to execute” sounds good on paper. That is what you want to hear from a coach. However, the lack of execution that has plagued the Panthers ever sense leads me to believe that his words are rather hollow. I like his ideas, his follow-through needs work.

Between the disappointing play of the defense and the lack of cohesion regarding his current team, bringing back Ron Rivera in 2019 seems like a mistake. Even on Sunday, he had some questionable decisions. One of them occurred hen he brought in Heinicke to finish a drive led by Kyle Allen. That resulted in an interception. If something is not broken, why try to fix it? That was just another head- scratching decision

Bottom line here is, Ron Rivera may not be a good choice for the Panthers in 2019. He has had a great run in Carolina, and he will have to have a tremendous season in order to make bringing him back seem like the right decision.