Matt Rhule’s made terrible personnel choices
This has become glaringly obvious as time has gone on this season and as injuries began to take their toll on the offensive line especially.
I even spoke on this recently when wondering why the team would decide to put John Miller back into a starting role that he had no business occupying. While that particular issue was rectified on Sunday, another more significant one popped up.
The Carolina Panthers have a left tackle on the roster, a player that the team drafted knowing that was his main position, yet they refuse to put him in the game unless all other options are exhausted.
Yes, Brady Christensen has had his struggles this season but the former BYU star is a rookie, those struggles are going to happen.
Why Rhule continues to put in Cam Erving or Dennis Daley at left tackle instead is mind-boggling. The team has a player right there on the sideline that knows the position yet the head coach opts to put in a player incapable of even making it at guard, which is a much easier position to play.
That isn’t the only issue, however.
The usage of Christian McCaffrey has also reared its ugly head with the All-Pro running back spending more time nursing injuries than running at this point.
With all of the talk about bringing McCaffrey along slowly and taking care of that injury history, Rhule still sent him out on almost every snap until he couldn’t take any more once again.
This hasn’t only shown on the offensive side either as the Jermaine Carter experiment has been disappointing, to put it mildly, and the team had a potential Pro Bowl player in Denzel Perryman on the roster and let him go for almost nothing.
Even the rotations and scheming have been poor from the start. Nothing seems likely to change that at this point.
Rhule needs to learn how to evaluate NFL-level talent so that he can put in the right player, at the right position, at the right time. That or someone else will start evaluating him and his time as a coach will come to an end.