Good, bad and ugly from Scott Fitterer’s first season as Panthers GM
By Brian Emory
There are plenty of problems within the Carolina Panthers right now, but it’s far too early to be pressing the panic button on general manager Scott Fitterer.
The pitchforks are officially out in Charlotte.
]As the Carolina Panthers continue to falter down the stretch of the season, jobs are understandably being called for. While head coach Matt Rhule is receiving the brunt of the criticism, first-year general manager Scott Fitterer is also taking some heat from the fanbase.
A contingent of fans is clamoring for the dismissal of both at the end of the season, which would signal a hard reset for the franchise.
At a surface level, it would make some sense. When teams move on from coaches, a lot of franchises look at this as an opportunity to get an entirely fresh start which the general manager can quickly become a victim of.
In Fitterer’s case, it certainly doesn’t help much that one of the reasons he was hired for the job in the first place was due to the supposed strong connection he developed with Rhule throughout the interview process.
Additionally, the Panthers front office has certainly made its fair share of mistakes over the past year. However, it’s easy for the errors of a losing team to be magnified.
If you take a deeper dive into Fitterer’s first year as Carolina’s general manager, there is some reason to have some cautious optimism that he can right the ship.