Grading the previous five eventful Carolina Panthers offseasons
By Luke Tucker
Carolina Panthers 2020 offseason grade: C
One of the Carolina Panthers’ first tasks of the 2020 offseason was something they hadn’t done in almost 10 years – find a new head coach – after Ron Rivera was fired with just a few weeks remaining in the 2019 season.
To replace him, Marty Hurney and David Tepper hired Matt Rhule away from Baylor University.
Rhule flew onto several teams’ radars after nearly leading the Bears to the College Football Playoff in 2019. He was hired as a “team-builder” coach and was tasked with rebuilding one of the oldest rosters in the league. Not to mention one that was declining in talent as well.
Among his first moves in rebuilding the team included the releases of tight end Greg Olsen and quarterback Cam Newton. The moves were unpopular at the time, but in Rhule’s defense, they did appear the right things to do.
Olsen was due way more money than his production was meriting. Newton was aging and constantly battled injury and inconsistency during the 2018 and 2019 seasons.
One thing out of Rhule’s control that doomed the 2020 offseason was the sudden retirement of future Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker Luke Kuechly. The perennial All-Pro and running back Christian McCaffrey were supposed to be the anchors of Rhule’s roster, which didn’t turn out to be the case thanks to health concerns.
As unpopular as Rhule was at times during his first season, he did a good job of bringing in young talent on the defensive side of the ball. During the draft, he brought in stud defensive tackle Derrick Brown in the first round, found a hidden gem in Jeremy Chinn, and also selected defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos, who has shown plenty of promise.
Safety Kenny Robinson was also drafted in 2020 and showed good development this past season.
Rhule also got a bargain in wide receiver Robby Anderson, who recorded more than 1,000 yards in his first season with Carolina. Defensive tackle Zach Kerr also outplayed his contract.
Moves that turned out to be not-so-great for the Panthers include the Russell Okung trade, the signings of Tahir Whitehead and Stephen Weatherly. Teddy Bridgewater wasn’t awful but was paid big money for extremely average play.
Once again though, the Panthers were bailed out this offseason by a relatively good draft. The developments of Chinn, Brown, and others have been encouraging. But the offense was hardly improved during the 2020 offseason, thus resulting in another mediocre grade.