4 Christmas crackers from the Carolina Panthers 2022 season so far

Carolina Panthers’ cultural reset

After Matt Rhule’s toxic time with the Carolina Panthers mercifully came to an end, team owner David Tepper tasked Steve Wilks with restoring pride. A monumental challenge for the interim head coach in difficult circumstances whichever way one looked at it.

Trading Christian McCaffrey and Robbie Anderson further stacked the deck against Wilks. However, the strides made under his leadership have been nothing short of impressive, and could see Tepper remove the interim tag as a result.

Wilks has undertaken a complete cultural rest in Carolina. He knows what makes the franchise tick, was around when the going was good and made no secret of his intent to get back to basics in pursuit of salvaging respectability from the campaign.

To say the players were fully on board with this approach would be understating things. There’s a renewed sense of belief within the locker room thanks to Wilks, with improved preparations and increased professionalism two other elements key to some encouraging progress.

Whether this is enough for Tepper to keep Wilks around is debatable. The support is growing according to reports, but nobody knows what the owner’s going to do based on his questionable decision-making since buying the franchise from Jerry Richardson.

Regardless of what happens, there is belief again. And fans can thank Wilks for that.