What factors indicate Carolina Panthers head coach Frank Reich could be on the hot seat over the secone half of his first campaign at the helm?
The Carolina Panthers are 1-8 from the 2023 NFL season so far and truly look awful. How much of the blame should head coach Frank Reich take?
I will be the first to admit that I thought this team was going to be much better than they are. I thought this team was a dark horse candidate to win the NFC South this year.
I could not have been more wrong.
It's pretty clear this team is the worst in football. What does this team do well besides lose? And who takes most of the blame?
Should Reich shoulder the load? Should it be general manager Scott Fitterer? Or should owner David Tepper be seen as the most responsible?
Well, in the NFL, the first person that usually gets scapegoated - besides the quarterback - is the head coach. I don't think Reich is doing himself any favors with this team. Here are five factors that could indicate he's on the hot seat until further notice.
Carolina Panthers are undisciplined
There's a laundry list of issues for this team, but one that might be one of the most egregious is the penalties. According to footballdb.com, the Carolina Panthers have been called for the second-most penalties in the NFL with 62 infractions. That ranks as the second-most in the NFC, with only the Chicago Bears accumulating more.
One could argue that the penalties should be the fault of the position coaches, but who put those position coaches in place? Furthermore, the Panthers have been called for 18 false start penalties, which ranks as the most in the NFL.
This isn't some random stranger breaking into the facility and corrupting the minds of the players. It's Frank Reich. He's also coached teams that rank high in the NFL in terms of penalties before, so this is not new for him.
Carolina Panthers personnel failings
The coaches and general managers work together and bring in players that fit the vision. That's how it normally works around the NFL and was no different with the Carolina Panthers as part of their new collaborative approach without Matt Rhule.
While Scott Fitterer was the one handing out the contracts, Frank Reich certainly had input on the signings. He also had a hefty input into which prospects the Panthers drafted in 2023.
Offensively, the team signed guys like Hayden Hurst, Adam Thielen, D.J. Chark, and Miles Sanders. They drafted players like Jonathan Mingo and Bryce Young.
So far, the new-look offense simply looks horrible, and Reich should take a large part of that blame. Perhaps the players he likely advocated for bringing into the fold were just not what he thought they would be.
And dare I say, perhaps Young is not the quarterback he thought he'd be.
It's been just nine games for Young, but you'd at least have liked to see the signal-caller show a bit more than he has. Either way, if you don't fault the first-year pro at all, Reich should be faulted for thinking the offensive personnel he had a hand in assembling was good enough.
You could argue that none of the offensive players that were brought in this offseason have a future with the team. And that is a damning indictment on those in power.
Carolina Panthers coaching staff has failed to deliver
I had originally thought the coaching staff that Frank Reich assembled was nothing short of excellent. He brought in a great mix of veteran coaches like Dom Capers, Todd Wash, and Duce Staley, among others. Some intriguing player-to-coach pipeline guys like Josh McCown and DeAngelo Hall also joined the Carolina Panthers.
When the staff was announced throughout the offseason, I was truly trying to find a bad hire. I didn't see one.
Well, maybe this staff team just simply isn't going to work out. Maybe Reich has too many veteran coaches. Maybe he has too many former players on his staff? Maybe it's a mix of both?
Whatever the main issue is, it's clear that the coaching staff rarely gets this team ready to play each week. I wonder if this staff will be one of the rare one-and-done situations that we sometimes see in the NFL.
It's ironic one of the last coaches to be one and done is Steve Wilks. He took over as the interim head coach in 2022 for the team when Matt Rhule got fired.
Wilks did a very nice job - so much so that people were calling for the team to make him the next permanent head coach. The Panthers did not, leaving the respected figure free to join the San Francisco 49ers, where he serves as defensive coordinator.
Carolina Panthers do nothing with conviction
Typically, when you hire a head coach on the offensive or defensive side of the ball, you'd then like your team to excel at some point, or at least show something. What do the Carolina Panthers do well besides lose?
They've lost nearly every game, get called for a ton of penalties, and boast a negative point differential among many other concerning statistics. You get the point - it's been a complete embarrassment almost from start to finish.
The team ranks at the bottom of almost every statistic you can find.
I do understand that this is the first year of a new era. Not only does the team have a new coaching staff, but they have a ton of new pieces on offense, including a new franchise quarterback. However, with them being nine games into the season, you'd probably like to see something you could grab onto, right?
There's been virtually no improvement from Bryce Young. The offensive line hasn't gotten better this year, and the defense is still inconsistent at best when it comes to generating pressure consistently.
You could blame quarterbacks' coach Josh McCown or defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero for these two things specifically. But the man in charge is Frank Reich.
Reich was the one who put McCown and Evero in their respective roles and thought that it'd work. I guess the Panthers can turn it around a bit this season to make greater strides in 2024, but this feels like something a lot deeper than that.
Carolina Panthers being 1-8 is not good enough
Going into the 2023 NFL season, did anyone truly think that the Carolina Panthers were in a rebuilding mode?
I mean, on paper, the defense was one of the most talented units in the NFC. A good pass rush and solid secondary seemed to be present. The team made significant moves at the quarterback spot, and they traded a haul of picks and players to be able to pick No. 1 overall in the 2023 draft.
A team doesn't do that if they are rebuilding, right?
If the Panthers traded all of that capital, they must've felt pretty confident that the signal-caller they selected would be able to help lead this team into a respectable place in 2023. Frank Reich and Scott Fitterer made a bold move when they moved up to that top pick, likely thinking that the head coach's previous success with quarterback development could have translated over to a different environment.
I'm not saying the team should be 6-3 or 7-2. But man, you'd have hoped that the Panthers would have had a couple more wins to show for, right?
Being 1-8 usually means the roster has nothing going for them and the man under center needs to be replaced. Well, that isn't the case with the Panthers just yet.
When you consider that, it falls on Reich, who most certainly should feel his seat warming up.