Panthers News: Bryce Young, Blake Martinez, the blueprint and Frank Reich

Carolina Panthers preaching patience

Fans were expecting the Carolina Panthers to make genuine progress this season. The lavish spending on elite-level coaches coupled with their big move to No. 1 overall in the 2023 NFL Draft for quarterback Bryce Young dictated as much, with general manager Scott Fitterer's bold statements during the summer reflective of his satisfaction.

Sadly, it's worse than ever in terms of results and morale. Fitterer is getting the majority of blame and team owner David Tepper is another who's coming in for severe criticism, but Frank Reich stated via Sports Illustrated that there is a blueprint for success - it just takes time to implement.

"We have a blueprint in our minds of how we build a team. Scott (Fitterer) and I have talked about that many times. What are the pieces? On offense and defense there are more valued positions and then fill out the rest of your roster from there. We want to stick to that blueprint. We know that some of that is going to take time. We know we're responsible for progress and results in the meantime. But there is a blueprint and we're following that blueprint. You can only go so fast."

- Frank Reich via Sports Illustrated

This might be true, but it sounds an awful lot like the old head coach. We've gone from Jay-Z's seven-year overnight success plan to The Blueprint, which only irked fans more considering there's been almost nothing to legitimately cheer for the best part of a decade.