Matt Rhule‘s Nebraska agreement severs the ties between he and the Panthers, who are now evaluating to see if Steve Wilks can become the first interim HC in six years to stick around as a full-time hire. But the team’s previous coach offered candor regarding his Carolina tenure.
When asked what he would do differently as Panthers HC, Rhule said he would have steered clear of the job he accepted in 2020. The Panthers gave Rhule a monster contract — seven years, $62MM — and the deal led the former college rebuild architect to believe he had more time than he did to turn the team around.
“I think I probably would just probably [have] taken another job,” Rhule said during an appearance on The Season with Peter Schrager podcast (via Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio). “It’s a great place. Wonderful people. But I just don’t know if I was a fit there.
“You know, at the end of the day, you know, we talked about, ‘Hey, we’re gonna have a four-year plan, a five-year plan.’ You know, if you tell me, ‘Hey, we got a two-year plan,’ then I’m gonna go sign a bunch of free agents and do it. So what was a four-year plan became a two-year-and-five-game plan real quick.”
In most cases, NFL coaches in this era cannot execute four- or five-year plans without progress in the win column. The Panthers went 11-27 under Rhule. Rhule’s college rebuilds progressed much faster, with Temple going from two to six to 10 wins in the longtime college coach’s first three seasons and Baylor vaulting from one to seven to 11 victories during his three-year stay at the Big 12 school. This made Rhule a coveted commodity, leading to David Tepper‘s blockbuster offer.
At the time, reporting linked Rhule to preferring the Giants over the Panthers. The Giants represented the New York native’s only previous NFL experience — a one-year stint (2012) on Tom Coughlin‘s staff — but John Mara balked at matching Tepper’s offer. Rhule also had a pretty clear idea of his standing late in the 2021 season, when hot-seat rumors swirled. The Panthers brought Rhule back for a third season, but he took issue with how the franchise changed the timetable. This would not be the first time Tepper has drawn criticism for his ownership style and it is certainly not the first time in recent years a college coach has been unable to replicate success at the NFL level.
“I’m not angry about it,” Rhule said. “At the end of the day, I understand. But if it’s gonna be that quick, then we’re gonna sign some more free agents, we’re gonna go make the blockbuster trade, we’re gonna do those things. I think the trajectory we were on was correct.”
Highlighted by their three-year, $63MM Teddy Bridgewater deal in 2020, the Panthers made some notable free agent signings during Rhule’s run. They did not, however, wade into the market’s deep waters. The team gave ex-Rhule Temple charges Robbie Anderson and Haason Reddick midlevel deals (a two-year, $20MM pact for Anderson in 2020 and a one-year, $6MM Reddick accord during 2021’s reduced-cap offseason) and handed out a three-year, $26.25MM contract to Austin Corbett this year. Carolina also sent Jacksonville a third-round pick for C.J. Henderson and added Stephon Gilmore. These players supplemented a Carolina core that drew trade interest after Rhule’s firing. Though, teams’ top Panthers trade targets — Christian McCaffrey, Brian Burns, D.J. Moore — were on the roster before Rhule’s arrival.
The Panthers did try to make what would have been the biggest trade in their history, being a finalist for Deshaun Watson. But the then-Texans quarterback did not have them first on his list. And Tepper, joining Arthur Blank on this front, was uncomfortable with the Browns’ five-year, $230MM fully guaranteed proposal. The Panthers pursued Watson for two years. In 2021, Watson was only believed to have waived his no-trade clause for the Dolphins. By 2022, Rhule’s uncertain status impacted Watson’s view of the Panthers. The team also traded three picks for Sam Darnold and added Baker Mayfield via lower-level swap; it is safe to say Rhule is back in the college ranks because the Panthers whiffed on the quarterback position under his watch.
It will be interesting to see how Rhule fares in attempting to rebuild the Cornhuskers while simultaneously observing if his cornerstone Panthers draft picks — Derrick Brown, Jeremy Chinn, Jaycee Horn, Ikem Ekwonu — end up being part of a contender in the future.
And which one of those timelines made sense of literally any of their QB plans? Give me a break.
Miami, NYJ, and Eagles new HC’s didn’t need 4 years to rebuild. Jets and Eagles coach have been on for 2 years right?
Yeah the NFL moves fast. He’s clueless if he actually thought he had at least 4-5 years to build a winner. 4-5 year rebuild plans happen in baseball. 2-3 years in the NFL without clear improvement, and you’re out.
Other teams wouldn’t have even given him a chance to finally show something early in year 3.
To be fair, the Jets never really “rebuilt” under Joe Douglas, rather he just built after he inherited Maccagnan’s oddly constructed roster.
Carolina should have torn it all the way down as soon as Rhule got there.
To be fair to the jets, they’ve been perpetually bad for years so their rebuild has been going on for a very long time. The eagles to that same note had additional draft capital to use in a rebuild effort and some existing talent kn the team, same goes for the Dolphins.
A real Panther rebuild should have occurred this season by trading Burns for 2 firsts and trading DJ Moore for picks to go with their McCaffrey haul.
You can’t win without a QB in the NFL and they didn’t have one and he was going nowhere without acquiring a real one
He was definitely involved in trading for Darnold, Baker and the rookie. He wasn’t left out of those discussions.
Hasn’t stopped either NY team or NE, who conveniently has highly regarded coaches
I legit cannot stand this dude. He is 100% a politician first and foremost.
Every field has people who are better at getting jobs than doing them. He’s a pro at the former.
Trash take now ice up son and go read more
“…it is safe to say Rhule is back in the college ranks because the Panthers whiffed on the quarterback position under his watch.”
Honest question to those more familiar with the Panthers than me, as I truly don’t know – was Rhule the architect of those trades?
He had to have some say. 7 year deal w/o 1% input on roster and trades? Why take the job then? Like you, I’m not familiar on the inner workings.
I am a Panthers fan and it’s widely reported here by Joe Person and others that he always had final say on personnel (including acquisitions) as part of his deal, under both Hurney and Fitterer.
I appreciate the info! With that, then, yeah, Rhule HAS to bear a lot of the responsibility…
Thank you again for the kind answers!
Ruhle is dishonest. WE ALL know you have to show progress in the NFL by year 3. He didn’t. Case closed. I watched them play and you could see that the players had quit on him. The fans were very ready for him to go.
Why can’t people figure out that the skills that lead to success in college football do NOT transfer to the NFL…AT ALL?
This would come as a surprise to SB winning coaches Andy Reid, Pete Carroll, Mike Tomlin and Mike McCarthy all of whom were coaching at the college level before breaking into the NFL.
All of them had a lot more experience in the pros though. I’d say guys coming directly from college with little to no pro coaxing experience don’t do so well.
Obviously there is a learning curve for college coaches just as there is for college players. There simply isn’t an alternative recruiting source for the NFL. The next generation of pro coaches aren’t going to be provided by MIT, NASA or the NSA.
Teams aren’t going to stop going for the hot college head coach regardless of pro experience anyway. To the original point, I think that needs to be expanded on with what I said. Essentially promote a college head coach to some sort of assistant or coordinator in the NFL before HC. It’s never going to happen because college HC have as good if not better salaries than any non NFL HC position and teams are just going to continue to offer college HC directly to the NFL as a HC. Agree with you as there is no other place to hire from. Unless you start just getting former players to retire and become coaches right away.
Expecting a college HC to transition smoothly to NFL HC is a big ask. As you pointed out there isn’t a lot of incentive to take the leap as college head coaches like Jim Harbaugh already have a very sweet deal where they are. Of course there is plenty of talent under the college head coaches that warrant recruitment and development by NFL teams. These are the guys who have the best chance of one day being top NFL HCs.
It looks from here that the odds are better lifting an NFL coach with reasonable leadership skills up from OC or DC to head coach than picking a top college coach.
McVay, Saleh, LaFleur, O’Connell, Shanahan, Daboll to name a few recent success stories.
GMs are always concerned about their own job security which is why they prefer the safer play of promoting OCs and DCs. It’s still a risk though, as many, once head coaches, reveal they are only strong on one side of the ball. Fangio for example is a stellar DC but he’s not going to turn any offense into a juggernaut.
The Jags owner didn’t get your memo.
I feel like there is probably *some* truth to what he’s saying, but did he really not understand what he was signing up for? C’mon, dude. Carolina forked over a ton of cash, and in the NFL you can’t just lose for five years without showing some incremental improvement.
They also did take some swings, which makes him a liar there. They brought in Darnold, which was a mistake. They brought in Mayfield. If you’re going total rebuild, why are you doing those trades? Be as bad as you can be and collect the draft picks.
It didn’t work. It happens. He’s a college coach, and he got paid well to find that out. Tepper is a terrible owner, but let it go. Rhule needs to own it’s on him, too.
Odds on whether Rhule makes it to the end of his Nebraska contract without moving on to another stop (voluntarily or not)?
He’s the classic ‘rent real estate, don’t buy’ coach.
You’re not building a program in the NFL, you either win or you get fired.
No. Matt Rhule, you suck and that’s the bottom line. Be grateful you luckily heisted the NFL for millions of dollars, and shut up about it.
To his credit, and for what it’s worth he didn’t have much time. 2 seasons and 4 games I think had they given him the full 4 seasons he would’ve done good.
Based on what?
When he brought in Darnold he was doomed.
And Baker.
Rhule certainly isn’t afraid of failing. Anyone could see both the Giants and Carolina were a mess that even a vastly more experienced NFL coach would have difficulty cleaning up. And of course Nebraska hasn’t competed for anything worthwhile for over a decade.
There is no such thing as a 5 year rebuild in the NFL. Totally unrealistic. The league is built in a way that a competent front office and coaching staff should need no more than 3 seasons to be competing. The job was clearly too big for him, given his expectations.
Um, you did try to make the big trade. It didn’t work.
I don’t doubt that Tepper made things unreliable and difficult-in fact, I endorse that view-but Rhule’s Pontius Pilate act is getting tiresome.
Rhule seems to saying that there was confusion between the decision makers who, when and how to bring in players? That is a recipe for failure if you don’t know or agree on the path? So teams always ends up on the junk heap if thats the case. The other poorly hidden message was that his road was fine with him but the others above him disagreed?
Either way the organization has gone backwards since Richardson sold in several directions. The product on the field is what it is and the practice field delays then bankruptcy are the poor side of the business end. The land projected for a new stadium has sat for years now. Likely just another failed project the team will wear. So Rhule is hardly the only problem with this franchise right now. Since owners don’t get the boot expect more of the same in Carolina.
I think everyone of being hard on Rhule. I don’t like what he said but I think their is truth to it. I think Tepper gave him a long leash and even in his introductory press conference, he said this was going be a slow build. They had a little success and traded for Gilmore and they were not ready to compete. I hold Tepper the most responsible and then Rhule. Tepper thinks he can wave a wand and win the Super Bowl. Don’t work like that.