The firing of former Panthers head coach Frank Reich was not a spur of the moment decision. Team owner David Tepper had been forming the basis for this decision for weeks before finally pulling the trigger. Joseph Person and Dianna Russini spoke with several players and staff within the organization, some under the guise of anonymity, about the state of the organization and revealed a number of headline-worthy comments. 
First off was the confirmation of rumors that the team’s poor offensive performance contributed heavily to Reich’s exit. In addition to serving as head coach, Reich also called offensive plays for Carolina. He ceded play-calling duties to first year offensive coordinator Thomas Brown for three games before retaking the responsibility, but nothing seemed to help their struggling rookie quarterback, Bryce Young, and Reich’s decision to take back that role reportedly caused some division within the staff.
In 11 starts so far this year, Young is averaging fewer than 200 passing yards per game. and has thrown only nine touchdowns to nine interceptions. The offense has struggled as a whole, ranking 29th in points scored and 30th in yards gained. Their struggles have been fairly balanced with the team ranking 30th in passing yards and 26th in rushing.
One take, per Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated, is that the Panthers’ attack was simply too complicated for the rookie passer. Reich brought in assistant coaches from many backgrounds. When he was let go, quarterbacks coach Josh McCown and running backs coach Duce Staley were also let go, due to their heavy influence on the offense. Between Reich’s plan from his Philadelphia days, Brown’s scheme from Los Angeles, and the input from McCown and Staley, there were simply too many cooks in the kitchen. The plan post-Reich has been to streamline the offense in order to make it a bit more digestible for Young.
Additionally, there seemed to be a disconnect within the coaching staff. As we recently reported, there were seemingly attempts within the coaching staff to get Young benched in favor of a veteran like backup quarterback Andy Dalton. Such attempts reportedly never reached Reich or general manager Scott Fitterer. This may have been a result of several Panthers staffers communicating directly with Tepper behind Reich’s back. With the writing on the wall for Reich, several assistants reportedly went into self-preservation mode in an attempt to not go down with the captain of the ship.
Tepper really attempted to be hands-on this season. After firing Matt Rhule, Tepper sold a thorough coaching search (despite some rumors pointing to a foregone conclusion when Carolina hired Reich’s daughter hours after the 2022 season ended). After “eventually” landing on Reich, Tepper reportedly implored his new head coach to hire assistants outside of his normal coaching circle, suggesting that Reich retain special teams coordinator Chris Tabor and offensive line coach James Campen. Tepper even instructed Reich to fix Young’s footwork, though this may have been prompted by another coach or even Fitterer.
With Reich in the past, there have been several names rumored to be in contention to replace him. Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson is a popular pick after he was heavily considered in the offseason before withdrawing his name from consideration to stay in Detroit. But Carolina isn’t necessarily selling out for Johnson. According to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, sources have the Panthers on the lookout for a “young offensive coach” to replace Reich.
Johnson does fit that mold at the age of 37, but Eagles 36-year-old offensive coordinator Brian Johnson will be popular this offseason, as well. Texans offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik, at 36 years old, has already shown what he can do with the development of a rookie quarterback after working with both Brock Purdy in 2022 and C.J. Stroud this year, though he remains close to DeMeco Ryans, who brought him over from San Francisco. Lastly, Dolphins offensive coordinator Frank Smith is a bit older at 42 years old but is still a rising name in the NFL after Miami’s offensive development in the past two years.
While they might not love what’s been put on the field thus far, the Panthers also still have Brown on the offensive staff after he was considered a head coaching candidate in the offseason. Brown was also considered an up-and-coming offensive mind coming out of Los Angeles last year. Regardless, Tepper will need to really do his homework this time around if he wants to author a strong reply to this year’s dismal performance.
They should’ve just drafted stroud instead because he at least looks like a QB instead of young and was every bit as good heading into the draft. But leave it to the idiot owner to make decisions
I like Stroud more too. But I’m pretty confident if you put Young in Houston and Stroud in Carolina, the teams would be near the same situation they are in now and both players would look vastly different. The Texans have a much better foundation than the Panthers, both coaching and player wise. I don’t think any rookie QB would look good in Carolina.
I agree with jd. This dysfunction was not caused by taking Young over Stroud.
Coach Bieniemy has done a great job with Howell. Eric Bieniemy should be mentioned here especially since hes been involved in at 2 Super Bowl wins!
With his history, this may be his only shot at an HC position.
What did he do? I forget. Something at college, right?
Oh yeah…. Been mentioned here often. A quick search and it is clear why he has interviewed a dozen times and teams went with other options.
Was it Staley and McCown that wanted Young benched? Whoever pushed for that should’ve been fired, they are clueless. Benching your #1 pick for the corpse of Dalton makes no sense and is an embarrassment.
Young has to gain NFL experience, learn, and start to swim, or sink.
Most high draft pick star QB’s sit and learn behind a veteran before taking over. The one who is clueless is Tepper. Bryce Young was set up to fail from the beginning. This whole mess with the team is 100% on Tepper. The other to blame is the GM. Here they are at 1-11 and almost guaranteed to get the #1 pick but have to give it to the Chicago Bears. They did nothing to address the loss of DJ Moore. The future is not good in Charlotte for the next 3 years at least.
Adam Thielen deserves a lot of respect for providing most of what little offense the Panthers produced. Terrific season for a WR who was considered washed up in Minnesota.
100% agreed there. Mingo finally showed a bit of production in their last game, so hopefully Carolina can build on that. Hurst going down didn’t help, either. But Thielen has been by far and away the best pass catcher for the Panthers, not to mention the wealth of knowledge and leadership that he’s given to Young and the offense.
If what the article says about the staff reporting to Tepper behind Reich’s back is true, and that they were going about implementing their own offensive ideas or concepts regardless of what Reich had in mind, it could also explain how disjointed their usage was as targets. Maybe some of those staffers wanted Dalton because they had offensive ideas better suited to him than Young. It’s disgusting enough that they’d sabotage their own coach like that, but they also ignored the fact that Young is their priority to develop, not Dalton. Thielen’s usage seems to have slipped since Reich was fired; hopefully that’s just a blip, because he’s really been the only consistent receiver so far for Young and needs to remain involved.
Imagine how shocked I am to learn that bloated coaching staffs lead to problems. The fact that most of these guys will go into self preservation mode rather than go down with the captain of the ship should be a red flag but NFL teams love duplicating each others mistakes.
Too many cooks indeed.
Also, Tepper brought in a coach who wasn’t a fit for the personnel. The OL was built for downhill running and Reich wanted to impose a zone blocking scheme. That’s on Tepper for being clueless about how your scheme should sync with your roster.
Oh, and a WR or two who can get open and catch the ball would help, too.
Maybe somebody like DJ Moore?
The funny part is every single article written last offseason, praised the new coaching staff!
Tepper is the problem–not coaches. If Tepper cares about Panthers fans he needs to sell the team.
And that’s the problem. Tepper doesn’t care about Panthers fans. Heck, even he’s a Steelers fan. I just feel bad for Carolina fans.
If it’s not obvious by now, running a hedge fund firm takes an entirely different skill set than an NFL franchise
Mike tomlin
As a Steeler fan I think they should trade Tomlin to Tepper, would certainly make a lot of the fan base happy, me included!
This guy sucks as a human and owner. Worst franchise by far in the NFL, only way to get a new HC is by overpaying
Tepper was probably mad when Snyder sold the Commanders. Before that Tepper didn’t own the worst NFL franchise.
Huh?