Despite a promising 3-0 start, the Panthers ended their season on a low note by taking their second beatdown in the past month at the hands of Tom Brady and the Buccaneers to finish with just five wins for the second straight season. There’s no debating the fact that the organization needs to make some major changes in the offseason in order to compete for a playoff spot next year, but specifically what those changes should be is somewhat unclear.
These are the top five things that should be on Matt Rhule’s list for the offseason, in no particular order.
*Note that “re-sign players like Stephon Gilmore and Haason Reddick” isn’t a task on the list, but that should absolutely be a priority for Rhule and GM Scott Fitterer in order to keep the Panthers’ elite defense intact.
- Hire an elite offensive coordinator
There’s no other way to put it: The Joe Brady experiment was a resounding failure. Heading one of the worst offenses in the league this season, Brady found himself jobless before his first year with the Panthers came to a close. Rhule is going to start searching for a new—and hopefully more traditionally experienced—OC in the next few weeks, so who is going to be at the top of the list?
The biggest name that is in contention for the position is Bill O’Brien, the current Alabama offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach and ex-Houston Texans head coach/general manager. Although he made one of the all time “WTF?!” coaching decisions in trading away All-Pro wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins to the Cardinals for basically nothing, that shouldn’t take away from the fact that he is one of football’s great offensive minds.
He led the Texans to two seasons with 10 or more wins in 2018 and 2019, and he obviously had a great year with Alabama where his offense saw its quarterback, Bryce Young, win the first Heisman Trophy at the position in school history. Unfortunately for the Panthers, O’Brien will be in the running for a number of NFL head coach openings as well, so Rhule might end up having to sell the Panthers to O’Brien instead of vice versa.
Reportedly, another name on the list is former Washington Football Team head coach Jay Gruden. He was most recently the Jacksonville Jaguars offensive coordinator in 2020 (after being fired from Washington the year prior), where he didn’t exactly lead a productive Jags offense. To be fair, he didn’t have much talent to work with, but he put on a bad enough showing to make me prefer O’Brien over Gruden.
- Draft a blue chip OT prospect, spend for offensive line in the free agency
Rhule needs to draft Alabama OT Evan Neal or N.C. State OT Ikem Ekwonu if he’s given the opportunity. The Panthers have locked in the sixth pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, so Rhule should have a number of options to choose from come draft day.
The thing that should be concerning for the third-year head coach though is that each of the five teams that have picks before Carolina would also love to pick up a stud offensive lineman to protect their quarterback for the next decade.
The first two picks, belonging to the Lions and the Jaguars, are likely to be spent on the top two edge rushers in the draft, Kayvon Thibodeaux and Aidan Hutchinson. Accordingly, Rhule can probably wait until the third pick to begin his sweating. The third, fourth and fifth picks belong to the Texans, Jets and Giants, respectively. Each of those teams could really use some help on their offensive lines. If both Ekwonu and Neal are gone before the sixth pick, the most sensible decision would probably be to trade down to later in the first round and pick up some second/third round draft capital, seeing as the Panthers currently don’t have a pick in either of those rounds. Ultimately, I wouldn’t be surprised if three or more of the Panthers picks went toward offensive lineman, just to see if they can hit a late-round gem and/or pick up some much needed depth.
If the team doesn’t end up with one of the top two lineman in the draft, they should definitely look to the free agent market for help at the position. Even if they do draft one of those two, they should probably explore every option available in order to improve next season. Carolina has some cap space to work with, so they might be able to bring in some elite talent through free agency.
- Figure out the quarterback situation
Ever since the 3-0 start, the quarterback position has been an absolute disaster for the Panthers: Sam Darnold played terribly without McCaffrey in the backfield, PJ Walker clearly isn’t the star in the NFL that he once was in the XFL, and Cam Newton doesn’t seem to be the answer that Panthers fans thought he might be after his heroic Week 10 performance against the Cardinals.
Rhule probably shouldn’t look to the draft for help at the position as this year’s quarterback class is pretty weak, especially when compared to last year’s class.
The veteran market in free agency doesn’t seem like it’s going to provide many options for Rhule as most of the guys who were thought to be considering leaving their longtime homes are looking less and less likely to do so (Wilson, Rodgers, etc.).
There’s always the option to trade for Deshaun Watson, whom the Texans are rumored to be looking to move before the free agency opens in March, but that obviously comes with potential drawbacks that might or might not be resolved in the coming months.
Look, I’m not here to provide the answers. I’m here to tell others that they’re doing something wrong and to face no consequences as a result of the advice I give.
With that being said, I have no idea what the next step is for Rhule and his next offensive coordinator. I do know however that if Rhule wants to keep his job in Carolina after next season, he’ll need to find an answer quickly.
- Figure out the McCaffrey situation
There’s not much to say here that hasn’t been said already.
Christian Mccaffrey has been one of, if not the best running back in the NFL throughout the past three years when he’s been healthy. Unfortunately for him, that’s not been often: He has played just 10 games since signing the most lucrative contract ever afforded to an NFL running back in April of 2020 after an MVP-caliber season in 2019.
If he’s just going to be injury prone from now on, maybe it’s time to move on and try to extract as much trade value from him as possible.
In fact, it looks like that’s going to be a heavily considered option as reports came out on Sunday that the Panthers are willing to listen to trade offers for the fifth-year back.
McCaffrey could potentially be a piece of a trade offer to Houston for Watson at some point as well, if that’s the route that Rhule and his staff decide that they want to take.
On the other hand, they could ultimately find that he’s too valuable to their offense to trade away at this point and stick with him for at least another year. If that’s the case, he will almost certainly be operating in a running back committee with Chuba Hubbard and maybe Ameer Abdullah.
The days of McCaffrey being on the field for 97 percent of his offense’s snaps are over.
- Replace Jermaine Carter
Luke Kuechly’s retirement sent Carolina’s inside linebacker position into shambles, from which it hasn’t recovered. Starting ILB Jermaine Carter doesn’t do anything particularly well, so it would do the team a favor to look for an upgrade. Finding a replacement starter through the draft will probably take more capital than Rhule is willing to commit to the position this year, so the best option is likely free agency.
The first name that comes to mind is the Titans’ Jayon Brown who will become an unrestricted free agent after this season. Just 26 years old, Brown is still improving as a player and is definitely an upgrade over Carter who won’t cost a fortune to bring to Charlotte for a few seasons.
Photo courtesy of KA Sports Photos/Flickr
