Photo: Rusty Jones/AP
In the latest edition of David Tepper Has No Idea What He's Doing, the Panthers owner fired coach Frank Reich on Monday.
This one is a doozy. Critics are already calling it Tepper's best work since earlier this month, when he ousted Charlotte FC head coach Christian Lattanzio despite the team making the MLS playoffs.
For those keeping score, Tepper owned the Panthers and Charlotte FC for a total of seven seasons. At the time, he had five full-time coaches and now three interims. If he fills his two vacancies in the coming months, that number will increase to 10 in eight seasons. Even Daniel Snyder is starting to think: what is this man doing?
Sir Alex Ferguson, one of the greatest football coaches of all time, was fond of giving advice to emerging managers: "Choose the owner, not the club." Who would pick Tepper at this point?
Reich's firing marks the second straight year the Panthers have fired a high-priced coach this season. Last October, Tepper fired Matt Rhule in the third year of a fully guaranteed seven-year, $62 million contract. Reich's reign lasted all 11 games, the shortest tenure as a head coach in the NFL since 1978. He was hired in January on a four-year contract.
Related: Chaotic Panthers fire head coach Frank Reich in less than a year
Carolina is now 1-10, with the worst record in the league. They would be in pole position for the first overall pick in the draft had they not dealt their pick to the Chicago Bears last season in Tepper's latest attempt to acquire a shiny toy.
Reich is far from flawless. A 1-10 record in a coach's first season - or any season for that matter - is dismal. Reich was hired to boost the Panthers' blatant offense and to restore a sense of professionalism to the franchise after Rhule's amateur showing. Reich was a known commodity, the safe pair of hands, a coach with experience as an offensive coordinator who won the Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles. He also posted a 40-33-1 record as head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, despite a revolving door at quarterback.
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It should have been a first for both parties. Reich, a smart offensive coach, would (finally) be paired with a young, promising quarterback. The Panthers stopped messing around with first-timers or table-thumpers and turned the team over to someone who knew what they were doing.
But Reich failed to build a cohesive offense around the No. 1 overall pick in this year's draft, quarterback Bryce Young. His supporting All-Star cast - including potential head coaches Ejiro Evero, Thomas Brown and Duce Staley, who was also fired on Monday - struggled to get much out of a weak roster. A defense that spent much of last season ranked in the Top 10 in EPA/play has crumbled to 29th this year. The offensive line can't block. Most concerning of all, Young has shown little sign of developing into a franchise quarterback.
Reich's job was to find answers to these problems - and he failed. But the Panthers' problems are systemic; they would never be resolved in eleven games. Was it the coach who decided to trade away Christian McCaffrey or DJ Moore last year? Did Reich choose to use a glut of draft picks (plus Moore) to move up and select a quarterback, rather than addressing pressing needs in the trenches? Was it the coach who failed to draft, sign or acquire a competent offensive line or any semblance of a receiving corps?
Dealing McCaffrey and Moore last year was part of a long-term play. After trying to win from the middle and reform on the fly, Tepper and his Panthers were willing to embrace the short-term pain to lift the long-term ceiling. They would make a roster move, reset their cap sheet, spend a VIP coaching staff and grab a potential franchise quarterback in the draft. But the hyperactive owner missed an important detail: rebuilding takes time.
Burning a selection to the ground means crawling through the ashes until you can start thinking about titles. The Texans stumbled through the post-Deshaun Watson wasteland for two years before emerging with CJ Stroud, Will Anderson, Tank Dell and DeMeco Ryans. The Lions went 3-13-1 in Dan Campbell's first season, with the worst point differential in the league.
The Lions now sit atop the NFC North, poised to end a thirty-year division title drought. And the Texans are the crowning glory of the league, with a starting quarterback playing at an MVP level. But Houston didn't just draft Stroud and catch him on fire. They traded for Laremy Tunsil, one of the game's best left tackles, and guard Shaq Mason, a two-time Super Bowl champion with New England. They signed offensive linemen George Fant and Michael Deiter in free agency. They drafted lineman Tytus Howard with a first-round pick in 2019. Around the rookie fireworks on the edge, they added veterans Dalton Schultz, Devin Singletary and Robert Woods, players who could carry the young pups through the tough training camp and pitfalls pilots. of the regular season. And they drafted breakout wide receiver Nico Collins in 2021. Yes, Stroud is the player who makes everything sing, but the foundation was solid.
The Texans set out to build a winning team; Tepper likes to win the press conference. It achieved nothing. Since he took ownership, the Panthers are 30-63 and have had six consecutive losing seasons.
Whenever something goes wrong, Tepper's answer is simple: more Tepper!
The problem with the previous head coach hires was that, Tepper said He wasn't involved enough. "I'm saying I could have had a better process last time," Tepper said at Reich's introductory news conference. "I believe that. I think we've been very thorough this time. I was present at every interview." Oops.
Landing Reich was initially a step in the right direction. But the owner couldn't stay away. He became embroiled in the draft evaluation process and stood up for Young before Stroud or Anthony Richardson. He participated in film room sessions with the staff and critiqued plays. According to Reich, they were not 'fun meetings'. Tepper put another draft pick on the table before the recent trade deadline, encouraging GM Scott Fritter to acquire a wide receiver like DJ Moore, for example. When those microwave meals fell short, Tepper did what he does best: he fired someone; Fritter's chair probably feels pretty warm today too.
They say genius thrives in disorder - or something like that. But that assumes the person has an idea of what they are doing or where they are trying to go. Not Tepper.
Who will take over for the Panthers in the future? Will Tepper return to Steve Wilks after passing on the Niners' DC while he was the Panthers' interim head coach last season? Would Kellen Moore of the Chargers or Brian Johnson of Philly be willing to gamble their budding careers on an owner who has fired two coaches in consecutive years? Reich said Monday that despite his resignation, he has "no hard feelings, and my personal relationship with [Tepper] was actually a real highlight of this short time." Note that Reich says nothing about what their professional relationship was like.
Someone will take Tepper's call. He pays well, and often pays you not to work - ESPN reports Reich will make another $25 million from the Panthers. And there are only 32 head coaching jobs in the NFL. However, any clear-headed candidate will look elsewhere, or do what Ben Johnson, Detroit's offensive coordinator, did last season when he turned down Tepper's overtures to stay with the Lions for another year.
For decades, Johnson instinctively knew what Ferguson was saying: You choose the owner, not the franchise. And no coach should pick Tepper - not now, tomorrow or ever.
