Carolina Panthers: Is Ron Rivera on the hot seat in 2018?

‘Riverboat’ Ron Rivera is a big part of the Carolina Panthers success in recent years. It will be interesting to see if he remains in such a positive light as the 2018 season moves on.

Coaching shakeups are one of the few consistencies that occur within the inconsistent world of professional sports. In the NFL, just like its peers of other leagues in the world, those changes come swiftly and sometimes with mounds of speculation. Heading into the 2018 season, there are a number of NFL coaches that may find themselves on the “hot seat.” Dependent upon who you ask, Carolina Panthers head coach Ron Rivera may be in a similar situation as these games loom ahead of him.

There’s an interesting fact that doesn’t quite bode well for the Panthers heading into this 2018 season. Since joining the NFL back in 1995, Carolina has never, in the team’s existence, experienced the thrill of two back-to-back winning seasons. This is even more captivating when looking at some of the success that Carolina has obtained. Unfortunately for this franchise, they have never been able to sustain it year over year.

This is what makes this season so dangerous for Rivera. Carolina is coming off of a 2017 season in which they hit an 11-5 record. This was perhaps a year in which the team exceeded expectations as their offense struggled to play consistently well for long stretches. The team reached the post season for the fourth time in five seasons, but was ousted in the first round.

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Still, the Panthers have done some strong retooling during the off season in such a manner that has them as a team to watch heading into the year. But what happens if the Panthers’ curse continues and they don’t perform up to the expectations that are placed on them? This is when things turn bad for Rivera.

The good news is that Rivera signed a two-year contract extension back in January of this year. With all of the transition that the Panthers are going through; as the team has finalized its sale to new owner David Tepper. Keeping Rivera and as much of the coaching staff in play allows for there to be much needed consistency. Still, he has to contend with the fact that this team struggles to put strong back to back seasons together.

With a two-year extension, the Panthers’ front office is showing some confidence in Rivera, but it should not be misconstrued that they are showing an overwhelming amount of confidence in his performance. If this team struggles, it will be interesting to see if that confidence waivers at all. The Panthers brought on Norv Turner as the offensive coordinator this off season. He and Rivera have some history together as Turner beat out Rivera for the head coaching job back in Chicago. If Turner performs well in his new position, but Rivera struggles as the head coach, expect the commentary to turn in such a way that many will speculate as to whether or not Turner could replace Rivera at some point.

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Either way, there’s a lot of turnover throughout the NFL. In order for “Riverboat” Ron to avoid adding his name to the list, he has to find a way to break the trend that has followed the Panthers throughout history. If he can do so, then he deserves to stay out of the hot seat for the rest of the year.

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