Matt Rhule has had a short tenure with the Panthers so far, but his job as the Panthers head coach is starting to heat up.
Since the Carolina Panthers started back in 1995 they have had only four head coaches not named Matt Rhule (Not including Perry Fewell, who was the interim coach in 2019). Of those coaches, most of them have stayed a decent time in Carolina with only one of those coaches coaching less than 50 total games, that coach being George Seifert.
When Seifert left, the Panthers had two long term head coaches in John Fox, who coached from 2002-2010, and Ron Rivera, who coached from 2011-2019
When Fox departed, it was obviously a massive loss for the Panthers, and they clearly found themselves another great coach in Ron Rivera. When Rivera eventually left the Panthers they were hoping to find themselves another great long-term coach, and that’s what they aimed for in Matt Rhule.
Matt Rhule’s time before the Carolina Panthers
To be fair to Matt Rhule and the Panthers, he had a pretty good resume before his coaching job with Carolina. The two most notable jobs/positives on his resume were his jobs with Temple and Baylor. With Temple, Rhule rebuilt the program to a status that they haven’t seen since the ’60s as he managed to help the Owls win their first Conference title since 1967.
While Rhule did some great things with Temple, his time with Baylor is what really put him on the NFL map. Rhule’s first season with Baylor was a mess, to say the least as the Bears finished with a 1-11 record, but the following years are what really got some head turned Rhule’s way.
Rhule’s second year with Baylor was a fantastic season as they went from 1-11 to 7-6 with a bowl game victory over Vanderbilt. Rhule built upon his second year with a great third season as Baylor went 11-1.
Baylor would lose their conference championship game against Oklahoma 23-30 and their bowl game against 14-26, but despite those losses, Rhule clearly turned around this program.
Matt Rhule’s costly errors with the Panthers
Being that Rhule turned two college football programs into bowl game contenders at the very least, you can see why Carolina would want to hire him. In Rhule’s first offseason, you could see that he had a good amount of say in the draft as Carolina’s 2020 rookie class was filled entirely with defensive players.
While there were some well-known names drafted, namely Derrick Brown, Yetur Gross-Matos, and Jeremy Chinn, none of them have made a huge impact, outside of Chinn thus far.
While Rhule’s first draft was quite notable, the following off-season is likely the biggest move of his head coaching tenure with the Panthers. In April of 2021, the Carolina Panthers traded a 2021 6th round pick, a 2nd round pick, and a 4th round pick in 2022 for the services of Sam Darnold.
With Sam Darnold in, somebody in the QB room would likely have to go out, and out somebody went as Teddy Bridgewater was traded to the Denver Broncos.
While back when the trade happened, Twitter was set ablaze with the trade moves and speculation of how Teddy and Sam would fare with their new teams, we can now see how they have panned out so far with the magic of this little thing called time. To make a long story short, I think its safe to say that the Broncos got the better QB of the two as Teddy Bridgewater has looked solid in Denver, meanwhile, Darnold has struggled in Carolina, is currently injured, and may not get his starting QB job back as Carolina has brought in Cam Newton.
To rub the salt in the wound of Carolina somewhat, the Panthers still have a large dead cap hit due to Teddy’s contract and are paying $7 million of his signing bonus while Denver is only paying the $4.5 million of his salary.
Not only have the Panthers had some issues with QBs under Matt Rhule’s rule (see what I did there?), but they have also had some issues within the coaching staff itself. Nine days after Carolina hired Rhule, they hired a new offensive coordinator to join him in Joe Brady.
Brady had a small but good resume as he was the passing game coordinator and wide receiver coach of the LSU offense that destroyed college football. Despite being a good offensive coordinator and having helped lead one of the best college offenses in history, Brady would find himself fired on December 5th of this year.
Outside of likely screwing up the QB situation in Carolina, the wins have not come for Carolina either. Rhule started his tenure with the Panthers going 5-11, and while 5-11 isn’t a great record at all, it’s more than fair to cut him some slack being that it was his first year with the team.
After struggling in their first season with Rhule, the Panthers started 2021 in a good spot as they went 3-0 in the first three games of the season, but things took a quick turn from there on out. Carolina has now fallen to 5-8.
Should Matt Rhule be out the door soon and who should replace him?
If this was Matt Rhule’s first season as the Panthers head coach, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, but the thing is, this isn’t his first season. Rhule and company have made some large mistakes as they traded away Bridgewater and brought in Sam Darnold for a large number of draft picks, fired their young quality offensive coordinator after less than two years, haven’t had a strong draft in 2020, and haven’t won a large number of games.
I’m not saying Matt Rhule should be fired the second this article is posted, but what I am saying is that when the NFL season comes to an end, the Carolina Panthers should take a strong look at Rhule’s contract and take a strong look at the other possible head coaching candidates I’m about to list.
Brian Daboll
Let’s be honest the Panthers should hire Brian Daboll for his style and his aviator sunglasses alone. Outside of his glasses, the biggest reason the Panthers should hire Daboll is that he may be the best offensive coordinator in the NFL.
Before Daboll joined the Bills, he spent a year with Alabama. While he was with Alabama, he helped lead the Alabama offense and helped guide then Alabama QB Jalen Hurts as the Crimson Tide finished with the CFB title. While Daboll only spent one year in college football, he made his return to the NFL after that one season and joined the Bills as the offensive coordinator.
Daboll was hired in 2018, but he wasn’t the only big move in 2018 as the Bills decided to draft their QB of the future in Josh Allen. I’m assuming most of you know the story of Allen, but if you don’t here’s a quick little background on him.
Allen was drafted out of the University of Wyoming with his biggest selling point being the fact that he had a howitzer attached to his right shoulder. While Allen does have an absolute cannon of an arm, during his first year or two in Buffalo he struggled with accuracy. Despite his accuracy issues, the potential of a star QB was clearly there, and in 2020, it seemed as though Josh Allen had arrived. Allen set the league on fire as he threw for over 40 touchdowns and over 5,000 yards.
One thing that helped Allen develop was the offense that Daboll uses with Buffalo. Early on in his Bills career, Daboll used an offense that was similar to what Allen was used to in Wyoming as it was heavily predicated on using multiple tight ends and runnings backs and running the ball.
While Allen was used to this offense, it wasn’t working, so Daboll got to work and changed the offense into a more pass-happy offense that spreads the ball around far more. I’m not saying Allen’s entire development rides with Daboll, but it’s clear that when the offense started spreading out more, Josh Allen played a whole lot better.
If Carolina were to snag Daboll, it would be an incredible move. The Panthers should be looking for their new QB in the future through the draft, and there may be no better offensive coordinator at developing and helping young QBs better than Daboll.
Throw in the fact he is only 46, is willing to change his offenses up to help fit his QB, and the fact that he has cool sunglasses, and you could have a great head coach in the waiting.
Nathaniel Hackett
While Brian Daboll is one of the more well-known head coaching candidates, the same can’t be said for Nathaniel Hackett. Despite him not being a well-known head coaching candidate, he might be just as qualified as his fellow contemporaries.
Currently, Hackett is the offensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers, but before he earned his current job in the cold Green Bay environment, he spent some time in the considerably warmer city of Jacksonville. While he was with Jacksonville it’s fair to say that he helped the Jaguars’ offense become the best it’s been since the mid-2000s.
While it’s impressive enough to say that Hackett had the Jaguar’s offense at its best, it’s even more impressive when you realize what he had at his service. Hackett’s starting QB was Blake Bortles and his starting running back was Leonard Fournette with no quality offensive lineman outside of Brandon Linder and no quality wide receiver outside of Allen Robinson.
Despite having no real great players Hackett helped turn the offense into a quality offense and, alongside a great defense the Jags managed to make it to the AFC conference championship game.
It’s fair to say that after Hackett’s performance with the Jaguars, he turned some heads, and one team who took notice was the Green Packers. With the Packers firing their long-time head coach in Mike McCarthy and bringing in their new head coach in Matt LaFleur they needed a new offensive coordinator, and in came Hackett.
While Hackett showed his worth with a roster that wasn’t a super high-level roster, it would be fair to assume that he would be able to do more with a much more talented roster, and that is exactly what he has done so far with the Green Bay Packers.
Since LaFleur and Hackett joined forces in Green Bay, this Packers team has been taken to a new level. In LaFleur’s and Hackett’s first, two seasons with Green Bay they made the NFC Divisional game their first season and the NFC Conference championship their 2nd season and are now on pace to finish with the number one seed in the NFC.
If Carolina were to bring in Hackett they would be bringing in a young offensive coordinator who brings a modern style to his offense and has proven that he can coach elite-level teams as well as teams that arent so talented roster-wise.
Kellen Moore
If you are looking for a young creative offensive-minded head coach, Kellen Moore is absolutely going to be your guy. Before becoming the offensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys, Moore played QB for the Detroit Lions, as well as, you guessed it, the Dallas Cowboys.
Moore didn’t have a very long NFL career as he played from 2012-2017, but luckily for Moore, he had a job after his playing career was over, and that was the quarterbacks’ coach for the Cowboys. Moore only spent one year as the QB coach before he was promoted to the offensive coordinator job.
After spending about one season as the offensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys under head coach Jason Garrett, things would get very interesting for Moore as Garrett would be fired and the Cowboys would be on the hunt for a new head coach. The Cowboys would end up hiring former Packers head coach Mike McCarthy after he spent about a year away from football after being fired by the Packers.
With McCarthy coming to Dallas there was a chance that Kellen Moore and his fellow assistant coordinators and coaches could end up on the chopping block and might find themselves without a job, but luckily for Moore, he ended up staying with Dallas. While some coaches like to bring in their own coaches and coordinators, keeping Moore might have been one of the best decisions of McCarthy’s coaching tenure with Dallas.
As an offensive coordinator, Moore is easily one of the best. Moore is one of the more creative offensive minds in the NFL as he uses a ton of motion, gets interesting with his formations, and is creative with his route combos and passing concepts. While of course, you can credit a lot of Dallas’s offense to the personnel they have on the roster, Moore is certainly a big part of this offense and helps make Dak Prescott’s job that much easier.
Of the three total QB’s listed so far, Moore is easily the youngest at 33 years old. While he is young, Moore is one of the more creative and innovative offensive coordinators in the NFL who could easily help guide whatever QB Carolina brings in.