5 coaching options for Carolina Panthers now that Matt Rhule is fired
By Brian Miller
This could be the earliest an NFL head coach has been fired but Matt Rhule is out as the Carolina Panthers’ head coach. Now, who replaces him?
If you can coach football, you don’t have to be good, you can make a lot of money. Take Matt Rhule for example. He was hired as the head coach of the Carolina Panthers in 2020 with a $60 million plus contract and now, he will get paid while the Panthers pay someone else to do his job.
With only five weeks gone in the NFL season, the Panthers will appoint Steve Wilks interim head coach and then will begin to work on filling Rhule’s job. But who are the candidates? This early in the season, the best coaches are employed.
The list of names ahead of the 2023 season will be a long one but there will be plenty of NFL teams looking for a head coach after the season, the Panthers are just getting a jump start on it.
Since their inception in 1995, the Panthers have gone through five head coaches which overall isn’t bad for most NFL franchises. Rhule lasted only two full seasons and never got the Panthers over five wins, in fact, the Panthers haven’t won more than five games since the 2018 season when they won seven. It will be up to the next HC to turn this franchise around. Here are five possibilities.
Sean Payton will get a lot of looks this off-season and it would be impossible to think he would entertain the Carolina Panthers but it would be a coup if they pulled it off.
Payton left the Saints prior to the season stating he needed to take a break. He was quickly linked to the Miami Dolphins who were penalized for tampering with the coach while still under contract with the Saints. The Saints denied them permission to speak.
New Orleans still holds the contract rights for Payton so they have some say in where he goes next year. It would be hard to believe they would allow him to coach a team in the same division so this is very unlikely but the Panthers still need to make an attempt to land him. If they do, you can expect the Panthers to turn around much quicker but that will not guarantee a playoff birth or a challenge for the division just yet. There is a lot of work to do on the team.
Payton would be a good head coach in Carolina but if you are betting on this one, take a pass unless the Panthers offer up something spectacular or Payton decides to force the issue…neither is likely.