On Thursday, the Carolina Panthers decided to go with Frank Reich as the team’s next head coach after they fired Matt Rhule during the 2022 season. This is a sensational hire, and all but gives them a promising situation on offense for the 2023 season.
Reich was hired by the Indianapolis Colts back in 2018, and during his career with the Colts, he showed a strong ability to work with and get solid production out of veteran quarterbacks. In three of his years as head coach (2018, 2020, 2021) the Colts had a top-10 scoring offense.
Those years, their quarterbacks were Andrew Luck, Philip Rivers, and Carson Wentz. Both Rivers and Wentz appeared to be way over the hump, but Reich was able to squeeze some solid production out of them.
In 2019, the year after Andrew luck abruptly retired, the Colts fielded the 16th-ranked scoring offense with Jacoby Brissett under center. Being that the Carolina Panthers had a terrible QB situation in 2022, to put it bluntly, Reich offers some promise in that area.
He may also want to bring a certain quarterback with him to Carolina for a year or two, or possibly even longer. Seeing as Sam Darnold and PJ Walker are not competent, long-term options, Reich and GM Scott Fitterer may land on someone else to quarterback the team in 2023.
To me, there are two options that stick out that would be adequate solutions for the Panthers. They are in a very winnable NFC South and do have a tough defense, so this should be a clear path at a division title.
The two quarterbacks I have in mind are Carson Wentz and Derek Carr.
Frank Reich has worked with Wentz for several years between being OC with the Eagles and HC of the Colts. It’s clear that Wentz is an efficient quarterback playing under Reich’s scheming. Just look at what happened to Wentz from 2021 to 2022.
He was traded to the Commanders last offseason and was significantly worse this year than he was with the Colts last year when he had a near 4:1 TD:INT ratio.
Wentz would be a safe get for the Panthers and could buy them some time to find a long-term answer. The next quarterback I think could fit them is Derek Carr, who could perhaps waive his no-trade clause to come to the Carolina Panthers. He’d easily be the best quarterback in the division and does have a near decade-long career of being a competent quarterback.
Being that Frank Reich has had a ton of success with veteran quarterbacks who weren’t as good as Carr at the time, I don’t see why he couldn’t get even more production out of him. I don’t think Carolina needs to take a big swing on a quarterback this offseason because of the hire they made.