All the way back in 1995, Frank Reich took the first snap and threw the first passes in the history of the Carolina Panthers franchise. Here in 2023, he’s now become the team’s head coach and the man tasked with leading the organization to the promised land.
The hiring of Reich is the first official hire of the 2023 NFL head coach cycle, and now that one domino has fallen, you can expect others to fall quickly. There are not nearly as many jobs available here in the 2023 offseason but some quality ones including the two teams that faced off a few years ago in Super Bowl 50, the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers.
Frank Reich chosen as next Carolina Panthers head coach
Reich, most recently the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, was fired by Jim Irsay during the 2022 season as the Colts floundered. And Irsay seemingly had other plans in mind, wanting to give Jeff Saturday an audition to become the team’s next head coach.
Reich got the shaft with the Colts in more ways than one. When he was originally hired by Indy, he was taking over a team with Andrew Luck at the QB position. That was a highly coveted job at the time and Reich was coming off of a ton of success with the Philadelphia Eagles under Doug Pederson.
After Luck’s shocking retirement, things went a little haywire for the Colts. They ended up going after some retread options at the QB position including Philip Rivers, Carson Wentz, and Matt Ryan. They had better success with some than others, and Reich was to blame according to Jim Irsay.
There’s a reason why the Colts’ job is now perceived as the worst in the 2023 cycle, let’s just leave it at that.
Reich takes over a Panthers team left in a much better place by interim head coach Steve Wilks than anyone really expected. Wilks took the Panthers over with more than half of the season left, and had that team in the playoff race to the bitter end. Albeit in the atrocious NFC South, but still.
It seems Wilks was the primary competition for Reich for this Carolina job along with Cowboys offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.
What can we glean from this decision by Carolina? Well, there’s no doubt that this team was going to be making a major change at QB, but that is now confirmed and written in stone. Reich is considered one of the best QB developers in the league right now and he’ll get the chance to be part of picking the next QB of the franchise he once led in its inaugural season.
Video: new Panthers head coach Frank Reich throwing the first TD pass in franchise history to TE Pete Metzelaars back in 1995.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) January 26, 2023
Voiced by the legendary Chris Berman. pic.twitter.com/VOGT05roqx
The Panthers are now going to be a team to watch both when it comes to this year’s trade market at QB as well as the top of the 2023 NFL Draft. Derek Carr is available out in Las Vegas, so perhaps there could be quicker movement here than anyone realizes.
The Panthers have a good defense and some pieces on offense. As we saw last year, with better coaching, this team was legit. Perhaps Reich can have them in the playoffs as soon as 2023.