Quote:There’s little doubt that the Carolina Panthers are a mess this season. They bring a 1-10 record into their Week 13 road game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and it seems unlikely that the team will win more than one more game the rest of the season....

The most obvious issue has been the consistent struggles of  rookie quarterback Bryce Young this season. The Panthers paid a king’s ransom to move up in draft so they could select him, while the Houston Texans are thriving with No. 2 selection C.J. Stroud at quarterback. Stroud has been remarkable for the Texans while Young has often looked lost for the Panthers....

In the early part of the season, there was debate among the Carolina coaches about Young’s status as the team’s QB1. There was talk of Andy Dalton moving into the lineup around Week 5 with the impetus being that Young needed more coaching. However, the move was not made and Young has continued to fall short.

(12-02-2023, 11:16 PM)Ladypanther Wrote: https://sports.yahoo.com/report-frank-reich-stubbornness-adapt-175528500.html

Frank Reich’s big all-star coaching staff may have been too big for what the Carolina Panthers were trying to accomplish this season.

A report by CBS Sports senior NFL insider Jonathan Jones from Saturday morning indicated that the offense’s lack of progress is what pushed owner David Tepper to make the move.

Jones writes:

Tepper fired Frank Reich on Monday after just 11 games, the quickest hook in the NFL for a first-year head coach in more than four decades. Sources said Tepper grew “increasingly more impatient and agitated” in recent weeks as he saw “no improvement in the offense week to week” and, as one person said, “a stubbornness to adapt” by Reich.

As previously reported here, one of the biggest concerns with Reich’s all-star coaching staff was there were too many voices from too many different philosophies in Young’s ear. The result was a lack of identity in a hodgepodge offense.

That hodgepodge offense failed to move the needle throughout what’s been a miserable campaign. Heading into Week 13, the Panthers have averaged the third-fewest yards per game and the fourth-fewest points per game.

Another motivating factor behind Reich’s firing was the amount of hits absorbed by quarterback Bryce Young—something that was “taking a toll” on Tepper. As Jones notes, offensive coordinator Thomas Brown will now be tasked with “moving the pocket around” for the rookie behind a depleted offensive line.