The good news is the Carolina Panthers won’t lose this week. That’s because the team has its bye week.
The bad news? Virtually everything else swirling around the 0-6 Panthers.
The stumble out of the gate doesn’t have fans longing for the days of Matt Rhule, but it’s safe to say everyone hoped the Frank Reich/Bryce Young era would have a better first act.
The Panthers are the NFL’s only remaining winless team, and if anyone is hoping that it gives Carolina a head start on tanking for a top pick to add to Young, last year’s No. 1 overall choice, we have some bad news: The Panthers dealt away their first-round pick in this year’s draft to move up to take Young.
Despite being just six games into his tenure as Panthers coach, Reich is already appearing in “coaches on the hot seat” speculation in national outlets. That’s because owner David Tepper is showing no signs that he’s willing to patiently wait for Reich’s plan to develop Young and get the Panthers back to winning again to bear fruit.
Last week, Reich admitted that he has weekly meetings with Tepper to discuss the most recent game. And they sound as painful to endure as some of the team’s games this season.
“It hasn’t been fun,” Reich said. “I wouldn’t characterize them as fun meetings. But those meetings make me better, and I trust they make us better.”
Reich went on to say that Tepper is not one to “sit idly by.”
“Some owners kind of stay away and don’t engage a whole lot. Other owners do. And his philosophy is he’s going to engage,” Reich said.
Tepper also doesn’t seem like one to welcome negative publicity, like his coach telling everyone about their post-loss come-to-David meetings.
Another sign that Reich may not be on firm ground is the first domino to fall during the bye week. On Monday, Reich announced that he would no longer be calling plays for the team, turning the duties over to 37-year-old coordinator Thomas Brown.
Brown, a former assistant of Sean McVay, is considered a rising coaching star in the NFL. So it was likely only a matter of time before Reich handed off the responsibility.
“It’s always been part of the plan,” Reich said. “Something Thomas and I have discussed from the time that he was hired. … I knew it was not a question of if, just when. The play-calling thing is still going to be collaborative. Thomas is going to lead it. He’s in charge of it; he’ll make the call.”
Reich called Brown a “stud” in the profession and said he always thought the bye week was a good “checkpoint.” He also swore the change now was “100% my decision, from start to finish.”
However, he also admitted it’s been a topic of discussion in his meetings with Tepper for several weeks, and making the move with the team at 0-6, averaging fewer than 19 points per game and ranked No. 23 in the NFL in passing and total offense seems less like passing the torch and more like dumping a grenade.
Reich also sounded like he had mixed feelings about giving up play-calling.
“I know it’s time, but there’s a little bit of it that’s hard, right?” he said. “Because I do like calling it. You like being right in the middle of the action; you like being responsible in the crosshairs, good or bad. You’ve got to live with that. I’ve always loved that about this game.”
Brown is in his first season with the coordinator title and had just three years on an NFL staff prior to 2023, all with McVay’s Rams. He previously served as a college coordinator at Miami from 2016 to 2018.
Reich said he kept the play-calling duties to start the year because he had never worked with Brown before.
“I didn’t know Thomas before this year,” Reich explained. “And so it was going to be a question of us kind of working together, getting into the season.”
Brown got the chance to call plays during the preseason, taking over the duties in the second half of each game.
“I thought he did a great job. It came very easy to him,” Reich said at the time. “He’s been doing it. The whole OTAs and training camp when we go two-minute, you know, I’m just having him call everything. He’s doing a great job. He’s a natural. He really is. Very quick-minded.
“If you know Thomas, you know he’s very decisive and he does call his plays with conviction. I think this is a great experience for him.”
The team scored 23 points under Brown in the three preseason games, 13 with Reich calling the shots.
Young seemed excited to find out that, a half-dozen games into his NFL career, he’d be getting a new play-caller.
“We were always working toward that,” Young said. “He made that known far before the season started. We didn’t necessarily have a timeline, but we always knew that this was coming. I’m super excited. I’m excited for the future.”
At the moment, not many people share Young’s sentiment.
