Ian Rapoport: Panthers' next head coach must 'hold the players accountable'
Frank Reich’s time with the Carolina Panthers was short-lived after just 11 games on the sidelines. Now, as the franchise looks for another head coach, they must find someone who will hold the team to an expectation that they expect them to meet.
Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network joined ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ on Friday. During that interview, he discussed the Panthers’ coaching search and interviews. From what he has gathered, the bottom line is that the team is looking for someone to set a standard and then, from there, hold the organization to that standard.
“I would say what they are looking for, as far as a head coach goes, is someone to hold the players accountable. I know that, last year in Carolina, they didn’t always think that,” said Rapoport. “There was certain things that I think Tepper wanted and expected from a football coach, from an organization, and from a football department and didn’t get.”
That requirement says a lot about how the team may have been handling things under Reich. If so, that might better explain the reasoning for why the Panthers were 1-10 in his games as head coach. That then led to his firing following Week 12 and their finish of 2-15 under Chris Tabor.
However, to this point, the looming question is the involvement of the team’s owner in David Tepper. Candidates are wanting to know just how much of a hand that he has on everything in the building before they can consider themselves for the job.
“What I’m trying to figure out, and I think what candidates are trying to figure out, is is Tepper a meddling owner? I would say probably not,” Rapoport said. “Did Tepper not see things coached to the standard that he wanted? Probably yes.”
Tepper was in several headlines throughout this season, whether due to the Panthers’ record or his own conduct. Still, like any owner, meddling or not, he wants to see his franchise be a winner. That’s why, following Reich’s dismissal, Tepper described stability as another requirement as far as the team’s next coach.
“In other aspects of my life, we have people for 20, 30 years who work for me. No one ever leaves me,” Tepper said via Jori Epstein. “I do have patience. My reputation away from this game is one of extreme patience.”
“I would like someone to be here 20, 30 years,” Tepper said. “I’d like to have someone say the eulogy at my funeral in 30 years. OK – maybe 40 years.”
The Panthers are coming off of their worst finish since 2001. They just posted their sixth straight losing season, which is also the entire duration of Tepper’s ownership. That’s part of a stretch with losing finishes in seven of the last eight campaigns.
On top of that, the team doesn’t even own the No. 1 pick this season after trading their selection in the 2024 NFL Draft to the Chicago Bears last year. That pick earned them QB Bryce Young, the top selection in the 2023 NFL Draft, as a Heisman Trophy winner out of Alabama. Even so, it now costs them a chance to add anything at the top in this draft this offseason.
This all comes after the franchise also fired GM Scott Fitterer earlier this month.
The next head coach in Carolina will have their work cut out for them in more ways than one. First and foremost, though, it seems they will need to set a caliber that they’ll need everyone in the building to reach from the moment that they step foot in the building.