Pounding Panthers Chronicle
Week 2 Recap:
The fuse has been lit in Carolina for Matt Rhule, after a dismal start to the 2022 season, the head coach of the Panthers could find himself already on borrowed time, after this team failed to get over the hump in the home opener with Cleveland, they failed to get over the hump, again. For the second straight season the Panthers would leave Metlife stadium defeated by a Graham Gano field goal to seal a Giants’ victory. The rumblings and groans were already loud enough to be heard by owner David Tepper, as he admitted to spending time on Twitter trying to reach the “basement people” as Tepper put it during a preseason game. Now at 0-2 and amidst a losing streak that stretches back into last season, the Panthers hold the longest active losing streak in the NFL at nine games currently. A head coach that has only amassed ten wins in his first two season as a coach in the NFL is on the verge of having a losing streak that rivals his wins. In 2021 it was widely believed that the 3-0 start by the Panthers and the sacrificial offering of then offensive coordinator Joe Brady is what kept Matt Rhule in his position. Fumbles were yet again another issue for the Panthers as they didn’t make it past the opening kickoff before having a fumble in week 2. Whereas in Week 1 we saw baker Mayfield struggle in the first half, in Week 2 it was the second half that proved more daunting. The game against the Giants proved that this team has yet to figure how to put together four quarters of quality play to win a football game. Fumbles and tipped passes at the line of scrimmage seem to be the only consistent aspect to this Panthers offense. With a quick glance at the stat sheet, you might think this Panthers team had a good day running the ball. McCaffrey had his first hundred-yard rushing performance, but what if I told you that CMC only rushed for fifty-yards on fifteen carries? Would you say it was a good game? This would have been the stat-line Sunday if not for McCaffrey’s longest rush on the day, a play that went for over fifty yards. Only two games into the 2022 season and we have still yet to see anything that could provide a beacon of hope for fans of the team to look upon. This Carolina Panthers is not one void of talent with players like Christian McCaffrey, DJ Moore coming off three straight one thousand-yard seasons, Brian Burns the team’s best edge rusher. Who they dropped into covered on forty-percent of the defensive snaps Week 2, while the Panthers have struggle to succeed in getting to the quarterback. The matchup Sunday was already highlighted by many, including this writer, as a game that if the Panthers performed poorly could be marked as a point of no return, the question being when, and not if Matt Rhule is released as the head coach. After Week 1 it was clear there was pressure for the defense to step up in this game, and that did occur. It was not enough to outdo the disturbing trend of Panthers’ games versus opponents that score over seventeen points. Matt Rhule has only one win against a team that scored over seventeen points in the game. Another alarming stat, in the past two years only one team has had a lead in more games than the Panthers, and that was the Kansas City Chiefs. In Matt Rhule’s eyes this team is just a play or two away from getting over that hump, but at what point does ownership in Carolina cut ties with the “Program Builder” and find a coach that will get this team over the hump. It looks to be a tale of two tapes when analyzing the direction, the Panthers’ organization is headed as a franchise versus a team like the New York Giants. The national media would have you believe that this Panthers team was a potential playoff team before the season started, and of the two teams we saw face off in Metlife Sunday it was the Giants looking like the playoff contender. The Giants under first-year head coach Brian Daboll they were able to do something the Panthers have failed multiple times at doing, and that is getting over the hump. After a 2-12 performance on third downs and lonely completing five passes in the second half of last Sunday’s game, the question is not if or when, but how many games pass before Rhule is out of Carolina.
Start the Clock
To call Matt Rhule a failed experiment is inaccurate in my opinion. Yes, in Rhule’s time at the college level he showed a track record for turning around college programs that had fallen on harder times. By no means is anyone attempting to lessen his accomplishments as a coach. The Temple Football program may never return to its glory days of past but Rhule did make Temple football reverent again. Rhule took the position as Baylor head coach when many thought the program was on death’s doorstep after the Art Brills scandal. Matt Rhule may not have the shiny hardware of a national title but none the less had a more than respectable resume as a college coach. The one glaring outlier about Matt Rhule was simple this, he was a college head coach. Fans have seen many times over the decades that coaching in college and coaching in the NFL are worlds apart from each other. The college ranks are filled with great coaches. Let me say that again, Great Coaches, however that does not mean ever coach is suitable for handling the transition in the NFL as a head coach. Going into his third year as a head coach Matt Rhule has done little to show that he can handle the position and fans are left wondering how long will the charade continue. A loss to the New Orleans Saints this weekend would mean matt Rhule has a losing streak that matches his career total wins as an NFL head coach. The Panthers have not won a game where their opponents have scored more than seventeen points. The same head coach that was 0-11 at Baylor University has yet to do anything that shows he should continue to be the Panthers head coach. Day by day, and with each passing week more rumors surface about the turmoil within the Panthers organization. Just this past week it was reported from the rumor mill that Rhule struggles at controlling his own coaching staff. Regardless of the validity to this, it would merely be the icing on the cake, and another straw on a broken camel. Matt Rhule being an NFL head coach was one that raised many questions from the beginning, one being, would his college success translate to the NFL. With two seasons already in the books it is clear that Rhule was the wrong choice by owner David Tepper. The first-quarter of the NFL season is not completed and it is possible that Rhule may not be on this team by the midway point of the season. The Panthers play their sole primetime game of the season on a Thursday night in week 8 against the Falcons. If Rhule has not been expelled at this point anything less than a blowout-win against their division rival could spell disaster for Matt Rhule.
Where’s All the Cap
As the Panthers struggle their way into the 2022 season, with an eye on the future one has to ask, where’s all our cap space? At the moment the Panthers are slated to be twenty-million over the cap for the 2023 season, and many fans are asking how? To be frank that’s a simple answer, bad deals by owner David Tepper and this coaching staff. Where to start? There was the Darnold guaranteed fifth- year option for eighteen-million dollars, the Robbie Anderson extension that has massively underdelivered, and this is on the heels of the Teddy Bridgewater contract. If you forgot, it was approximately eighteen-million he was being paid by the Panthers while playing on another team. These bad deals not only hit the team financially but also inhibit them in how other deals can be structured throughout the upcoming seasons. The CMC contract is likely one that will be viewed as regrettable when it is all said and done. The team is facing a cap hit north of twenty-million and with other star players like DJ Moore and Taylor Moton on the books there becomes less and less room to space out contracts. In a league where the salary-cap is expected to continue to rise teams that face salary-cap management issues will only further struggle. As the teams that are annual contenders for the playoffs in the NFL can the ability to have more salary space to operate with. This means you will continue to see teams such as the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Rams not only retain talent, but still be able to bring Free Agents in the offseason. The salary-cap is something that can be manipulated as many teams have proven but when a team hands out awful deals at the rate that the Panthers do it can only lead to disaster.
