The Carolina Panthers Rebuild Actually Worked

The Carolina Panthers Rebuild Actually Worked

The Carolina Panthers have been stuck in the basement of the NFL for about the last decade now. There was a time when Carolina was a contender, but it’s been nothing but disappointment as of late. That was until maybe now. Bryce Young was labeled a bust after his rookie season, and that very well looked to be the case. He’s had his moments, but certainly hasn’t lived up to the expectations of being a first overall pick. But at the end of the day, if the team around him is good enough to win, it doesn’t really matter much. And a lot of the credit of Carolina’s turnaround belongs to Dave Canales, who’s in his second season at head coach. He was hired after reviving supposedly lost quarterback’s careers. And now he’s doing his best with Bryce Young. This season, Carolina has gone from worst to pretty solid fast. And for the first time in a minute, there seems to be actual hope for the future of this franchise. I think it’s safe to say that the Panthers have been a joke for a while now. Ron Rivera did have some pretty good seasons and obviously made it to that Super Bowl. But ever since he got fired in 2019, it’s been all bad. They hired Matt Rule, who had a proven track record of successfully turning around college programs, but the NFL is a different beast and it definitely showed. He just never put it all together. Carolina won five games of each of his first two seasons and then Rule got fired after starting 1 and4 in 2022. Frank Reich was then hired in 2023, fresh off of getting fired by the Colts, which was a complete disaster in and of itself, but he only made it 11 games before getting the boot with a single win. That led to another coaching search, the third coaching search in 5 years. And counting interim coaches, it was a search for the seventh different acting head coach in six seasons. Yeah, things have been pretty bad in Carolina when it comes to coaches. But maybe the right guy is there now, and that’s Dave Canales. He was on a stretch of a ton of success before getting the job. He was with the Seahawks for a long time and was the quarterback’s coach and passing game coordinator for Gino Smith. Under Canales, Gino ended up reviving his career and was the comeback player of the year. Canales then went to Tampa Bay as the offensive coordinator and helped Baker Mayfield turn around his career. Dave Canales had a good track record, so it made sense for him to be a serious head coaching candidate. And as for the landing spot, Carolina also made a ton of sense. He essentially worked miracles for Gino and Baker and Carolina was in desperate need of a miracle themselves trying to figure out Bryce Young. And I think it’s safe to say that that’s why he landed the job. Bryce Young had just wrapped up his rookie season that definitely could have gone better. Carolina went 2 and 15 and Bryce threw for 11 touchdowns to 10 interceptions. That team was terrible and it was a really concerning situation for a rookie quarterback to be in. Remember that the Panthers made an insane commitment to Bryce Young by trading a ton to get that number one overall pick. They had to give up DJ Moore two first round picks in 2 seconds. Of course, that 2024 first round pick then ended up being the number one overall pick and that ultimately gave the Bears Caleb Williams. That’s just an embarrassing trade looking back and it’s even more reason why the Panthers need Bryce Young to work out. But he certainly didn’t show signs of it as a rookie. No, he still wasn’t great year one with Dave Canales, but he was a lot better. Bryson improved to throwing 15 touchdowns to nine picks and also rushed for seven touchdowns. It still really wasn’t good enough for where he was supposed to be by then, but it was an improvement. He did get benched after week two for Andy Dalton because he was just so bad to start the season, but he did get the job back in week eight after Daltton suffered a thumb injury in a car accident. The Panthers finished the season at 5 and 12, which isn’t exactly a surprise for a rebuild season and a firstear head coach. There needed to be some sort of actual progress as time went on, and that’s exactly what Carolina has had this season. They won five games all of last season, and this season, they’ve won seven already. The process seems to be working for Dave Canales. It was still a slow start for the Panthers this season. They opened up the year 0 and2 with losses to the Jaguars and the Cardinals. The Jags are solid and that was Liam Cohen’s debut at head coach, so maybe there was some debut magic there, but the Panthers struggled and definitely deserved to lose the game. Bryce Young threw two picks and Travis GM just ran all over them. The next week was another loss coming to the Cardinals, who aren’t exactly a good team right now, but they managed to start 2-0, but have fallen off since. Bryce played well in the matchup. He had three touchdowns and a pick. Hunter Renfro caught two touchdowns and Ted McMillan had a 100 yards, but the Panthers were down 27 to3 and just couldn’t complete the comeback. At the very least, there was some good fight at the end of that game though and it spiraled into the next week, a 30 to0 blowout win against the Falcons. It wasn’t close at all, but the stats really don’t make any sense in comparison to the score. Michael Pennix threw two picks and Nathan Carter fumbled. All of which makes sense. But the Falcons somehow outgained the Panthers 332 yards to 224 and then had 17 first downs to Carolina’s 15th. Just a very odd blowout to say the least where the offense wasn’t really great. Then the next week the Panthers got crushed 42 to13 by the Patriots. It was in Foxboro and was really the beginning of the Pat’s nineame winning streak right now. Carolina really just couldn’t do much on offense in the game and that made it a oneandree start to the season. Not the end of the world, but not ideal. Luckily though, the schedule set up for some easy matchups and the Panthers have often played well enough to win games. Carolina rattled off a three-game winning streak to go from 1 and3 to 4-3. It really didn’t come against the best teams, but it was a three-game winning streak nonetheless, and it came after Chuba Hubard got hurt and Rico Dowel took over. and he’s been the starter since for good reason. The Panthers escaped to beat the Dolphins 27 to 24 after trailing 17 to0. Dowel just went off with 206 yards and a touchdown and he turned around and performed the next week going for 183 yards against the Cowboys in what was really a revenge game for him. Bryce Young had three touchdowns and a pick and Dak Prescott played well with George Pickkins going off, but it just wasn’t enough for Dallas. Ryan Fitzgerald then drilled a 33 yard field goal at zeros to win it for Carolina. The Panthers then played the Jets in week seven and it was every bit as unwatchable as you’d expect. Xavier Legette caught the only touchdown in the game and it was really a snoozefest. And to make matters worse, Bryce Young went down with an ankle injury that caused him to miss the next week against the Bills and that game was ugly. The Panthers got absolutely killed at home 40 to9. Josh Allen had three total touchdowns and James Cook had two. That was a good reminder that while the Panthers are improved, they’re a ways from the top. But having to start Andy Dalton that week does make it pretty hard to evaluate the loss. Carolina then came up with a pretty impressive win on the road against the Packers the next week. Bryce Young only had 102 yards and threw a pick, but the defense held Green Bay to just 13 points and doubt ran for 130 yards plus two touchdowns. But then in classic NFL parody fashion, Carolina somehow managed to lose to the New Orleans Saints the following Sunday. Young had two turnovers and the defense allowed two Tyler Shuck passing touchdowns. That put the Panthers back at 500 before having to go to Atlanta for round two in week 11. That game was probably the most exciting Falcons game this season. And it was really a gritty win, too. Bryce Young played likely his best game of his entire career. He had 448 yards, a franchise record, three touchdowns, and didn’t turn the ball over. Ted McMillan had 130 yards and two touchdowns, and Pennix wasn’t great and had to get replaced by Kurt Cousins because of a knee injury. Carolina scored on a Tet touchdown catch with a minute eight remaining, but the Falcons still sent it to overtime with a Zayn Gonzalez field goal with 16 seconds remaining. The Panthers then forced a threeand out and Ryan Fitzgerald ended it to win 30-27 to get the Panthers to 6 and5. Carolina did return to 500 the next week and what was a pretty underwhelming performance against the 49ers. The offense just couldn’t get going at all and they ended up losing 20 to9. Brock Party played awful in the game by the way and threw three interceptions, but Bryce Young didn’t help the team throwing two picks himself to go with a single touchdown and 169 yards. But then Carolina got their biggest win of the season by far, beating the Rams and Matthew Stafford. We’re talking about the likely Super Bowl favorite and MVP favorite. And somehow the Panthers found a way to win. Stafford threw two picks in the game after he had only managed to throw two on the year before that. And Bryce Young played well, 206 yards and three touchdowns. Carolina had 164 yards rushing and it was really a back andforth bout, but it came down to a 43 yard touchdown catch by Tent McMillan with 634 left. The Rams had a chance late, but a Stafford fumble on third down that was recovered by Carolina was ultimately the end, stopping a likely field goal attempt on the next play. That got Carolina to a pretty surprising 7-6, just behind the 7-5 Buccaneers in the NFC South. It’s been an impressive turnaround and Bryce Young has been getting better, but still isn’t great. He’s up to 2,337 yards, 18 touchdowns, and nine interceptions with a rushing touchdown through 10 games. It definitely could be his best proseason to date, but still probably isn’t good enough. He just hasn’t lived up to expectations, but that doesn’t mean that he can’t be a decent NFL quarterback. But the fact of the matter is is that he was a first overall pick, and that comes with a lot of pressure. Now, one guy that I think has a very bright future and can certainly help Bryce is Ted McMillan. He went eighth overall in this past year’s draft and is proving why so far as a rookie. He’s up to 57 receptions for 826 yards in six touchdowns in 11 games. All of those, by the way, lead the team. You can just see the talent that he has, and that’s huge for Bryce Young to have because the other weapons haven’t exactly been very good. Rico Dowel has been taking over the ground, and he’s just been really good. He has 929 yards and five touchdowns now and he’s essentially stolen Chuba Hubard’s job. It really is impressive to see what Dave Canales has been able to do in only two seasons. He had a good track record for a reason and it seems like the Panthers made the right call hiring him. Once again, after years of disappointment, Carolina seems to be an actually competent football team. something I’m pretty sure a lot of people didn’t see

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