Chris Lea praises Dan Morgan for getting the Carolina Panthers into the playoffs
Show Transcript
Playoff football is back in Charlotte now. It may not have looked pretty, and they stumbled their way there, but the Carolina Panthers are in the playoffs for the first time in 8 years. Now this may not be the thing to hang your hat on, but the Panthers are the first team to ever win the NFC South twice with a losing record. The positive side of all this is that they were good enough to be in the playoffs nonetheless. But why? Head coach Dave Canales is a future star as a head coach, but he’s made some missteps. He still hasn’t quite figured. How to get a consistent offensive output, including a consistent run game and a passing scheme for Bryce Young. So let’s talk about Young himself. We don’t know what we’re going to get from him from week to week. He’s passed for 448 yards in the game earlier this season. He’s also only passed for 54 yards in the game earlier this season. Young’s total yards this year are only 3,011. A third of that is to rookie wide receiver Totoroy McMillan by himself, so. What’s the real reason that the Panthers are in the postseason? Well, it’s general manager Dan Morgan. Morgan took over as the general manager after the 2023 season. He was tasked with cleaning up a mess. The Panthers had cap issues, a bad roster, and very little draft capital. In two years, he’s fixed the cap woes, totally retooled the roster, and has started to rebuild the draft capital, not to mention a great 20225 draft class and two good offseasons. With free agency signings, the Panthers have only retained 8 players since their putrid 2-15 result two years ago in 2023. Morgan’s hands are all over that. He literally made lemonade out of lemons. There’s plenty of work to do to improve the roster for next year so that the team could possibly be better than 8 and 9, but Morgan is building something that could be sustainable and possibly bringing back winning football to Charlotte and the Carolinas.