Panthers owner David Tepper decided to fire Frank Reich just 11 games into his first season as Carolina’s head coach on Monday.
On Tuesday, Tepper had to answer for that choice.
Tepper held a news conference during which he explained Carolina’s decision to dismiss Reich so quickly after signing him to a four-year contract. He insisted that Reich was a “fine man” but the team’s performance had simply come up well short of expectations.
“There’s a lot that goes into what the success on the field is every week. Whether it’s roster, some is scheme, how you practice, a lot of things,” Tepper explained. “And obviously, we can be better in all phases of that because the product on the field is just not good enough right now. It just isn’t. And so we have to try to make every one of those phases better. And whatever it takes to make it better, we’re gonna try to do.”
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It’s hard to argue with Tepper’s point. Reich led the Panthers to a league-worst 1-10 mark through 12 weeks and Bryce Young, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, wasn’t playing well under his watch. So, in a vacuum, the move was a sensible one.
That said, Reich’s dismissal marked the second time in as many years that Tepper had fired a coach midseason. It also marked the third time he had fired a coach in-season since buying the Panthers from Jerry Richardson in May of 2018.
Tepper had previously preached patience in evaluating his coaches. As such, he was asked by reporters whether Reich’s firing represented a philosophical shift in the Panthers’ rebuild.
His response?
“I do have patience,” Tepper said. “My reputation away from this game is one for extreme patience … Now, that patience comes with good performance and things that you want to see progress be made on different aspects.”
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Tepper may believe himself to be patient, but others across the NFL evidently don’t. ESPN’s Adam Schefter described Tepper as “not very patient” when reporting on Reich’s job security in early November.
Despite Tepper’s opinion of his patience misaligning with that of others, it still appears that he shares a goal with most other owners across the NFL: a desire for organizational stability.
“I would like to have somebody here for 20, 30 years,” Tepper said in reference to the team’s head coaching job. “I’d like to have somebody that would say eulogy at my funeral in 30 years. OK, maybe it’s 40 years, I hope. But that’s what I like to have.”
Will that type of candidate be harder for Tepper and the Panthers to find after yet another in-season firing? He expressed confidence that wouldn’t have an impact on Carolina’s ability to attract quality coaching candidates.
So, the Panthers will now once again shift their attention to the future as they look for their third full-time head coach of the last three seasons.
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For now, only one thing remains certain about that search. Whoever is hired has to be a believer in Bryce Young, whom Tepper backed after being asked about selecting him No. 1 overall in the 2023 NFL Draft.
“We are totally confident in that pick,” he said.