The Carolina Panthers have had a really bad week. The Panthers lost to the Dallas Cowboys 30-14 and it was a very ugly football game. Well, it gets worse as the Panthers are now mathematically eliminated from the playoffs making it the 9th straight season of no playoffs. With how ugly the season got there could be a book of what went wrong, but to me, there are three main reasons why they didn’t make the playoffs.
Oh dear, where to even begin with the start of the season? I will point the obvious out, Bryce Young was awful at the beginning of the season. He was so terrible that he was considered a worse draft choice than Jamarcus Russell. The Panthers had no choice but to bench I’m and Dalton wasn’t any good either.
Now you have to give credit to Young, he played so much better in the 2nd half of the season. He saved his job as with how bad he started, it was looking like he’d be out of a job next year with that level of play. The bad start killed Carolina and they couldn’t recover. I am interested in how Young will look next season once Carolina continues to bolster the offense.
It was expected that Carolina’s defense would be terrible, but it was way worse than originally projected. According to Fox Sports, the Panthers have the 31st-ranked defense in the NFL. Their rushing defense is horrific and they are by far the worst at stopping the run on 3rd down they are abysmal. Honestly, once LB Shaq Thompson went down with an injury, Carolina lost there leader and their defense wasn’t the same. Carolina needs to improve their defense next season as they can’t win games with how they performed this season.
The Carolina Panthers came into the season with one of the weakest rosters in the league. If they were going to make an immediate impact the 2024 NFL Draft class had to make an immediate impact. Well, the rookies in this class did not do that at all. Xavier Leggette has potential, but he has been very inconsistent this season. Jonathan Brooks was a questionable pick from Day 1 and he has not been able to stay healthy this season.
Trevin Wallace played most of the season with a shoulder injury and even when healthy he has been very raw as a linebacker. Ja’Tavion Sanders hasn’t impressed, and he has been one of the lowest-graded tight ends in the NFL according to PFF. The rest of the draft class hasn’t been consistently great either. The only rookie that really impressed me with the Panthers was Jalen Coker who went undrafted. The Panthers may really have something in this guy, as because he made some outstanding plays this season.
This is something that just got reported last week and it’s really huge news. A big issue with the Panthers the last few years is how hands-on David Tepper is as the owner. I honestly don’t hate Tepper as an owner and he’s not the worst owner in the NFL. However, his being overly hands-on hasn’t helped anything.
It seems like he has seen the issue of his ways and has chosen to be a more hands-off owner. This is fantastic news as look Tepper is a financial genius, but it’s clear he had no idea how to run a football team. He is going to let both GM Dan Morgan and Dave Canales do their jobs.
Do you know what other owner did that previously? Jed York of the San Francisco 49ers. York became more hands-off when John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan came into the organization and looked at what happened: the 49ers went from a dumpster fire to a Superbowl contender.
Maybe lightning can strike twice with the Carolina Panthers. Tepper has made the right move by being more hands-off and it should lead to Carolina as a more organized and run franchise. Only time will tell to see if Morgan and Canales can make it work.
Read More NFL News From Stadium Rant Here: NFL News
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to our newsletter here. Check out Stadium Rant Original shows on our Youtube channel and subscribe! Give our socials Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok a follow for more great content!
