The Carolina Panthers are in the midst of a nightmarish season, and head coach Frank Reich is already making another change for the offensive play calling.
After turning over his play-calling duties to offensive coordinator Thomas Brown earlier in the season, Reich announced on Wednesday that he would be taking back the play-calling responsibilities that he held to start the season.
It’s a dramatic shift from the sensible decision to give a promising young coach in Brown a chance at calling the plays, and it strikes of desperation for a 1-8 Panthers team that isn’t getting the kind of growth out of first-overall quarterback Bryce Young that the Houston Texans are getting out of second-overall quarterback C.J. Stroud.
Reich has subtly hinted about possibly not being super down with drafting Young, which is underscored by the fact Carolina quarterbacks coach Josh McCown tipped the coaching staff’s interest in Stroud back in the spring.
Even if this staff is happy with Young, everything is a mess in Carolina right now, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get fixed anytime soon.
“I'm in the position I'm in because of years of being a successful offensive coordinator and play-caller…”#Panthers coach Frank Reich takes back play-calling duties after giving them to OC Thomas Brown https://t.co/n40fLXFAmj
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 15, 2023
If you’re a Panthers fan, you’ll have to hope in Young turning things around in a dismal rookie season and Reich taking back the play-calling duties to help this offense find its footing after weeks of struggle.
However, the way this is going, it feels Reich and his staff are coaching for their jobs going forward. Moves like this don’t make them seem like they’re confident that they’ll all be where they are a year from now, which is a sad turn of events for what looked like one of the more impressive new coaching staffs this spring.
