Bill Polian, the Pro Football Hall of Fame general manager, has hired Frank Reich twice at critical points during both men’s careers.
The two have stayed in regular touch for decades. And Polian thinks it is important that Panthers fans understand that there’s a big misconception about Reich only being hired as Carolina’s next head coach because he is a former NFL quarterback who can coach that one position well.
Said Polian in a phone interview: “Narratives can kind of take hold, and the narrative now about Frank is: ‘Well, he’s a quarterback whisperer and the Panthers are going to draft one and then he’ll develop him.’ But he’s much more than that. That’s part of his skill set, sure, but he’s an accomplished head coach. He’s innovative. He’s adaptive. Players love playing for him and coaches love coaching for him. Panther fans should be extremely happy.”
There are few men alive with better team-building credentials than Polian, who made the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2015 and constructed the Panthers’ first teams from scratch as general manager. Polian revitalized the fortunes of three different teams — Buffalo, Carolina and Indianapolis, all of which made it at least to the NFC or AFC championship game during his tenure. He was named the NFL’s Executive of the Year by The Sporting News a record six times.
Polian signed Reich to be Carolina’s first starting quarterback in 1995. And years later, Polian was the man who got Reich started in coaching, persuading Indianapolis owner Jim Irsay to create a position for Reich at the bottom of the Colts’ coaching ladder in 2006.
Reich’s career sped upward from there. He was announced Thursday as the Panthers’ new head coach, beating out interim head coach Steve Wilks, former New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton and several others for the job. Reich’s “re-introductory” press conference with the Panthers will be held at noon on Tuesday at Bank of America Stadium.
Before Polian signed Reich to play quarterback for the Panthers — Reich started the first three games and was then permanently benched for rookie Kerry Collins — the two men had intersected at Buffalo, where Polian was also the GM. It was there that Polian first became so enamored with Reich, who mostly served as the backup quarterback to Jim Kelly as Buffalo made (and lost) four straight Super Bowls in the early 1990s.
“Frank was the epitome of the greatest teammate of all time,” Polian said. “At one point, it didn’t look like we were going to be able to get Jim Kelly (from the USFL) and Frank was going to be our starting quarterback. But then here Kelly came, and it was a little like the story of the prodigal son.”
With Reich playing the Biblical role of the dutiful son who stays at home and does the right thing every day, only to see the profligate prodigal son’s return celebrated as if he’s the king of the world?
“Exactly,” Polian said. “Frank handled that as well as anyone ever could have. He and Jim became roommates and absolute collaborators on our no-huddle offense, which took the NFL by storm back then because at the time no one was running the two-minute offense for the entire game. I saw all that and knew Frank was special, as did coach Marv Levy. We both told Frank back then, ‘Look, it’s going to work out for you. And one day, if you want to, you’re going to be a great head coach.’ ”
Reich and Polian still text or talk several times a month. The 80-year-old Polian, who has kept a home in Charlotte since 1994 and still follows the NFL closely, has long served as one of Reich’s football mentors.
Coach Peyton Manning? Nah
Reich was disappointed, though, when he started 0-3 and was benched after only three games in Carolina in 1995. He played well in the first one, throwing for 329 yards in an overtime loss to Atlanta, and then poorly in the next two before Polian, coach Dom Capers and offensive coordinator Joe Pendry turned to Collins.
“That was difficult,” Polian said. “But by the same token, and Frank would be the first to tell you, when you’re in a position of authority, you’ve got to do what’s best for the team. It did hurt me personally, though, because Frank is like a member of the family. But again, he was an ideal teammate about it.”
After Reich retired, Polian once tried to lure him into coaching eight years before Reich actually made the leap.
It was 1998. Polian was by then running the Indianapolis Colts. He told Reich the team was likely going to take Peyton Manning with the No. 1 overall pick and that he would like Reich to join the coaching staff and help mold Manning’s future. In many respects, it was a dream job.
Reich thought about it, but then said no. He was involved in attending a Charlotte seminary — a seminary he would later graduate from and then become president of — and said he was too involved in his faith journey as a Christian to coach at the moment.
This time it was Polian’s turn to be disappointed, but he didn’t give up on the idea.
“Sometime in the future, if you want to get back in, just pick up the phone,” Polian said he told Reich.
Reich ‘starts from the bottom’
Eight years later, Reich picked up the phone. By then Reich was 44 years old — rather late to be starting a coaching career. But Polian talked Irsay into creating a position for Reich as what was officially termed a “coaching intern.”
“The money was entry-level, at best,” Polian said. “But by the following year, he was a full-time coach, and his career has skyrocketed from there, as I knew it would. It just shows you what kind of person he is, to turn down a golden opportunity to coach Peyton Manning and then, many years later, to have the humility to come in and say, ‘Hey, I want to do it, and I’m going to start from the bottom.’ ”
After moving up in Indianapolis and then winning a Super Bowl as the offensive coordinator at Philadelphia, Reich got his first head-coaching job. He went 40-33-1 at Indianapolis from 2018-22 before getting fired in November when the Colts were 3-5-1 but getting poor quarterback play from Matt Ryan, who had been the latest QB in the musical chairs that the Colts had to play at the position after Andrew Luck unexpectedly retired in 2019.
“Matt just hit the wall,” Polian said of Ryan and the Colts, “and that’s the risk you run with an older quarterback. And the offensive line had eroded. So he’s learned from that situation. We’ve talked a lot about it. Frank is a very smart guy. He learns from issues that have given him difficulty in the past and figures out how to prevent that from happening in the future.”
Polian on what Panthers need
As for how quickly Reich can get the Panthers into the postseason, Polian said it depended mostly on the offense.
The Panthers’ defense, Polian said, is already close to playoff-quality. He called defensive end Brian Burns a “game-wrecker.” But the Carolina offense needs several big pieces, he said.
“You’ve got to solve quarterback, No. 1,” Polian said. “I think they probably need a lot more production from the tight end position…. Probably need more production from the second wide receiver (behind DJ Moore). ... And you need a dynamic running back. That guy isn’t here. (Former Buffalo star) Thurman Thomas isn’t here. Christian McCaffrey isn’t here. … So without those components — the most important of which is the quarterback — the offense is not going to be a playoff-quality offense.”
But Polian is very bullish on Reich and concluded that he will fix the team, and do so with class.
“Carolina is getting somebody,” Polian said, “that every Panther fan and every Charlottean can be proud of.”
