There was no shortage of interesting nuggets from Tuesday’s introductory press conference for new Carolina Panthers head coach Frank Reich. So, let’s pick up a few.
Here are our biggest takeaways from the big afternoon.
Frank Reich may be calling plays on offense
While he’s going through and enjoying the process of finding his offensive coordinator, Reich said he may still assume the play-calling duties:
“As far as calling plays, I’m gonna wait to see that we get the offensive staff together. Obviously, I’ve always enjoyed doing that. I’ve had a good bit of success doing that and enjoy doing that. It feels to me there’s a little bit of a trend going away from that. I wanna continue to reexamine that, and it just depends on how the staff comes together. And the coordinator thing, I’m excited about—the prospects of some of the guys that are out there that could be our offensive coordinator. So, I’ll wait to make the final decision on that.”
But he will not have 'final say' over roster decisions
Reich said general manager Scott Fitterer will be in charge of the 53-man roster and he’ll be in charge of deciding who dresses on game day.
“Yeah, it’s balance of power. Scott will have control of the 53. I’ll have control of who’s active, who’s not active. But, ultimately, that’s on paper. In reality, this is 100 percent collaborative. I can already tell that with Scott. We’re gonna work side by side. We’re gonna tirelessly work where we’re gonna have the same vision.
“We’ll have disagreements. Ya know, we’ll have disagreements. We’ll have different ideas. But, ultimately, we’ll come together as one and decide who are the best players on this team and how to build this team. And along with the scouting staff and the coaches, we’ll work together. So I look forward to that.”
His offense will still look to establish the run
Running the ball will be an integral part of Reich’s philosophy on offense:
“It’s a passing league, but you have to run the ball to be a championship team. I mean, there’s exceptions to that. When you look at the analytics, the statistics, over the years—you gotta be effective running the football and efficient running the football.
So that’s one of the reasons why I’m excited about this roster. I know we can do that. We’ll get the pass game right. But I know we can run the football and we’re gonna run the football—because that just builds off the play action, the RPO stuff, all the movement stuff. So, that’s what you wanna build.”
. . . and go vertical
Reich said the offense will also have to win through the air:
“And then the second principle is you have to get the ball vertical down the field. You have to get chunk plays. All the statistics, all the analytics . . . that’s one of the reasons why I’m excited to work for Mr. Tepper—because, right, if anybody knows analytics it’s him and all of his businesses. But, he gets this as much as anybody.
“It’s hard to go 14-play drives all the time. You gotta get chunk plays down the field. So we need to be able to run the ball, have play action off of it, we get vertical, have the kind of players and quarterback that can do that.”
So he wants stability at the QB position
Reich, like everyone else in Carolina, wants a solution to the quarterback problem.
“You gotta have stability at quarterback. You wanna have stability at quarterback. So, the good thing that I’ve learned in my past experience in the few years, that we learn how to adapt to different styles of quarterbacks. But that’s not that ideal situation. So we—Mr. Tepper, Scott [Fitterer], myself—have to commit to what’s our blueprint, how are we gonna maintain stability at quarterback, make a plan and then execute that plan.
David Tepper leaned for an offense-minded HC because of NFL rules
Panthers owner David Tepper said a huge part of why he wanted an offensive-minded head coach was because of the offensive-minded NFL machine.
“First off, every year, we get in these NFL meetings. And every year, they put some new rule to benefit the offense. Every single year. Every single year. And it’s never gonna end. It’s never gonna end. Okay, every year. And the reason it is—scoring brings eyeballs. Okay? That’s what the league’s about—bringing eyeballs to watch the thing.
“So I can tell ya again, the new rules will be offense-minded rules. I don’t know what they are yet, but they will be offense-minded rules.”
. . . and admitted that hiring Matt Rhule was a mistake
Tepper also discussed that the second hurdle in finding a head coach is establishing a balance—something he did not do with Matt Rhule.
“And the second challenge is, and I made this mistake, I think it’s a mistake to have a CEO-type head coach. That’s a mistake. Just in general. That’s what I kinda believe. So I wanna get somebody who’s really good on offense or really good on defense.”
Scott Fitterer wants to draft and develop a QB
Fitterer has a clear preference of how he wants to find this franchise’s long-term quarterback:
“I don’t think you ever wanna box yourself in—just say, ‘Hey, we’re going strictly draft. I’ve always said, ‘Hey, that’s the proper way to do it—to draft and develop from a cost-effective standpoint.’ But if we don’t believe that guy is there this year—and we haven’t even started the process, our scouts have—we’ll look at all options. But, in an ideal world, we would be draft and develop.”
Steve Wilks had a "legitimate shot" at being named HC
Fitterer also told reporters that 2022’s interim head coach Steve Wilks was very much in the running for the permanent job:
“He had a legitimate shot. You have to give him respect for what he did for this team during the year. He did a heck of a job leading us. He’s a great man.
“But what it came down to, and I’m not gonna compare Frank to Steve or anyone else, Frank during the interview process really separated himself at the end. First time he came in, he was dialed in, laid out his plan. Then when he came back in the second time, he took that plan and went deeper into a different level. And that’s what separated him. All the respect in the world for Steve. He did a great job for us.”
