The Carolina Panthers are officially out of the postseason race, which means it’s time to start looking at the offseason. The team performed admirably down the stretch, but unfortunately, they were unable to dig themselves out of their early 1-4 hole. The two most important parts of the 2023 season are going to be the head coach and quarterback, so how should the Panthers approach those two openings?<\/p>\n
Even though they didn’t make the playoffs, interim head coach Steve Wilks deserves all the credit in the world for making the Carolina Panthers competitive down the stretch. After a 1-4 start, the Panthers fired head coach Matt Rhule<\/a> and traded away Christian McCaffrey shortly thereafter. Everyone expected this team to compete for the first-overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, but instead, Wilks had this team playing meaningful football up until Week 17.<\/p>\n As we discussed in a previous article, Steve Wilks has a decent case to be the head coach<\/a> of the 2023 Carolina Panthers. Put simply, performing this well with a relatively untalented roster is an impressive feat, and he’s not far off from being in the Coach of the Year race<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, the biggest downside with Wilks is that he is a defensive-minded coach. In today’s pass-heavy NFL, if you want to compete on a year-by-year basis, you need to win with offense. Even if Wilks hires the best offensive coordinators in the world, it would only be a matter of time before they got head coaching opportunities elsewhere. In a perfect world, the Panthers would find a great, young offensive mind to pair with their next quarterback. While Wilks is a fine candidate, Carolina should do their due diligence around the league and see if they can find that elusive offensive mind.<\/p>\n Finding the right coach is a good first step, but no team stands a realistic chance at success without a quarterback. The Panthers have gone through a seemingly endless list of quarterbacks since the end of the Cam Newton Era, but Sam Darnold has actually shown something in the past five weeks. Since Week 12 (Darnold’s first week starting), the quarterback leads the league in EPA+CPOE and is at or near the top of just about every other meaningful passing metric.<\/p>\n GOOD LORD SAM DARNOLD pic.twitter.com\/SonZpDXMIE<\/a><\/p>\n — Michael McQuaid (@McQuaidNFL) January 1, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe Quarterback<\/h3>\n
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