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David Newton, ESPN Staff Writer
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Carolina Panthers began the 2023 season with veteran wide receiver Adam Thielen believing they could compete for the Super Bowl with rookie quarterback Bryce Young.
They ended it with an NFL-worst 2-15 record, the firing of head coach Frank Reich after a 1-10 start, the dismissal of general manager Scott Fitterer after the Panthers were shut out in their final two games, and Young having one of the worst rookie seasons ever among quarterbacks taken No. 1 overall.
What went wrong?
“You got like three hours so I can go through it?” Thielen said after Sunday’s 9-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Bank of America Stadium. “If there was just one reason, it wouldn’t have been the season that we had.
“Anytime you have coaches fired, you have some dysfunction, that’s not setting you up for success.”
It started at the top with an impatient owner, David Tepper. He fired his head coach during the season for the third time in five years and reached such a level of frustration that he threw a drink at Jacksonville Jaguars fans in Week 17.
It ended with the Panthers being on the wrong end of too many trivia questions, like: Which is the only team to lose 15 games in a season since the league went to a 17-game schedule in 2021?
The decision to trade two first-round picks and top wide receiver DJ Moore to the Chicago Bears to move up from ninth to first to select Young in last year’s draft created the most scrutiny and played a role in Fitterer’s dismissal. That No. 2 overall pick C.J. Stroud led the Houston Texans to the playoffs hasn’t helped.
Beyond his 2-14 record (he missed one game with an ankle injury), there is no denying Young’s stats are historically bad.
His 11 touchdown passes are tied for the fewest of any quarterback in NFL history with more than 500 pass attempts. Young’s 5.5 yards per pass attempt are the fourth fewest ever (minimum 500 attempts). He had eight games without a touchdown pass, tied for second most by a No. 1 overall pick. He never played with the lead in the fourth quarter when there was time on the clock, and his 33.2 QBR ranks ahead of only one qualified quarterback this season.
The list goes on and on, leading to an anemic offense that finished with consecutive shutouts after having none the previous 21 years and only three in team history.
The only positive Young could think of from this season was “just dealing with adversity.”
That began when he was placed in a spread offense that lacked the personnel to function like Reich wanted and continued with an offensive line that allowed Young to be sacked 62 times, second most in the NFL (Washington’s Sam Howell had 65) and tied for the team record (2000).
Left tackle was a huge issue. Ikem Ekwonu, who surrendered a strip sack on Sunday, gave up more sacks (19) from blocks he was responsible for than any other player in the league. Several NFL executives suggested the sixth overall pick of the 2022 draft should be switched to guard.
“I know I can play left tackle at an elite level in this league, and I’m gonna go into the offseason making sure I’m the best left tackle I can be,” Ekwonu insisted.
Regardless, rebuilding the offensive line that had five different starters at left guard and seven at right guard due to injury and poor play this season has to be a priority. Rebuilding the wide receiver room around Thielen and rookie Jonathan Mingo comes next for the new GM and coach, who according to executive sources in the league, should be a young, offensive-minded coordinator.
Among the expected head-coaching candidates are offensive coordinators Ben Johnson of the Detroit Lions, Bobby Slowik of the Texans and Frank Smith of the Miami Dolphins.
“You put the right leader around him, the right people around him, he’s going to be a great player,” Thielen insisted of Young.
Tight end Hayden Hurst, limited to nine games due to a concussion, believes Young was the victim of “too many voices” from a quarterback-heavy coaching staff, which led to dysfunction that often comes with in-house disagreement on direction.
“It’ll be good for Bryce to have consistency this offseason, one voice telling him what to do and kind of guide him in the right direction,” Hurst said.
Other players agreed, but Young downplayed that by saying it’s part of being a quarterback and never became too much for him.
“I feel like I was put in a situation to succeed,” he said. “A lot of stuff I want to work on and clean up.”
Defense was the bright spot, led by tackle Derrick Brown whose 103 tackles were the most by an NFL lineman since 1994. This group finished fourth in the league in total defense, giving up 293.9 yards a game.
But there are questions there, too. Outside linebacker Brian Burns, the 16th pick of the 2019 draft, still wants to be paid among the highest edge rushers in the league despite what he admitted was a “down” year — eight sacks after a career-high 12.5 in 2022.
Burns wants to remain with Carolina but is prepared to move on if the new coach and GM choose to go another direction. The franchise tag is an option for the Panthers.
“They got a lot of stuff to figure out,” Burns said. “I don’t think I’m No. 1 on that list right now.”
First, the Panthers need to hire a new coach and general manager. Assistant general manager Dan Morgan will handle personnel decisions for now, and multiple NFL executive sources believe the former Carolina linebacker would be a good choice as the full-time GM.
Those same sources also suggest Tepper needs to make the new hires and get out of the way.
Tepper, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, has hired a consulting firm to help with the wide-ranging coach and GM search.
Thielen has no idea who will be hired, and after missing so badly on his prediction of a Super Bowl run this season, the 33-year-old isn’t making another.
But he does believe in Young and, like running back Chuba Hubbard, looks forward to the future in Carolina.
“You never want to forget the bad stuff,” Hubbard said as he reflected on this season. “You want to learn from it, grow from it, dissect it and turn it into something beautiful.”
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