By CIAN McKEOWN
On November 26, 2023, the Carolina Panthers fired head coach Frank Reich after eleven games. To be fair, in those games, he had a win-loss record of 1-10. Not good. This is billionaire owner David Tepper’s third head coaching change since he bought the team in 2018. In his press conference following his firing of Reich, Tepper said: “My reputation away from this game is one of extreme patience.” The real story is rookie quarterback Bryce Young, who has had this slow start, and he is a player that Tepper said in the
same press conference that he had the final call on drafting. And now with another coaching change in Carolina, Young will not fare much better at developing as a pro player.
In fact, a number of top-picked quarterbacks don’t get the chance to build their game and status as a pro player because of poor development by coaches and the notion that head coaches are interchangeable.
Incidentally, Panthers owner David Tepper said the following in his press conference to address the firing: “…I’d like to have a coach here for twenty years.” It’s not just Tepper’s organization that is facing this issue; it’s many across the NFL. Look at the New York Jets and Zach Wilson, whom they drafted second overall in 2021. So far, Wilson has squandered a genuinely great and star-studded Jets defense and has thrown twenty-one touchdowns and twenty-five interceptions. This is also his second head coach in only
his third season. The Jets did, in fact, attempt to help develop Wilson with some veteran talent by signing future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers to be their starter this past offseason. If he could learn under Rodgers for a couple of seasons, then he could become the future of the franchise. This teed up Rodgers tearing his ACL seventy-five seconds into his season. Wilson so far this season has performed about as well as you would expect and was benched in Week 12 for career backup Tim Boyle.
Another quarterback from Wilson’s draft class, Mac Jones, showed signs of promise his rookie season, leading the New England Patriots to the playoffs with a 10-7 win-loss record. But the Patriots finished with a losing record in 2022, and Jones has sharply regressed in 2023, with some of the most horrific offensive showings the league has to offer. The Patriots are 2-9 on the year. Head coach Bill Belichick can admire his Super Bowl rings all he wants, but he might be coaching for his job, and Jones’ days as a New England starter may be coming to a close.
I must mention that there are several outliers in the league today, including Bryce Young’s draft mate CJ Stroud, who went second overall to the Houston Texans in the 2023 NFL draft. Stroud has assembled a winning record for his team so far this season and has a rebuilding roster that was near the bottom of the league last year. This is not without the addition of fellow rookie sensation Tank Dell and the hiring of 49ers defensive coordinator and team legend Demeco Ryans as their head coach.
But why are there still so many misses? These quarterbacks were drafted into what seemed like sound organizations. The Panthers with their seemingly excellent staff, composed of Frank Reich, known for producing good passing offenses like the 2017 Philadelphia Eagles. As well as other former NFL quarterbacks who spent long stints in the league like backup QB Andy Dalton and quarterbacks coach Josh McCown. But the truth is, Tepper is scapegoating the wrong people, and he needs to realize that the roster is not there for Bryce Young to develop around. And then there was Mac Jones, drafted by arguably
the greatest coach of all time, Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots. He has since surrounded Jones with subpar offensive minds to coach him up and has fallen off a cliff in production and wins this season.
This happens because the NFL has new standards for the success rate of coaches and quarterbacks. There are many great quarterbacks who had rocky starts to their careers, but teams stuck with them and trusted their own coaching hire to build around that player. Take Peyton Manning, for example, drafted by the Indianapolis Colts number one overall in 1998; he led the league in interceptions his rookie year, and the team had a 3-13 win-loss record. He led the team his second year to one of the best single-season turnarounds in NFL history, flipping the team’s win-loss record to 13-3 and a playoff win. Manning, of course, went on to become one of the greatest signal-callers the game has ever seen.
It might be an unreasonable standard to hold current quarterbacks to, but there is another hidden reason why young quarterbacks don’t have the chance to develop in the modern game. Rich Eisen, an NFL media stalwart who is the original head anchor of NFL Network, said on his radio program, the Rich Eisen Show: “In terms of developing players, you can’t have them in your facility until offseason workouts begin in April; that’s new.” He went on to describe how there used to be more mandatory offseason team activities, but the players’ union intervened with the common practice of coaches subtly shaming players for not attending these. It’s not the only thing impacting player development, but it does
make a difference once it is known that most coaches want players to fully “buy in” to their style of coaching for it to work, and for them, buying in means showing up.
In short, organizations that do not have their house in order should not gamble on very talented quarterbacks without a sound strategy to develop them. Solid teams in need of the missing piece can draft talented prospects so that they can develop well in a good system. For example, the Philadelphia Eagles with Jalen Hurts, whom they selected in the second round of the 2020 NFL draft. He is now considered one of the best in the league, and Philadelphia had a solid system and roster that had just won a Super Bowl a few years prior in 2017. Not every quarterback is that generational franchise player who can improve everything; some can be, but it’s a tough task to lay on the shoulders of one player.
Frank Reich
Leave a Reply