The Carolina Panthers are going into the offseason looking to make significant changes in their front office, and will be searching for their next general manager. During the entire process, Panthers team owner David Tepper plans to work side-by-side with head coach Matt Rhule as they try to find a general manager to get the team back on track.
“It’s been an evolving decision” Tepper said, during an interview with the team’s official website. “Basically, it wasn’t just me on a whim…Basically, with discussions, it seemed like Marty and I had a little bit of difference in philosophy. He leaned toward more traditional techniques versus a more data-driven, analytical process, but I think some marrying of that would be more in line.”
Tepper also outlined the team’s approach to reshaping the front office.
“[The previous structure] was very siloed. Things were kept separate all over this organization and I don’t like that…I like one organization, one goal moving together from football, so the business side and the football is all moving together.
When it comes to the Panthers top draft pick, Tepper believes that whomever the new general manager is, will work with Rhule in coming to a decision of who to select.
“I think it should be the GM with a lot of talk with the head coach and some, potentially, input from me. Sometimes I may just have to be a tiebreaker. But I think it should be collaborative.”
Tepper also had a lot of good things to say about Rhule, and the job he has done as he wraps up his first season as the Panthers head coach, despite their poor record.
“Matt, as advertised, is a very good developer of talent” Tepper said. ”
You’re starting to see it here, and we get to this point in the season in how the defense has developed. There’s been progress. It was a really interesting game, interesting in how coaches do things with process. The Packers had a great first half, but they didn’t do too much in the second half. We had four or five sacks and look at who got those sacks. There’s first-year players, and [Brian] Burns was in there. It was all young guys. We have all young guys, and we’re developing these guys and making progress.
“You can see that every day in some parts of this football team. When you talk about Matt and what happens here, this team, while we would’ve like to have seen better results this season, at the end of the day, this team doesn’t give up. And, while it’s maybe disappointing that in a lot of these situations where we had a chance to win and we haven’t, well, we have been in position to win. So hopefully, we’ll turn the corner on those things.”
