The first head coaching change of the NFL season was far from surprising. The reeling Carolina Panthers dismissed Matt Rhule Monday and promoted Steve Wilks to serve as their interim head coach.
After 1-4 start, Panthers fire Matt Rhule and promote Steve Wilks
They went 11-27 under Rhule, who was fired five games into his third NFL season. Rhule never was able to achieve the level of success he’d managed in the college ranks at Temple and Baylor.
Wilks, the former head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, was the Panthers’ secondary coach and defensive passing game coordinator.
In 2020, Panthers owner David Tepper outbid other interested NFL teams to hire Rhule. The New York Giants reportedly were focused on him — he served as their assistant offensive line coach in 2012 — but ended up hiring New England Patriots assistant coach Joe Judge once Rhule headed to Carolina.
Rhule has more than four seasons remaining on his seven-year, $62 million contract. The Panthers reportedly owe him more than $40 million for the remainder of the deal. But Rhule could become a candidate for college head coaching jobs, and the amount the Panthers owe him reportedly would be offset by his salary from another coaching job.
Among the five NFL head coaches hired for the 2020 season, Rhule and Judge already have been fired. The other three coaches hired during that cycle were the Washington Commanders’ Ron Rivera, the Dallas Cowboys’ Mike McCarthy and the Cleveland Browns’ Kevin Stefanski.
“I just feel like we’re better than we’ve shown,” Rhule said of the Panthers following Sunday’s defeat. “It’s how I feel. But you are what your record says you are. We’re 1-4. It’s not where any of us intended to be. We’ve got to get that turned around.”
There was intense speculation about Rhule’s job security as the losses mounted for the Panthers. Sunday’s defeat was their 11th in 12 games, dating to last season. Rhule declined to address the topic during his postgame news conference.
“I hope you guys can understand,” Rhule said then. “I’m here to talk about the game. I’ve always been very forthright with you guys. I have nothing to say about that now. … I would never want to make this about me.”
Rhule was unable to land a franchise quarterback in Carolina, going through a list of starters that included Teddy Bridgewater, P.J. Walker, Sam Darnold, Cam Newton and Baker Mayfield. The Panthers traded for Mayfield in early July, nearly four months after the former No. 1 choice in the NFL draft was ousted from his starting job in Cleveland when the Browns traded for Deshaun Watson in mid-March.
But the offense has continued to sputter this season with Mayfield and new coordinator Ben McAdoo, the former head coach of the Giants whom Rhule hired in January. Mayfield suffered an ankle injury Sunday. Walker finished that game and could start this weekend against the Los Angeles Rams in Inglewood, Calif.
“It’s hard for me to talk about last year because Ben wasn’t here,” Rhule said Sunday. “Baker wasn’t here. I just try to focus on right now. … We’re not going to win unless we score more points. I think we all know that. I’m not going to sit here and lie to you. But in terms of a complete and total overhaul, I don’t know that that’s the answer. … I think everything is just about trying to improve each player.”
The Cardinals fired Wilks in 2018 after he spent one season as their head coach. The team went 3-13. In April, Wilks and another Black coach, Ray Horton, joined Brian Flores’s racial discrimination lawsuit against the NFL and teams. Flores filed the lawsuit in February in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The lawsuit alleges Wilks was a “bridge coach” who was “not given a meaningful opportunity to succeed.” It says the Cardinals’ dismissal of Wilks stood “in stark contrast” with their retention of General Manager Steve Keim, whom the team fined and suspended in 2018 after he pleaded guilty to driving under the influence.
“Like many other Black Head Coaches, Mr. Wilks has never been given a second opportunity to become the Head Coach of any other NFL team,” the lawsuit said. “Mr. Wilks is unfortunately not an anomaly or an exception to the rule. To the contrary, the discriminatory treatment towards Mr. Wilks is just part and parcel to the ongoing pattern and practice of discrimination in the NFL when it comes to the NFL’s Head Coach, Coordinator and Executive hiring and employment decisions.”
Wilks becomes the NFL’s fourth active Black head coach. He joins the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Mike Tomlin, the Houston Texans’ Lovie Smith and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Todd Bowles. Smith and Bowles were the only Black head coaches hired during the most recent cycle in which 10 teams changed coaches. The Miami Dolphins hired Mike McDaniel, who is biracial.
Wilks, a Charlotte native, faces a considerable task in attempting to right the Panthers. Rhule was asked Sunday what his postgame message to his players had been.
“That it’s not good enough, and it has to get better,” Rhule said. “But you always stick together in life. Who you are in these moments is who you are. But it shouldn’t be a happy-go-lucky locker room. It should be a ‘hey, this has to change’ type of a deal. … There’s a lot of guys there that are proud, and they want to win. They work hard at it. I trust the leadership. … But there’s no debating that they know, that locker room knows, that score isn’t good enough.”
Source: WP
