My prediction in 3 years - Panthers return to their roots

[hepcat]

I really hope the Panthers give Dave Canales a real chance to be “the guy” for the Panthers which means giving him 3 seasons to build the team to his scheme and pick his own QB. But I’m not hopeful because he’s already a year behind in development because of the failure of Bryce Young.

My prediction is the Panthers finish with a top 3 draft pick in the 2025 draft. They will draft another QB, along with signing a veteran. Bryce Young is traded for a late round pick. The team spends heavily in free agency on defense. 

The team continues to struggle in 2025, and the defense does not get much better. Evero is not retained after the 2025 season.

Canales is given one more season to right the ship and develop the drafted QB. The Panthers draft heavily on the defensive side of the ball, show some mild improvement in 2026 with a new defensive coordinator and investment into the defense. But it won’t be enough, and Canales will be fired. 

In early 2027, David Tepper, after seeing his 9th straight losing season as owner, is desperate to find any shred of success. Tepper decides it’s time to go back to the Panthers roots and hire a defensive head coach and focus on the running game. He hires a retread veteran defensive specialist as head coach (such as a Dan Quinn, not necessarily him), and installs a new GM to pair with the new head coach. We see the Panthers begin to resemble the team they were before Tepper bought the team, a hard nosed defensive squad that plays ball control offense. The thing Tepper hated most about the style of football the Panthers played has come back to be his savior and his ownership comes full circle.

He could have done this in 2023 by hiring Steve Wilks, the only coach to show any semblance of success under his ownership. But Tepper was too stubborn to go against his “vision” for the team. I guarantee the Panthers hire a defensive head coach after Canales. Tepper will have tried all other avenues at that point - college head coach, veteran retread offensive head coach, up and coming offensive coordinator, next in the cycle will be veteran retread defensive head coach, followed by the up and coming defensive head coach. Who might actually finally be the success we’ve been waiting for in the 2030s.

Either way, I think some of you reading this will be dead before the Panthers have another winning season. The football team is as big of a mess as it has ever been. And Tepper is going to be forced to look into the past for how to fix it.  

[PantherKyle]

Wilks apologist. No thanks

[Waldo]

Yeah no thanks unless you have a time machine to take the team back to the 80s. Even then meh. I would take Ron over him with a time machine. 

[strato]

He hasn't hired a Super Bowl winning coach. That will probably be the next plan, if this fails. 

I am not sure this will fail though if he will just stay away from dictating football stuff.

Unless you believe they will really start Young for 7 games (which I don't and am sick of hearing about Bryce Young), the staff has asserted control and he so far is allowing it to be that way. 

If the staff really has autonomy, he has taken a big step towards being successful. 

[hepcat]

1 hour ago, PantherKyle said:

Wilks apologist. No thanks

Because everything after Wilks was the interim coach has been fantastic right?

[Jon Snow]

I predict that none of that happens. Mrs.Tepper will take over and call the shots before any of that goes down.

[CamWhoaaCam]

1 hour ago, PantherKyle said:

Wilks apologist. No thanks

Wilks was the best thing to ever happen to this team in the Tepper era.

 

You losers have all this hate for Wilks when all he did is put us in a position to play for something. Not his fault he ran into Tom Brady.

 

#ForeverWilksApologist

[ProcessBlue2]

People forget Wilks and Holcombe was a package deal, and Holcombe struggled. The defense declined when Snow left. 

People also forget how conservative Wilks was on both sides of the ball. It lost us the TB game. 

I think Canales will work out. I think Saleh, Frazier or somebody will come in as DC and the Panthers will go heavy defense in FA/Draft this year. It's the opposite of what Fox did. Fox went Defense heavy first and then Offense heavy after 2002.