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. 

[Ricky Prickles]

3 hours ago, hepcat said:

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.  

I hope I am not dead before seeing a winning season. That's scary to think about mortality but I want to remain on this earth and watch my child grow up, be a decent husband and continue to build my own goals and life. I abused my body to the max with my sports endeavors as a young buck and all the training and hits and unfortunately drugs used to get there and these days all I want to do is live a healthy lifestyle and work to keep myself healthy to hopefully prevent another younger than myself from taking down of my paths and making some of my mistakes. I just want to live, laugh and love man. I hope I have many more years to enjoy this life and all the good and bad that comes with it.

[strato]

I am old and it was at the root of my disappointment in the way things have been run the last 7 years. I don't think I'll make it to the good times if they ever come back. I felt like it was being stolen from me. 

As far as Wilks, yeah his support staff was not impressive and that is a big factor no doubt when hiring.

As far as the TB game, I can't or wouldn't try to obscure the results. And it is a results deal. But he was sort of in the same position as we are now on defense. We are hurting more front 7 but he had a lot of not good to work with in his secondary if I remember right. And the 'not a yes man' strikes me as a factor as well. 

[Coheed]

Sometimes reading this board would have you think Wilks was the reincarnation of Lombardi. The reality is that the state of the franchise is just currently so bad that people are yearning for mediocrity - buts that’s all Wilks was, a mediocre head coach. I don’t mean it disparagingly, it’s just a fact - otherwise he’d be employed by a team right now.

While I think a lot of us would kill for even “mediocre” football right now,  I don’t think it’s something we should necessarily strive for.

[strato]

Sure, but tell me you enjoy the interim as an alternative... 

He might have served as Ron did for the Redskins - stabilize the team and locker room and position it to move forward. Which they have apparently done. 

I'm good with Canales and don't pine for Steve. But he gave us the best ball we have seen in years.

[LinvilleGorge]

You HAVE to give Canales more time. You can't keep burning through coaches. It's already the least desirable job in the league.

[strato]

We need stability badly. Talking about that scouting stuff, the issue as I would see it lies more in the different coaching staffs coming and going. Not just the HC, even changing coordinators screws your continuity.