What Matt Rhule said about his job security with Panthers, not playing Cam Newton more
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Panthers at Buccaneers
Expanded coverage of Carolina’s Week 18 game.
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Panthers coach Matt Rhule said team owner David Tepper continues to remain supportive of his job as head coach.
The Panthers lost 41-17 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday and it was their seventh consecutive loss. The Panthers finished the season 5-12.
Carolina is 10-23 in two seasons under Rhule.
Rhule is expected to return for a third season, multiple sources with direct knowledge of the team’s thinking have told The Observer.
“Every conversation I’ve had (with Tepper) has been about the future,” Rhule said. “I’m going to coach until someone tells me I’m not the coach.”
Tepper hired Rhule in January 2020 to replace Ron Rivera, who was fired after nine seasons with the team.
Rhule signed a seven-year, $62 million deal. He had previously coached at Baylor, where he turned around the Bears’ program in three seasons after a sexual assault scandal rocked its football team prior to his arrival.
He also turned around Temple’s program.
But the Panthers have struggled in Year 2. After winning three games to start the season, the Panthers lost 12 of their final 14. Their offense has struggled. Their quarterbacks haven’t protected the ball. And the offensive line has struggled to protect the quarterback.
“I talked to him before the game and we’re talking about the offseason and what we need to do moving forward,” Rhule said. “Since I took the job we’ve had a plan. I’d like to be further ahead in that plan. No one likes the results that we have right now. We’ve talked about it time and time again. We know the areas we’d like to improve.
“But I’ve never had a conversation, anything about my job, status, or ‘hey, you’re in peril.’ ”
Offense has been the Panthers’ biggest issue this season. They rank 29th in the NFL in points per game at 17.9, and 30th in total offensive (297.8 yards per game).
Rhule will interview candidates for the vacant offensive coordinator position in the coming weeks. He said that he’ll look at internal and external candidates, similar to how they conducted the general manager search when they hired Scott Fitterer.
“There’s a bunch of smart people out there in a lot of different places, and we know what the strategy we want is,” Rhule said. “We want to be able to control the line of scrimmage and run the football and protect the ball.
“We’ll try to find someone that can get that done at a high level.”
Fourth and short decision
One of the turning points in Sunday’s loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was the fourth-and-inches play at the Tampa Bay 2-yard line.
The Panthers opted to run a quarterback sneak with quarterback Sam Darnold instead of running it with quarterback Cam Newton.
Rhule said had it been fourth-and-2 or fourth-and-3 from the goal line, he would have used Newton. He said on fourth-and-inches, Darnold, at 6-foot-4, should be able to make that play.
“From the field, I thought he got the first down to be quite honest with you and the spot came up short,” Rhule said. “To me, if it was a designed quarterback run in the gun, putting him out there made since, but Jeff (Nixon) made the call to go quarterback sneak, and I thought it was the right call.”
This story was originally published January 9, 2022 at 8:29 PM with the headline "What Matt Rhule said about his job security with Panthers, not playing Cam Newton more."
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