Monday Morning Thoughts: This is What a Rebuild Looks Like

Coaching can win and lose games just like players win and lose games. For some reason, the coach always takes the brunt of the blame for a loss but hardly ever gets the credit when there's a win. There's a major portion of the Panthers' fan base that does not believe in Matt Rhule and never even gave him a chance before forming an opinion.

The reality is rebuilds take multiple years in the NFL and folks have to be willing to remain patient during that building stage. It's a hard thing for fans to do because everyone wants instant gratification. When Rhule took over as the Panthers head coach, this team was without a doubt facing an uphill climb. The final team under Ron Rivera was aging and not playing very well which led to his firing and the near-complete overturn of the roster. When you completely flip your team in one offseason, it's not going to be fixed by year two. Not to mention, when you don't have a quarterback it's going to take even longer.

Contrary to popular belief, this isn't about a team that is poorly coached or a team that isn't prepared. It comes down to execution. Penalties are going to happen with a young team. And no, adding a 32-year-old quarterback that hasn't played all year and a 31-year-old corner who hadn't played a game since 2019 doesn't make this a "vetThose mistakes caused by inexperience will slowly fade away as this team grows older. The lazy narrative that is being created is that this team is being failed by Matt Rhule. I'd love for someone to explain to me how they think that is true. Do I believe he is the right guy for the job? I have no idea. You can't judge a guy in his second year when his team is nowhere near complete. If he did have a complete roster, then that would make the "fire Matt Rhule" crowd justified.

One of the things I saw tweeted well over 100 times on Sunday is how this team wasn't prepared. Not prepared? How? Does Cam Newton's interception happen because he was unprepared? What about the fumble? Does that stem from being unprepared? No. Oh, and by the way, it's not Pat Elflein's fault. It's not like he got beat off the line and got pushed back into Cam. Their feet just happened to be in the same spot at the same time. It was a freak thing. A team that is unprepared is one that has no idea what to do on either side of the ball - getting gashed defensively play after play and not doing anything offensively. The defense had some good moments but the turnovers led to short fields. Offensively, it was all about execution. The plays were there to be made, they just weren't made.

"I think he did a good job," wide receiver Robby Anderson said of interim OC Jeff Nixon. "I think he put us in position to win. We just didn’t obviously accomplish what we needed to. I think overall we had a very good plan. I feel like we were over-prepared mentally. We had a great game plan. I think he did a great job. Him, all the coaches collectively this week. Personally, I was very prepared with the plays. Understanding the coverage concepts more than I have been, the way we installed, and the way we did things this week. I definitely enjoyed it and think that it put us in a position to be the best we could be. We just have to take care of some other things."

A team that doesn't buy what a coach is selling will tend to "pack it in" at this point in the season. I don't see that from this team. They are playing with 100% effort every snap regardless of how the play results.

"I have no issues with the effort," Matt Rhule said. "I thought guys played hard. Guys played physical. Being prepared? I think we are prepared. I don’t see us making mistakes. There are some areas where we don’t match up quite as well where there is not a lot of margin of error and we have to be perfect. We have to play better in terms of giving the ball away. It’s real simple. You look at the games when we win the turnover battle or tie it, we usually win. When we don’t win the turnover battle, we lose. That’s where we are. That’s where most teams are to be quite honest, but that is where we are. That wasn’t unprepared when Cam slipped and fell. Cam is trying to make a play. That’s not what we do here and we are trying to get that out of us. The pick-6 was a nice play by them. We have to see that and protect it. There are some times when one bad play leads to two and you can kind of see the guys press a little bit. I thought we came out of the half, you know I challenged them to have a good third quarter and we came out the half and went right down the field and scored. The things we are working on, when we do them, they show up. Guys are in here at 6 o’clock in the morning. They are here until late at night. They work hard. Like I said there are some places where the margin of error is not so overwhelming where we have to kind of be perfect. Then there are other areas where we just have to protect the football. Protect the football, we have a chance to win. That’s where we are. Didn’t do it enough to today but I would not say they aren’t playing hard. You have DJ Moore in the tent, coming back out of the tent, they are checking his knee, he is like, ‘no, I’m going.’ Brian Burns is in the tent. I just respectfully say, being a guy in that room, that wouldn’t be my narrative. I would just say that we have to play better and we have to get better in some areas. They prepare and they play hard."

I understand the frustration of losing football games, I do. However, isn't this what we all expected to happen in the first two years of the Rhule era? David Tepper didn't give him a seven-year deal because he knew he was going to have success immediately and wanted to be sure he'd stay in Carolina. He gave him the long contract because he knew it was going to take time. The roster he took over in 2020 was not in shape to make the playoffs which is why they tore it all down and started the rebuild. Did you really believe this would be a playoff team one year later? Don't fool yourself. This team still has too many holes for it to be a playoff contender, particularly at the most important position - quarterback. I mean, is this team really THAT bad or just young? I'd go with the latter. This doesn't look like a team that has no hope or direction. They just need an answer at quarterback. It would be one thing if the Panthers looked as bad as the Jets did under Adam Gase, but they're nowhere near that.

Was trading for Sam Darnold a bad idea? Hindsight is 20/20 but what did you expect them to do? At that point, they weren't going to pursue Deshaun Watson for obvious reasons, Matthew Stafford said no to a trade to Carolina (because this isn't a win-now team), and no, Justin Fields or Mac Jones wouldn't be the answer. If you put either of those guys on this team, they're not going to have a whole lot of success, at least as far as this season is concerned. I do get that Rhule has a say in everything the team does but where is the blame for Scott Fitterer? At the end of the day, he's the guy that finalizes all trades and pursues free agents. If there is anyone that needs to be blamed for Darnold, it's Fitterer.

As I mentioned, this narrative of blaming Rhule for everything is lazy. Is he a good football coach? Time will tell. In all reality, would any coach have more success with this team? Maybe, but probably not. When Sam Darnold plays like Sam Darnold, your best offensive player, Christian McCaffrey, only plays in seven games, your first round pick has been out since week three, and you fire your offensive coordinator, this is what you get. Until the right pieces are in place, I can't judge Rhule, Fitterer, Tepper, or anyone for the state of the organization. This is what a rebuild is.

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