Panthers coach Ron Rivera didn’t want to get too deep into offseason philosophy when he met with reporters Monday, but he did drop what could be a major hint about their future.
After losing to the Falcons to fall to 6-9, Rivera said the Panthers will have to change things if they want to return to the form they showed in going 15-1 last season.
“You have to evolve. Things are going to change after six seasons,” Rivera said, via Bill Voth of Black and Blue Review. “When this is all done, we’ll take a look back at some things and see what we’ve got to do as we go forward.”
Every expectation would be that if Rivera was going to make staff changes, they would come on offense, where the current staff has come under increasing scrutiny without quarterback Cam Newton playing at an MVP level. The Panthers led the league in scoring a year ago, but they’re now 14th, scoring a touchdown per game less than a year ago (31.2 points per game to 23.5).
Part of that will fall of Newton, who simply has to play better (posting career lows in passer rating and completion percentage), but the reality is he’s not going anywhere.
If there’s a fall guy, it’s likely to be offensive coordinator Mike Shula, who took over the job in 2013 after Rob Chudzinski left for the head coaching job in Cleveland. But the Panthers problems this year were multiple, including back luck with injuries and General Manager Dave Gettleman’s decision to pull the franchise tag from cornerback Josh Norman without re-investing the money saved to bolster the team in other ways. But the backslide on offense seems to be the place most of the emphasis will be placed.
“There’s a lot of things that we’re going to look at,” Rivera said. “We understand and we get that there’s some things that have to evolve around him [Newton] because he’s evolving as a quarterback, as well. He’s getting older and he’s going to be a different style player. We know that much.”
And he could have a different cast, and some different leadership next season as well.
