As we wait to see what Panthers interim coach Chris Tabor will do with the final six games of the 2023 season, it’s important to remember what former Panthers interim coach Steve Wilks did with the final 12 games of 2022.
He went 6-6. The Panthers finished 7-10, one game behind the division-winning Buccaneers.
Players wanted Wilks. Said linebacker Shaq Thompson at the time, “We ride behind Wilks. He came in here, he’s a true alpha, he’s a true leader and guys follow behind him. He’s done amazing. Look what we’ve been going through.”
Wilks ultimately won six times the number of games that Reich won while coaching only one fewer game than Wilks.
It never felt like Wilks would get serious consideration for the job. The explanation could be as simple as Tepper not wanting to hire someone who has joined in the Brian Flores race discrimination lawsuit.
The fact that Wilks went 6-6 had to contribute to Tepper’s dismay when the Panthers, who were viewed as having the same chance as any other team in the weakest division in football, fell apart right out of the gates. The fact that Reich had inherited a roster that Wilks had willed to 6-6 surely made the impatient Tepper far less patient. The deeper question is whether Tepper got it wrong by not simply giving Wilks a chance with the benefit of a full offseason, training camp, and preseason, to continue what he had done when thrown into the fray on the fly.
That would have required patience. It would have required Tepper to set aside his Veruca Salt “I want it now’ tendencies.
It also would have required the Panthers to possibly waste the 2023 season on a failed experiment. And, in the end, the Panthers wasted the 2023 season on a failed experiment.
Now that Tepper will be looking for yet another head coach, it will be interesting to see whether Wilks will be a candidate for it. Maybe he should be. He surely won’t be.