Did Ron Rivera and the Carolina Panthers do enough?

    What do you say about this season? The Carolina Panthers started miserably and finished beautifully and, for the fourth straight season, failed to make the playoffs.

      After a 44-38 victory against New Orleans the Panther locker room was a testament to team. There was tackle Jordan Gross huddling with quarterback Cam Newton, laughing, talking. There was Newton talking to tight end Greg Olsen, kidding and joking.

     The Panthers lost five of their first six and won their final four. So they feel good about their finish and miserable about their start.

     Also interesting will be what happens next. I'll be shocked if a decision whether to retain head coach Ron Rivera is made Monday or this week. It has to be the general manager's call, and the Panthers don't have one.

      Carolina won one more game than it did last season, and last season it won four more games than it did the season before.

       Is that enough?

 

Comments

[J. Mixon]

Tom,
While I appreciate your view, it's getting ancient, and frankly, irritating to see you parroting the same old "it HAS to e the general manager's call". I disagree more each and every time you put that in your columns. Ultimately, Jerry Richardson SHOULD make the call as the BUCKS stop with him. Since the beginning, I've never felt that JR has shied away from taking responsibility for his organization. Why start now? Please try to fathom the situation. At this point, there is an interim GM. Letting an interim make such a crucial decision does not appear to me JR's modus operandi.
For the record, I do not think jettisoning Ron Rivera is a good move this year. All the bloodthirsty "experts" that keep whining he should be fired do not appear to be considering how far back the Panthers would be set if that happens. Do you believe Jerry Richardson wants a reputation for being a hair-trigger owner who fires head coaches after 2 years given the history of previous coaches with this team? If that happens, what caliber of coach do you think would be willing to take the job?

[D. Wright]

I don't know, but I was at the Chicago and the Seattle games, and I have the KC0 and ATL games burned into my mind...it feels like we've been down this path before...just good enough to get a poor draft pick and thinking we could be better...only to fail again. However, I agree, hiring the wrong next head coach would set us back...but what if we hired the right one?

[c Trey]

Don't we have a President of the Team/Organization? Why is it that the GM, who works technically for Morrison, is the authority?

That's just dumb.

[Dom]

No doubt in my mind Rivera stays another year. This team is a lot better than where they were at this point last year. At the beginning of this season we had expectations that were too high. This team was competetive in all but two games. That is 14 games we had a real chance to win and we did win half of them.

I was at the Seattle game, and the Dallas game and the Bucs game... They all hurt a ton. So did the Bears game and the first Atlanta game. So that is five games we could have won and then we would be 12-4 and NFC South Champs. So instead of crying about those tough losses - maybe we should be thinking about how close we really are to the playoffs. This team only won two games two years ago - if they keep improving at the current rate they will win a Super Bowl in the next three years. So why are we talking about firing Rivera again?

[Dom]

And another thing... I know we started 2-8. The reason is because we lost all those close games - so what did they do the last 6 games? They battled to keep the game from being close. That is the key - don't let a team come back (which we did a lot in the first 10 weeks). I think they learned that lesson the hard way and they are going to be better next year for it. Super Bowl? Not likely. Wildcard - I would say a 50/50 chance which is better than 40% of the league and the same as about 40% of the league. Yes there are a few locks like GB, NE, Denver, Atlanta, Baltimore and San Fran. Maybe in a couple more years we can be a lock - but I like 50/50 for now considering a couple years ago it was 0.