Carolina Panthers head coach (and head play caller) Frank Reich doesn’t know exactly when he’ll give his offensive coordinator full reign. But he knows the time is coming, perhaps even sooner than he may have initially believed.
On Monday, Reich spoke about Thomas Brown’s progression in his very first season as a coordinator. And, unsurprisingly, he had plenty of praise for the up-and-coming 37-year-old coach.
“He’s doin’ great,” Reich said. “I made no bones about it since I’ve been here—I eventually wanna make that transition. I think I’ve said this before, but . . . first of all, whether I’m callin’ it or he’s callin’, it’s very collaborative. When he’s callin’ it, he’s talkin’ to us. When I’m callin’ it, I’m saying, ‘Thomas, what do you think about this?’ Or Parks [Frazier]. That’s just the way we approach it. And you don’t ask those questions on every play, but multiple times during the game.”
As part of the Panthers’ preseason plan, Brown has taken over play-calling duties during the second half of games. Carolina saw their most productive half of the summer exhibitions this past Friday, when they scored a pair of touchdowns in the fourth quarter of their 21-19 loss to the New York Giants.
But for Reich, it’s not even about the numbers when it comes to Brown’s impressive rise.
“The long-term goal and vision is for me to transfer those duties to him,” he added. “And I will say this—he’s way ahead . . . not in the production that we’ve had, because it’s been good and he’s done a good job in, I think, sequencing plays. But for me, in assessing him, it’s not about how many yards did we gain or how many points did we score when he was callin’ it.
“It’s more—how does he sound on the phone? How is the conversation with the quarterbacks? How is the conversation with the staff? He feels like a seasoned play caller to me. He feels like a seasoned play caller. But I also know, it’s a long process getting developed in that way.”
