Many may argue that the Carolina Panthers don’t have the right kind of help surrounding No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young. In fact, they do argue that—and one of the people that has was in the broadcast booth analyzing the team this past Thursday.
But head coach Frank Reich will tell you differently.
On Monday, Reich was asked of commentator Kirk Herbstreit’s recent comments about the struggles of the offense—specifically regarding the lack of an adequate supporting cast for his rookie quarterback. He, however, believes the locker room has everything it needs right now.
“I love our players,” Reich said. “We have all the players we need to win football games. Are we always evolving and developing on offense? Yes, of course. So, with the vision we have for our offense this year, we don’t need anybody else. We got winning receivers, we got winning tight ends—we have to just play winning football.
“And that starts with me. I have to do a better job as a head coach—getting our offense playing more consistently to win football games, okay? But when I look at our groups, our position groups, and I look at our opponents, I see opportunities to win. We call plays, I watch tape and when I watch the tape, I see plenty of evidence that we are making winning plays.”
Well, those winning plays have resulted in just one win thus far. The 1-8 Panthers currently average the third-fewest yards per game (275.6) and fourth-fewest points per game (17.0).
Those numbers are where they are, in part, because of what happened in Week 10—where their only touchdown came courtesy of a punt return. Carolina’s offense amassed all of 3.7 yards per play and were shut down by one of the league’s more generous pass defenses.
So hopefully for Reich’s sake, Herbstreit was missing something this past Thursday night.
