Pro Football Talk is hearing that it’s a matter of “when” not “if” the Panthers fire HC Matt Rhule.
PFT explains that there’s a clear benefit for both the Panthers and Rhule to make a decision sooner than later, given that Rhule would likely be a top candidate for college jobs around the country.
The Panthers would benefit because Rhule’s contract contains offsets and whatever he would make from a college program would come out of the amount Carolina owes him.
Should the Panthers fire Rhule midseason, they could promote Steve Wilks to interim head coach, given that he has prior head coaching experience and it would allow Ben McAdoo and Phil Snow to remain in their current coordinator roles for the remainder of the season.
Rhule said this past week that his job status hasn’t come up in his weekly meetings with owner Dave Tepper.
“I’m not gonna talk a lot about my conversations with Dave. But he wants to win like everybody else wants to win,” Rhule said via the Athletic’s Joe Person. “He’s a really good owner and a good man, and I’ll keep doing the best I can for him.”
Rhule’s name keeps coming up in connection with college openings, and there’s a lot of speculation that a return to the amateur ranks will be his next step at some point.
“I’m not gonna talk about that,” Rhule said. “I’m the Carolina Panther head coach. That’s it.”
Rhule, 47, began his coaching career at Albright as a linebackers coach back in 1998. He worked for a number of schools including Buffalo, Western Carolina, UCLA and Temple before being hired by the Giants as an assistant offensive line coach for the 2012 season.
Rhule returned to Temple as head coach in 2013 and spent four years in the position before being hired as the new head coach at Baylor in 2017.
During his time as a head coach, Rhule’s teams at Temple and Baylor produced a record of 47-42 (52.8 percent) and four bowl appearances.
So far in the NFL, Rhule is 11-25 (30.6 percent) in three seasons with the Panthers.
We’ll have more regarding the Panthers and Rhule as the news is available.
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