The Carolina Panthers‘ season has gone off the rails. Following their 32-6 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, the team fell to 5-10 on the season. Splitting quarterback duties between Cam Newton and Sam Darnold hasn’t been effective and doesn’t seem as though head coach Matt Rhule has an answer on how to turn things around.
That said, he does have a very unique vision for the future of the franchise, and who he would compare to the Panthers.
#Panthers HC Matt Rhule: "I believe it's 1000 percent working, I just know no one can see it and I apologize. As I tell our team all the time, it took Jay-Z seven years. He had to start his own agency to become an overnight sensation. It takes time."
— Nick Carboni (@NickCarboniWCNC) December 26, 2021
“I believe it’s 1000 percent working, I just know no one can see it and I apologize,” said Rhule. “As I tell our team all the time, it took Jay-Z seven years. He had to start his own agency to become an overnight sensation. It takes time.”
The quote starts with an absurd notion (it’s working for sure even though you can tell it’s not working), then backs into a decent idea (these things take time) before veering back into the land of the absurd (The Carolina Panthers are like Jay-Z and it might take seven years to be a winner).
As you might imagine, NFL Twitter had some thoughts on the quote and comparison.
this metaphor does not apply unless Matt Rhule founds his own NFL team https://t.co/Ux5hquVdDH
— Rodger Sherman (@rodger) December 26, 2021
Explaining in Year Two why it'll take seven years to get The Plan rolling has Matt Rhule in line for an executive position with the Seattle Mariners. https://t.co/Gm7siSaZBY
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) December 26, 2021
the Panthers got 99 problems and finding a HC is one https://t.co/liGunnoepa
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) December 26, 2021
This man should be fired if he's serious with this. https://t.co/8fg7Mf6Tud
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) December 27, 2021
The Panthers are going to kill it as the charter members of the third iteration of the XFL https://t.co/xmQQgqaZkw
— Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) December 26, 2021
While Rhule was a big hit in college football, his NFL stint so far has been a disaster. After a 5-11 initial season with Carolina last year, he’s looking likely to finish in roughly the same spot this time as well. And there does not appear to be a clear solution at quarterback or elsewhere.
Rhule may want to consider keeping his long-term metaphors to himself while he tries to figure out how to win more than five games in a season if he even gets another season to do so.