Panthers need an offensive makeover (again), and it will come at cost of defense in 2024

The Carolina Panthers have gone from slumping out of the gate to reaching new levels of ineptitude on a weekly basis this season.

Frank Reich is gone. Most of his former staff will join him soon. And it’s easy to predict that the majority of roster will be reworked as soon as a new regime is installed in the spring.

But for now, we wait.

There are still four more games to go (sorry to remind you), and there’s little for the Panthers to play for other than preventing the Chicago Bears from embarrassing Carolina even further by salvaging the 2024 first overall pick out of March’s blockbuster draft trade.

Kaye’s Takes is combining forces with the Panthers mailbag this week — and for the rest of the season — as The Observer covers the present and future of Carolina’s favorite (?) professional football franchise.

Kaye’s Take: Next Panthers regime needs to be all in on complete offensive makeover

If the first 13 games of the Panthers’ 2023 season have proven anything remotely tangible, it’s that the Carolina defense is on a different planet — talent-wise and execution-wise — than the Bryce Young-led offense.

While Ejiro Evero’s defense has encountered a turnstile of depth chart issues due to injuries, the unit has endured, even as a drastic scheme change has caused some growing pains, especially against opposing rushing offenses.

Brian Burns, Derrick Brown and Jaycee Horn were all first-round picks. Vonn Bell, Xavier Woods, Frankie Luvu, Troy Hill, Kamu Grugier-Hill and Shy Tuttle were all added over the past few years to reinforce the group with experienced talent. Donte Jackson and Shaq Thompson have been mainstays, even as the injury bug has hit them in major ways.

Despite the scheme change, the Panthers have a solid base on defense, whether Evero returns next season — again as defensive coordinator (possible) or better (unlikely). The group has good bones, whether it’s enhanced next offseason or not.

Now it’s time to work on the offense, which has been a pit of despair this season. The Sarlacc pit from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi has a higher floor than the Panthers’ passing game with four matchups left on the slate.

And so, the next regime — featuring familiar faces or not — needs to go all in on offense this offseason. Yes, the Panthers should look to extend the likes of Burns, Brown and Luvu with market-appropriate contracts, but in reality, the whole 2024 offseason needs to be about doubling down on the investment in Young. And if that means franchise-tagging Burns and trading him for major draft capital, so be it.

Next year’s salary cap hasn’t been announced yet, but it is expected climb pretty substantially from this year’s $224.8 million allotment.

According to Over the Cap — which projects the 2024 cap to rise to $242 million — the Panthers are expected to have around $39.14 million in cap space. Yes, that seems like a lot of room, but there are 12 teams projected to be in even better cap shape in 2024.

Carolina clearly needs to upgrade the offense at multiple positions. And the franchise has very little choice but to spend in free agency without a first-round pick to boost its youth movement.

The Panthers need a true No. 1 wide receiver to partner with slot dynamo Adam Thielen and long-term No. 2 Jonathan Mingo. Also, depending on their next blocking scheme, the Panthers need to rework their offensive line.

Moving Ikem Ekwonu from left tackle to left guard shouldn’t be dismissed, and center Bradley Bozeman’s future should depend on the next offensive scheme put in place. The Panthers need right guard Austin Corbett (knee) to recover from his second surgery in a calendar year, and Brady Christensen (biceps) needs to come back as more than just a wild card.

At tight end, the Panthers clearly need a difference-maker. Whether that guy is available in free agency or the draft, the Panthers need to identify him and pounce. At running back, Miles Sanders has been a disappointment, but he’s locked into a contract, even as he has been one-upped in the lineup by Chuba Hubbard. The Panthers still should add a running back this offseason as well.

No one on offense — outside of Young — should feel safe on this current roster. Sure, Thielen, Mingo, right tackle Taylor Moton and some others have their cleats dug into the turf of the franchise for another year or so, but the new regime might have other full-scale plans in mind. And it’d be hard to fault anyone new to the franchise with wanting to blow this offense to smithereens.

The Panthers’ offense consistently looks like a Wile E. Coyote group going up against Road Runner-like rivals. And the sad part is that most of those opposing offenses are mediocre, but they look much better, by comparison, to whatever the Carolina offense is supposed to be.

Why continue to play Young amid chaos?

Let’s move on to the mailbag where we’ve received some questions from fans hoping for ... well ... hope.

Joel asks: What is to be gained by starting Bryce Young for the rest of this season? Given that none of these coaches are going to be here next season and at the moment he seems to be regressing.

The lack of longevity among the staff is a really good point.

Are the Panthers simply hoping that playing experience will improve Young’s outlook for the future? Interim head coach Chris Tabor has essentially said as much in the days after the 28-6 shellacking against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.

But is that a valid thought process? Maybe.

I do think there is something to be said about the “worst of times” dynamic. NFL history is littered with rookie quarterbacks who struggled on bad teams before making it out of the muck and turning in worthwhile (or even stellar) careers.

Is Young going to go from looking like a mediocre rookie passer to playing like Troy Aikman? No one truly knows, but it’s hard to imagine he’d benefit from a benching, even as the chaos spins around him.

Starting Andy Dalton would be a transparent panic move to try and make sure the Bears don’t get the first overall pick. The Panthers had their opportunities to start Dalton — both in Week 1 and in Week 5 — and they balked at those moments in favor of the kid.

If firing Reich midseason was about fixing Young, benching him two or three weeks later makes absolutely no sense. Young isn’t being helped by his surroundings, but benching him to “protect” him feels like a major admission of guilt that isn’t really necessary.

As noted in this column last week, Young’s response to the adversity of this season will go a long way in deciding his career trajectory. For now, it’s about learning from the situation, and holding a clipboard probably wouldn’t accomplish much in that regard.

Either way, this situation feels like a lose-lose scenario, as new coaches are on their way. And the Panthers will almost certainly have a drastically different playbook for Young to digest this offseason.

The next month is simply about reps to prepare for the future. Hopefully, Young can survive the slate.

Panthers players to monitor down the stretch

Russell asks: Outside of Bryce Young, whose play/development will you be keeping a close eye on for the rest of the season?

Defensive tackle Derrick Brown has been the Panthers’ best player this season. He’s been a dynamic game-wrecker up-front, and while his sack numbers aren’t there, he has still created regular pressure to help out the secondary.

Brown is the type of player to build around. He’s not J.J. Watt or Aaron Donald, but he is worthy of being considered a pillar and foundational asset for the defense. He’s also due for a contract extension as early as this upcoming offseason.

Numbers aside, if Brown continues to play at the level he has this season, signing him to an extension should be a priority over Burns, who is likely to receive the franchise tag, no matter who is running the front office in March.

Brown is probably the only player on the roster worthy of a Pro Bowl nod (which would be his first), and he is clearly an ascending player at just 25 years old.

Mingo, the team’s second-round pick, is another player to monitor. The Panthers seemingly want to force feed him the ball, and he needs to take advantage. While I thought the Panthers did a nice job of moving him around against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Mingo had an inconsistent outing against the Saints. That said, he nearly had his first career touchdown on a missed throw downfield by Young.

Guards Cade Mays and Nash Jensen are interesting. Mays played pretty well against the Saints, and he should have some more opportunities down the stretch due to injury. Jensen is still finding his footing but is a favorite of the staff.

Ekwonu is another lineman to monitor. He’s had a rough go in pass protection this season and how he performs down the stretch could impact how is used in the future. Again, a position switch shouldn’t be completely ruled out in 2024.

Scott Fitterer’s future in Carolina

Rob asks: Is general manager Scott Fitterer’s position becoming more tenuous as these lopsided games continue?

How could it not be?

While I don’t think anything is inevitable on that front, this team is failing at a potentially historic rate. There hasn’t been a 1-16 team since the 17-game schedule was adopted in 2021. And making matters worse, the Panthers traded away their top pick to the Bears, who might end up getting the first overall selection in April.

Think about that for a minute: Carolina might have borrowed the first overall pick a year in advance for the price of wideout DJ Moore, last year’s ninth overall pick and a 2025 second-round pick. How could anyone involved in that deal feel safe, regardless of ownership input?

Then there is the immediate return of the draft class — led by Young — which has been mediocre at best and laughable at worst. Also, most of the free agency class — outside of Thielen, Bell and Andy Dalton — has essentially bombed.

It’s not looking great for Fitterer on the surface.

Maybe owner David Tepper couches his reputation of being impatient by keeping Fitterer, assistant GM Dan Morgan and the personnel department, simply by chalking up the misguided season to a poor head coach hire. I’m not sure that type of non-move would effectively sell to the fan base at this point.

Still, perhaps there’s a bigger-picture plan in place. As suggested last week, a VP of football operations could essentially come in and lord over Fitterer and company while serving as a go-between with Tepper. If that’s the plan, maybe Fitterer stays.

Honestly, this season has gone so poorly — at a universally unpredictable rate — that it’s hard to know what can be salvaged. Given Tepper’s track record, it’s hard to trust his gut on a decision anyway.