Breer interviews Frank Reich...

[Mr. Scot]

...and Reich has a lot to say.

Breer's interview with Panthers head coach Frank Reich is the lead in this week's MMQB, and it's pretty extensive, covering a range of topics.

One of the key things I got from it is near the end. Specifically, that Reich wants to make this job his swan song, and finishing out his coaching career with the Panthers means he's going to give it every single thing he's got.

Edited July 24, 2023 by Mr. Scot

[Mr. Scot]

Quoting the article...

 

[GRWatcher]

I just finished reading the article. Pretty good. Our head coach is a level headed guy who wants to continue learning and incorporating all the new stuff. That he hired Brown and Evero are quite telling. We're in good hands. Frank 2.0

Quote

 

Panthers offensive coordinator Thomas Brown, hired from Sean McVay’s Rams staff, has never worked with Reich before. Neither has defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero, plucked from the Broncos, and the subject of a bidding war in January. And rather than bring in his own kicking-game guy, Reich retained special teams coordinator Chris Tabor from former Panthers coach Matt Rhule’s staff.

While Reich did backstop those areas with some familiar faces—offensive passing-game coordinator Parks Frazier, senior defensive assistant Capers and assistant special teams coach Devin Fitzsimmons have all worked with Reich before—the overall idea here was to bolster the 2.0 version of Reich’s program with an infusion of new ideas.

That sort of thing, what he calls “diversity of thought,” is something Reich has always sought. It’s just that this time around, the concept is visible at every level of the staff.

 

 

[Jon Snow]

This is a great read. Thanks for sharing @Mr. Scot.

[AggieLean]

Good read. I’m excited about this season, and beyond. Been awhile since I could say that. Hoping both Reich and Bryce are here for a long time.

Thanks for posting @Mr. Scot

[Mr. Scot]

Contrast this with last year...

A lot of times when coaches decide not to give first-round quarterbacks first-team reps from the jump, it’s in an effort to make them earn their way up the depth chart.

But that really wasn’t it with Bryce Young, back in May, when Reich and his staff started OTAs with Andy Dalton in the huddle with the starters. At that point, it was a nod to the work the rest of the team had done leading up to the arrival of the rookie class—not wanting to have to stop that progress to accommodate the development of a single player.

At the same time, that decision would be baked into a plan that Reich, Brown, Caldwell, Frazier and QBs coach Josh McCown had hatched for Young, using the early parts of OTAs to get him up to speed, before getting him in there with the first team organically, when he was caught up, a plan that would also allow for Young to get to see Dalton, a 13-year veteran, operate the offense.

As part of that plan, a goal was set to elevate Young for the last two weeks of the spring.

“He’s going into training camp as the No. 1 quarterback; we made that transition with about two weeks to go into OTAs,” Reich says. “We didn’t make any big deal of it; we didn’t hold any big press conference. We just did it. That was always the plan. … We’d started talking about, O.K., Andy’s going to take first-team reps. Let’s just assume that everything goes the way we think it’s going to go—when’s the best time to make that transition? And that’s kind of what we had determined. And then things went the way we thought they would go.

“We were willing to adapt and adjust, if needed, but we didn’t need to.”

That’s because Young, for the most part, has come as advertised, and a lot of that has been a result of things Reich and his staff knew about the 2021 Heisman winner.

[Mr. Scot]

And s little background on the pre-draft conversation:

Reich addressed the personnel staff after the team traded for the first pick and outlined his five criteria for a quarterback, cultivated after being around, and coaching, guys like Peyton Manning, Philip Rivers and Andrew Luck, and also going through five seasons in Indy with five different starting quarterbacks. Those five criteria: toughness, footwork and finish, accuracy, playmaking ability and the x-factor (“the quarterback is a multiplier”). And Young brought those things to Charlotte, at least in a spring setting, as Carolina figured he would.

But there were also a few things Reich and his staff didn’t know, at least for sure, and one was how Young’s stature would figure into his ability to see the field. There wasn’t any lack of vision on tape. It was just that, until Reich could stand behind Young on the practice field, and know what he was seeing, and see how he saw it, it was hard to be totally certain.

He is now.

“I’m only one person, but we wouldn’t have drafted him if we had major concerns about that,” Reich says. “And we didn’t. But it’s one thing to say, Oh no, we’re good, you can see it on film. He sees the field real easy. People can say what they want about 5'10"-and-change, but the guy’s done it his whole life. We’ve seen that on film so we’re going to believe the tape. So I believed the tape. But now I’ve seen it in person.

“I’ve been around football enough to know that I do think that there are some shorter guys that do have a problem seeing. But maybe it’s not that they’re shorter, maybe it’s because they just can’t see. I don’t know. All I know is standing behind Bryce, I never felt like he didn’t see that one because the offensive lineman was in his way. That just never happened.”

The other thing that didn’t happen—Reich never had to prod Young to be a leader. “I don’t have to encourage him,” the coach says, “because he’s a natural leader. He’s been a leader his whole life.” This, then, is just a new stage for the 21-year-old to show that on.

Edited July 25, 2023 by Mr. Scot

[thefuzz]

TY sir.

[TLGPanthersFan]

I kinda cringe when he says it is a 2-4 year plan because of the last regime. 
I hope it doesn’t take that long. 

[Eric4280]

7 minutes ago, TLGPanthersFan said:

I kinda cringe when he says it is a 2-4 year plan because of the last regime. 
I hope it doesn’t take that long. 

I hate putting any timeline on it. Shoot for the best and let what happens, happen. 

[Mr. Scot]

Another point of contrast...

 

[ickmule]

9 minutes ago, TLGPanthersFan said:

I kinda cringe when he says it is a 2-4 year plan because of the last regime. 
I hope it doesn’t take that long. 

“It’s a process”.  Lol. We’ve heard that a million times.  
I will give props to all invoices though, there is finally excitement again and that’s a good thing.  We just need to pump the brakes and hope for the best.  

[ladypanther]

1 hour ago, TLGPanthersFan said:

I kinda cringe when he says it is a 2-4 year plan because of the last regime. 
I hope it doesn’t take that long. 

Hopefully he is just trying to take a little pressure off Bryce.

[ladypanther]

1 hour ago, Mr. Scot said:

Another point of contrast...

 

But, but....how will they know what to do????