When the NFL London games 2022 schedule came out, fans of the NFL in the UK immediately knew they would be treated to some big games. NFL fans in London don’t always follow along with all NFL news, but they stay in tune with the good parts of the league.
It took a little over a month, but the first head coach has been fired in the NFL. The Carolina Panthers fired Matt Rhule after a 1-4 start, and it might push the franchise toward the path of a complete rebuild.
Panthers owner David Tepper made the decision to fire Rhule, even though that didn’t even seem like a possibility in the preseason. Tepper acknowledged that it could take years to turn things around, but he just didn’t believe that Rhule would be the head coach to get that done.
It was a blowout 37-15 loss to the San Francisco 49ers that ultimately forced Tepper to make this decision. This move is going to cost the Panthers millions of dollars in buyout money, and a full buyout is worth over $40 million.
The Panthers chose Rhule as the new head coach after he had turned the college football program around at the University of Baylor. It was a seven-year deal worth $62 million that lured Rhule to Carolina, but he just never lived up to that contract.
The final career record for Rhule at Carolina stands at 11-27, and the Panthers were just 1-27 when allowing at least 17 points in a game. Rhule was expected to turn the Panthers into a formidable offense, but the system just never seemed to click, and injuries continued to plague the team.
Tepper gave Rhule plenty of support in the offseason, and there was plenty of hype surrounding the Panthers heading into 2022. The hype and the hope continued to fade in recent weeks, and the home stadium in Carolina was full of 49ers fans in the Week 5 loss.
Back to College Football
Now that Rhule has been fired in Carolina, you can expect to start hearing rumors about his next stop. Rhule is still very young in coaching standards, and many will believe that he didn’t get a fair shake in Carolina.
The most logical outcome for Rhule, though, is that he heads back to college football and joins a new program. Rhule had the Baylor football program rolling before leaving for the NFL, and there will be other schools looking for his services.
In fact, now that Rhule has become available, you might start to see other college football programs looking to make a decision sooner rather than later. There are a couple of big programs that have already made a coaching decision, including Arizona State, Wisconsin, and Nebraska.
The Nebraska job might be the spot that is the most appealing to Rhule moving forward.
Continuing The Trend
The trend of college football coaches jumping up to the NFL is nothing new, but those moves usually all end up in the same way. There have been a couple of former college football coaches that have found success in the NFL, but that feels like the exception rather than the rule.
Urban Meyer is one of the latest head coaches to try to do this with the Jacksonville Jaguars, and that failed miserably. Meyer had a mess on his hands in Jacksonville, and he hasn’t been the only one to suffer that fate.
Panthers Won’t Be The Only Opening
The Carolina Panthers might be the first head coaching opening in the NFL, but it won’t be the only opening. Carolina will now get to start the search for a new head coach, and getting to that point first might provide them with a big advantage.
The head coaching carousel is always busy at the end of every season, and this could be a big year for firings. Most NFL franchises choose to wait until the end of the year to replace a head coach, but there should be at least one or two more moves during the season.