One of the Panthers’ fundamental problems the last two years has been a coaching staff which didn’t call plays to the strengths of the roster on hand.
While you could argue that the roster wasn’t constructed properly, at a certain point, the job of a coach is to make the best of what he has.
Or to put it more simply, if you have more good running backs than receivers, it might be a good idea to, you know, run.
But with former offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski gone to Cleveland, and Mike Shula calling plays now, those backs think things are on the right track.
“Last year was a lot of broken promises, shall I say,” fullback Mike Tolbert said, via Jonathan Jones of the Charlotte Observer. “But now we have a new offensive coordinator and things are starting to come to light.”
Tolbert says he was told he’d be used as a runner and an H-back-type. Instead, he ran for 183 yards and only added 27 receptions, well off his Chargers production and hardly worth the expenditure.
Instead of taking power players and playing power football, the Panthers were often too reliant on Cam Newton’s read-option skills. While it was creative and cute and smart and the kind of thing that gets guys hired elsewhere, it wasn’t an efficient use of resources.
And in a year when a lot of coaching jobs are on the line, using those resources effectively is imperative.