Panthers head coach Matt Rhule met with the media on Monday afternoon and his decision to fire offensive coordinator Joe Brady was the main topic of conversation.
The move was announced just after the early slate of games kicked off on Sunday and Rhule said he planned to fire Brady on Saturday, but Brady wasn’t available to meet with him until Sunday. He thanked Brady for the work that he’s done, but said that he feels the Panthers “can be better on offense” and that relieving Brady of his duties was a move they needed to make in order for that to happen.
“He’s done a lot to get us moving in the right direction, but this was something that I felt like, from a football perspective, we needed to do now,” Rhule said.
Rhule stressed that the offensive issues aren’t about one person and “it would be easy to fix” if there was just one specific thing that was wrong with the unit. Senior offensive assistant/running backs coach Jeff Nixon will take over as the offensive play caller and Rhule said the focus is on this week rather than on whether Nixon will be the coordinator in 2022.
Given the trajectory of the Panthers season, it’s probably not a sure thing that Rhule will be making that or any other call for 2022.