"The team sucks": O.J. Simpson dumps blame on Panthers owner David Tepper with Frank Reich fired and Bryce Young disappointing
After the Carolina Panthers fired Frank Reich, the finger-pointing began. Clearly, that was team ownership blaming the head coach for what is far and away the worst team in the NFL. Fans and analysts have pointed fingers all around all season as they've limped to the worst record through 12 weeks.
OJ Simpson has his take on what's wrong with the Panthers, and it's not the fired Reich, any coaches, or even their top rookie selection in the draft. From his perspective, the Panthers are bad straight from the top.
Simpson railed on the team and offered sympathy for both Reich and Bryce Young:
"Frank didn't appear to enjoy being there and he was doing nothing for Young. But I feel so bad for Young because that boy's got skills, but he's got nothing. He's got no help and he's not going to get any help next year because they traded away all their draft choices to Chicago. "
After falling to 1-10, despite his sympathies towards Reich, he understood that it was time to call it:
"But it was time for him to go, they were in 1-7 or 1-9 or whatever it is. The problem is this owner, it seems that's all he does. Seems like every year he's making changes. So he had to go, the team sucks, horrible O-line, defense is okay."
The Panthers are a complete mess, and it doesn't appear to have any light at the end of the tunnel.
What do the Carolina Panthers do now?
As OJ Simpson mentioned, the options for Carolina are very bleak. They will not be giving up on Bryce Young any time soon, not after they traded DJ Moore and an incredible wealth of draft capital to get him. The issue is, they now have no draft capital to help him.
The Panthers have undoubtedly seen the model that other teams have used. Building an offense before a QB, like the Los Angeles Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs did, is a good way to maximize a quarterback's window and his talent.
The Panthers believed they could do this in one offseason. They overpaid a few veteran skill position players and not one of them, even Adam Thielen who's been reliable, has been good.
Miles Sanders, Hayden Hurst and DJ Chark have been bad additions, and the offensive line has regressed to effectively give Young no chance of succeeding on a given down.
Even with Frank Reich fired, they have a long way to go to fix this offense and they have very few assets to be able to do it.