The future is bright in Lincoln.
Buy Saints TicketsIntroducing Matt Rhule: Head Coach, Nebraska Football#GBR pic.twitter.com/yvGE9mWYnh
— Nebraska Football (@HuskerFBNation) November 26, 2022
It didn’t take long for Matt Rhule to land on his feet. The Nebraska Cornhuskers introduced Rhule as their new head coach on Saturday, bringing the former Carolina Panthers coach into the fold — saving Panthers owner David Tepper a big chunk of the $40 million he would have owed Rhule after firing him earlier this year.
So what has this got to do with the New Orleans Saints?
Rhule went 2-3 against the Saints in his time with Carolina (and 11-27 overall), upsetting them twice in Charlotte. Tepper isn’t hurting from cash, but shaving those salary offsets from Rhule’s contract should make it a little easier for him to offer Sean Payton a blank check in a few months. Payton has reportedly expressed his disinterest in the Panthers job, but you never know. It would give the Saints a lot of leverage in negotiating Payton’s trade to another team if Carolina were putting more assets on the table.
But good for Rhule, who had more experience at the college level with Baylor and Temple than in the NFL. It’ll be fascinating to see who the Panthers end up hiring as their next head coach and to what degree they pursue Payton. If anything’s certain, it’s that more changes are on the way for the NFC South.
