With last night’s news that the Texans have hired David Culley of the Ravens to occupy their head coach vacancy, all of the NFL’s open coaching positions have been filled. That’s good news for the Panthers, who were in danger of losing offensive coordinator Joe Brady to another team.
Despite only one year of experience calling plays at this level, Brady received a great deal of interest around the league. He interviewed with five different teams for their head coach positions but ultimately struck out. Houston went with Culley, the Falcons chose Arthur Smith, the Chargers got Brandon Staley, the Jets hired Robert Saleh and the Eagles picked Nick Sirianni.
Brady is only 31 years old and will likely have more opportunities to move up in the future. For now, he’ll try to build on the potential he showed as an OC in his first year. He can improve his chances of getting hired next time if the Panthers have more success in the red zone in 2021. This season they scored touchdowns just 50.88% of the time, ranking No. 28 in the NFL.
A lot of those failures have to be pinned on the quarterback, though. Teddy Bridgewater’s passive instincts hurt his team dearly inside the 20 multiple times throughout the year. Getting a more athletic, dynamic and aggressive QB would help Brady immensely.
In that respect, the top target for the Panthers (and every other team that needs a QB) should be Deshaun Watson, who has officially requested a trade from the Texans.
