From 17-2 to the Worst Team in the NFC
The Carolina Panthers have went from the best team in the NFC in 2015 and a 17-2 overall record, to being the absolute worst team in the NFC just a year later, sitting at 1-5 going into their bye week of the 2016 season. How did the Panthers have this much of a drastic fall of during just a single offseason? Well the answer is simple. General Manager Dave Gettleman.
Gettleman completely refused to help the Panthers get better during the offseason between the 2015 and 2016 seasons. Gettleman let star cornerback Josh Norman get away by refusing to offer him a fair long-term deal, despite Norman being the best cornerback in the NFL in 2015, publicly stating that he wanted to stay with the Panthers and having plenty of salary cap room to make the deal happen. Instead Gettleman wanted to lowball Norman, and now as a result has the worst secondary in the NFL.
Gettleman also refused to address obvious needs of the Panthers during the offseason, again despite having the salary cap ability to do so, Gettleman absolutely refused to go after and sign a DE, a CB, a Safety or an OT, which are without a doubt the four areas that are absolutely killing the Panthers in 2016. Gettleman had chances to address these needs via free agency during the offseason, but simply refused to spend the money.
The moral of the story is Dave Gettleman is completely wasting and depriving Cam Newton, Luke Kuechly, Thomas Davis and many other of the prime years of their careers and taking away their best chance to win a Super Bowl championship for the Carolinas. Panthers owner Jerry Richardson should waste absolutely no time in firing Gettleman.
