Cat Scratch Reader
The Carolina Panthers have officially made the playoffs for the 2025 season, their first trip since 2017. They are in the second year of a new coaching and general manager regime, which got me thinking about another Panthers group that had a similar story, namely the 2003 squad. So let’s take a closer look at some similarities.
Let’s start at the top with the owner of the franchise. In 2003, Jerry Richardson was in his ninth season as owner of the Panthers, the team that he founded. This season, David Tepper is in his eighth season as owner of the Panthers, an eerily similar number. Moving down the corporate ladder, both teams employed general managers who had previous positions within the organization who built a playoff team in just their second season in the position. 2003’s team had Marty Hurney, previously the Director of Player Operations in 1998, took over the General Manager position in 2002. Dan Morgan, who played linebacker for the Panthers for seven seasons, was hired as the general manager in 2024. The first order of business for both gentlemen was hiring a new head coach for their floundering franchise that had 15 loss seasons the year before their hiring (2001 saw the Panthers go 1-15, the 2023 team went 2-15).
Both Hurney and Morgan decided to take a chance on first time head coaches with very similar experience as an NFL assistant or consultant (John Fox was an NFL assistant/consultant for 13 years, Dave Canales for 14 years). It gets weirder: John Fox was a defensive minded head coach and hired an experienced offensive coordinator (Dan Henning) and a young defensive mind who had never been a coordinator before (Mark Trgovac). Dave Canales is an offensive minded head coach, and he hired an experienced defensive coordinator (Ejiro Evero) and a young offensive mind who had never been a coordinator before (Brad Idzik).
The biggest difference statistically for the two iterations of Panthers teams was the win/loss record. The 2003 team finished 11-5 while the 2025 squad is 8-9. Both teams won the division, hosting a team they already played in the regular season who was highly favored to win in Charlotte (in 2003 the Panthers hosted the Cowboys in the Wild Card Round, and the 2025 Panthers are hosting the Rams). In fairness, the 2003 Panthers had a much lower strength of schedule. Points wise, the 2003 team looks much better overall, sporting 20.3 points for and 19 points against per game while the 2025 team scored 18.3 points while allowing 22.4 points per game. The points per game for the 2003 team was boosted by the five total defensive/special teams touchdowns compared to just the two for the 2025 team.
Looking at individual stats, Jake Delhomme was the quarterback for most of the 2003 season. He finished the year with 3,219 passing yards, 19 touchdowns, and 16 interceptions. Bryce Young in 2025 finished with 3,011 yards passing, 23 touchdowns, and 11...
