Carolina Panthers owner, David Tepper, fired head coach Frank Reich less than 24 hours following their 17-10 loss to the Tennessee Titans.[1] Reich’s tenure at Carolina ended with an NFL-worst 1-10 record.[2] This includes an 0-6 mark on the road.[3] The Panthers only win came over the Texans on October 29. Reich is now the first NFL coach to be fired in back-to-back seasons after his firing last year from the Indianapolis Colts.[4]
The interim head coach will be Special Teams coach Chris Tabor, while offensive coordinator Thomas Brown will assume play calling duties with help from senior assistant Jim Caldwell.[5] Reich was fired after the offense produced 15 or fewer points for the fifth straight week and seventh time in 11 games. The offense produced only 10 points in each of the past two games after Reich reclaimed the play calling duties from Brown only three games after turning them over to him. Reich is now the second head coach this season to be fired, following Josh McDaniels of the Raiders who was fired on November 1 after a 1-5 start.
Frank Reich is a former NFL quarterback. He played college football at Maryland and was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the 1985 NFL draft.[6] Jim Kelly was the quarterback at the time, so Reich spent most of his time backing him up. Reich helped the Bills in a couple Superbowls when Jim Kelly was injured, but ultimately the Bills still lost. In 1995, Reich signed with the Carolina Panthers to start off their first year after the expansion.[7] The following year, Reich signed with the New York Jets where he started 7 games, then left, and signed with the Detroit Lions to play under his old Maryland coach.[8] In 2006, Reich switched from player to coach and was a coaching intern for the Indianapolis Colts, then in 2008 he turned into a staff coaching assistant. Following these years, Reich went on to be a quarterback coach and then a wide receivers coach before being released.[9] In 2012, he went to the Cardinals as a wide receivers coach, then an offensive coordinator for the Chargers in 2013, and offensive coordinator for the Eagles in 2016.[10] In 2018, he was named head coach back with the Colts and then head coach for the Panthers in 2023.[11] Reich has an extensive history in the NFL as a player and a coach, so it is safe to assume this will not be the last we see of him, but it will be interesting to see where he ends up.
NFL coaching contracts are different than the majority of player contracts as they are effectively guaranteed.[12] The firing team has to pay off the remaining years of the coach’s contract, so the contract will define essentially what the ramifications of the firing will be.[13] In order for the fired coach to continue to receive payments, the firing must be “without cause,” meaning there have been no breaches of the contract; essentially the coach was fired for their performance, rather than any off-field actions.[14] There could also be some kind of material breach—defined loosely in most contracts so as to give the team greater latitude—the team could designate the firing as “for cause” or “with cause.” Although there are guarantees, the fired coach cannot just sit and collect the check, they need to be actively mitigating to try and find another job with the payments from the new job offsetting the amount owed from the firing team.[15]
[1] https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/38991151/carolina-panthers-fire-head-coach-frank-reich
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Reich
[7] Id.
[8] Id.
[9] Id.
[10] Id.
[11] Id.
[12] https://www.si.com/nfl/2022/01/19/business-of-football-end-of-season-coaches-fired
[13] Id.
[14] Id.
[15] Id.
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