Let's fix the Panthers part 5 - Buying time

Last week we outlined two of the three steps Panthers’ general manager Dan Morgan needs to take to retool his underwhelming roster. Overall, I think he’s graded fair to middling so far. He did a pretty excellent job of clearing out the dead weight on the roster and a fairly dismal job of accumulating assets to restock the Panthers’ depleted draft capital. But it may not be his fault for reasons that tie into the third phase of the Panthers’ work on the roster: buying time.

Way back in our first entry in this series, I highlighted what’s probably the biggest problem with the Panthers right now: owner David Tepper. Since he bought the team in 2018, he has employed seven different head coaches and three different general managers. This utterly directionless lurching about off the field has accordingly paid dividends in the form a truly dismal on-field product, and Morgan has to have this in mind as he does his work — though it may be already interfering with it.

Not to belabor this point, but let’s take one more look at the Brian Burns trade. We looked at it in light of the Khalil Mack trade from 2018, but a better comparison might be the Packers’ deal with the Jets for Aaron Rodgers. I know quarterback is the most important job in the sport, but it’s a little wild to me that the Packers were able to get more for Rodgers, an aging player by any standard, than the Panthers got for Burns, an impactful pass rusher in his prime.

Both were faced with an intractable contract situation, but Brian Gutekunst waited out the Jets to get the best possible deal, while Morgan seems to have taken the first deal offered him. I can’t help but think Morgan had some kind of mandate to, in short, do something, anything about the Burns situation, while Gutekunst was empowered to take his time.

I don’t know that this is the case for sure, but based on Tepper’s track record, you’d be excused for believing Morgan has some urgency to make something happen now, to do anything to buy himself time while he works on something a little bit longer term. He may not believe he has the luxury of waiting for future compensation and might feel like he has to get some respectable talent on the roster right now.

So how’s that working out for him?

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