People keep re-writing history in this subreddit, so it feels only right to point some things out. This is in no way in defense of Tepper, or minimizing some of the amazing things our team has accomplished in such a short time frame. This is just to put things into perspective.
In our 29 years of existence, we have NEVER had back to back winning seasons. The closest we’ve come was in ‘06 & ‘09 where we went 8-8. But not a single time was our team able to string together winning seasons.
Yes, we saw instant success in ‘96 where we were a game out of the Super Bowl, but we also spent 6 seasons in a row after that without a single winning record season.
In fact we have had 7 winning seasons in our 29 years of existence. Just think about that for a minute. In the 23 years before Tepper purchased the team, we had 7 winning seasons combined through 4 different head coaching programs.
John Fox and Ron Rivera only had 3 winning seasons each as head coaches. Each were here 9 years and only put together a winning season 3 times.
Record aside, our team consistently let big players walk for free in free agency. We had Gettleman who was proud of the fact that he doesn’t play hardball with players and consistently shops in the “bargain bin” for players. He was so proud of it that he destroyed relationships with Panther legends just to get it done.
Many of us are annoyed and upset with how our team has been in the last 6 years, and it’s understandable. But let’s stop pretending like it’s all Teppers fault. Our team has never really done what needs to be done to become a consistent winning organization. Again, im not defending Tepper, im just pointing out that this is a history of being trash. It takes a minute to turn that entire culture around. At the very least, we can say that unlike Jerry, Tepper isn’t afraid to spend the money to make it happen and has done whatever he can to rebuild the relationships with Panther legends.
I’d agree with everything you said outside of our team letting big players walk in free agency. Historically the Panthers did the exact opposite and kept players at hefty deals past their prime.
Peppers is really the only example I can think of that we let walk in the past that burned us. Josh Norman maybe, but that was more of a moronic move on Gettleman’s part for letting an All-Pro CB leave without any compensation.
You could argue Smitty, Olsen, or TD, but all of them were at the end of their careers and the issue was more about how they treated them rather than the negatives of losing their on field play.
It’s only a recent thing where free agents are actually leaving and doing really well elsewhere.