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The final NFL head coaching vacancy was filled when the Cleveland Browns hired Kevin Stefanski, following other new pairings between Mike McCarthy and the Dallas Cowboys, Joe Judge and the New York Giants, Ron Rivera and the Washington Redskins, and Matt Rhule and the Carolina Panthers.
New head coaches typically struggle in their first year on the job, requiring time to install their preferred scheme and unique culture. That creates an opportunity for their opponents to run away with an early win.
Unfortunately for the New Orleans Saints, they’re only going to face one team with a first-year head coach: the Panthers. Rhule had an impressive three-year turn with Baylor before Carolina hired him away, and it put him on Saints coach Sean Payton’s radar. When Baylor was in town for a week to practice ahead of the Sugar Bowl, Payton was introduced to Rhule by Saints scouting director Jeff Ireland, a Baylor alum.
Payton shared his thoughts on Rhule’s hiring during his end-of-year press conference, saying, “That’s a great job for him and he seemed, I was real impressed with their three years, if I’m going to speak to some group that I don’t really know that well.”
Still, that brief exposure was enough to convince Payton to task an assistant coach with putting together a quick study on Rhule’s performance at Baylor. And what they found raised Payton’s eyebrows: “Kevin (Petry) kind of pulled up some numbers for me and their turnaround in three years, relative to what they went through and in his first year, the second year, it was real impressive. They won a lot of games and I was impressed when I met him.”
Whether Rhule can turn the Panthers around as he did at the college level remains to be seen. Carolina has won just 12 games over the last two years and they have serious questions to consider about their future with franchise quarterback Cam Newton. At least the Saints will get to play the work-in-progress Panthers twice in 2020 as NFC South rivals.
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