After a bad start to the 2022 season, the Panthers fired Matt Rhule. After losing to the San Francisco 49ers in Week 5, the Carolina Panthers fired head coach Matt Rhule on Monday.
Rhule seemed to be in trouble before the season started because the quarterback wasn’t doing his job and the team wasn’t playing the same way on all sides of the ball. Rhule only won 10 games in his first two years as an NFL head coach, and his only win this season came against the New Orleans Saints in Week 3.
He is the first coach to be fired so far this year.
The Panthers said that Steve Wilks will be the interim head coach while the team looks for a permanent replacement. Wilks is the Panthers’ defensive passing game coordinator and secondary coach as of right now.
Wilks was Arizona’s head coach for one season in 2018. In that season, the team went 3-13.
In April, Wilks joined Brian Flores’ case against racial discrimination. He said in a complaint that Kliff Kingsbury used him as a “bridge coach” and did not give him enough chances to succeed.
Wilks has been in the NFL since the 2006 season when he started as a defensive backs coach for the Chicago Bears. Since then, he has worked for four other teams.
Rhule was hired by the Panthers in 2020 after Ron Rivera decided to leave the team. Before he joined the NFL, Rhule did well in college football with Temple and Baylor. He left Carolina with a record of 11–27 after more than two seasons.
