Frank Reich became one of five NFL head coaches hired this offseason, but which was the best hire? This same question was posed to nine different NFL employees, ranging from general managers, personnel executives, head coaches, and assistant coaches. Basically, the premise was to find out which was their favorite coaching hire of the offseason.
The results from The Athletic‘s survey are in.
NFL execs are big fans of the Carolina Panthers hiring coach Reich to take over the reins of the operation. He received a total of 5.5 votes (one executive got cute and split their vote). Houston’s DeMeco Ryans came in second at 3.5 votes.
Noticeably absent were Denver’s Sean Payton, Indianapolis’ Shane Steichen, and Arizona’s Jonathan Gannon. None of which pulled in any votes.
Since hiring Reich, the Panthers have doubled down on adding experience to their coaching staff. They’ve hired Thomas Brown to coordinate the offense and Ejiro Evero to coordinate the defense. Both candidates have received head coaching interviews in the past and could very well be on their way to another promotion next offseason.
In addition to their coordinators, here are just a few of the big names Carolina has boosted their staff with – Josh McCown, Duce Staley, Shawn Jefferson, Dom Capers, DeAngelo Hall, Todd Wash, and Jim Caldwell.
Any time you can add two former NFL head coaches to your staff, you’re doing something right. More importantly, team owner David Tepper has to hope all their hard work pays off in the form of a competitive season in 2023. Unable to top seven wins since 2017, this well-assembled staff will have their work cut out for them this year. We’ll see what kind of results they get once play resumes.
Related: Grading NFL coaching hires 2023: Grades and rankings for every NFL head coach hiring