“Fox NFL Sunday” analyst and Hall of Fame head coach Jimmy Johnson destroyed Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper in a scathing rant.
David Tepper’s Panthers are coming off a humiliating 26-3 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers that dropped them to 0-2 on the season. After the defeat, Carolina head coach Dave Canales announced that 2023 first-overall pick Bryce Young was getting benched in favor of Andy Dalton.
Ahead of the Panthers’ Week 3 road game against the Las Vegas Raiders, Johnson put the Carolina owner on blast in a “FOX NFL Sunday” segment alongside Curt Menefee and Terry Bradshaw:
“The owner of the Carolina Panthers, that’s the problem. He’s making the major decisions without listening to his football people…He’s the one who wanted Bryce Young as the No. 1 pick..He has got to listen to his football people and quit playing fantasy football!”
Johnson also criticized the Panthers’ questionable decisions to trade away superstars Christian McCaffrey (sent to the San Francisco 49ers in 2022), DJ Moore (dealt to the Chicago Bears last year) and Brian Burns (traded to the New York Giants in the offseason).
Jimmy Johnson WENT OFF on Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper.
“The owner of the Carolina Panthers. That’s the problem…He has got to listen to his football people and quit playing fantasy football.”pic.twitter.com/p5W5VzSLlP
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 22, 2024
Ever since David Tepper took over as the Panthers owner in 2018, the team has compiled an awful 31-70-0 record. They have finished no better than 7-9 and have tallied five wins or fewer five times.
The Panthers are already on their seventh head coach under Tepper, too. The 67-year-old owner has fired three coaches mid-season in Ron Rivera (2019), Matt Rhule (2022) and Frank Reich (2023).
David Tepper Has To Learn To Be Hands-Off
Tepper was the one who handed Rhule that awful $62 million contract in 2020 even though the latter had never coached in the NFL. He was the one who pushed Carolina to select Young, selfishly believing that he knew more about football than his front office.
Carolina won’t become a relevant football team unless Tepper learns to be hands-off, pure and simple. The more he gets himself involved in personnel decision-making, the more the Panthers will sink to irrelevance.
