Scott Logush
Sports Editor
The Carolina Panthers are hiring former Indianapolis Colts Head Coach Frank Reich to be their new head coach, per the Carolina Panthers Twitter Account.
It was clear that Frank Reich would not be out of work for long. After getting fired as head coach of the Indianapolis Colts in the middle of the season, the Carolina Panthers pulled the trigger to hire him as their head coach in the following offseason. A fun fact about this hire is that Reich was the first quarterback in Carolina Panthers history, as he took the first snap in their inaugural 1995 season.
Through five years of being the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, Reich compiled a 40-33-1 record. He made the playoffs twice, once in 2018 where the Colts beat the Houston Texans in the Wildcard round before losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Divisional round, and once in 2020 where they lost a close game to the Buffalo Bills. Reich was fired in 2022 when the Colts had a 3-5-1 record before ultimately ending up with the fourth overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft under interim Head Coach Jeff Saturday.
The Carolina Panthers made the first head coach firing of the season when they fired Matt Rhule early in the season and now have made the first head coach hiring of the off-season. One aspect that highlighted Reich’s tenure with the Colts was quarterback instability. Reich had five different week-one starting quarterbacks in five seasons with the Colts, and now the Panthers enter an offseason following their own quarterback troubles as they hunt for the right guy. The Panthers hold the ninth overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.
