DETROIT, MI – OCTOBER 07: Green Bay Packers head football coach Mike McCarthy watches the warms ups prior to the start of the game against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field on October 7, 2018 in Detroit, Michigan. The Lions defeated the Packers 31-23. (Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images) ** Mike McCarthy **
The Carolina Panthers gave themselves a head start on a head coaching search a month ago, and now they’ve interviewed Mike McCarthy.
After a Week 13 loss to the Washington Redskins, the Carolina Panthers gave themselves a theoretical head start on a search for a new head coach by firing Ron Rivera. Now that head start is in practice, with ESPN’s Adam Schefter reporting they interviewed former Packers head coach Mike McCarthy after Sunday’s blowout loss to the Indianapolis Colts.
McCarthy was the Packers’ head coach from 2006 through most of last season (12 games), with a 125-77-2 regular season record (.618 win percentage) and a win in Super Bowl XLV. He garnered interest from a couple teams in last year’s coaching cycle, but spent this season out of the league. More recently, he has done a bit of a media tour.
McCarthy has apparently spent his time off studying film and forming a potential coaching staff. The offense he operated in Green Bay for so long drew criticism for becoming stale and stagnant, so it’s a general positive that he appears open to new ideas, refreshed and ready for a new job after a year out.
Panthers owner David Tepper is clearly willing to make changes to the football operation, starting with the firing of Rivera and possibly up to a reshaped or bolstered front office. But he has also appeared unwilling to let the franchise go into a full rebuild.
That desire to reset more than rebuild, under the presumption it exists, puts a clear priority on hiring a proven head coach (similar to Rivera, in some respect). McCarthy’s record in Green Bay, and long history with a quarterback the caliber of Aaron Rodgers, fits that bill and also puts him on any list of viable head coaching candidates around the league.
Be it in Carolina or elsewhere, McCarthy will be a head coach somewhere in the NFL next season if he wants to be.