UPDATE (11:00 a.m. ET) - The Panthers have officially confirmed the hire on their official Twitter account.
Welcome to Carolina! pic.twitter.com/5ht2uzdIFf
— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) January 12, 2018
Max Henson of Panthers.com shares some quotes from Ron Rivera on the decision to hire Turner:
“Truthfully, the offense we’ve run was basically born from what Norv has been doing for years,” Rivera said from his office Thursday night.
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“He’s very excited about it,” said Rivera, who was Turner’s defensive coordinator for three seasons in San Diego. “This offense is pretty much going to continue with what we do and how we do it. We’ll just have a different guy with a different set of eyes and different perspective calling plays and making those decisions.
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“Looking at what they had done with Teddy Bridgewater in Minnesota, there are some similar styles in terms of the zone-read action, and then the prolific (passing) style going to three, five and seven-step drops,” Rivera said. “But Cam is unique. He is his own player. I know he’ll have Cam do what he does best, but I think his skill set will fit very nicely with what Coach Turner wants.”
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“It matches with the philosophy that I’ve grown up in,” Rivera said. “You run the football, you’re physical as a running team, but then you take your shots with hard play action. It’s OK to throw the ball downfield and see how things unfold.”
In a move that surprises nobody at this point, the Carolina Panthers have named Norv Turner as their new offensive coordinator per NFL.com. This comes following Tuesday’s actually surprising release of Mike Shula. Turner fits the bill as an experienced coach who has a history with Ron Rivera.
Turner has certainly seen some success in the NFL. His offensive mind is often credited with helping to turn Troy Aikman, with the Cowboys, and LaDainian Tomlinson, with the Chargers, into household names and - in the case of Aikman - Super Bowl champions. Those experiences could come in handy with his new job of creating an offense to highlight both the skills of Cam Newton and Christian McCaffrey. He is also the last head coach to employ Rivera prior to Ron’s ascendance to the head coaching position in Carolina. He is the consummate Panthers and Rivera hire.
For all that Turner is, however, it is hard to ignore the biggest thing that the 65 year old, now-8-time offensive coordinator, 3-time head coach whose brother and nephew are already on the offensive coaching staff is not: a fresh perspective.
Rivera clearly believes the Panthers do not need to make wholesale changes to the offense to win a championship in Carolina. I hope he is right. This is a statement hire for Rivera’s career. He understands the gravity of this moment in Panthers history and he believes that the philosophies he was raised with as a coach are good enough to win in the modern NFL. Namely, that defenses win championships and offenses should run first to set up the deep pass later.