The Buffalo Bills are one win away from the Super Bowl. The Carolina Panthers are still probably a couple of seasons away from making the playoffs. If any two teams in the NFL could be considered stepbrothers, it’s these two franchises. And as with most siblings who compete against each other, there’s bound to be some jealousy, life lessons learned, and even some regret along the way.
The Bills are currently where the Panthers aspire to be at some point in the near future. Had Carolina’s ownership and front office made some hard decisions just a couple of years ago, perhaps the Panthers would be the team enjoying a deep postseason run instead of being relegated to watching their relatives to the north.
Franchises that are set up for sustainable success need three key elements: A smart general manager, a strong and adaptable coach, and a quarterback with Pro Bowl capability. The Buffalo Bills currently have all three of these components. The Panthers currently have three question marks, and it all started in Charlotte back in 2017.
As Buffalo’s ownership geared up for the 2017 season their team was an irrelevant franchise that usually managed to pump out six or seven wins but hadn’t made the playoffs since 1999. In January 2017 Buffalo hired Panthers six-year defensive coordinator Sean McDermott, then age 42, as their new head coach. Four months later Buffalo hired Panthers assistant general manager, 40-year-old Brandon Beane, as the team’s new general manager.
Embattled Panthers owner Jerry Richardson let both of these young, promising talents leave Charlotte in 2017 in order to retain Ron Rivera, an old-school coach who was coming off an extremely disappointing 6-10 season, and prickly general manager Dave Gettleman who had developed a reputation for losing the trust of veteran players.
Just two months after the Bills lured Brandon Beane away from Charlotte to lead Buffalo’s front office, the Panthers fired Dave Gettleman. With the Panthers general manager succession chart now empty after Beane’s departure, Jerry Richardson’s re-hired former general manager Marty Hurney.
But back in 2017 most Panthers fans simply wished McDermott and Beane much success in their new roles in the football wasteland that was Buffalo. We then quickly returned our focus to how Cam Newton and Luke Kuechly could lead the Panthers back to the Super Bowl. And 2017 played out pretty well with the Panthers going 11-5 before suffering a predictable Wild Card loss to Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints. Carolina’s window still felt open.
Throughout the 2017 season the Buffalo Bills became affectionately known around these parts as “Panthers North”. After McDermott and Bean departed for Buffalo several former Panthers players found their way onto the Bills roster that season including Joe Webb, Mike Tolbert, and Kelvin Benjamin. And it worked for Buffalo who made their first playoff appearance in 18 years and lost in the Wild Card round. After the 2017 season most of us as Panthers fans were happy for the Panthers North. After all, the Bills are in the AFC, have no rivalry with the Panthers, and it’s easy to root for the underdog.
As the 2018 season kicked off we continued to chuckle at the Bills for signing even more former Panthers like Derek Anderson, Star Lotulelei, and Dean Marlowe. But more importantly, Beane and McDermott drafted a high-risk, high-reward quarterback out of Wyoming at No. 7 overall named Josh Allen. Many people were skeptical of the pick. Beane and McDermott were confident in Allen and installed him as the Week 1 starter. The Bills went 6-10 in 2018, the Panthers went 7-9, and both teams missed the playoffs.
But while Sean McDermott and Brandon Beane were young and gaining valuable experience in their new roles, the Panthers brain trust of Rivera and Hurney were showing their age and lack of innovation by failing to adapt to a changing league. Losses in Buffalo back in 2018 meant experience gained for a young core. Losses in Carolina felt like opportunities missed for a franchise that was quickly growing stale.
In 2019 former Panther Kurt Coleman donned a Bills uniform while Buffalo went 10-6 and made the playoffs for the second time in three years under McDermott and Beane. Carolina, meanwhile, limped to a 5-11 season with an aging roster, limited cap space, a lame duck in the soon-to-be-fired Rivera, and a general manager in Marty Hurney who would only last another year.
As I said earlier, franchises that are set up for sustainable success need three key elements: A smart general manager, a strong and adaptable coach, and a quarterback with Pro Bowl capability. The Buffalo Bills checked all three boxes by hiring two former Panthers staffers in 2017 and nailing their selection of Josh Allen one year later. Beane, McDermott, and Allen are still young and should only get better. They could be together for the next decade. Once again, the 2020 Bills feature a host of former Panthers such as Daryl Williams, Mario Addison, Bryan Cox Jr., Vernon Butler, AJ Klein, Josh Norman, and Daryl Worley. They are just one win away from the Super Bowl.
It’s a different story in Carolina when it comes to the three key elements for a sustainably successful franchise. First year coach Matt Rhule showed some promise this year but only time will tell if he’ll ever have the success Sean McDermott is enjoying in Buffalo. Carolina just fired Marty Hurney (again) and hired new general manager Scott Fitterer. While his credentials are solid, he is an unproven commodity. Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater isn’t the long-term answer at quarterback and the Panthers are hoping to land their signal caller of the future with the No. 8 pick in the upcoming draft.
The success of the 2020 Buffalo Bills should fill Panthers fans with both envy and optimism. We should be envious that two of the three key pillars in Buffalo — McDermott and Beane — were poached straight from Mint Street. The Panthers had two young, bright, high-potential leaders of the future on the payroll back in 2017, and they let both of them slip through their fingers. Hindsight being 20/20, the decision to retain both Rivera and Gettleman over McDermott and Beane will likely haunt the Panthers for years to come.
But Panthers fans should also be optimistic. If all goes well in the draft and the Panthers can select a franchise quarterback, perhaps pairing him with Rhule’s schemes and Fitterer’s eye for talent will give Carolina the foundation it needs for its own return to relevance. The “Panthers North” started their journey in 2017 and are suddenly Super Bowl contenders. There’s no reason the same can’t happen in Charlotte.