Many around the league felt as if Steve Wilks did enough to deserve the Panthers’ head coaching job. He took the team over after a 1-4 start which was followed up by trades of RB Christian McCaffrey and WR Robbie Anderson, and multiple coaches leaving the staff along the way.
Despite all the roster changes and the constant revolving doors at quarterback, Wilks helped establish an identity on the offensive side of the ball, and due to a high buy-in from the locker room, he had the team just two wins away from clinching the NFC South division.
Thursday afternoon, the Panthers announced that the search for the next head coach was over, officially hiring Frank Reich. Shortly following the announcement, the attorney representing Wilks in the discrimination lawsuit against the NFL took a moment to voice his frustration with the decision.
Minority coaches in the NFL don’t often receive the same opportunities to be a head coach in the league and are not given much of a chance to prove themselves when they do get the job. Wilks is the perfect example. He went 3-13 in one year as the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals with a really bad roster. The team was in a clear rebuild but after just one year, Wilks was fired.
Now that Carolina has named Frank Reich its new coach, Steve Wilks will be coaching elsewhere in 2023.
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