The Carolina Panthers fired their coach five games into the season, are on their third starting quarterback of 2022 and have a 6-9 record with two games remaining on their regular-season slate.
But the Panthers have a clear path to the playoffs.
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“I think about it as we’re blessed to have an opportunity to still be able to play meaningful football right now,” Carolina defensive tackle Derrick Brown said during an appearance on NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football” this week. “Since I’ve been in the league, I’ve never been in the playoffs. Just to be able to have this opportunity and a chance to go out here and focus up and go out here and play against Tampa this week, it’s going to be a special game. And then we got to go down to New Orleans the next week. We end the year facing two division opponents, so couldn’t want it any other way.
“That’s just how I feel about it.”
A former Auburn All-American, Brown played for teams that won five games in each of his first two seasons in the NFL.
The Panthers’ playoff possibilities hinge on beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday. The Bucs lead the NFC South with a 7-8 record, one game better than Carolina and the New Orleans Saints.
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If Tampa Bay beats Carolina, the Buccaneers will secure the division title and the accompanying home game in the first round of the NFC playoffs.
But if the Panthers win on Sunday, another victory on Jan. 8 against the Saints would put Carolina in the playoffs as the division champ.
If they beat the Bucs, the Panthers also could go to the playoffs even if they lose to New Orleans, as long as the Saints lose on Sunday to the Philadelphia Eagles and Tampa Bay drops its regular-season finale to the Atlanta Falcons.
When Carolina fired Matt Rhule in his third season as its coach, the Panthers had a 1-4 record. Secondary coach Steve Wilks took over the head-coaching duties with an interim job description.
Carolina has a 5-5 record under Wilks, but the Panthers have won four of their past six games, with the losses coming to the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers.
“It sounds very cliché, but everybody’s kind of taken that whole one-week-at-a-time thing,” Brown said. “When we get to looking forward, we don’t play our best ball. But just going back to the beginning, it’s like coach Wilks when he walks into the room on Mondays, it’s like a reset for everybody. What happened last week gets washed behind. It’s time to focus on the task we got ahead.”
Wilks had a 3-13 record with the Arizona Cardinals during his only previous opportunity as an NFL head coach.
Brown said the Panthers’ players want Wilks to remain the coach in 2023.
“I’ll speak for everybody in that locker room and say we want coach Wilks to be our next head coach,” Brown said. “That’s for sure. I think every single week when we come in, he’s going to tell you exactly how it is. He doesn’t sugarcoat nothing. He keeps it plain Jane per se. He lets you know exactly what’s going on. You could be one of the best players, but you walk in that building on Monday, he’s going to tell you exactly how he felt about how you played. That level of clarity, that’s exactly what we want.”
After Carolina used Baker Mayfield and P.J. Walker as the starting quarterbacks, Wilks put Sam Darnold under center three weeks after he returned from injured reserve. Darnold has started the past four games, thrown one touchdown pass in each and has not thrown an interception in any.
But under Wilks, the Panthers have run to win. In each of its five victories for the interim coach, Carolina has rushed for at least 173 yards, including a team-record 320 in Sunday’s 37-23 victory over the Detroit Lions.
The Panthers and Buccaneers square off at noon CST Sunday at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.