The Carolina Panthers have settled on a new offensive coordinator. On Monday, the team announced that they had agreed to terms with former New York Giants head coach Ben McAdoo.
As The Athletic's Joe Person noted, McAdoo interviewed for the Panthers quarterbacks coach job in both 2020 and 2021 but did not get it either time. Now, he will be the team's offensive coordinator.
McAdoo was the Giants offensive coordinator in 2014 and 2015, then the team's head coach in 2016 and 2017. He went 11-5 in his first season in New York, but was fired after a 2-10 start the following year. He was out of the league for two years before returning as the Jaguars quarterbacks coach in 2020 and a consultant for the Cowboys in 2021. Prior to the Giants, he had worked as the tight ends and later quarterbacks coach under Mike McCarthy with the Green Bay Packers.
Carolina fired former offensive coordinator Joe Brady during the 2021 season amid a reported dispute with head coach Matt Rhule over offensive philosophy. Rhule reportedly wanted to run the ball more often, while Brady preferred a pass-focused offense. McAdoo, famously, is a proponent of the "rule of 53," which proposes that teams win more often when their total number of rushing attempts and completions in a given game is 53 or higher. (This rule notably makes a correlation/causation error.)
In four years leading the Giants, McAdoo's teams were average to below-average offensively. They ran plays at a high volume and thus ranked just inside or outside the top 10 in total yards and points, but were far less efficient on a per-play basis. They ranked 15th, 19th, 21st, 23rd in Football Outsiders' DVOA and 15th, 9th, 29th, 27th in EPA per play during those four seasons, for example.
The Panthers have struggled offensively in each of Rhule's first two seasons at the helm, largely due to subpar quarterback play. They have not been able to put either Teddy Bridgewater or Sam Darnold in adequate position to succeed. They apparently feel that McAdoo will be able to change that.
