Carolina Panthers QBs Coach Leaves, Former Browns Assistant Could Replace Him

Carolina Panthers passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach Mike McCoy has left the team to fill the Denver Broncos' vacant offensive coordinator position.

While seemingly trivial news, the Panthers were known for their lack of commitment to development of young quarterbacks, often going with experience over anything else.  Changing quarterbacks coaches might change that philosophy.

In addition, the Panthers always seemed to go for a lot of deep passes in between running plays.  Considering that they only have one true deep threat, this created a passing game that was easy for opponents to defend. 

But with a new passing game coordinator, the Panthers may run more short routes, such as "out" and "drag" routes, and slants.  This would mean less predictability in the passing game and help the receivers to get open more easily.

Rip Scherer, who was on former Cleveland Browns coach Romeo Crennel's staff as an assistance head coach and quarterbacks coach, in 2008, had an interview with the Panthers on Saturday and is expected to get the job.

Scherer has previous ties to Carolina offensive coordinator Jeff Davidson.

While none of the young quarterbacks Scherer coached in Cleveland from 2005-2008 became especially good, he never had anybody better than a washed-up veteran or draft bust.

But perhaps the Panthers value Scherer's experience with developing young quarterbacks.  He coached six QBs while with the Browns; five had no more than two years of experience in the pros before his first season coaching them.  Plus, he coached at the college level from 1974-2005.

Maybe Carolina thinks that if he coaches a young talent who has already shown some potential, he could develop him into a great quarterback who could replace current starter Jake Delhomme when Delhomme retires in the perhaps not-so-distant future.

The imminent hiring of Scherer could get things going in a new direction on the passing front of the Panthers' offense.   

Source:

http://blogs.charlotte.com/panthers/2009/01/coaching-change-mccoy-to-denver-scherer-likely-in.html