Luke Combs on Carolina Panthers’ Dave Canales hire: ‘I don’t get the hype’

There’s one Panthers fan who still isn’t sold on the direction of the franchise after some major moves so far this offseason, and that’s country music star Luke Combs.

In between recording, touring and performing at the Grammys with Tracy Chapman, Combs still finds time to keep up with his favorite football team, the Carolina Panthers, who have not had an easy go of it the last few seasons. After drafting Bryce Young and hiring Frank Reich last offseason, there was optimism, but that was quickly dashed by the actual performance of the team in 2023.

By Week 12, Carolina was 1-10 and had already fired Reich with less than a dozen games under his belt. Now, they overhauled with a new coach in Dave Canales and made some moves to try and improve the pieces around Bryce Young. But Combs isn’t buying into the optimism this time around, and went on the Pat McAfee Show to talk some Panthers.

“Yeah, it’s tough, man, it really is,” said Combs of the current experience of Panther fans just two days after he fired off a tweet lambasting the franchise after they traded Brian Burns.

That tweet, which tagged the Panthers official account, read: “WHAT ARE WE DOING?!?!? No first round pick for McCaffrey a few years back and now none for Burns?!?! Are we just fire bombing the whole team here or what? I usually don’t comment on these kinds of things but it’s just becoming slow torture at this point.”

Not only is Combs upset about that transaction, but he also made a dig at the Panthers’ new coaching hire when talking with Pat McAfee.

“I don’t know, man. Obviously, I don’t know Dave at all. You know, I’m sure he’s an awesome guy, but I don’t get the hype behind hiring the offensive coordinator for the 20th best offense in the league. You know what I mean?”