Steve Wilks showed he deserves another HC opportunity

Steve Wilks did not do enough in the eyes of the Carolina Panthers to get their full-time head coaching job, but he should have done enough to prove to somebody that he deserves a real shot in the NFL. 

It probably should have been with the Panthers. 

The Panthers announced on Thursday that they have hired Frank Reich to be their new head coach, passing over Wilks after he helped turn their season around and keep them in playoff contention in the NFC South. 

It is an unfortunate result for Wilks, whose only two head coaching opportunities in the NFL have ended with him getting the short end of the stick and not getting a real to prove himself. 

This year Wilks took over what looked to be a brutal situation in Carolina and immediately helped bring the team back to respectability. He took over for Matt Rhule on an interim basis when the team was 1-4 and in the process of jettisoning several key players on offense. The team's opening day starting quarterback (Baker Mayfield) would eventually get waived, while two other key starters (superstar running back Christian McCaffrey and wide receiver Robbie Anderson) would get traded prior to the deadline.

Despite all of that, and despite not having any solid starter at quarterback, the Panthers still went 6-6 under Wilks and nearly won the NFC South.

It was a situation where Wilks looked to be set up to fail, but he helped the Panthers play some of their best football in years. 

Their six wins in 12 games under Wilks were more games than they won in any of the previous three full seasons. 

His only other head coaching experience was a one-year stop in Arizona in a situation that was also pretty hopeless. 

What makes Carolina's decision to pass him over even more surprising is it is choosing a coach whose NFL track record is pretty pedestrian. In four-plus years with Indianapolis, Reich's team won just a single playoff game, and in each of the past two years badly underachieved under his watch. Of course, the team's never-ending carousel at quarterback didn't help matters either. Reich was fired nine games into this season with a 3-5-1 record. 

Reich is highly regarded as an offensive coach, and the Panthers figure to have a young quarterback that will need developing next season, but it is not like they are bringing in a proven winner. They already had somebody in house that knows the team and players and showed he can get them to compete for him.