On Thursday, David Tepper went up against some irate staff members who didn’t seem to have forgiven the owner of the Carolina Panthers for what they thought were missteps in the most recent rounds.
At the 2023 event, quarterback Bryce Young was chosen by the Panthers with the first overall choice.
Young’s debut season was difficult; he completed just 59.8% of his passes for 2,877 yards, 11 touchdowns, 10 interceptions, and a 73.7 passer rating. In his 16 starts, he added 39 rushes for 253 yards, coughed up 11 turnovers, and the Panthers went 2-14.
The Dilworth Neighbourhood Grille altered their outdoor signage to “PLEASE LET THE COACH & GM PICK THIS YEAR” in anticipation of the Thursday night start of the 2024 NFL Draft.
“The restaurant’s manager said Tepper paid them a surprise Thursday night after seeing the sign and asked who was behind the sign,” WBTV’s Caroline Hicks first reported. “The manager informed him that somebody wasn’t present at that moment. The worker did report that Tepper was amicable throughout.”
In order to select South Carolina wide receiver Xavier Legette with the 32nd overall pick in Thursday’s first round, Carolina had to move up.
In 2018, Tepper acquired the Panthers.
The team is entering 2024 with its third head coach in three years and a new general manager.
Carolina fired head coach Frank Reich in late November, just 10 months after being hired and 11 games into his first season. The Panthers went an NFL-worst 1-10 under Reich, and it was the second straight year that Tepper cut ties with head coaches in the middle of a season.
Tepper also fired general manager Scott Fitterer in early January.
Matt Rhule was fired from his head-coaching gig in October 2022 following a 1-4 start and is now the head coach at the University of Nebraska.
Soon after Reich’s firing, it was reported that the owner’s habit of letting go of lead men early in their tenure with the franchise caused some candidates to withdraw from the search process last offseason. Reich was fired after only 11 games at the helm (and an NFL-worst 1-10 record), the shortest tenure in the league since 1978.
