CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper understands he can’t buy the talent likely needed to build a Super Bowl-caliber roster this year given the team’s current salary cap limitations.
The billionaire also understands, as he said after making Frank Reich the sixth head coach in franchise history, there are no salary cap limitations on building a staff.
So as Reich turns his attention the next few months toward identifying players for free agency and the draft, he has a staff that understands what it takes to be a title contender thanks to Tepper’s deep pockets.
“He never flinched on that [no salary cap] statement,’’ Reich said earlier this week after completing most of his staff. “That doesn’t mean it’s been an open checkbook. That just means we’re willing to do what it takes to get the right coaches and put the right team together.
“We were able to compete against other teams who were vying for similar candidates.”
Reich was able to lure two former NFL head coaches to his staff in senior defensive consultant Dom Capers, 72, and senior assistant Jim Caldwell, 68.
Capers, the first head coach in Panthers history, helped the Green Bay Packers win a Super Bowl in 2010 as their defensive coordinator. Caldwell, a head coach with the Indianapolis Colts and Detroit Lions, helped the Colts (2005, assistant head coach and QBs coach) and Baltimore Ravens (2012, interim offensive coordinator and QBs coach) win titles.
The Panthers’ staff has won a combined 10 Super Bowl rings and has a combined 191 years of NFL coaching experience.
As much as Tepper has been criticized for past decisions — hiring Matt Rhule as his head coach in 2020 despite Rhule’s lack of NFL experience, not making interim coach Steve Wilks the full-time head coach after Rhule was fired in October, bailing on a new team facility in Rock Hill, South Carolina, after spending more than $175 million on the $800 million project — he’s delivered thus far with the new staff.
“Mr. Tepper’s involvement was not intrusive but was strong in the right way,’’ Reich said.
Capers compared the experience of the staff to the experience he put into the team’s initial roster that led to an expansion-record seven wins in 1995 and trip to the NFC Championship game in…
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