Carolina Panthers president of football operations and general manager Dan Morgan declined to put any expectations on his team’s 2024 season back in July. And now that the season has ended, he’s putting those non-expectations into perspective.
Morgan, a day removed from the Panthers’ Week 18 win over the Atlanta Falcons, spoke with reporters this afternoon. He began the presser with his thoughts on the year.
“Obviously, not the season that we really wanted in terms of the record,” he stated. “However, I do feel like we’re making a lot of progress. Things are trending in a really good direction. I feel like the culture’s changing here, guys are starting to feel what it’s like to win. We only have five wins, but it feels like the momentum is kinda building. I think guys are feeling good about the direction the team is going.”
The team went from two wins in 2023 to five here in 2024. Four of those five victories came over the final 10 games, a stretch that even included near-upsets of a couple of Super Bowl favorites in the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles.
That run also played host to the emergence of second-year quarterback Bryce Young. Young, who had been benched after just two games, returned to the starting lineup in Week 8 and proceeded to become one of the league’s top playmakers at the position.
Morgan later added that Young’s breakout, as well as a few other encouraging developments, can be partly attributed to the work of another guy who just finished up the first season in his new job—head coach Dave Canales.
“I think Coach Canales—he did a really good job with this team,” Morgan said. “I think you saw guys get better on the offensive side of the ball. Dave and his staff have done a really good job with Bryce, with young wideouts out there. Just kinda developing these guys, growing these guys. So, again, I feel like we’re headed in a really good direction that we’re all really excited about right now.”