CHARLOTTE, N.C. (CHARLOTTE SPORTS LIVE) — The Carolina Panthers have parted ways with general manager Scott Fitterer. The team announced his dismissal after a 9-0 season-ending loss to the Bucs that dropped their final record to 2-15.
MORE: COMPLETE PANTHERS COVERAGE
Fitterer had only been with the club for three seasons. During his tenure, Carolina went just 14-37. They never made the playoffs, and only once did they finish a season without firing a head coach.
At the time of his hire three years ago, the thought of this kind of dysfunction seemed highly unlikely. Entering the team’s search for a general manager late in the game, Fitterer quickly emerged as the right man for the job.
Fitterer came to Carolina fresh off a successful 20-year stint in Seattle. Before his promotion to the role of vice president of football operations in 2020, he helped the Seahawks win a Super Bowl as a scout during the 2013 season. Hoping to utilize a similar plan with the Panthers, he began the job with plenty of optimism as well as high expectations.
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“Our whole goal is to win the NFC South every year,” he said. “We want to compete every year. ”
But as he’d soon learn, competing in Carolina was a lot easier said than done. Players, particularly quarterbacks, came and went. Coaches also never lasted. And yet through each change, Fitterer remained confident, he was on the verge of doing something great.
“We know we can do it,” he told Queen City News in the spring of 2023. “We know we have the talent to do it. We have to take the next step.”
Fitterer appeared to have done just that before this past season. He bet it all on a rookie quarterback named Byrce Young but when the dust settled, Fitterer was out of a job and the only thing the Panthers had to show for their hard work was a third straight losing season as well as no first-round picks in the upcoming NFL draft.