Carolina Panthers head coach Matt Rhule has had a rough second year as the leader of the franchise. What started out as a promising season quickly went downhill, as the Panthers lost their last seven games to finish 5-12. The awful final stretch included a truly peculiar quarterback experiment and rumors of Carolina owner David Tepper being “embarrassed” by it all. The most recent rumor involving Rhule and Tepper is that the Panthers head coach has to hire a “rock-star” offensive coordinator in order to keep his job. Rhule spoke to reporters about the seemingly lone condition to save his job, via Panthers Wire of USA Today.

“I’ve never been told that my status depends on who I hire,” he said. “In fact, every conversation I’ve had with David Tepper has been—I think I saw him twice Monday, twice Tuesday—it’s always been long-term vision, long-term vision, long-term vision,” he said. “‘Hey, we know what we need to do. We know we need to build the backbone of the team. Control the line of scrimmage. We need to solidify ourselves at quarterback. We need to get the staff where we want it.’ It’s all been that.”

Panthers head coach Matt Rhule claims he was never told his job status would depend upon who he hires. Whether that's true or not, a good offensive coordinator hire would certainly redeem himself in the eyes of Tepper, while a bad one surely wouldn't help his job status.

However, what will ultimately determine Rhule's fate is not the Panthers' offensive coordinator search, but how he and the rest of his staff handle the quarterback position and “the backbone of the team”, the offensive and defensive lines.

That will decide Matt Rhule's fate as Panthers head coach.