CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Carolina Panthers have fired general manager Dave Gettleman effective immediately, the team announced Monday.
“After much thought and a long evaluation of our football operations, I have decided to relieve Dave Gettleman of his duties as general manager,” team owner Jerry Richardson said in a statement. “I want to thank Dave for the role he played in our success over the past four seasons. While the timing of this decision is not ideal, a change is needed.”
The move comes nine days before the Panthers are scheduled to report to training camp at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
The team offered no immediate reason for Gettleman’s dismissal.
The NFL now has had two summer firings of general managers. The latest is the Panthers’ Dave Gettleman, coming a few weeks after the Chiefs parted ways with John Dorsey. The timing is unusual mostly because an NFL GM’s “busy season” is from February through June. Once training camp starts, roster-building is mostly complete. A new GM can’t do much now to change his team’s 2017 direction, and his impact on college scouting for the 2018 draft will be impacted by the fact that he’ll inherit his predecessor’s scouts. That’s why teams normally make GM changes at the start of the offseason, not the end.
The Panthers were 40-23-1 under Gettleman’s leadership, making the playoffs each season from 2013 to 2015, with the general manager being instrumental in the Panthers’ going 15-1 and reaching the Super Bowl during the 2015 season. But Carolina took a step back last season, going 6-10 and finishing last in the NFC South.
Gettleman has more than 30 years of NFL experience, mostly in scouting departments with the Buffalo Bills, Denver Broncos and New York Giants.
