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Marty Hurney's tenure as the Carolina Panthers' general manager is over.
The franchise fired Hurney after accumulating a 4-10 record this season, following an offseason in which the franchise parted ways with franchise quarterback Cam Newton and head coach Ron Rivera. Carolina on Monday announced that Hurney was being let go.
"I think sometimes you just need a restart, a refresh," Panthers owner David Tepper said in a release. "We did it last year on the coaching side. Maybe you could say it should have been done before on the GM side. Maybe it should have been. I'm sure people may say that, or otherwise, on both sides.
"I think it's just time, on both sides, to do that. It just seems like the right time to move forward."
Hurney's contract ran through June 2021. Recent conversations between Hurney, who was in his second stint with the franchise, and Tepper revealed "different ideas" in how to approach football operations, according to the release.
Tepper favors a more analytics-based approach to operations, as opposed to Hurney's traditional mindset, the release states.
Head coach Matt Rhule, who was hired by Hurney and is in his first season with the franchise, will help with the search for a new general manager. The Panthers hired Rhule away from Baylor University, where he had a successful run as the Bears' head coach.
"You look at successful organizations, and there's a certain alignment between the head coach and the GM," Tepper said. "To think that you can do that without some sort of alignment is nuts.
"So to not have a head coach with some input into that is stupid. I don't want to be stupid, OK?"
This is the second time the Panthers fired Hurney
Hurney and the Panthers have been in this position before.
Hurney was Carolina's general manager from 2002-12 before being fired. This is the second time the franchise has terminated him.
He was hired as the Panthers' director of football administration in 1998 before being named general manager in 2002. After his first firing, Hurney was named interim general manager in 2017 before taking the role on again full-time.
The release states Tepper "wants to start winning" and sees positives despite the team playing without standout running back Christian McCaffrey.
"This team could easily have another four wins," Tepper said. "The eight games that we had the ball last to win or tie — seven to win, one to tie — if you win four of those games, you're in a totally different position right now with this young team.
"So looking at next year, I'm very hopeful where we will be and what we will do."
