Gerber: 10 wild stats that tell the story of the Panthers season

Who else is relieved that this Carolina Panthers season is over?

Without question, this year's squad was one of the worst in franchise history, and possibly one of the most boring too.

Think about it. All the drama surrounding this season either happened in the front office (Frank Reich's firing and "Hunger Games" culture) or in the stands (Tepper tossing his drink and a historically small home crowd).

Even the Panthers' two walk-off field goals were lackluster chip shots at the end of a long, grind-it-out drive. The closest thing we had to a real, signature highlight was probably DJ Chark's fumble at the goal line last week.

It's been grim.

But with the week-to-week grind now over, I can say that this season has produced some pretty interesting stats. Some good... but mostly pretty bad.

These are the ten best as chosen by me:

It seems impossible until you remember that their two winning scores happened with zero seconds on the clock.

I've heard it said (and did my best to back this up with research) that this is the first time ever that an NFL team went an entire season without a fourth quarter lead. And considering how much parity exists in the NFL, I believe it.

The Panthers were playing from behind almost the entire season, which is obviously not ideal when you want to feature the ground game and make life easier on your rookie quarterback.

One underrated number I've been tracking, which goes hand-in-hand with this one -- in the final 443 minutes of game time this season (almost 7.5 full games), the Panthers led for a grand total of 10 seconds.

Yowza.

Did you know that Carolina led the league in successful 4th down conversions this season?

It's true! In fact, they tied last year's Cleveland Browns for the most successful 4th downs on record (23).

Now, here's the rub ... The Panthers also set NFL records for 4th down attempts (48) and failed 4th downs (25).

When you're constantly trailing in every single game, you have to go for it, even when you don't want to. Case in point, Carolina was just 5/20 on 4th down attempts of 5+ yards this season.

Hey look, a positive stat!

Christian McCaffrey still has the overall franchise mark with 116 receptions, but Adam Thielen was not far off.

The free agent signee racked up 103 catches in his first season with the Panthers, tying Steve Smith's 2005 total.

Let me say that again. Adam Thielen just matched 2005 Steve Smith, who was a 1st team All-Pro and arguably the most dominant receiver in franchise history.

If you look at Smith's 2012 season, when he was also 33-years old, his yards and touchdowns were roughly the same as Thielen this year, but on 30 fewer catches.

For Thielen to accomplish what he did this year, on a horrific offense with a rookie quarterback, when it looked like he was on his way out of the league, is nothing short of spectacular.

The numbers don't lie. Carolina ranked dead last in total offense (265.3 yds/game) and tied for last in scoring (13.9 pts/game).

Before this season, you'd have to go back to the 2018 Cardinals to find an offense with fewer yards, and back to the 2012 Chiefs to find an offense with fewer points.

And believe it or not, the Panthers' numbers are actually a little inflated from what they probably should be, because the Green Bay game in Week 16 looks like a total fluke.

If you throw out that one game, the Panthers offensive production dips under 250 yards and 12 points per game with Bryce Young under center.

Whenever a rookie quarterback struggles, Peyton Manning, Troy Aikman and even John Elway are brought up as examples of how things can turn around and turn into a Hall of Fame career.

But unfortunately for Panthers fans, Bryce Young's statistical profile matches some far less prestigious names.

Blind resume time:

Rookie A averaged 179.5 pass yds/gm, 6.1 yds/attempt, 55.6% completion with 9 TDs, 11 INTs and a 10.3% sack rate.

Rookie B averaged 179.8 pass yds/gm, 5.5 yds/attempt, 59.8% completion with 11 TDs, 10 INTs and a 10.5% sack rate.

Rookie C averaged 195.4 pass yds/gm, 5.4 yds/attempt, 54.3% completion with 11 TDs, 19 INTs and a 4.6% sack rate.

Rookie A is Zach Wilson (3-10 as a starter).

Rookie B is Bryce Young (2-14 as a starter).

And Rookie C is Chris Weinke for the 2001 Panthers (1-14 as a starter).

Those were the closest I could find. Weinke obviously earned some bonus points for being in the same uniform, but Wilson is almost identical, which should frighten Panther fans.

Wilson's Jets offense was the laughingstock of the league in 2021, yet they were far more productive -- and explosive -- than Bryce Young's Panthers.

For what it's worth, Zach Wilson had a 53-yard passing touchdown and a 52-yard rushing touchdown in his rookie season. Bryce Young topped out with an 18-yard passing score and did not find the end zone on the ground at all.

Oh, and Bryce threw three pick-6's to Zach's zero.

Let's move on.

Speaking of explosiveness, no team in the NFL had fewer "chunk" passing plays than the Panthers which, as we know, is probably the single biggest factor in scoring (or not scoring) points.

As a unit, Carolina's backs and receivers had only 31 catches of 20+ yards and 13 receiving touchdowns.

For context, Tyreek Hill had 29 catches of 20+ yards and, you guessed it, 13 receiving touchdowns all by himself.

If you want even more painful context, DJ Moore, whom the Panthers traded away, had 25 catches of 20+ this year. No current Panthers receiver had more than 9 this season.

Petition calls for Panthers owner David Tepper to sell the team after throwing drink at fans

Whenever somebody on a bad team sets a new record, I'm a little skeptical.

In this case, Derrick Brown's numbers likely benefited from the Panthers constantly trailing. Opponents threw on Carolina less than any other team in the league, opening up more opportunities for Brown to rack up tackles against the run.

There are plenty of other bad teams in the league playing with a negative game script, yet most big fellas don't have the stamina to play enough snaps to get even half that many.

DeForest Buckner for the Colts ranked second among interior d-linemen with 81 tackles this season. The next closest after that was 65. Talk about a steep drop off.

But perhaps the most impressive thing about Brown's play this season is that his tackles weren't "empty calories". In fact, he may have been the sole reason that a below-average Panthers run defense wasn't historically bad.

Derrick Brown led the NFL, by far, in Run Stop Win Rate this season at 47%. No other player did better than 43%, which may not seem like much but trust me, that's a huge gap.

Bryce Young's 62 sacks taken tied Steve Beurlein's franchise record from the 2000 season, and stands tied for 6th most in NFL history.

Only David Carr was hit more as a rookie, and things didn't exactly work out for his career.

The positives are that Bryce, somehow, made it through this season pretty healthy and showed some improved scrambling ability in the back half of the season.

Young isn't blameless for his sack total, but improving the offensive line must be a top priority for the Panthers this offseason. That unit ranked bottom five in the league in terms of overall win rate this season (59.7%), which left the rookie flustered and uncomfortable far more than he should have been.

The Panthers believe they have their franchise QB in place, but if they don't protect him, it's more likely than not that he's going to get seriously hurt, lose his confidence or both.

This may be the wildest stat I uncovered this week.

Seriously, you can count on your fingers how many NFL teams have turned opponents over 11 or fewer times and they all have one thing in common -- they lose.

Because I'm very proud of this stat, I'm going to give you the entire list:

Anyway, the Panthers defense did play well at times, but clearly had a fatal flaw when it came to turning opponents over. Especially considering they were already at a talent deficit against most opponents.

Turnover luck does seem to change from year-to-year, but fostering an aggressive and opportunistic defensive mindset is also a factor. Ejiro Evero did an admirable job with this unit in 2023, but turnovers need to be a focus this offseason (assuming he's retained) to help the team win.

The Carolina Panthers have seen some crappy seasons in their history, but three stand above the rest -- 2001, 2010 and now 2023.

The 2001 team, despite finishing 1-15, was competitive in most of their games. Nine losses came by single-digits, resulting in a -157 point differential.

At 2-15, this year's team split the difference with a -180 point differential, but has an argument to be the worst of all because of two important factors -- David Tepper (which we covered ad nauseam last week) and the lack of a first-round pick.

2001 brought Julius Peppers to the Panthers.

2010 gave them Cam Newton.

2023 could very well gift-wrap an elite, young quarterback to some other team.

Of all the depressing facts and figures that this lost season has produced, I can't think of anything bleaker than that.