CHARLOTTE, N.C. — David Tepper thought he’d nailed it this time.

After firing Matt Rhule in October 2022, the Carolina Panthers owner was determined to get his second head-coaching hire right. Tepper, the hedge-fund billionaire who bought the team in 2018, ran a more thorough search in looking for Rhule’s successor, focusing on coaches with offensive backgrounds after missing on what he called a “CEO coach” in Rhule.