1. 2–14, Jimmy Clausen, and Rock Bottom

If you are going to make a dramatic climb, at some point you must start at rock bottom.

In terms of on-the-field performance, the Carolina Panthers have had two rock-bottom seasons in their history. In 2001 the Panthers went 1–15. Two years later, they made it to the Super Bowl before losing to New England.

But that team gradually faded, as players grew older and draft picks didn't work out. By 2010 the Panthers were a shell of the team that had made the playoffs in 2003, 2005, and 2008. By 2010 the Panthers and coach John Fox no longer saw eye to eye. Fox was a lame-duck coach, widely (and correctly) assumed to be playing out the string before he moved onto another head-coaching job. Owner Jerry Richardson didn't want to renew Fox's contract at that point, and the Panthers were basically purging a lot of big salaries from the books, which meant they were playing more for the future than for that season.

Ultimately, that worked out okay. If not for going 2–14 in 2010, the Panthers would never have been in a position to draft Cam Newton with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2011 draft. But Panthers fans first had to endure some serious scars from that 2–14 season. That went for writers that covered the team, too.

In my 20-plus years covering the Panthers, the 2010 season was the only time I ever dreaded going to work to cover the team. They were just so boring. So inept. So predictable. That 2010 team set a number of dubious team records, chief among them that it scored only 17 touchdowns in 16 games. One of those was an interception return TD by cornerback Captain Munnerlyn, so the offense only scored 16 — one TD per game.

If you are a Panthers fan, do you remember how awful it felt for Carolina to only score one TD in all of Super Bowl 50? The 2010 Panthers played like that most of the time. They had 10 points or fewer in half of their games and averaged 12.25 points per game, easily the fewest in the NFL. Compare that to the 2015 Panthers, who scored 59 TDs and averaged 31.25 points per game — most in the NFL. In five years, the Panthers went from worst to first in NFL scoring.

Quarterback, Personnel Problems

The 2010 Panthers team actually had some talent. Running backs Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams joined wide receiver Steve Smith on offense. The defense featured Munnerlyn, linebacker Jon Beason, and end Greg Hardy, and saw one of the best individual seasons of Charles Johnson's career — the defensive end had 11 1/2 sacks.

But the quarterback play was awful all season, and that's what most people still remember. It didn't start out with Clausen. After Jake Delhomme had a bad season in 2009, the Panthers decided to fire the quarterback who had started eight playoff games for them and at that time was the best QB in the team's history. Panthers general manager Marty Hurney and Fox pulled the plug in March 2010, releasing Delhomme, who said he was "blindsided" by the move.

Carolina was shedding salary left and right at this point. The Panthers also lost Julius Peppers before the 2010 season when they declined to use the franchise tag on him for the second straight year (it would have cost $20 million for a single year to do so). Peppers quickly signed with Chicago. And the Panthers parted ways with a half-dozen other key veteran players, as they decided to go young and cheap.

All this would rankle Fox, who didn't like to play rookies as a general rule. During the 2010 season, he once got snippy when asked whether the Panthers would spend money on a veteran replacement for an injured player, saying the reporter would have to contact the "personnel department" for the answer. Several times the coach implied in interviews that the players he had been given simply weren't good enough to win. (Oddly enough, in 2015, Fox would be the Chicago Bears coach and would start Clausen — briefly — again. It worked out just as badly as it did the first time.)

Owner Jerry Richardson would say in a rare press conference in early 2011 that part of the reason for going young that season was his belief that firing the veterans was the only way to force Fox to play the young players. Richardson would also say in that press conference that a lack of consistency was the key reason he decided to let Fox's contract expire after employing the coach for nine years.

"The facts are in nine years we had three winning seasons," Richardson said, "but we failed to have two winning seasons back-to-back."

Carolina decided to go with Matt Moore as its starting quarterback in 2010, but that became apparent as a mistake very quickly. In a Week 1 loss, Moore threw three end-zone interceptions in the same game and lost a fumble before leaving with a concussion. He was cleared to return the next week and committed two more turnovers.

By Week 3, Fox had decided to throw Clausen — the team's second-round draft pick out of Notre Dame in 2010 — to the sharks. "We've got to spark our offense — and in particular our passing game — so we're going to start Jimmy Clausen this week," Fox said before the Week 3 game against Cincinnati.

But Clausen — who was not helped by a spotty offensive line...