Panthers exec Brandt Tilis won 3 rings in KC. He sees a Super Bowl path for Panthers

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Five months after taking a position in the Carolina Panthers’ front office, Brandt Tilis flew back to Missouri in June to attend the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl ring ceremony.

Another ring ceremony, that is.

As things were wrapping up at a Kansas City art museum, Tilis posed for a picture showing off his three Super Bowl rings and sent it in a group chat to Panthers head coach Dave Canales, general manager Dan Morgan, president Kristi Coleman, owner David Tepper and wife Nicole.

Someone — Tilis said he couldn’t remember who — replied with the text: “Can’t wait for us to wear one.”

As the Panthers prepare to host the two-time, defending Super Bowl-champion Chiefs on Sunday at Bank of America Stadium, the gulf between the NFL’s best team and the Panthers appears to be as vast as the 1,000 miles separating Charlotte and Kansas City.

But Tilis, who spent 14 years with the Chiefs before becoming the Panthers’ executive vice president of football operations, believes the Panthers are following a path similar to the Chiefs in pursuit of a Lombardi Trophy, though admittedly Carolina is at the very beginning of the journey.

While it seems like the Chiefs have been dominant forever, there were a couple of lean years after Tilis arrived in 2010 as the team’s No. 2 salary cap and contracts executive. Following a 2-14 finish in 2012, the Chiefs fired head coach Romeo Crennel after one full season — not unlike Frank Reich’s dismissal in Charlotte last year after an 11-game stint.

The Chiefs hired Andy Reid to replace Crennel and the former Philadelphia Eagles coach won his first nine games in Kansas City and became a perennial playoff team. But the Chiefs didn’t become Super Bowl regulars until after quarterback Patrick Mahomes arrived in 2017 as the No. 10 pick.

The 39-year-old Tilis was instrumental in the Chiefs locking up Mahomes in 2020 with a historic, 10-year, $450 million contract extension, inspired by the 12-year deal signed by Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout.

While the Chiefs have played in four of the past five Super Bowls, the Panthers haven’t had a winning season since 2017, a span in which 10 players have started at quarterback. But Tilis said the Panthers are laying the same groundwork on which the Chiefs built their dynasty.

Tilis, who oversees the Panthers’ cap, contract negotiations and has a hand in scouting and analytics, sat down with The Athletic for a half-hour Thursday. He declined to discuss the Diontae Johnson trade or future contractual topics, such as whether Jaycee Horn could follow Chuba Hubbard as the next player to get extended.

But Tilis shared his thoughts on Hubbard, the free-agent signings from the offseason and what he learned in Kansas City that can help the Panthers become consistent winners. Some answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.

Tilis on:

Reid’s early years

Andy got there in 2013. Over the next five years, we won one playoff game. We were building. And it takes time and it looks different with different places. One thing that was interesting in Kansas City: We started off 9-0 in Andy’s first year. But then our next 30 games, we went 12-18 (including a playoff loss). It was competent, collaborative leadership, which is what we’re trying to do here.

And we’re just trying to acquire talented players and making this a great place to work. Those are the things that Andy and the leadership did in Kansas City, and those are the things we’re trying to do here right now. Patience is key and just understanding that this is a long process. You’ve gotta make good decisions and show gains.

David Tepper’s level of patience

He’s been super supportive of all of us. Dave is an incredibly easy person to get along with. He’s very smart, very competitive. He’s also pragmatic about what it takes to win. We’re just following on the path that we’ve set forth. He and Nicole have been very supportive of us.

Canales’ catchphrase of ‘getting the football right’

(Former Chiefs GM) John Dorsey and Andy, when Andy first got there, made it real simple: Just get talented players who love football who make this a great place to work. And when I got here, I didn’t even need to say that to Dan and Dave. We already knew it.

His philosophy in contract negotiations

I want a deal that’s good for both sides that we’re all happy with. And I want to do deals that are for players that love to be here. So Chuba, that was easy. He wants to be here. He loves the Panthers. He loves this organization, this city, all those things. So deals like that are easy. We’re thrilled to have him and he’s thrilled to be here.

The Panthers’ offseason moves

I would say most if not all of the (free agent) players that we signed and brought in are playing incredibly hard, and they care. That’s hard to do in general in football. And it’s even harder to do after you’ve gotten paid. We’re all very proud of the people we brought in. And I think it’s a credit to the coaching staff. They get these guys to play hard.

Guard Robert Hunt fitting that description

Yeah. He signed a very large contract (five years, $100 million) and there were some eyebrows raised. And he’s followed through in a big way for us. And I know we’re proud to have him on the team and he should be proud of the effort and the level of play he’s put forth as well. And it’s not just him. You just go down the list. I’m hesitant to say who they are because I don’t want to leave anyone out. We are very proud of the players who we brought in because they’re great people.

Takeaways from the Chiefs’ down years

One important lesson I learned as somebody who was part of losing there is that you can have a lot of good people in one place, and still lose games. It takes a lot to win and you can’t throw the baby out with the bath water. A lot of my friends who I worked with in Kansas City were also there later for the wins. Our 2012 coaching staff, we went 2-14. Our offensive coordinator was Brian Daboll. Our receivers coach was Nick Sirianni. We had some dudes.

The decision to draft Mahomes in 2017 with Alex Smith still in his prime

The whole organization was all-in on Pat. But also at the same time, we were all-in on fielding a competitive team with Alex. So we were able to operate on two planes. It was brilliant by Andy and John (Dorsey) how they did the whole thing. It was great. We had a good team. We had just won the division for the first time in six years. We had a playoff bye. We lost a heartbreaker to the Steelers. So we’re picking 27th. We were a good team, we had talent. And the first thing you (ask), “Is there a quarterback in the draft who could be that guy for you?” The organization decided it was Pat and we just worked to get up there and get him. And at the same time, OK, what else are we doing to make this team better?

Sitting Mahomes as a rookie

It’s a hard thing. My dad (an accountant) asks me about it all the time. It’s funny. He’s so used to the old way of doing it, which is you always sit a quarterback for a year. It’s just a case-by-case basis. There’s no right way to do it. There’s no wrong way to do it. You just try to make the decision with the information in front of you. And for us it was to play Alex that year. It worked out. We won the division, went to the playoffs.

Whether he had any input on the Reid hire

I was like the lowest person on the totem pole in the whole organization. So I had nothing to do with that. The coolest thing that happened with that is when (owner) Clark (Hunt) decided to make wholesale changes to the team by firing Romeo and (GM) Scott Pioli, he made it a point to talk to me one-on-one just about how I felt, how he felt about the situation. It was one of the kindest gestures I could imagine. Because here I am, one of the lowest people in the organization, and he’s checking in on me.

The Chiefs’ offensive line rebuild after the 2020 season

What I learned from that was if you have a problem, go fix it with your full force. That’s what we tried to do this year with the O-line, with the skilled-position players. You see how we invested our resources this year. It’s the same ideal. It didn’t have anything to do with, “The Chiefs fixed their O-line. We’re gonna do the same thing.” It was, “Hey, we’ve got a problem. Let’s go fix it.”

The Tyreek Hill trade

It just gave us an opportunity to reshape the team. It was an incredibly hard decision and it took a lot of courage by (current GM) Brett (Veach) and Andy and Clark to make it.

This year’s ring ceremony

It was awesome. The environment that we had in Kansas City is what I want to build here, where there’s just genuine love and admiration for each other. So being able to see all the people that I’ve worked with for the last 14 years was really cool, and to be able to celebrate such a great accomplishment.