Rivera expects to be retained by Panthers for 9th season

Ron Rivera believes he will be back as head coach of the Carolina Panthers in 2019 despite missing the playoffs twice in the last three years.

"I feel pretty good. My intention, everything I've been doing is working towards the future and we'll go from there," Rivera said Friday, according to Adam Maya of NFL.com. "My conversations with the owner have been all positive. That's why I am just going forward."

The Panthers looked like contenders early in the season, but an active seven-game losing streak dashed any hope they had of competing for a championship. Their struggles in the second half of the season could be tied, at least in part, to the shoulder woes of quarterback Cam Newton.

"I think we're better than our record says, but at the end of the day you are what your record says you are," Rivera said, who's authored a 6-9 mark this year. "That's been the hard pill for me to swallow."

A report surfaced Dec. 2 claiming new Panthers owner David Tepper was prepared to make sweeping changes if the losing continued. Tepper was also reportedly concerned about the Panthers' resistance to analytics.

Carolina will wrap up the season Sunday against the New Orleans Saints.