I kinda feel bad for Rivera. He is in a really shitty situation right now.
Jerry told him after Hurney was gone that the team better improve. The team went on the finish 6-4 after that talk. So, in way, it'd be a little messed up if JR let him go. However, if Rivera does stay he is going to have a very rough test. Why? Because the GM is going to come in a clear out all those stupid contracts Hurney fugged us with, leaving Rivera with less talent. This will inevitably lead to Rivera being let go and us finding a new coach next offseason.
I know what you're thinking, this sounds stupid. But just think about it. JR is clueless. Look at what happened last time we went through a transition. JR and Hurney laid low and didn't spend any money. They even cut some players to make more room. In other words, they started a rebuilding project. Well, this left Fox with a completely poop team and no chance of having a winning season. The following offseason, Fox was let go and Hurney went on a spending spree that has screwed this franchise over. A little over a year later, Hurney is fired but his mistakes will haunt the team for a couple more seasons.
Let's bring this all together.
Jerry does it all wrong. First, he puts coaches in crappy situations (first Fox and now, potentially, Rivera). Like I said above, if Rivera stays I expect next season to be a lot like Fox's final season. No hope. Second, when Fox was let go why didn't we just let Hurney go at the same time? Why didn't we start over completely? We fired Fox, who wasn't the problem, and kept Hurney, who obviously was the problem.
Jerry finally has a chance to start over with a clean slate. A new coaching staff and a new GM. But he won't. He will bring in a new GM will have no choice but to clean house (player-wise) and leave Rivera with very little to work with. Leading to another set back when we have to hire another coach next year.
While I understand what you are saying, I am not seeing where the blame falls on Richardson for this. First you say it'd be messed up to get rid of Rivera. Then you say if Rivera stays it'll be pointless because he'll likely get let go anyway. Which makes no sense anyway because you act like we're going to be getting rid of every single player on this team or something. If we get rid of Williams and Gamble (because those are the only two solid players that would help us remotely to release; we're not getting rid of Beason if that is what you are thinking, cutting him would hurt us and nobody is going to trade for him), I honestly don't see how that makes us any worse. We'd still have Stew, Tolbert, and Cam as options in the running game. And we didn't have Gamble all this year and did just fine. Plus we have the draft.
And really? Comparing it to the Fox situation? Come on now. We went 2-14 that season not because we weren't talented. We were. That is why we have been much more competitive since. Hell, we were pretty competitive when Matt Moore actually started that year despite his mistakes. Some people really forget how awful Clausen was as a QB. There is no way we're going to do as bad as we did in 2010 with Cam at QB. If we did, that would be saying a hell of a lot more about Rivera than anything.
And then you say he won't start over with a clean slate. Why do people keep assuming stuff? Lets at least let the situation play itself out.
At the end of the day, people overreact every single year. Our cap is going to be fine. It's always said every year "Carolina is in huge cap trouble" and alas, what happens? We'll restructure, we'll make the proper releases, etc. Besides, it isn't like we need that much money available this offseason anyway. We have nobody to re-sign and there is nobody in FA that would be that expensive to sign.
