top dawg

The Vegas line makes sense from a macro view. As for a hotter seat, Rhule probably shouldn't even have a seat. He should've been gone.

And yet Rhule is still here. We needed changes. Everyone knew it, even Rhule. I haven't seen anyone but here talk about some mysterious power shift. Rhule knew what he had to do, and he did it. He was in over his head. He knew it. It's all a learning curve, and he did what he had to do. Now Tepper is much more comfortable with the staff. As a fan, I know that I am.

People see what they want to see and connect dots where they want to connect dots. What I see is Tepper giving the man that he believes in a mulligan. The organization is being set up the way it should've been set up from the beginning. And, as far as this seeming shift in power, like I've said in an earlier thread, all you really have to do is watch Panthers Confidential on the draft, and you will see that Rhule is still the man in charge. Fitterer was deferring to him. Sure, Rhule was giving Fitterer latitude and trusting Fitt's expertise, but he was still the man in charge.

OK. For you and anyone that feels that strongly that Rhule will be fired, go put some legit money on it. Make some paper off of this line!

Because he has made no moves to do anything. What he's saying and what he's done in regards to Rhule has been consistent. I even remember the fan who said that Tepper asked the man what he was drinking when he was expressing or intimating that Tepper needs to fire Rhule before one of the last couple of games.

And yet he was ready to overpay for Deshaun Watson (the most divisive figure in football), drafted Matt Corral, and is still trying to obtain Baker Mayfield (or Jimmy G). Come on man, we all knew that was a lie.

To me, the question has never been whether Rhule has to win games, it's been about how many. I suspect that Tepper is going to go more on how we look winning or losing--our competitiveness, and the W-L column will be a factor in that. I just don't see how anyone--Rhule supporter or hater--that's been paying attention would be comfortable betting that Rhule would be fired at all in January (or before) after listening to Tepper's presser. 2023-2024? Yes, that would be a better bet. But 2022-2023? I'm not putting a single dime up.

Oh, that's what you're saying. Well, Marty wasn't Tepper's guy. Tepper didn't give him a huge contract after breaking bread. He also didn't say (and repeat) that he believed in Marty or that he believed that Marty was setting up a good foundation for the franchise to be a consistent winner. He did not give Marty any timeframe, nor did he equivocate about wins not being the only way to judge success while establishing a winner.

Darnold is the ready-made sacrificial offering. It may not fully appease the fans, summate to the numbers used to set the betting line of Vegas prognosticators, or jibe with media narratives, but Tepper's opinion is ultimately the only one that matters. The rest is just hype.

My expectations are relatively low, and as I realize that anything can happen, I'm mentally prepared for another wreck of a season. That being said, I'm guardedly optimistic that we can be better than last season.

Well that actually kinda supports what I'm saying: he'll keep Rhule for as long as he likes, regardless of speculation by pundits and the like.

The draft, FA acquisitions and coaching acquisitions.

There are comparisons, but there are also big differences due to the context of their situations. For example, pretty much everyone believes that the 49ers know what they're doing. Questions abound whether our current FO is simply not over their heads--a joke. We'll see, but I think that the slope gets real slippery by trying to compare Darnold and Lance at this point. Darnold has/had a body of work, and Lance does not.

Nah. You just have to think of David Tepper, look at what he did in January, and listen to what he said in April.

That may be too quick, but I'm all for getting him out there as soon as he's ready, whether that's September or December.

You have to be patient with Corral, not mess him up by throwing him to the wolves until he's ready. This is the way that it should be.

I haven't heard one teammate say that Darnold is special, or the QB of the future, or really anything of the sort. Darnold has that spectre of we-don't-want-him-starting-in-2022 right behind him (even if it's unspoken). It wasn't so long ago that Rhule was equivocating on why Darnold's option was picked up so quickly, we were killing ourselves to get Watson, and (more recently) rumors about Danold losing his QB1 status were flowing through Panther land. Support of Darnold is as big of a ghost as Darnold has ever seen on the gridiron. Not so with Lance.

So Sam Acho doesn't believe Lance will make it, and yet James Jones is making comparisons to A-Rod and Mahomes. And Jones isn't just coming out the side of his neck. And Erik Armstead is "expecting great things..." https://www.49erswebzone.com/articles/158819-armstead-jimmy-garoppolo-criticism-expecting-great-things-lance/ I only point these things out to showcase that there are two sides to the story. But if you look up reports within the past month, there are way more positive than negative.

Yep, just like Fitterer said in so many words, if a QB is available, you have to ask yourself "Why?" The Browns gave up a tremendous amount to land Watson notwithstanding his circumstances. If they really thought that Baker was all that, then they simply wouldn't have done it. Hell, they wouldn't even have thought about it. BTW, recent reports are very complimentary of Lance.

Recent reports have been very positive of Lance's development, particularly his throwing motion, accuracy and touch. Lance said that he wasn't himself last season due to an injured finger. In any event, his progress has been palpable. Just my opinion: I don't think the 49ers would be so keen to want to dump Garropolo if Lance wasn't making huge strides. The FO doesn't seem like one to cave in to outside noise.

I'm nearly 100 percent sure that you could pick a game out of Garropolo's career where he looked good. Do you remember when they took down the mighty Saints in 2019 late in the season? My thing is, that you just can't throw out career stats. They are what they are, and are a reflection of what a player has done over his career, and Garropolo's are better than Mayfield's. If you're throwing the stats out and cherry picking games, then that's more subjective than objective. I'm not saying there isn't some merit to doing that, because I know that there is a certain amount of that when trying to analyze a situation, but it's not the hallmark of objectivity. All that being said, I really don't want either one of them because of how they've folded at big times, and Jimmy seems like he has a higher propensity to fold; but, don't get me wrong, I suspect they are similar in that regard as well. But, I'll give Mayfield a pass because he hasn't been around as long.

Does he? Objectively speaking, I'm not so sure that most people who are giving Mayfield the edge over Garropolo aren't simply and simplistically doing it out of perceived upside (and/or suspected youth because he is a whole three years younger). I think some Huddlers may be particularly using that rationale and do so because of lack of objectivity. The fact is, that per Ellis, "...most evaluators prefer Garropolo..." "Garoppolo has a career completion percentage of 68% while Mayfield completes 61% of his passes. They have nearly identical touchdown and interception percentages around 4.6% and 2.8%, respectively. Garoppolo’s career yards per attempt (8.4) is more than a yard greater than Mayfield’s 7.3 yards-per-attempt average." As you should know, those seemingly small differences in passer rating and YPA are huge. https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/nfl/carolina-panthers/article261788887.html

The only way I see Rhule getting whacked is if we begin like we ended last season. I don't really want to put a number on it, but I think if we win less than 5 or 6 games and look terrible while doing it, then these Rhule-needs-to-win people may be onto something. If we get to seven, I doubt that Rhule goes anywhere. Hell, he might be safe regardless.

Perhaps. I would think that most NFL fans, especially anyone in their mid twenties would know James Jones. Certainly most Huddlers. The average NFL fan is younger than us for sure, but not that much younger.

Not in that sense, it's just that you could've been more specific by including the name of the, uh, "analyst", so we could decide if it's really worth clicking on.