Mr. Scot

From today... It's not all that farfetched to read between the lines of those statements and see "Hey, thanks for everything...See ya later"

The Saints had something like eight coaches and I forget how many players out with the virus that week. I wouldn't put any money on us beating the Bucs.

If Tepper doesn't already see how bad Rhule is, I'm worried that he won't.

Sure they did, and between Erving, Elflein, Christensen and Brown they likely believed they had upgraded the OL. Lack of effort could actually have turned out better. Effort paired with incompetence is something far, far worse.

I remember reading that they specifically wanted Gregg Williams to be the DC. We all know now that Rhule wasn't going anywhere without Phil Snow.

I'm not sure who he starts matters on that front. The whole team looks incompetent regardless.

Peters was apparently offered a raise / promotion to Assistant GM. Ed Dodds was more likely the guy who didn't like the power structure. Not a problem to Fitterer, though. For him, it was no change from what he was part of in Seattle.

With the two week interview window the NFL added this season, there actually is.

You don't remember the last time you saw Blakeman?

Worse...incompetence. Basically, Rhule.

Hate to tell you but from what I'm reading, sounds like Rhule didn't necessarily commit to starting Newton this Sunday.

Didn't both of those trades happen after Horn got hurt?

What they practice isn't up to the players. It's up to the coaches.

Maybe this is how...

That brings up what I'd point out to the "give him one more year" crowd... Does anyone really think if he gets another year, he'll suddenly change his ways and methods and become competent? If anything, Rhule has given us a pretty clear indication that when he's challenged, he doubles down. Putting that together with Gantt's statements that the OL will be priority one this offseason terrifies me. Another year of Matt Rhule building the offensive line his way could make us exponentially worse.

We'd still have the staff he hired...

For the record, it's been reported that Edwards was the first person they went to. Edwards stated that he "didn't feel comfortable" doing kickoffs. That's why they then had to turn around and go searching for somebody who did.

Kevin Colbert's name has come up every year since Tepper bought the team, but to date he still hasn't departed the Steelers. It wouldn't surprise me terribly if this year is the year that changes. I don't necessarily think Colbert wants to be take over as GM of a rebuilding team anymore, but I'd happily bring him in to evaluate Fitterer, Morgan and everyone else as well as act in a consultant role for the head coaching search. And if he chose to stick around as a high level consultant even after all that work was done, I would have no problem with that at all.

For years on this board, people claimed that Jerry Richardson didn't care about winning. I never believed that was true, still don't. Richardson definitely cared about winning. He just also had other priorities and, more importantly, didn't have the first clue how to build a consistent winning team. In my mind, the same applies to Matt Rhule and his staff, especially with regard to the offensive line. It's not that Rhule didn't or doesn't care about building an offensive line. He cared, still does. Darin Gantt has said more than once that everyone currently in the Panthers building sees the offensive line as this offseason's priority number one. So that's good, right? Uuummm, no Reason being that the same problem still applies. Rhule may want a dominant line for all he's worth, but he doesn't know what that means at the NFL level or how to build it. Which then takes us up the ladder to one David Tepper... Anytime people discuss where Jerry Richardson went wrong, my top answer is always that he trusted the wrong people. It's okay for an owner to not know how to evaluate personnel and such as long as they hire and trust somebody who does. Richardson trusted Marty Hurney. So did David Tepper. Then he trusted Matt Rhule. And I mean mega-trusted Matt Rhule, to the tune of a seven year contract, huge money and full control of the team "program". Oy Have said it before, and I'll say it again: the best thing that could possibly happen to us this offseason is for David Tepper to absolutely stop trusting his own instincts. He needs a true football mind to guide him down the right path. Is that Scott Fitterer? Not sure, but I'd be willing to give he and Dan Morgan a chance to at least pick their own head coach and see what happens from there. The only thing I feel like I can say for sure right now about our desired and needed "football mind" is that it's not Matt Rhule... ... and it sure as hell isn't David Tepper.

He might not be. For my part, I don't think the first four games were an illusion. He was genuinely doing good work. The concern I have is how quickly it all broke down. You just can't be fragile in the NFL. And yes, it's valid that the team screwed up majorly in the way that they built the offensive line. Still...

Their defense has Brady's number, that's for sure.

There's been a load of talk about that play, but I haven't really taken part in much of it because I just see it as less of an issue in and of itself and more a symptom of the larger disease.

Similar thought: For whatever you think about Darnold, if he was going to be rebuilt it wasn't going to be by this staff.

This is correct.

Positive or negative opinions about Newton are irrelevant to this single fact: Matt Rhule is not qualified to coach in the NFL.