Mr. Scot

Related: Someone asked our pal Ellis who he was interested in as a Rhule replacement. This is his list: Mine's a lot shorter (not a fan of retreads, among other reasons) but I have the same guy at the top.

In thinking about this game, I keep going back to the Washington game. Ron Rivera knew exactly how (and who) to attack, and it worked. McDermott might know just as well, and he is in my opinion a smarter coach than Rivera. If Rivera was capable of dismantling us, what's McDermott going to do?

They were talking about it on NFL Network just now. I mean, it's not like the Bears were exactly in good shape anyway, but damn

This is the part that gets me. How the hell do you give that kind of control to a coach with Matt Rhule's resumé? The guy hasn't even been part of a true major college program, but you hand him the keys to an NFL organization? Unbelievable! I realize Tepper probably doesn't get Rhule if he doesn't concede on this point, but knowing what we know now I would have been damn well fine with that

So to be clear, this is not a discussion of vaccine viewpoints, government policies, conspiracy theories or any other such thing. And if you were thinking of trying to make it into that, I ask that you not. What it is instead is an acknowledgment that there's some pretty crazy virus related things going on around the NFL right now. The Bears have reportedly placed all three coordinators (including the special teams coach) on their reserve COVID list. Washington is said to be up to 21 players on their list. There's also the Browns and others having to deal with really difficult circumstances. It's nuts.

Equally accurate take on Matt Rhule...

That's a pretty big part of it. Being soft in the middle doesn't really help. Jermaine Carter is a lot nicer story than he is a player. And I think everybody can acknowledge at this point that Jeremy Chinn is being misused.

It's the David Tepper worship.

He made bad hires all over because he hired college coaches. And the defense has been pretty well exposed.

Lewis is a very good defensive coordinator. Caldwell runs a really good offense and is an exceptional quarterback coach. Neither of them have been all that successful as head coaches. Lewis got a lot more years on the job but if I was going to take a look at one of them it'd probably be Caldwell.

Valid.

I appreciate your willingness to be this board's Jimmy Clausen.

I don't really count winning five games and looking terrible as appreciably superior to two games.

We already did. Hired an underqualified college coach to do a pro job, same as them. Yeah, we did it first, but the results are the same and we've let It go on longer.

Think you could dream of the Panthers replacing Matt Rhule with Nathaniel Hackett?

Early speculation on potential candidates from Pete Prisco... No mention of Hackett but I expect him to be an option. Others have suggested Doug Pederson.

You volunteering? (I suggested Chuck)

Damn

This is the point where things go wrong

I think there's heneral agreement that Newton isn't Rhule's guy.

About that... Based on comments from a couple of sources, and figuring in what we know about how things run here, I'm not sure it's true that Tepper forced Rhule to bring back Newton. But there does seem to be a general consensus that it wasn't Rhule's idea. Makes me wonder if it wasn't Scott Fitterer or maybe Dan Morgan who broached the topic. Morgan would make a lot of sense.

Albert Breer points to the same potential scenario... As mentioned, I'd be fine with us being one of those teams.

Wow... Sounds like a really nice place to work

Rhule's been in my nightmares for several weeks now. I tend to have them on Sundays around 1pm.

The best analysis I've seen of Moore came from someone who said that he's an ideal number two receiver who's been asked to be a number one. That definitely fits.