Mr. Scot

Yeah...This smells like bullsh-t to me. When Brady was hired, everybody acted like we'd just won the Super Bowl (ownership included).

The other internal option was QB Coach Sean Ryan. Ryan was reported to have been Rhule's original choice for OC before Brady.

See previous. He was Rhule's playcaller at Baylor.

Well, there's one down. And no shock, it's a non-Baylor guy getting fired and a Baylor guy getting promoted into his old spot. If other changes occur, it won't surprise me if they follow the same pattern. Wouldn't necessarily expect anything further until season's end, though (no major impact)

Promoted one of his Baylor guys into the role...

Yeah, was just noting that.

Nixon was Rhule's playcaller at Baylor. So basically, another Baylor promotion.

Jeff Nixon (per the article)

Oregon? (probably not, but hey...)

Keep in mind this is being asked of the team owner who thought to himself "I can trust Marty Hurney to help choose my head coach of the future".

Didn't really have strong feelings about Trubisky other than that I thought he wasn't worth the second overall pick. I've been a Howell fan in the past, but haven't seen much of him this season. People who have seem to be tempering their expectations. Fair or not though, it's likely inevitable that the ghost of Trubisky's failure will haunt Howell to some level.

I wouldn't guarantee that. Guys will try just about anything to get an advantage. And as long as the rules protect it, why shouldn't they? Lord knows the Patriots have built a lot of success on that notion.

A friend of mine has a son who used to build teams in Madden. He'd create custom team names, logos, profiles, etc. And then he'd play actual games with them just once or twice before building a new one. Some guys like the building process rather than the finished product. I kinda wonder if Rhule might not be one of those people.

And they'd be morons, as would any coach who would encourage or tolerate a stunt like that. Doing that sort of thing would result in definite penalties, possible ejections, likely fines and quite conceivable suspensions. Only an absolute dumbass would justifying those potential consequences as a reasonable response to a "b-tch move".

To be real though, if Rhule we're to get fired, I'm pretty sure his bank account has enough of a cushion that he could wait around a year or so to see if something to his liking opens up.

I don't actually see the fake slide as much different than pretending to head out of bounds, but my or others' opinion of it isn't the point. The thing for me is that if a Panther quarterback scored a winning touchdown in a big game while pulling a stunt like that, I kinda doubt a huge chorus of Panther fans would be crying foul, calling it a "b-tch move" or screaming that the result should be reversed. Over the years, I've seen Panthers players pull plenty of stunts that would have provoked righteous outrage had somebody else pulled them on us. But if one of our guys do it, then it's generally "heh heh, looks like we got away with one there". Part of being a sports fan is you check your hypocrisy at the door.

Speculation a deal could be done today...

Only when someone else's quarterback does it. When your quarterback does it then it's smart, funny and badass

Person confirmed "Panthers brass" was in attendance for last night's game but didn't specify who. He did say scouting director Cole Spencer was there to watch Pickett and Sam Howell when they faced off against each other a while back. According to Scott "not me" Fowler (in whom it sounds like Pickett might have found a fan) Dan Marino was also in attendance last night to watch the guy who broke his single season touchdown record at Pitt. Fake slide, real arm: Pickett won ACC for Pitt. Could he be answer for other Panthers?

Better video of the "fake slide" move...

Thinking he may have just vaulted up a few draft boards. If that wasn't enough...

Not quite accurate because you're mostly looking just at the guys who followed him directly from Baylor. Sean Ryan was on staff alongside Rhule when he was with the Giants. So was Al Holcomb, and he was already here so it was an easy hire. Kevin Gilbride was on staff with Rhule at Temple rather than Baylor. His dad also coached with Rhule on the Giants staff. Terrance Knighton didn't coach with Rhule, but he played for him at Temple. Rhule was actually his position coach for a season. Jason Simmons doesn't have a direct connection with Rhule but he does with Phil Snow. Simmons played for Snow at Arizona State. Mind you, there actually could have been more but some of his guys chose not to follow him. A few others weren't with him long enough or didn't have enough experience to be qualified. Those were the positions that ended up with other people. But even one of those, DL Coach Mike Phair, ended up gone a year later in favor of Rhule's Baylor DL Coach Frank Okam. As to NFL experience, the guys who do have it haven't risen above the level of position coaches. None of them has been a pro level coordinator that I know of, and definitely no head coaches. Add to this that Rhule had been able to get a couple of guys added in front office and administrative roles. Pat Stewart is the highest. Evan Cooper, Sean Padden and EJ Barthel were the others but Padden and Barthel have departed since (Padden under some questionable circumstances). All in all, there are only about five or six guys on the entire staff that aren't connected to Rhule in some way, most of them on offense. And those are the guys I won't be surprised to become scapegoats for our offensive struggles.

Looked at some of the options recently and there genuinely should be guys like that available. Unless someone dictates who he hires though, I expect anyone he appoints to be one of his guys.

Dan Morgan is the Assistant GM. Front office structures are extremely flexible though. They could hire somebody and give them the title "God Emperor of Dune" if they wanted to.

Regarding Hill... Sounds like we might be facing Siemian.