Mr. Scot

Pretty much. And as good as those memories are, they don't make me feel any better when I'm in the middle of watching a game where we look like garbage.

And I'd be pleased to see the Panthers win one. But by the time we were in year ten of being dog sh-t, saying "well hey, we were good once" isn't gonna make all the bad feelings from that go away.

It's not a matter of rationalizing. It's just open mindedness. I genuinely don't know whether Tepper is going to be a successful owner or not, but that leaves all options open. Saying you know we're going to be terrible is just as invalid as saying you know we'll be champions.

The primary reason for that suckage is gone though. His successor made a few missteps of his on starting out, but he's still an unknown quantity.

Which is consistent with what I've said. It's not just a matter of what happens with Darnold though. There's still the matter of Watson's legal issues. That's why I think if Darnold does fail, our next QB will come from the Draft.

I've never liked the idea of living off a single season's glory while sucking from then on. If I had that mentality, I might as well be a Jets fan. (or a Bears fan)

He's basically the guy who tells the same joke to the same people over and over again while never realizing he's the only one who finds it funny and everyone thinks he's a moronic pain in the ass.

Theres a difference between general examples and specific ones. Many new coaches have had rough first years then turned out fine. And what's additionally consistent with all of those examples is this: Nothing any of their predecessors did mattered. Same as now, Rhule will either have the skill and the knowledge to succeed or he won't purely on his own merit.

Except that, you know, they said there's not. And even Verge affirmed that as a true statement. You can suggest that maybe they could be down the road, but everything right now says they're not.

Nobody wants the owner to interfere...unless it's to get the guy they want. I can honestly say though that even if I knew David Tepper agreed with every idea I had, I'd still prefer he stay out of personnel decisions.

All correct.

I'm guessing you predicted Jimmy Johnson's career was gonna be sh-t after his first season too. (just one of many examples that could be used here) As to our last offseason,coming away from the draft with three quality starters was a pretty good foundation. Is Rhule/Fitterer going to be a success? Don't know. And neither do you. But what I do know is that what and how their predecessors did doesn't matter.

No. What's happening with Watson is we're not interested because we've settled on Sam Darnold as the guy for now and probably at least next season. Beyond that, we'll see. But lemme ask you this: If your doctor suddenly decided that since they're smart enough to be a doctor they should also be able to fly a 747 (no lessons or experience needed because hey, they're a doctor and doctors are smart) would you buy a ticket on their maiden flight? Tepper making football decisions because, you know, he's good at business and all makes just about as much sense.

Rhule/Hurney had last offseason, and given Marty's deficiencies it went surprisingly well. Now it's Rhule/Fitterer.

They may indeed be the most talented guys we have, but are they ready? If they're not, putting them in now could be equally disastrous. More so if it affects their development.

There is no history. This is their first rodeo. They may be good at it or not, but the fact that Marty Hurney and Ron Rivera sucked will have no bearing on it.

It's not as simple as "hey, this guy is good so go get him." You also have to establish what you're willing to give up to go get that guy. If professional football guys tell a guy with zero personnel experience "this is too much to give up" and he doesn't listen, then he's not gonna have good football people working for him for very long. That's how you wind up with guys like Howie Roseman and Marty Hurney making your football decisions. And if that's what Tepper wants, he can have it. It would just mean that he's stupid.

We've only had our current braintrust for one offseason. Nothing that happened previously has any real bearing.

Pair that with Rivera wanting everyone to "leave on their own terms" and you have the makings of a total sh-tfest.

That can be said of any move we make, regardless of approach.

Pretty sure we're "monitoring" a lot of situations. But you forgot something else we know, or to be more correct something David Tepper knows, specifically that he is not a talent evaluator and isn't ever going to be. If the current guys in charge aren't up to the task, I expect we'll get new guys in charge. That'd be the sensible move. If Tepper decides instead to follow the examples of guys like Jerry Jones, Dan Snyder and Jeffrey Lurie, that'll tell me that he's not as smart as I hope he is.

We kept our best lineman for the next several years. That's a start. We also drafted a couple of guys that look promising. Will they live up to that promise? Don't know, but that needed to be done and it was. As for the rest, if I recall correctly, nobody's on a deal longer two seasons, so even if the signings are badd it's not like we're hamstrung long term.

Can't speak for anybody else, but one game isn't gonna settle everything for me. We could very easily start out looking like refried hippo sh-t but gel into a much better unit over the season, or begin the season looking great but look worse down the road. Talk to me in November.

Let's be real... We see these rankings and predictions every single year. And every season that follows they prove to not be worth the bandwidth they're written on. They'll got some things right, and a lot of things wrong. The hope is that the good things said about us are the ones that prove to be right.

Yeah... nobody's doing that.