Mr. Scot

I definitely don't think it's gonna be that simple, not with stuff like this coming out... This is a nightmare

Basically running an NFL franchise like an NFL fan would... I already thought it was bad, but damn

Or just stays the hell out of it altogether

Good leaders tend to either tell people who do things like that to go directly to the person they have issues with or sit down with the two of them together. Doesn't sound like Tepper did either of those things.

Regarding Ben Johnson... The Panthers need someone who can get Young untracked and playing closer to the level of Texans rookie C.J. Stroud, Young’s friend and former AAU basketball rival in southern California. Tepper again is expected to focus his search on coaches with offensive backgrounds, with Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson — who canceled his interview with the Panthers last year — viewed as a top target. Johnson is a native of Asheville, N.C., who played at North Carolina. But it might not be easy to lure him to Charlotte: Some in the Panthers’ organization, according to a league source, have been texting Johnson about how complicated it’s been to work in Carolina this season. While Tepper prepares to start another coaching search and Reich, Staley and McCown contemplate their next moves, the players and remaining coaches will try to avoid becoming the first 1-16 team since the NFL adopted a 17-game schedule. “I can honestly say I don’t think (Reich) was the sole problem and everything is fixed now,” Chark said. “We’ve still got a lot of stuff we have to fix.” ... Sounds like it might be more than just Duce Staley

And this... h’s efforts to boost Young’s confidence — some players viewed as overprotectiveness — continued through what turned out to be Reich’s final offensive play with the Panthers at Tennessee. Trailing by 7 and facing a fourth-and-6 at the two-minute warning, Young saw the Titans line up in what he believed to be Cover 0 — man coverage with no deep defender — and checked to a wide receiver screen to DJ Chark. Chark caught the ball four yards behind the line of scrimmage and was tackled for no gain by safety Amani Hooker, allowing the Titans to reclaim possession and run out the clock. After the game, Reich said it was the right check by Young and that Chark might have gotten too far behind the line of scrimmage. A clearly agitated Chark insisted the Titans were not in Cover 0 and the Panthers should have stuck with the original play call. A former NFL head coach agreed, saying the Titans fooled Young into thinking they were in Cover 0 before dropping their backside safety to the post area. That the postgame spotlight fell on one of the receivers was not a new development. The group’s difficulties getting open has been a season-long narrative. “I don’t think we got the brunt of coaches’ criticism. But I do feel like we do get a lot of the blame when it comes to the success of the offense,” Chark said last week. “Obviously, when you talk about offense, the first thing that we say (is), ‘You’ve gotta give Bryce weapons,’ and things like that.” ...is not a good look for Bryce

My guess would be temper saw the headlines about how Brian Daboll assembled his staff in New York and thought "hey, why don't we do that?" Turned out to be a disaster. Hell, it's not even looking so good in New York anymore.

Well, this sounds familiar... There also have been issues with scheme fits. Brown’s background is with the Rams’ mid-zone and wide-zone runs, which weren’t a great match for some of the Panthers’ offensive linemen. Right guard Austin Corbett ran the scheme during three seasons in L.A., including the Rams’ Super Bowl season of 2021. But Corbett missed the first six games this year while recovering from ACL surgery, then injured his MCL in the same knee against Dallas in Week 11 and was lost for the season. Center Bradley Bozeman conceded his more bruising skill set wasn’t ideal for the wide zone, best suited for quicker linemen who can occupy defensive linemen early in the play and then get to the second level. “Running downhill is what I love to do,” Bozeman said. “That’s what I’ve made my money on. Unfortunately, we didn’t have many opportunities to do that.”

More: The Panthers’ defensive assistants, nearly all of whom had worked with Evero previously, have been more aligned, according to sources. But that has not been the case on the offensive side. At one point, several coaches wanted to bench Young in favor of Dalton, who had the Panthers’ only 300-yard passing game when Young missed the Week 3 game at Seattle with an ankle injury. But those conversations never reached Reich, Fitterer or ownership, according to high-ranking team sources. Other coaches felt they couldn’t voice their opinions without being viewed as malcontents. Several sources said Reich would call out Young for mistakes during team-wide film reviews — as he did other players — early in the season but backed off in recent weeks, with Young’s confidence in mind. “You can coach a player hard,” said one staffer, “without killing his spirit.” But one player said it wasn’t Reich’s nature or coaching style to be overly critical of any player or position group.

This article pretty much indicates he stabbed Reich in the back.

More: Tepper also encouraged Reich to go outside of his “circle” with some of the hires. As such, many of the offensive coaches had never worked together and brought different philosophies to an offense that would be led by a rookie quarterback from Week 1. Besides the disagreements in scheme, there were personality conflicts and factions formed on a staff that included two main holdovers from Rhule’s staff — offensive line coach James Campen and special teams coordinator Chris Tabor, both of whom were retained at Tepper’s urging. After Tepper named Tabor interim coach last week, one of Tabor’s first moves was to fire quarterbacks coach Josh McCown and running backs coach Duce Staley, who was on Philadelphia’s staff with Reich in 2017 when the Eagles won the Super Bowl. Staley was still with the Eagles two years later when McCown played for the team. The 44-year-old McCown logged 17 seasons in the NFL as a backup quarterback. McCown twice interviewed for the Houston Texans’ head-coaching vacancy, but his Panthers’ role was his first NFL coaching job. Some in Carolina thought Reich and McCown weren’t tough enough on Young as the 2021 Heisman Trophy winner from Alabama got off to a bumpy start.

Whoa, boy

Well yeah, there is that

With most NFL teams, the GM is basically king of everything, similar to what a college coach is at that level. The 49ers do it a little differently. John Lynch is the GM and as such handles pretty much everything...except personnel. Adam Peters handles all the personnel matters. I honestly kind of like that arrangement.

What gets talked about most is his intelligence and his skill set. And to be clear, two of the most successful head coaches in the league right now, Andy Reid and Dan Campbell, were never even coordinators.

He's pretty highly spoken of by several sources. Of course, so was Nathaniel Hackett, but hey... At least nobody can say Smith is benefiting from an Aaron Rodgers type quarterback.

FYI: Adam Johns (longtime Bears beat writer) wrote in the Athletic that if the Bears make a change at head coach this offseason, their candidate list "starts and ends" with Jim Harbaugh. There have been behind the scenes reports that the Chicago job is his top choice. If so, and if Matt Eberflus is fired, this one might be academic.

No argument, and that's part of the concern I posted a few minutes ago. If the hole in game it really is to prove it he's the smartest guy in the room, we're pretty much sunk.

That's where the idea of getting a team president and having them make the decisions on leadership comes in.

I'd prefer Will McClay as the GM, but if you're pulling somebody from the Eagles, I'd take Brandon Hunt. Hunt was expected to be the heir apparent to Kevin Colbert in Pittsburgh, but the team gave the job to Omar Khan instead. Hunt left for the Eagles shortly thereafter. Given the Pittsburgh connection though, he would be known to Tepper. There is also at least the possibility that given his prior connection, Hunt might have enough clout to stand up to Tepper if he has the spine to do so. In that situation, you don't necessarily need a team president like Colbert.

Here's my concern... There was a time when someone temporarily convinced Dan Snyder to step back and let his football people do their jobs. As you might expect, the team saw some improvement. Within a year though, Snyder inserted himself back into team operations for the basic reason that "he wasn't having any fun" as the team's owner. The rest is history...and now, so is Snyder. So the question becomes whether David Tepper's top priority is to see his team win or is it more important for him to "have fun" with his macro version of fantasy football)? If it's about winning, then maybe he'll do the right thing. If it's all about his ego however, then we're pretty much screwed unless he either parts ways with the team or somehow lucks into a winning combination. Personally, not a big fan of betting my money on incompetent people getting lucky

Ideally yes, but you have to have the right general manager. Do we trust David Tepper to pick that person? I don't. But if somebody you do trust picks the right GM, then down the road they can slide out of the way and let the traditional dynamic take over. Think of it as a temporary babysitter until Tepper grows up.

Kate's take: The logic of the “program-builder” is that the head coach would have a say in personnel and the clout to tell Tepper “no” without repercussions. On the surface, that’s an interesting outlook. But it also seems like a lame approach for ownership to hire a dictator to simply distance themselves from involvement.

I think it's generally and perhaps damn near universally understood that until we get someone like that, things will likely continue to suck. Well...universal except for the one person who most desperately needs to understand that

Ask the owner who he thinks we should pick and then take someone else