Mr. Scot

Well, technically he's not here right now because the Texans still refuse to trade him. I have no trouble believing Watson would like to come to the Panthers, as well as several other teams. The idea that he prefers the Panthers seems a little sketchy to me, but I don't think he'd block a trade here either. None of this matters unless the Texans change their mind, of course.

Joe Person's latest Athletic article is better. He asked three NFL personnel executives to rank the top ten Panthers players they'd want to trade for.

Today is the first day that NFL teams can officially start applying the franchise tag. Expectations have been that the Panthers will franchise Taylor Moton. Players from other teams that are heavily speculated to be franchise candidates include Dak Prescott (Cowboys) Chris Godwin (Bucs) and Allen Robinson (Bears).

I'm waiting to see whether Matt Rhule is a good as we think, whether Scottt Federer is as good as his reputation and whether David Tepper will keep his hands off and let the people who know football do their jobs. It absolutely has been a poorly run franchise for pretty near all of its existence. Those factors will determine whether or not it still is.

Don't think so, either.

I know he mentions Tepper in his comments, but part of me wonders if the intimidation thing wasn't necessarily about him. Remember a while back Igo was saying that Rivera and Hurney were basically afraid to say anything negative to Newton? That was a big reason why the stories were coming out about Ken Dorsey not being a true quarterback coach. That'd definitely qualify as being "intimidated".

Heck, he was hired because he had a connection to someone who worked well with Carson Wentz.

I guess it falls under the category of "seemed like a good idea at the time" for the people who were making the decisions.

You're not the only one to say that.

I forget who, but there was an analyst not long ago making an argument that as far as his final college season vs Tua's, Jones was actually better. Me? Don't know.

The radio station doesn't likely have their own sources. That's why I'd wonder who the sources they're referring to would be. Typically I'd expect it to be somebody like Rapoport, Schefter or Breer.

Meaning they don't like we have their own sources, so they'd have to get it from somewhere. For what it's worth, Aaron Wilson did say a short time ago that Watson liked the Dolphins a lot as an option. He mentioned the Panthers as interested but said nothing about Watson's feelings toward us.

That's a legit Twitter for a North Carolina sports radio station. Haven't seen this anywhere else though.

If we were in a better place as a team, I'd be fine with trading up or trading away picks. We have too many needs right now, but that doesn't mean we won't be in a better place later.

I might like Sam Howell better than any of the current three behind Lawrence.

I confess, acceptance of another year with Bridgewater was not an option I considered

Let's say we don't get a true franchise quarterback this year but we do get somebody who's decent and an improvement over Bridgewater... Will that be enough to hold you until we can try again next year or in the near future? Or will it be torches and pitchforks time?

Yours got edited

Getzenberg pointed out that Johnson was actually part of a prior Panthers coaching staff, working a fellowship under George Seifert in 1999.

Believe it or not folks, we've actually got three or four assistant coaches on staff now who did not coach under Matt Rhule at Baylor or Temple.

Also confirmed the hire of this guy... No, that's not Jimmy Clausen. It's Garret McGuire. His last role was playing quarterback for Baylor. He's also the son of one of the few Matt Rhule Baylor assistants who didn't join Rhule when he got the Panthers job.

I thought you were joking, but yeah. They hired this guy. Don Johnson, Pass Rush Specialist Johnson was the defensive line coach in San Diego when their defensive coordinator was...a guy we know.

That I'd be comfortable with.

Rhule had two separate stints at Temple. Knighton was at Temple from 2005 to 2008. Rhule joined Temple in 2006 as the defensive line coach, so he'd have coached Knighton directly. In the years that followed, he took other roles before spending 2012 with the Giants and then being named Temple's head coach in 2013.

Wonder what Pork Chop Womack is up to these days.