Mr. Scot

The coaches When Tepper hires his next head coach, it will be his SEVENTH coach since buying the team in 2018, including interims. Every single coach he's hired or inherited has been fired in the middle of the season, which means he's got three full-time head coaches and three interim head coaches under his short watch. Ron Rivera was probably at the end of his rope, but he'd been with Carolina long enough to warrant finishing out the season. "Riverboat'' got sunk midseason -- Carolina was 5-7 -- by Tepper during the owner's second year and replaced by Perry Fewell as the interim. Rivera's firing was part of a larger overhaul, including the eventual ouster of GM Marty Hurney and pushing out long-time fan favorite quarterback Cam Newton (more on that in a second). ... Tepper followed Rivera with an aggressively public pursuit of Matt Rhule, who he is still paying a boat ton of money to after firing five games into the third year of a massive, lengthy contract that pulled him from the college game. A good chunk of that money is offset by Rhule's new gig in Nebraska. He was a disaster as an NFL head coach so firing him was a fine move, but Tepper's still the guy who hired him and, in the press conference announcing the hire, touted how Rhule "dresses like poo and sweats all over himself" while simultaneously comparing Rhule to Steelers dynasty architect Chuck Noll. Sure! Reich -- one of the most respected coaches in football -- would be next and he's clearly the scapegoat for this disaster season. Reich didn't even make it to the end of Rhule's contract, much less his own. Young has been terrible and it's especially bad when juxtaposed with No. 2 overall pick C.J. Stroud's performance in Houston. There's no sign of Young developing into a franchise quarterback, although reasonable minds can agree it's impossible to know based on what's going on around him. Was Reich was hired to develop the Panthers first overall pick? Or was he hired to win immediately? Neither has happened but the decision to fire him 11 weeks in surely indicates a lack of patience on Tepper's part. Even Urban Meyer got 13 games from the Jaguars two years ago. ... Chris Tabor takes over as interim head coach, with Jim Caldwell severing as Senior Assistant to OC Thomas Brown, who will ostensibly go back to calling plays for the second time this season. The Panthers had four coaches from 1995 through 2018 and have had six in the seven years since. What a mess.

Under Tepper, the Panthers have become The New Browns, which is not a good thing. Just like Jimmy Haslam, Tepper is a former Steelers minority owner and bombastic businessman hellbent on believing he will win in the NFL because he won in business. Tepper won big-big in business too. He's a hyper-aggressive hedge fund billionaire with his name on Carnegie-Mellon buildings. Until the Waltons dipped their toe in the game, he was the NFL's richest owner. He knows how to read markets, he knows how to flip assets, but he clearly doesn't know how to run a professional football team. Unless he's trying to run it into the ground, which he's currently succeeding in doing. ... Take into account draft capital and the Panthers have the bleakest future prospects of any NFL team by a wide margin. They are the worst team -- and offense -- in the league. How does the offense improve when there's a massive dearth in terms of pass protection and a complete void in terms of vertical weapons for the passing game. Bryce Young is averaging 5.4 yards per pass attempt. The Panthers have scored more than 14 points in four games this year and in every single instance it required garbage time. They have no 2024 first-round pick. The only thing standing in the way of Carolina handing Chicago the first overall pick in 2024 are ... Bill Belichick and Mac Jones? Maybe the Cardinals, but Kyler Murray has them back to being feisty/competitive most weeks now. Giants undrafted rookie quarterback Tommy DeVito has more wins than the Panthers this season. So to recap: the Panthers don't have a coach, they lack future assets and they're not sure whether or not they have a quarterback. Which is basically how it's been half the time under Tepper. ... This is not ~all~ Tepper's fault. Reich deserves some blame. So does Bryce. GM Scott Fitterer didn't do a good job putting this roster together. The pass catchers haven't helped the young quarterback. The offensive line? SHAME. Blame bad luck if you want. But, the bottom line is -- and every good CEO of any decent company will tell you this -- the buck stops at the top. Tepper constantly speaks of needing two things: a coach who is a program builder and a franchise quarterback. He's not wrong there. Those things are important, but any average football fan and/or small child knows that's what you need in the NFL. And knowing is just half the battle. Execution is key and Tepper has failed miserably with both of them so far.

There's a lot in this article and it's hard to know what to cut out. I'll post as much as I can. The Panthers have a David Tepper problem On Monday morning the Panthers fired Frank Reich, just 11 games into his tenure, but the Panthers didn't really have a Frank Reich Problem. They (probably) don't have a Bryce Young Problem. They definitely have a David Tepper Problem. Carolina's impetuous owner, a man who has shown a wild proclivity for firing people under his employ, is exactly why Reich's dismissal wasn't a surprising fire. ... And Reich probably won't be the last person from this Charlotte-based dumpster fire who gets canned amid a seemingly non-stop churn of coaches, personnel men and quarterbacks.

He should see this...

McCown fired over Bryce, a quarterback that wasn't his choice. Staley fired over Sanders I guess, but Hubbard and Blackshear were both improved over last year.

Damn

Correction on the time...

He just got here.

It's a behind the scenes thing helping retired players get on their feet, nothing to do with football operations though he still communicates with current leadership. What that role means as far as taking other jobs, unknown. Depends on whether he has a contract, I suppose.

Colbert is still officially part of the Steelers organization, so I don't know if he can be hired in season.

There's no reason to dump Adrian Wilson.

Don't know if it means anything, but...

About the only prediction I feel comfortable making is that we probably won't get our top choice. Maybe not even our second...

See above. And there are numerous comments like that all over the internet right now.

If the stories about Tepper "heavily influencing" the choice of Young are true (and I believe they are) then yes, I would say he's safe.

Working for David Tepper isn't.

Also from Stephen Holder...

I hope so, but I'm not convinced. Tepper is being ripped all over the place right now, rven by people who are on board with firing Reich.

It happened before that. Holder had an extensive story about Reich's last year in Indianapolis and the absolute sh-t show that resulted in Jim Itsay hiring (and trying to keep) Jeff Saturday as his head coach. I'm sure Reich was happy to get away from Irsay, but then he got stuck with David Tepper.