Mr. Scot

This sounds somehow... familiar

Hell, I'd feel comfortable with it being pinned if the mods so desired.

I don't give him a pass because there are things he should have done that he didn't. But I do acknowledge he was put in a terrible spot.

Houston beat writer analysis of Slowik...

Frank Smith. (getting Callahan wouldn't really surprise me either)

I don't think that was ever an option. Tepper wanted it to go down this year. It was just a matter of but it would take to make that happen.

John summarizing the latest...

It's life the debate we have with Young. Can we fairly evaluate him while he's constantly running for his life? Probably not. Similarly though, how far is it to evaluate Reich in a situation where he was being undermined in more than one way?

Sure it does. It isn't enough just to know that you failed at something. You have to know why or you'll likely just wind up repeating the same mistakes. And for the record, I know who I'm agreeing with when I say that. And yes, I hate it

Our being last on the list was assumed. That's not the value of the article though. The bit about Tepper encouraging assistants to talk about other assistants is big time cringeworthy.

Yeah, that news just hit.

Perhaps, but realistically what else can you do? You have to try.

Not according to Brown himself. I've seen it acknowledged that Reich and McVay both influenced things philosophically, but not on a practical level.

And yeah, a lot of this boils down to the common story of what happens when good guys go to work for a--holes... Frank Reich and Scott Fitterer were both considered pretty solid people, but they went to work for a boss who seemed to think JR Ewing was a role model. If you're the good guy in that situation, you have two choices: keep trying to be the best person you can amid the chaos or just give in and become the bad guy. Reich took the former path, while Fitterer apparently turned to The Dark Side (or at least took some advice from it). That path hardly ever works because the natural bad guys will always be better at it.

Yes and no... Reich didn't set this scheme. Thomas Brown did, and I think Reich encouraged that because he wanted to help Brown and other assistants along in their career. The problem: Brown wasn't good at it. As head coach, It would have been on Reich to see that and try to fix it. Instead, He handled it in more of a Ron Rivera fashion by not doing much directly and just kind of hoping he'd learn and get better. If we were able to see the full story, I think you probably find several incidents where Reich trying to be a nice guy and do the right thing ultimately heard both him and the team.

Oh, I absolutely think it's wrong for a football team. Harsh criticism is fine, but say it to my face, not behind my back to the owner.

That's been applied to a couple of different situations where I'm not sure there was any validity.

Part of what we found most concerning from the "Hunger Games" story was the question of why Tepper would listen to coaches backstabbing their colleagues rather than squashing that sort of internal toxicity. Turns out he was actually encouraging it

...and yeah, we come in last. Here's the writeup on the Panthers, with a new little piece of info about one of Tepper's practices. 8. Carolina Panthers The next coach in Carolina must manage an impulsive owner while also creating a successful offense around an outlier quarterback whose confidence could need rebuilding after a brutal rookie season. Working within a weaker division should help, but this job comes with flashing red warning lights. People who have worked for Panthers owner David Tepper tend to like him. They know he cares about winning. They also have suffered from his overly impulsive decision-making and his intrusion in their areas of expertise. They question whether Tepper’s methods work as well in the NFL as they might in the investing world that Tepper dominated as a hedge-fund manager. For example, coaches who have worked in Carolina say Tepper’s fact-finding missions in the building, which include asking members of the offensive staff about their defensive counterparts, and vice versa, can amplify divisions. Tepper signed Frank Reich and a staff featuring big names to long-term contracts amid much fanfare last offseason. Reich lasted 11 games. By then, he had relinquished and taken back play-calling duties, operating like a coach under great pressure from above. The next coach should expect similar treatment until Tepper demonstrates otherwise. ... Yikes!

Lotsa folks think that's in the cards.

Pretty clear Brian Johnson is getting head coaching interviews because of the Rooney Rule. When all is said and done though, it's unlikely his current employer keeps him.

Belichick hasn't scared me in years. Belichick minus Brady probably never will.

Today's agenda... Johnson's interview is tomorrow.

We're only blocking defensive guys and Tabor. Brown and other offensive coaches are free to do what they want. And to be clear, hanging on to guys in the middle of a coaching transition is common, but not universal. Plenty of teams allow guys to interview elsewhere out of courtesy because they know the new head coach might not want them. Mind you, this is one of those things that successful organizations don't get criticized for all that much. Dysfunctional ones like us are a different story.