Mr. Scot

Albert Breer shared some insight into the current situation (posted elsewhere).

From Breer's latest mailbag... From JP (@Lilpopester): Do you think [Lions offensive coordinator] Ben Johnson pulled out because he knew Carolina would offer him, and he saw how controlling [David] Tepper is? No chance Scott [Fitterer] and Frank [Reich] both make it to next season. From Jason Green (@HeelofaPanther): You sure Frank keeps his job if the Panthers finish with two wins or less? JP and Jason, I’m taking both of you at once, because I wouldn’t have even considered that Frank Reich would be in jeopardy after a single year until I saw what he said Monday about where his relationship is with Carolina owner David Tepper. Take a look. “He wants to bring a winner to the Carolinas,” Reich said from the podium. “He wants it now. He pushes me, and pushes us, to that end. He wants to do whatever it takes, turn over every stone, churn it as much as he has to to produce winning football. So I appreciate those conversations. They’re always very challenging. He’s a super-competitive person. He’s not going to sit idly by. … “There’s different philosophies in ownership. Some owners kind of stay away and don’t engage a whole lot. Other owners do. And his philosophy is he’s gonna engage. And, listen, it’s only been a short experience, but it’s been a really good experience. It hasn’t been fun. It’s not fun. Those meetings aren’t—I wouldn’t characterize them as fun meetings. But those meetings make me better, and I trust they make us better.” First of all, I appreciate the honesty from Reich and a window into the unique partnerships owners have with their coaches. Second, it sounds like what I’ve heard from others who’ve worked for Tepper—he’s taken his approach to running a hedge fund into the NFL world, in keeping his thumb on those who work for him and keeping heat on everyone to perform. And Reich is correct to say there are a lot of owners who don’t operate like that (a bunch don’t even live in the cities their teams play in and aren’t around the office much). I generally think this is a good thing. I’ve long thought it was a strength of Patriots owner Robert Kraft that he didn’t abandon his business principles (a lot of owners do) in how he runs his football operation. It took six years for Kraft to home in on that and get it right, and a lot of other successful owners have to go through that process, too, a process that Tepper is in the midst of right now. Could Reich be collateral damage to Tepper figuring it out? I don’t think so, yet. But the fact that the coach is vocal about it means, to me, the situation down there, with an 0–5 team, is at least worth paying attention to. And by the way, no, Ben Johnson didn’t pull his name out of the Panthers’ search because he was leery of Tepper or GM Scott Fitterer. The timing simply wasn’t quite right, and Johnson had a really good situation in Detroit. Link: What we're hearing on NFL coaching changes in trade deadline targets

Nicole had a similar rapport with Stroud. He even referred to her as "Mama Tepp". I don't really buy into the idea that Nicole has any major influence on the team. To be honest, it isn't necessary. Her husband having influence is enough.

I'm not the sort of person who likes conspiracy theories, but there is a possibility there when you factor in narcissistic personality types. Jerry Jones interpreted the lack of success under Bill Parcells as evidence that his hands-on approach was just as good as allowing a football guy to run things. Likewise, it's not hard to imagine David Tepper seeing the mess that was made under Rhule as evidence that he needed to be more involved in the day-to-day operation rather than less involved. That's easily consistent with how Type-A personality people think.

Let's be clear on one thing though... Even if all of this turns out to be true, none of it means that Young is a bust. It's still way too early to say that, and there are still reasons to believe Young can become the franchise quarterback he was envisioned to be. The practical upshot of all this is not that Young is bad. Rather it's the Tepper is bad and needs to take his hands completely off the operation. But of course, we already knew that 🫥

There had been reports that Tepper liked Young. There had been reports that Reich liked Stroud. But up to now, there had not been any credible reports that Tepper actually influenced the decision. Such reports, however, have started to emerge. One thing you have to be clear on is that it's not necessarily being said that Tepper made the decision, just that he influenced it. There's a subtle difference between those things. Unfortunately though, the result is the same. What these stories have me thinking back to is Tepper's discussion of the dinner with Young. He raved about Young being able to break down a play that Reich brought up. If there's a moment we can point to where the decision was made in his mind, that may well be it. And if, after that moment, he did indeed exert undue influence...yeah, that's not good.

This year wasn't one of those years for anybody but Will Levis.

Not suggesting this as a preferred alternative, but it crossed my mind so I'm curious to people's thoughts... What if the suggested offer involved a first, an additional mid-round pick and Jahmyr Gibbs rather than Williams?

There's a lot of "what if" in this scenario. Granted, that's kind of the nature of the topic, but still...

Highly doubt you'd have gotten Stroud at third overall. Young and Stroud we're always going to go 1 and 2. It was just a matter of who they went to. Richardson's already on IR.

Lack of patience when it's needed can get you fired too

All reports were that came from McAdoo. Now if you wanna say trusting McAdoo was a mistake, is agree. Never really heard anything from the perspective of the scouts, but then you normally wouldn't.

At the ones where we're watching a football game, absolutely. Others? Not so much

Behind the scenes articles from multiple sources confirmed all QB decisions during his tenure were pretty much all made by Rhule. The lone exception: picking up Darnold's fifth year option was Fitterer's choice.

My answer to this is pretty simple... I couldn't. Hell, I doubt I could be a better GM than Marty Hurney and most Huddlers probably know how I feel about him. Even the personnel people who might be bad if their job still have tons more resources, training and experience than I'll ever have. I get the game (basically all hindsight, mind you) but that's my answer.

MLFootball and a few other Twitter accounts like it (NFLrums, for example) have been called out by real reporters like Albert Breer and others for stealing news without attribution and occasionally mixing that with items that are completely made up. They get reported, sometimes get taken down but then just come back with a new name.

I'd at least ask for a first and second, but honestly I think I'd want somebody other than Williams on the player end.

That's fair 🫥

You shouldn't assume that. The tweet quoted is from an account that makes sh-t up.

That's why I suggested Colbert. He and Tepper are known to be friends. I could be okay with someone else, but I feel like Kevin Colbert is the only realistic possibility that meets the qualifications.

(okay, one more thread) The Panthers are in a bad state right now, with no clear or obvious path to a successful future. Unfortunately, as all too often happens in the corporate world, the person primarily in charge of helping us find that path is the single least qualified individual in the entire organization. That's why my hope for the team to crawl out of its quagmire is one extremely important step... David Tepper needs to completely abstain from any and all current and future football decisions. That means hiring, that means firing, that means promoting, that means adjusting, that means reorganizing, that means deemphasizing, that means title changes, that means office assignments..all of it. I don't want to see a single decision made anywhere from the top of the food chain down to the newest scouting intern or the most lowly coaching assistant until someone genuinely qualified is put in charge of those choices. Obviously, I have my thoughts about what should be done and others have theirs. We may or may not agree on the specifics, but I'd say the one thing upon which we can have damn near universal agreement is that David Tepper should not be making those calls, and it goes without saying (or ought to, at least) that neither should Nicole. Bring in someone with a proven resumé of success, let them review the team from top to bottom and follow whatever recommendations they give. Tepper needs to take his hands completely off the reins and let them be given to that person before anything else happens. To be clear, we don't have to wait until the offseason to get this started either. Contractual situations might prevent the team from making an outside hire, but absolutely nothing (outside of his own ego) would prevent David Tepper from stepping back. That needs to happen right now and the correct decision maker can then be found as soon as its possible to bring them in. My wish list for who needs to fill that role has long included one name, Kevin Colbert. If it winds up being someone else though, as long as they have an equally proven track record (FYI: that's a short list) I'll sign on. Don't care who gets hired, fired or whatever as long as someone I trust is doing it. David Tepper is not that someone. Bottom Line: Be it major changes, minor tweaks or a complete overhaul, I'll support it as long as the recommendation comes from a guy who knows what they're doing. Find that guy and let him get to work.

Logged on to check a couple of private messages, but also wanted respond to this... I expected having patience for Fitterer to be an unpopular sentiment (said so) but I base it in a few things: - I don't think it's fair to evaluate him based on the Rhule years because of the power structure - I've long said that you have to assess coaching and GM combinations more so than individuals, and this is only year one of this particular combo - Minus one or two potential exceptions, i see a lot to like in the current front office structure that Fitterer has built But here's the biggest point... I don't trust David Tepper to know who to fire any more than I trust him to know who to hire. The guy who dumped Ron Rivera while keeping Marty Hurney only to let Hurney and Steve Drummond (basically two PR guys making football decisions) replace him with Matt Rhule has done absolutely nothing to earn anyone's trust. That's why I wouldn't want to see any decision made without a consultant like Kevin Colbert or someone similarly qualified advising the decision. Bring somebody like that in and I'd sign on to pretty much whatever suggestion they make. Letting Tepper do anything at all on his own prior to that is just too big a risk. We could easily end up throwing the baby out with the bathwater and starting a new chapter of the same story.

Not exactly, truly just long enough to respond to a couple of people. Meant for it to be in the other thread, but hey... I will address one other thing though. No, that was most assuredly not intentional, but it figures

I hadn't planned to reply in this thread at all, but with the other moved (a decision I understand) and locked (a little confused by that one) it's not possible there. Big thanks for alerting me, LP. The reason I'm responding though doesn't really have much to do with me personally. It's more of an FYI. Specifically, I'd suggest folks might wanna read this from Igo: Pertinent to The Huddle in general, I think...but judge for yourselves. For now, best wishes

Now that I've written about the team. The other question is what about me? For those who are interested, here's my story, one I'll start off by setting the record straight... Yes, I got pretty pissed off at a conversation with a mod, partially because I didn't say what I was accused of saying but also because despite requests for further discussion and clarification, the mod in question stopped responding to me at all. Others were unreachable, but the one other with whom I did still have some communication understood what I was saying (appreciated that). Mind you, I've had discussions with mods before, been willing to admit when I was wrong and able to continue without issue. I've also had (sometimes contentious) discussions with other posters, but generally found it possible to reconcile with the reasonable ones. This particular event came at a bad time though.. During the week in question, I was shuttling Lady Cowboy Fan back and forth to the emergency room on pretty much a daily basis and I was tired as hell. That, combined with the general mood of things left me ready to not just leave, but to ask that any and all previous content I had written here be erased. I've had a chance since then to reflect and consider things. Have I changed my mind? Partially. While I'm no longer requesting to have all previous content deleted, I'm also not planning to continue being a regular contributor here. The general mood of things is part of it. I get the argument that the team being bad means the fanbase is angry, but the reality is that there's a difference between angry and just plain silly. A pretty solid portion of the discussion right now is on the wrong side of that line. And yes, that includes some of the people who are responsible for moderating content. On top of that, you've got some folks who revel in things being terrible. If you've ever read "The Plague" by Albert Camus, you might remember a character by the name of Cottard. He was basically a small time thief and a nobody before the proverbial plague started but rose in prominence while it was going on. When it was over, he went back to being nobody and as a result, missed the terrible atmosphere of the plague. The Huddle certainly has its fair share of Cottards, people who've got nothing of any value or worth to say when things are good but want to be all over the place shouting from the rooftops and beating their chests when everything goes sour. (this is true in real life too, but that's a separate discussion) For the record, these things (and others) are why several others have expressed to me that they're abandoning the Huddle as well. I won't attempt to speak for them, but one of the common concerns is that when the vast majority of discussion goes no deeper than "everything sucks, fire everybody" and anyone who tries to say otherwise gets shouted down by the doom and gloomers or attacked by the Cottards, it just isn't fun. Fun and diversion were really the only reasons to come here. I never came here for the purpose of bolstering my ego (definitely came to the wrong place if that was the purpose) but rather because I enjoy discussing football, particularly Panthers football. Yes, even when the team was bad. But it's not fun right now, and it isn't really a diversion either. Nor is that diversion needed as much as it used to be. In the early part of this year I retired, and that with my own health concerns being a big part of the reason why. Previously, a lot of my posting was done while I had free time at work. Now, free time is all I have. And while Lady Cowboy Fan is still working, it still means that there's more time for us, our pets and our family. I realized over the last few weeks that I was still spending a lot of time on the Huddle just out of habit, but that was cutting into other activities which would have been time better spent. So for that reason more than anything else, I'm not going to be here on any sort of regular basis... and quite possibly not much at all. Bottom Line, for what it's worth: the reason I decided to leave in the first place isn't the reason I decided to stay gone. On a positive note, Lady Cowboy Fan and I have purchased tickets to this year's Panthers Cowboys game. It'll be the first regular season game either of us have attended, and her first chance to see her favorite team in person. We're both excited about that. There is, however, the possibility that it might not happen. Both of us have health concerns, and the prospect of spending an entire day out like that is a bit daunting for us. We're both hoping, but it's not guaranteed. Beyond that though, I'm just hoping to see the team I've cheered for since its inception to finally turn the corner. My mother died at age 61. My brother made it just a few days past his 62nd birthday before he passed. I share a similar health profile to the two of them and I'm currently 56. Meanwhile, Lady Cowboy Fan is in her late 40s s but has had a heart condition since her 20s as well as other health concerns since, many of which have manifested themselves over the past year or so. So with that in mind, and no longer being burdened with having to work 40 hours a week, I want to prioritize the right things. Talking on the internet isn't one of them. So while this may not exactly be a firm goodbye for me, it is notice of a rather significant stepping away. Not from the team of course, but from the Huddle. I bear no one any ill will in this (internet discussion isn't important enough for that). It's not an emotional decision. It's just what I feel is the right one. So for the online friends that I've made, best wishes . For the fun discussions that we've had, thanks. And to all Panthers fans on the Huddle and everywhere else, one simple message... Keep pounding.