Mr. Scot

From John Ellis... FYI: The pictured comments could also conceivably be applied to Kellen Moore

I'll throw in that while he acknowledges the possibility, Person doesn't sound like he puts much stock in Kellen Moore getting the OC job. Besides the fact that Moore is pretty likely to have a number of options (he's already set to interview with the Chargers) Moore isn't a student of Reich's system so their respective offenses wouldn't necessarily include the same concepts.

Joe Person had some comments regarding the timeline in his latest Athletic article. What we're hearing (subscription required) New Panthers coach Frank Reich is expected to report to work Monday at Bank of America Stadium. The first order of business: signing his four-year contract to make things official for the sixth full-time coach in team history. ... Reich is slated to begin meeting Monday with some of the Panthers’ assistant coaches who started the 2022 season under Matt Rhule and finished it under interim coach Steve Wilks. Wilks is not expected to talk with Reich after he was passed over for the full-time role. A source last week said it would be “weird” for the Panthers to offer Wilks another position on Reich’s staff since he interviewed for the head-coaching position after going 6-6 as the interim coach. ... Tepper and Fitterer encouraged head-coaching candidates to retain offensive line coach James Campen and special teams coordinator Chris Tabor, according to league sources familiar with the discussions. In an interview for the Panthers’ website, Reich said: “Our special teams has been really strong. Coach Tabor has done a fantastic job.” ... Reich indicated Tepper — who has noted previously there’s no salary cap for coaches — is willing to pay to bring in high-caliber assistants. One of the knocks on Rhule was his decision to fill his first Panthers staff with mostly college coaches who’d worked with him at Temple and Baylor.

Bill Polian talks about Reich... From the article: Bill Polian, the Pro Football Hall of Fame general manager, has hired Frank Reich twice at critical points during both men’s careers. The two have stayed in regular touch for decades. And Polian thinks it is important that Panthers fans understand that there’s a big misconception about Reich only being hired as Carolina’s next head coach because he is a former NFL quarterback who can coach that one position well. Said Polian in a phone interview: “Narratives can kind of take hold, and the narrative now about Frank is: ‘Well, he’s a quarterback whisperer and the Panthers are going to draft one and then he’ll develop him.’ But he’s much more than that. That’s part of his skill set, sure, but he’s an accomplished head coach. He’s innovative. He’s adaptive. Players love playing for him and coaches love coaching for him. Panther fans should be extremely happy.” ... As for how quickly Reich can get the Panthers into the postseason, Polian said it depended mostly on the offense. The Panthers’ defense, Polian said, is already close to playoff-quality, and he called defensive end Brian Burns a “game-wrecker.” But the Carolina offense needs several big pieces, he said. “You’ve got to solve quarterback, No. 1,” Polian said. “I think they probably need a lot more production from the tight end position…. Probably need more production from the second wide receiver (behind DJ Moore). ... And you need a dynamic running back. That guy isn’t here. (Former Buffalo star) Thurman Thomas isn’t here. Christian McCaffrey isn’t here. … So without those components — the most important of which is the quarterback — the offense is not going to be a playoff-quality offense.” But Polian is very bullish on Reich and concluded that he will fix the team, and do so with class. “Carolina is getting somebody,” Polian said, “that every Panther fan and every Charlottean can be proud of.”

Not that I've seen

It means that's who David Tepper might want as opposed to who Frank Reich wants.

Pretty much Part of me does kind of wish the NFL would steal one thing from pro wrestling though. If the referees get knocked down, you ought to be able to hit your opponents with a steel chair and then act like nobody saw it.

If we win the Super Bowl in the next few years, will it still be rigged? (or will we have just risen above the odds to triumph over a corrupt system?)

I got a feeling that's bullsh-t.

Or if the Bengals had created a turnover and scored themselves...then what happens?

There aren't always "consequences", but occasionally there is scapegoating.

Mentioned it elsewhere, but will repeat here that I don't believe "owner's preference" should be any sort of factor in these decisions. David Tepper needs to keep his dumb ass out of the assistant coach hiring process.

NFL officiating has absolutely gone to sh-t in the last ten years or so. Instructions like the one I mentioned above are probably part of that, but for whatever reason, the quality has just become terrible.

I don't know how many people remember, but over the last few years the NFL has told its officials to refrain from calling offensive holding except in absolutely blatant cases. Said directive came after a down year in offensive production, if I remember correctly. What constitutes "blatant" is, of course, a judgment call. That particular bit of guidance tends to really show up in the playoffs. And although they'd probably never admit to it, one of the things a lot of offensive line coaches do Is help their guys learn exactly how they can better get away with committing such penalties. Personal opinion: I'd guess highly regarded Eagles OL coach Jeff Stoutland could probably show you a thing or two about that.

I've stated before, and will state again, that I don't believe the NFL is rigged. This particular incident though was an example of absolutely gross incompetence. It easily goes down as one of the worst things I've seen in over fifty years of watching football. I won't be at all surprised if somebody is fired over it. You could make a pretty good argument that somebody should be.

Post game... Someone also edited the City of Cincinnati's Wikipedia page to show Travis Kelce as the mayor

Ah...

I have no idea who he is

Quoting Anderson, Riot Report sums up our current situation as follows...

I've always found it funny how the NFL goes from rigged to not rigged whenever the bad calls benefit us.

I actually like Bradley, but I know a lot of people don't.

I'm certain he wins every intelligence contest he judges

And if we had gone with one of the young options, I could have seen that making a little sense. An experienced head coach? And one who's got a lot better record of winning than most of the people associated with this team? Not so much

About everything we've seen is speculation. Will be nice to see some actual headlines.