Mr. Scot

Are you actually certain you can get that for Robbie though? I'll confess I don't know what the deal is with Akers or why he wants to be traded. Obviously if he's looking for an uncontested number one role, that's not available here.

Kind of an appropriate movie reference... I suppose if they ever do a movie about Rhule, it'll be entitled "Bullsh-tter, Bullsh-tter". (or maybe just "Bullsh-t, Bullsh-t")

Was Pepsi still the official soft drink of the Panthers at the time?

He was injured?

I'm not even sure he went to that much effort. My guess would be he already had the document from his Baylor days, so all he had to do was go in and change it to say Carolina instead of Baylor, Panthers instead of Bears. Who knows? It previously might have been entitled "The Way of the Bear". Hell, at one point it may have been "The Way of the Owl"

From what I remember, Seifert didn't have a "press conference" per se. What happened was that he went and met with the players and talked to them about what they were going to be working on for next year despite having already been informed that he'd been fired. Shortly thereafter, they were told what had happened. Players found it kind of surreal.

It actually feels different today...in a way that's hard to explain. There's an old Irish joke where a leprechaun agrees to grant a man three wishes, with the caveat that whatever he gives him, his worst enemy will receive also, but twice as much. Rooting for the Panthers under Matt Rhule always felt like being the butt of that joke. I never cheered for us to lose under Rhule, but it often felt like winning came with certain...drawbacks. Specifically, winning also meant that Rhule was winning, which potentially meant more of Rhule. That particular nightmare is happily over.

Would you swap, say, Anderson for Akers?

Really can't believe there were players still defending this guy. I mean I get the reason why (it's what they do) but damn Robbie Anderson in particular is the guy with arguably the deepest connection and the strongest defense. It almost feels like Robbie has to be traded now because of his association.

But the people who did know are now talking. And the more we hear, the less surprised I am that David Tepper doesn't want to talk about it.

Jonathan Jones does his version of a post mortem on Matt Rhule here, and it's...insane Former Panthers coach Matt Rhule failed to meet standards he set at start of tenure in Carolina At the heart of the story is a document entitled "The Way of the Panther" in which Rhule set out "our way to win" and sought to foster an "us vs them" mentality within the organization. He then proceeded to fail to meet his own standards and create an environment in the building that was more everybody vs him. Ultimately, Rhule's "Way of the Panther" is just a retooled version of "The Brand" from Baylor (that particular phrase and its verbatim description are used therein). And according to Jones, by the time Rhule was fired it had become a massive joke among team staffers. Bottom Line: People hated this guy, and it shows. Excerpts follow: Obviously the wins (11-27) weren't there. The team could never find a franchise quarterback in the post-Cam Newton years (that also included Cam Newton!). And there were references to the NFL being a "limited resource business" (i.e. don't encourage trading away so many draft picks to be so far away from competing) and that there should be more balance between the head coach and general manager moving forward. The answers were vague but both plausible and acceptable. Ultimately, no one within the Panthers building should have been surprised by Monday's firing. ... A document, obtained by CBS Sports via a source, titled "The Way of the Panther" is purported to have been created by Rhule early in his time as Panthers coach. It amounts to a three-page treatise on the team's process and vision under Rhule. "Pepsi tastes like Pepsi 24 hours a day! We have a Brand at the Panthers," the document reads. "This Brand defines us both on the field and in everyday life. We are: The Toughest, Hardest Working, Most Competitive Team in the NFL." ... The first point was "don't beat ourselves." From the start of the 2020 season when Rhule became the coach through Week 5 of the 2022 season -- a timespan that will be used for all the statistics here and to follow -- the Panthers had the 11th-most penalties in the NFL. Their minus-three penalty margin was 13th-best in the league. Rhule wanted big explosive plays on offense and to limit them on defense. Carolina ranked 29th in offensive plays of 20-plus yards while giving up the 13th-fewest plays of 20-plus yards on defense. He wanted to win the turnover battle, but Carolina had a minus-14 turnover differential that ranked tied-for-25th in the league. Rhule desired to "Win the Line of Scrimmage." Carolina was 24th in yards per carry and 15th in yards per carry allowed. In seeking to protect its quarterback and affect the opponent's, Carolina was 23rd in sack percentage allowed and 21st in sack percentage. He also sought to win on third down and in the red zone. Carolina had the second-worst third-down offense in that timespan and the 25th-ranked third-down defense. Its red-zone offense was third-worst in the NFL and its red-zone defense ranked 27th. And a key point was to win the "middle 8" and "final 5." That meant the final four minutes of the first half and first four minutes of the second half, along with the final five minutes of the game. Carolina had a positive 11-point margin in the middle 8 (good for 16th in the league), but its minus-52 point margin in the final 5 was 29th in the league. ... The document states that "if you can't write down" this plan and "the Brand," the staff member is "not OOU." That is an acronym commonly used in the building that stands for "One Of Us." OOU was used regularly in the draft and free-agency process to determine what players Carolina should and should not target. The acronym came to be mocked regularly by some staffers in the last year-plus. Tepper said he had a "short, cordial" conversation with Rhule upon firing the head coach, calling him a "true gentleman." Tepper had allowed Ron Rivera to have a farewell press conference upon his 2019 firing, something rarely seen in the NFL. In the six days since Rhule's firing, the team has yet to even post a thank-you message on social media.

They're not. The story is bullsh-t.

Not hardly... People are calling the Panthers, not the other way around.

Correct. From the article... Listening hardly means the team is dealing McCaffrey. If the Panthers do not receive what they feel is a real offer -- with a high draft pick or multiple picks -- they are adamant that they will hold on to McCaffrey past the NFL's Nov. 1 trade deadline, sources told ESPN.

He hung onto a GM he loved for way too long.

I never bought the idea that Jerry Richardson didn’t care about winning. Like Tepper, he just didn’t know how. What’s most unfortunate is Tepper’s biggest issue is the same as Richardson’s. He trusts the wrong people.

It's not like this hasn't already happened to us. Ed Dodds was considered one of the better candidates for our GM job. Right after he interviewed, he dropped out of the search. We can theorize that was because of Matt Rhule, but who's to say there wasn't more to it than just that?

Lemme think about it. No. (and I didn't really think about it)

Damn

Irsay is crazy, but Chris Ballard isn't.

You think Lane Kiffin was the raiders top target?

The Colts job is considered a strong possibility. Arizona is becoming increasingly possible too. Speculation that the Lions job could open up but I wouldn't bet on it. Ditto the Broncos but with a new owner, who can say? Mike McCarthy could wind up on the outs also because Jerry Jones. Beyond that, there's almost always at least one surprise firing.

We've had stories already that we were trading Christian McCaffrey, DJ Moore, and now Brian Burns. Every single one of them has been bullsh-t.

He may want one, but can he get one? He's already indicated that he won't offer the same kind of control he did Rhule. Pair that with the fact that he's getting a rep as a bad owner to work for, and your choices start becoming limited.

I wouldn't be so sure of that. For one, when asked about the deal he gave Rhule, Tepper said he needed to "conform" more to standard coaching contracts. He's clearly aware of how much ill will that first contract caused. If he does that again, and blows it again, it just makes things that much worse. Second, Jones confirmed what other sources have said about Tepper getting a rep around the league as someone you don't want to work for. The Panthers seem to be gaining the image of a place nobody wants to go. That could result in a situation where anybody who's actually any good and has other options will look somewhere else but, as the agent in the article mentioned, use Tepper for leverage. We're starting to feel like the Raiders under an aging Al Davis.