Mr. Scot

And Rhule will be okay with hiring a guy who could potentially replace him?

We don't have smart people in charge.

Sure does. Sounds a lot like when people were defending Michael Vick because "it really takes this many years to learn the West Coast Offense." Right now, Rhule just needs a third year. And when that fails, he'll just need a fourth year. And so on, and so on, and...

Bringing back a coach who stinks at his job and is clearly in over his head will always bother me, regardless what year of his contract he's in.

If your defense is only good against the pass or good against the run but terrible against the other, it's terrible.

Keeping Rhule also constitutes throwing money away, and it puts you a year back on finding a real NFL coach who can start a true rebuild.

Ia it really a promotion if you're joining a dumpster fire though? For a young guy on the rise, coming here could be like self sabotage. The Morgan connection helps Dorsey, but it's also at least conceivable that Morgan says "Don't do it, man."

Fixed.

Tre Boston and Will Kunkel calling bullsh-t too...

Jeff Nixon, Sean Ryan or Marcus Satterfield. Maybe Kevin Gilbride Sr.

I haven't seen much of anybody say he would be gone. I've seen plenty suggest that he should.

I'm never a fan of stats like that because if teams are converting on 2nd down (or even 1st or 4th) it skews things.

And don't give me the "ranked #2" bit. That's based on yards allowed and it's bullsh-t.

I hear a lot of people talking about this team say, "Well at least the defense is good." Is it, though? The defense I've been watching since Week 4 or so has shown occasional flashes, but they've been far from consistently good and have been basically run over on several occasions. I know some will say "That's because the offense can't stay on the field". And while it's true they can't, that doesn't really excuse defensive letdowns in the first half or the third quarter after they've had all of halftime to rest and (allegedly) adjust. I'd throw in that I think praise for Phil Snow is overblown. It only took most teams a couple of very easy adjustments (keep in extra blockers, run at our smaller defenders) to blunt the effectiveness of his attacks. And if he's made moves in an attempt to counter those adjustments, I haven't noticed. So tell me, is the defense really as good as some are saying or is it just an illusion?

It's all true. Tepper is pushing in the direction of being worse than Jerry Richardson (some would argue he's already there).

Pretty sure nobody currently on staff has ever been higher than a position coach at the NFL level.

That'd be a ridiculously dumbsh-t path to take. But then Tepper doing dumbsh-t things shouldn't exactly be shock anyone.

Bottom Line: I just don't see Rhule going outside his circle unless he's absolutely forced to, and that makes for a very awkward situation to say the least.

Ellis theorized Rhule could reach out to Kevin Gilbride Jr's father. Kevin Sr. was the Giants OC when Rhule was there, and as of last year he was still coaching in a developmental league somewhere. Mind you, he's also 70, so there's that It's also possible Rhule could make Nixon or one of the other guys his OC and bring Gilbride Sr. in as a consultant to help him out. Then he could turn around and say "See? I have someone with NFL experience now!"

A lot of people will. But they may also check out until Rhule is gone.

How's Mike McCarthy doing? Kevin Stefanski? Hell, Ron Rivera? Every team in the NFL had to deal with the virus crap, not just us. And again, the team is worse this year than it was in 2020, and that not due to factors outside Rhule's control.

I seriously doubt you're alone. I fully expect "already there" to be a common answer.

I do. Every other team in the league had to operate under the same conditions. And hell, if you allow for the fact that last year was a challenging situation, how then do you account for the fact that this year's team was worse?

As far as the OC spot, if it's not Nixon (I suspect it will be, but allowing for other options) Rhule could still reach out to guys from his prior staff like Jake Peetz, DJ Mangas or even Marcus Satterfield.

If Rhule is brought back, will that be enough for you to bail on the Panthers or would it take more? If more, what?