Mr. Scot

Erving and Elflein were both day one of free agency so it's not like prospects were dwindling. They signed the guys they signed, and they did so because they wanted to. Anything else is hypothetical.

In the same vein, I don't fault Rhule for wanting full control anywhere near as much as I do David Tepper for giving it to him.

You make some odd distinctions for the sake of arguing with people. Rhule putting too much importance on versatility isn't a separate issue from his inability to evaluate linemen, it's part of it. As to Rhule's fate, most of us expect him to be back. We just don't think he should be.

I know it's not a popular opinion, but I don't think the defense is genuinely as good as what many have made it out to be. Yes there's talent, but I'm not convincing Phil Snow is the defensive guru he gets credit for being. The initial dominance was countered with some fairly simple adjustments (going max protect, for example) and I've yet to see a truly effective counterpunch deployed from our end. Heck, the last couple of games have served to make it look like we're just getting worse.

That's kinda like having a doctor ask which symptom you want him to treat. The correct answer is "treat what's causing the symptoms". Take the line, for example. They were what they were because what Rhule cared about most was versatility, and that's what he got.

Even better, there's a quarterback Rhule recruited in college. Kenny Pickett committed to Temple just before Rhule moved on to Baylor.

I don't give a sh-t what school a quarterback is from if he's good. I've watched Willis. He's not. (not against decent competition, anyway)

Rhule comes across publicly as a nice guy, but in private, don't know...

Not such a great state of being... (but Panther fans know it well)

You're missing the point. There's one common denominator to all of these problems. That would be the guy who hired the coaches and had final say on the players. The problem is Rhule. Better support in either area would just be postponing the inevitable.

Not hiring a majority of his staff from the college ranks (and specifically the Baylor and Temple ranks) probably also would have helped.

I've had a pretty similar position when we've been in this spot before (which, sadly, seems to happen a lot). I will always cheer for my team to win, but if they do happen to lose their remaining games and dump Rhule as a result, I won't be all that upset.

Really starting to sound like Meyer won't make it to season's end...

Generally speaking, "allowing your football folks to operate with freedom" is a good thing... ... except when your "football folk" is Marty Hurney. (or Matt Rhule)

Howdy, John.

The Eagles did that a while back. About two years later, they found they weren't getting any real value out of it and mercifully put an end to the thing. It's okay though. Ours will be different! Our version will work!

That's part of my issue with Tepper though. He wants to be the smartest guy in the room...but he's not. Every once in a while the league gets someone who wants to do things different than the norm because he thinks it'll be innovative. Such folks frequently find out that there's good reason why things are done a certain way.

Between he and his dad, Hackett's past experience has put him in contact with several former head coaches, the most prominent of which would be Jon Gruden (also his brother Jay). But for obvious reasons, Jon isn't likely to be part of his coaching staff. Jay, maybe. The former head coach I'd most likely expect to be offered a staff position is Doug Marrone. Hackett and Marrone go way back. Plus he's got a pretty solid rep as an OL coach. There's also several DC options with head coaching backgrounds. Those include Jim Schwartz, Gus Bradley, Mike Pettine and even Wade Phillips. Others: Tom Cable, Rod Marinelli, current Raiders interim coach Rich Bisaccia and even our old buddy Rob Chudzinski. Hackett with Jim Schwartz as his DC, Rich Bisaccia running special teams and someone like Marrone or Juan Castillo coaching the O-Line would be a dream scenario.

I can't see this one because it's behind a paywall. Is it an Ellis Williams article? He's pretty good.

Yikes

You think a year and a half is enough to judge Brady as the worst ever, but not Rhule? Okay (guessing you're not familiar with Jeff Davidson)

Better than the worst coach we've ever had? I'd certainly like to think so. To be clear, I'm fine with the search being trusted to Scott Fitterer and Dan Morgan. Or if we go outside to someone like Kevin Colbert.

Tepper's "search committee" was Marty Hurney, PR guy Steven Drummond and himself.

Quoting from Pelissero's article... Good grief! Why would anyone want to work with this guy?

Offensive line is supposed to be a Rhule specialty (he was assistant OL coach with the Giants). But given his devotion to versatility above all (among other things) it seems more evident to me that he doesn't know his ass from third base.