Mr. Scot

Don't the local guys typically take holiday weeks off?

Yeah... I'm not reading that. I just wanted to see if you were actually dumb enough to take the bait.

I'd suggest you go back about ten years or so and research everything as thoroughly as possible.

Haven't read much on it, but I do know that was Doug Marrone's final year too so I'm guessing things were headed south.

Well, they still know more than you do. (granted, that's a low bar to clear)

One year ago tomorrow... Happier days

Definitely not a fan of promoting anyone on our staff. Lots of speculation from analysts that this will be "the year of the retread" but I'm just not that keen on the idea. College coaches? Never again (though Harbaugh's not a pure college coach). Kellen Moore's not experienced enough. Obviously, my favorite is Hackett.

I'd point you back to this thread by Ricky Spanish... Quite a bit of discussion on that topic within.

In their opinion, it is. That's the problem.

Approaching this from the coldheartedly realistic side... It's not Matt Rhule's job to give Cam Newton a proper sendoff or to make his fans happy. We sh-t all over Ron Rivera for trying to give older players storybook endings, and rightly so. Rhule's job is to win professional football games, and if benching Cam Newton is the best way to do that, he'd be thoroughly justified in doing so. That's a perfectly valid argument... ...with one major flaw Matt Rhule has shown quite clearly that he doesn't really know how to win professional football games, so why should we trust his judgment on this decision anymore than we trust it on others? Me? I'm no professional but of it were my ass on the line, I'd keep Newton as the starter through the rest of the season. ... Course, if it were my ass on the line, I'd like to think I wouldn't have hired a college coaching staff to do a professional job

Zylstra basically described a West Coast Offense (with a few modifications). And while WCO 101 might be valuable info, it doesn't exactly answer the question. Throw in also that the best West Coast type attacks include at least occasional deep passes.

Yeah, if they can run on us they'll beat us, and they probably can. On the flipside, I expect Todd Bowles to blitz the living sh-t out of us.

Just to be clear, what do you think should happen with Matt Rhule?

Honestly, the more telling response to me came yesterday when Newton was asked what's wrong with the passing game. His answer? "I don't know". I'm not sure I buy that at all, but it's not hard to imagine that he might have to refrain from saying what he's actually thinking.

If Rhule is back, I have a pretty tough time believing Newton will be. If he's not, it depends pretty heavily on who the next head coach is and what he wants.

From today... It's not all that farfetched to read between the lines of those statements and see "Hey, thanks for everything...See ya later"

The Saints had something like eight coaches and I forget how many players out with the virus that week. I wouldn't put any money on us beating the Bucs.

If Tepper doesn't already see how bad Rhule is, I'm worried that he won't.

Sure they did, and between Erving, Elflein, Christensen and Brown they likely believed they had upgraded the OL. Lack of effort could actually have turned out better. Effort paired with incompetence is something far, far worse.

I remember reading that they specifically wanted Gregg Williams to be the DC. We all know now that Rhule wasn't going anywhere without Phil Snow.

I'm not sure who he starts matters on that front. The whole team looks incompetent regardless.

Peters was apparently offered a raise / promotion to Assistant GM. Ed Dodds was more likely the guy who didn't like the power structure. Not a problem to Fitterer, though. For him, it was no change from what he was part of in Seattle.

With the two week interview window the NFL added this season, there actually is.

You don't remember the last time you saw Blakeman?

Worse...incompetence. Basically, Rhule.