Mr. Scot

I imagine Tabor will be asked about that tomorrow.

Wouldn't deny that. The decision to employ zone blocking when we had a bunch of maulers on the line was baffling. Likewise, depth chart decisions like sticking with Sanders and sitting Blackshear when he was leading the league in kickoff returns made no sense. Even with all that said though, if Tepper or Fitterer pushed Bryce Young over Reich's wishes, he has a very legitimate complaint. (not that I think he'll air it)

I've been complaining about Reich playing a scheme that didn't fit the personnel for weeks. That, plus his depth chart decisions (like sitting Blackshear). I get firing Reich to a certain point. I don't necessarily think now was the time to do it. And if the stories about Tepper interfering in the draft decisions are true, It might not have been warranted at all.

Are we sure they let go of the right "cooks" though?

Wouldn't bet on it

Staley's not the offensive line coach, nor is the offensive line coach the guy that decided to play a scheme who didn't fit our personnel.

Wilson arrived too late in the offseason to make any real impact on this year's team, and he's got a very good rep as a player personnel guy. Dumping him would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

This is Sanjay again, isn't it? Would you like to tell us about two tight end sets and The Appaloosa Way?

Bieniemy already interviewed with Tepper once. He hired Matt Rhule instead

I care in a morbid sorta way

Dianna Russini already reported that "leadership" was pushing Reich to make the offense look more like what Young ran in Alabama.

It's been quoted from league insiders like Stephen Holder, Will Beinson and others.

Did he or Fitterer influence the decision to draft Young over Stroud, though? If so, there's nothing to stand on.

So it turns out this was already a concern last year...

My eye test tells me a lot different. Hell, people were talking about Chuba being one of our best offensive players yesterday. You have to throw in Blackshear as well.

And now this from NFL insider Jeff Howe...

Oy

You haven't actually watched any of the games this year, have you?

Eisen's segment is pretty savage. Haven't listened to the others yet, but I can guess they'll probably sound similar.

Have you given any thought to staying completely out of all football decisions?

How many passes has he dropped this year?

Not getting that at all...

Hence the problem with many NFL owners: they'd rather listen to themselves, some random apparition or even a gentleman on the street instead of hiring smart football people to do smart football things. Tepper keeps saying he isn't making the decisions even though it's transparently obvious he is forcing the hand of his personnel people. These guys have made billions of dollars hiring smart business people to do smart business things, but for some reason don't want to do the same with smart football people. Football is not business, even though there is a business to football. Tepper knows how to handle the latter and he is very good at it. But when it comes to the former, he's very bad at it. And the Panthers won't are doomed for a long walk through the desert until he realizes the difference between the two.

The quarterbacks But it could be worse? Tepper constantly harps on the need for a franchise quarterback but it's clear he isn't capable of 1) identifying one or 2) letting his football people identify one. Like Rivera, Tepper inherited Newton when he bought the team. It's almost forgettable now, but the Panthers dumping Cam during the 2019 offseason was a big deal. It was basically Rhule's first move, which ultimately would become as much a symbol of his sloppy regime in Charlotte as his wrinkled owners' meetings khakis. ... Rhule came in and went 5-11 with Teddy Bridgewater starting 15 of the teams 16 games. Christian McCaffrey got hurt (Ron can take the L for that one, for sure), there was a pandemic, we had tons of Zoom calls, yada yada yada. 2020 was a weird year and Rhule got a pass for it. But Bridgewater was wildly overpaid in free agency and given just a single year before it was time to move on to the Sam Darnold Experience the following offseason. Bear in mind, before trading for Darnold, the Panthers desperately tried to trade for a slew of other veteran quarterbacks. Piece together the various accounts and they whiffed on Matthew Stafford, Russell Wilson and maybe Aaron Rodgers. Quarterbacks weren't interested in coming to Carolina. Even Carson Wentz declined! Hence the deal for Darnold, who was done with the Jets after they drafted Zach Wilson. ... In theory, the move to acquire Darnold seemed like a smart buy-low move. In practice, immediately picking up his fifth-year option was just bad business. And dealing a second-round pick for Darnold was a pretty outrageous price, even if you could convince yourself at the time it was a decent gamble for a former top pick. Darnold obviously flamed out for Carolina, going 4-7, leading to the Panthers bringing back Cam midseason and then later playing P.J. Walker for a game. Enter Baker Mayfield, because why not keep firing draft assets? Baker was at least cheap, but in the same offseason the Panthers dealt a ton of unnecessary assets to move up and grab Matt Corral in the third round of a bad quarterback draft. Ole Miss is an ~allegedly~ lovely place, Lane Kiffin rules, but I told Panthers fans what would happen with this trade. Baker would be released midseason, end up on the Rams and Darnold/Walker finishing things out for Steve Wilks after Rhule was fired. ... Tired of whiffing small at the quarterback position, it became clear Tepper demanded his front office swing BIG this past offseason. So the Panthers dealt an outrageous pile of assets for the right to move up to first overall, where they would take Young. Young's acquisition has multiple components that raise red flags for Tepper. The process was an abject failure from start to finish and this is where it falls back on the owner. Every single Panthers pro day visit featured an absurdly large traveling party -- 14 people in tow for each visit -- turning every single one of them into a "look at me" event of self-indulgent grandiose that it could make you ask who was calling the shots on what quarterback would be taken with the No. 1 pick. ... Would it be Fitterer, the general manager? Reich? Tepper -- choose between owner David and wife Nicole both of whom have zero football evaluation experience and both of whom were present at each of those pro days? Josh McCown? And who would they take? It made for fun draft catnip until the tides turned for Young. That C.J. Stroud has been better is just a dog kicking dirt backwards -- the trade itself to move up was idiotic in the moment and only looks worse now that the Panthers are sinking into a bog of despondence. ... Right now, 12 weeks into Carolina's season, you could justifiably say the Panthers gave up: Caleb Williams, Jalen Carter, D.J. Moore, 2 (two) second-round picks for Bryce Young Sub in Drake Maye for Caleb if you want. Or Darnell Wright for Jalen, but make sure to add in the assets the Bears got by moving down a spot so the Eagles could get the best player in the draft class. All in the wildly overaggressive pursuit of a quarterback. ... Which reminds me ... if you believe the rumor mill, Tepper whiffed on Matthew Stafford, Aaron Rodgers, Deshaun Watson, Russell Wilson and -- gulp -- Carson Wentz in trying to acquire them via trade. No one wanted to come to Carolina. Not even Carson Wentz. The Tom Brady deal apparently drove him crazy, believing he could just sprint out and find someone to immediately flip the Panthers' fortunes. Connect the dots and the timing of the Corral and Young trades make even more sense. After being spurned in free agency, Tepper refused to be patient in the draft and pressed on his front office and coaching staff to make moves he wanted. It's straight out of the Haslam playbook, sans the homeless man who told Haslam to draft Johnny Manziel.

The coaches When Tepper hires his next head coach, it will be his SEVENTH coach since buying the team in 2018, including interims. Every single coach he's hired or inherited has been fired in the middle of the season, which means he's got three full-time head coaches and three interim head coaches under his short watch. Ron Rivera was probably at the end of his rope, but he'd been with Carolina long enough to warrant finishing out the season. "Riverboat'' got sunk midseason -- Carolina was 5-7 -- by Tepper during the owner's second year and replaced by Perry Fewell as the interim. Rivera's firing was part of a larger overhaul, including the eventual ouster of GM Marty Hurney and pushing out long-time fan favorite quarterback Cam Newton (more on that in a second). ... Tepper followed Rivera with an aggressively public pursuit of Matt Rhule, who he is still paying a boat ton of money to after firing five games into the third year of a massive, lengthy contract that pulled him from the college game. A good chunk of that money is offset by Rhule's new gig in Nebraska. He was a disaster as an NFL head coach so firing him was a fine move, but Tepper's still the guy who hired him and, in the press conference announcing the hire, touted how Rhule "dresses like poo and sweats all over himself" while simultaneously comparing Rhule to Steelers dynasty architect Chuck Noll. Sure! Reich -- one of the most respected coaches in football -- would be next and he's clearly the scapegoat for this disaster season. Reich didn't even make it to the end of Rhule's contract, much less his own. Young has been terrible and it's especially bad when juxtaposed with No. 2 overall pick C.J. Stroud's performance in Houston. There's no sign of Young developing into a franchise quarterback, although reasonable minds can agree it's impossible to know based on what's going on around him. Was Reich was hired to develop the Panthers first overall pick? Or was he hired to win immediately? Neither has happened but the decision to fire him 11 weeks in surely indicates a lack of patience on Tepper's part. Even Urban Meyer got 13 games from the Jaguars two years ago. ... Chris Tabor takes over as interim head coach, with Jim Caldwell severing as Senior Assistant to OC Thomas Brown, who will ostensibly go back to calling plays for the second time this season. The Panthers had four coaches from 1995 through 2018 and have had six in the seven years since. What a mess.