Mr. Scot

I don't think anyone can guarantee that he will. The one encouraging thing I can say is that he has at least seen and been able to admit when he's made mistakes. Whether they're responses he makes to those mistakes might or might not also be a mistakes is another story.

That and people leaving...

"Happy with the pick" isn't the same as "preferred choice".

Gotta take it in context with the other reports to put it all together. Breer explains that it worked for Kraft because he "figured it out", i.e. learned how to push for results while also keeping his hands off the actual operation. His take is that Tepper hasn't figured that out yet.

I have a hard time imagining Tupper working with Jim Harbaugh. I'm also not as big a believer in Harbaugh as some others. The thing about Colbert though is that he's someone who's already friends with Tepper, and someone who Tepper is known to trust. Given his ego, I think Colbert is the only realistic shot you've got at getting someone who can overrule Tepper. Whether or not Colbert would do it? Unknown.

Influence vs direct orders, but the results are the same...

He won them at a time when there was no salary cap and he could just overpay for the best players. Also on the heels of the Herschel Walker trade which was engineered by Jimmy Johnson, not Jones.

Also, here's more from Greer on Dan Patrick's show...

Hire a guy like Kevin Colbert (preferably Colbert himself) to run the football operation, let that guy assess the organization from top to bottom and do whatever he recommends. Make no changes whatsoever until you have that guy in place.

Key passage: ...it sounds like what I’ve heard from others who’ve worked for Tepper—he’s taken his approach to running a hedge fund into the NFL world, in keeping his thumb on those who work for him and keeping heat on everyone to perform. And Reich is correct to say there are a lot of owners who don’t operate like that (a bunch don’t even live in the cities their teams play in and aren’t around the office much). I think it was Charles Robinson who previously said there were a lot of reports that Tepper was considered around the league as a difficult person to work for. Stories like this don't exactly help that reputation.

Albert Breer shared some insight into the current situation (posted elsewhere).

From Breer's latest mailbag... From JP (@Lilpopester): Do you think [Lions offensive coordinator] Ben Johnson pulled out because he knew Carolina would offer him, and he saw how controlling [David] Tepper is? No chance Scott [Fitterer] and Frank [Reich] both make it to next season. From Jason Green (@HeelofaPanther): You sure Frank keeps his job if the Panthers finish with two wins or less? JP and Jason, I’m taking both of you at once, because I wouldn’t have even considered that Frank Reich would be in jeopardy after a single year until I saw what he said Monday about where his relationship is with Carolina owner David Tepper. Take a look. “He wants to bring a winner to the Carolinas,” Reich said from the podium. “He wants it now. He pushes me, and pushes us, to that end. He wants to do whatever it takes, turn over every stone, churn it as much as he has to to produce winning football. So I appreciate those conversations. They’re always very challenging. He’s a super-competitive person. He’s not going to sit idly by. … “There’s different philosophies in ownership. Some owners kind of stay away and don’t engage a whole lot. Other owners do. And his philosophy is he’s gonna engage. And, listen, it’s only been a short experience, but it’s been a really good experience. It hasn’t been fun. It’s not fun. Those meetings aren’t—I wouldn’t characterize them as fun meetings. But those meetings make me better, and I trust they make us better.” First of all, I appreciate the honesty from Reich and a window into the unique partnerships owners have with their coaches. Second, it sounds like what I’ve heard from others who’ve worked for Tepper—he’s taken his approach to running a hedge fund into the NFL world, in keeping his thumb on those who work for him and keeping heat on everyone to perform. And Reich is correct to say there are a lot of owners who don’t operate like that (a bunch don’t even live in the cities their teams play in and aren’t around the office much). I generally think this is a good thing. I’ve long thought it was a strength of Patriots owner Robert Kraft that he didn’t abandon his business principles (a lot of owners do) in how he runs his football operation. It took six years for Kraft to home in on that and get it right, and a lot of other successful owners have to go through that process, too, a process that Tepper is in the midst of right now. Could Reich be collateral damage to Tepper figuring it out? I don’t think so, yet. But the fact that the coach is vocal about it means, to me, the situation down there, with an 0–5 team, is at least worth paying attention to. And by the way, no, Ben Johnson didn’t pull his name out of the Panthers’ search because he was leery of Tepper or GM Scott Fitterer. The timing simply wasn’t quite right, and Johnson had a really good situation in Detroit. Link: What we're hearing on NFL coaching changes in trade deadline targets

Nicole had a similar rapport with Stroud. He even referred to her as "Mama Tepp". I don't really buy into the idea that Nicole has any major influence on the team. To be honest, it isn't necessary. Her husband having influence is enough.

I'm not the sort of person who likes conspiracy theories, but there is a possibility there when you factor in narcissistic personality types. Jerry Jones interpreted the lack of success under Bill Parcells as evidence that his hands-on approach was just as good as allowing a football guy to run things. Likewise, it's not hard to imagine David Tepper seeing the mess that was made under Rhule as evidence that he needed to be more involved in the day-to-day operation rather than less involved. That's easily consistent with how Type-A personality people think.

Let's be clear on one thing though... Even if all of this turns out to be true, none of it means that Young is a bust. It's still way too early to say that, and there are still reasons to believe Young can become the franchise quarterback he was envisioned to be. The practical upshot of all this is not that Young is bad. Rather it's the Tepper is bad and needs to take his hands completely off the operation. But of course, we already knew that 🫥

There had been reports that Tepper liked Young. There had been reports that Reich liked Stroud. But up to now, there had not been any credible reports that Tepper actually influenced the decision. Such reports, however, have started to emerge. One thing you have to be clear on is that it's not necessarily being said that Tepper made the decision, just that he influenced it. There's a subtle difference between those things. Unfortunately though, the result is the same. What these stories have me thinking back to is Tepper's discussion of the dinner with Young. He raved about Young being able to break down a play that Reich brought up. If there's a moment we can point to where the decision was made in his mind, that may well be it. And if, after that moment, he did indeed exert undue influence...yeah, that's not good.

This year wasn't one of those years for anybody but Will Levis.

Not suggesting this as a preferred alternative, but it crossed my mind so I'm curious to people's thoughts... What if the suggested offer involved a first, an additional mid-round pick and Jahmyr Gibbs rather than Williams?

There's a lot of "what if" in this scenario. Granted, that's kind of the nature of the topic, but still...

Highly doubt you'd have gotten Stroud at third overall. Young and Stroud we're always going to go 1 and 2. It was just a matter of who they went to. Richardson's already on IR.

Lack of patience when it's needed can get you fired too

All reports were that came from McAdoo. Now if you wanna say trusting McAdoo was a mistake, is agree. Never really heard anything from the perspective of the scouts, but then you normally wouldn't.

At the ones where we're watching a football game, absolutely. Others? Not so much

Behind the scenes articles from multiple sources confirmed all QB decisions during his tenure were pretty much all made by Rhule. The lone exception: picking up Darnold's fifth year option was Fitterer's choice.

My answer to this is pretty simple... I couldn't. Hell, I doubt I could be a better GM than Marty Hurney and most Huddlers probably know how I feel about him. Even the personnel people who might be bad if their job still have tons more resources, training and experience than I'll ever have. I get the game (basically all hindsight, mind you) but that's my answer.