Mr. Scot

Is the government not acknowledging that we're being controlled by lizard people evidence that it's true? This is a really stupid discussion about an idiotic conspiracy theory. It doesn't need to be "acknowledged".

Your words... Owners and GMs are naturally conspiratorial. If the address it then great. If they dodge it...then fug em. You want them to "address" a theory that's bullsh-t, and if they don't, then "Ha, it must be true!" That's ridiculous.

Owners and GMs have a pretty broad variety of personalities. The idea that they're all villains from a Saturday morning cartoon is pretty silly. I'd add that if the Panthers "say nothing" it's probably because there's nothing to say. To assume it's because they're hiding something is pure tinfoil hat.

Which, by all accounts, was Ben Johnson...until he backed out.

Rhule didn't want Fields. The general belief is that Fitterer didn't either but It's also possible he just ultimately tagged along because Rhule had final say and was known to just keep badgering people till they "agreed" with whatever he wanted to do. Doubt we'll ever know if Fitterer felt any different but it doesn't really matter now.

Reich's been in the league long enough and worked with enough people that he's got a load of contacts. That was one of his big selling points. Hell, he and Vic Fangio have been friends since 1995.

Do you really wanna try and sell the theory that everybody had agreed on Frank Reich even before Ben Johnson backed out of the running? Scott Fitterer, who supported Wilks? Dan Morgan, who was well acquainted with Ken Dorsey? And David Tepper, who reportedly was high on Ben Johnson and didn't know Frank Reich from Adam? If you can't see just how ridiculously dumb this whole theory sounds, I can't help you. You think the "truth' is coming out in the next couple of weeks? From where? If your answer is via sports talk radio and social media, I've got some bad news for ya. If your answer is from Steve Wilks' attorneys, I've got some even worse news. This is just another stupid conspiracy theory that some people are gonna believe regardless of the facts. There's not gonna be some bombshell report where everybody blows the lid off what really happened because what really happened is likely already known, and not the least bit exciting or conspiratorial. The team chose Reich over Wilks after giving Wilks a fair shot and looking over numerous options. That's it. The shadow conspiracy talk is just silly. Let it go.

Correct. Throw in also that any lawyer would likely tell you it's not necessarily their job to get to the truth. It's their job to win a case.

Yeah, the attorney has an agenda. And I've known enough attorneys to know the vast majority of them are full of sh-t.

Are you going to take a chance on communicating with somebody who might not only turn you down, but then report you for tampering?

The people who were involved in the search process were not all in on Frank Reich. Fitterer supported Wilks. Dan Morgan most likely lobbied for Ken Dorsey. Hell, all the reports early on were that the team wanted Ben Johnson as their top option. So in order to believe all this silliness, you'd have to say that the team hired Hannah Reich knowing Ben Johnson was going to drop out and planning to hire her father as a fallback. The more actual facts you look at, the dumber this theory sounds.

And this is the kind of zero evidence speculation that just makes the discussion all that much dumber.

Not really. She applied before her dad was even fired, went through the interview process and got hired by a manager who's got zero to do with football operations. The conspiracy stuff is stupid. Hell, she's even had to delete her Twitter account now, most likely because ignorant people were giving her sh-t over something she had nothing to do with. That's the kind of dumb crap this sort of bullsh-t produces, and why it's better not to engage in this kind of stupidity.

It wasn't misinformation. Wilks was a viable candidate. Heck, he was reported to have had Scott Fitterer's support for the job.

The hire of Reich's daughter was 100% coincidental.

These days, it's very easy to have a PR nightmare without having done anything wrong. Numerous people in various walks of life can tell you that.

Unless you're employing that dumb "only compare last year" argument, Reich doesn't need excuses. He's a winning coach.

That might work as an excuse for the first time it happened. Three times though? You really want to try and tell me that at no point for the rest of the game did Wilks have an opportunity to just go say to Al Holcomb or even directly to one of his safeties "hey, we need to not let that happen again".

Pretty much. Mike Shula punted on the task of trying to mold Newton into an NFL quarterback. He chose instead to try and build an offense around college concepts thinking Newton would function best in that type of system. Norv Turner came in and showed that Newton absolutely could be coached into a pro level QB. What he couldn't do though was undo the wear and tear that Newton had already taken. I'd agree that it would have been better if we'd have gotten Turner early, but part of me will always wonder what could have been If Rivera had chosen Pat Shurmur as his OC rather than Shula.

I'm a big fan of Steve Wilks because I think he's a great leader and a man of phenomenal character. I'm also someone who always tries not to let their emotions affect their decision making. As we wound down the stretch this past season, I increasingly came to the belief that Wilks was not going to get the Panthers job. He certainly made the team better than it had been, but was it a good enough coaching performance to win the permanent job? My gut said no, and that was even before we knew who any of the other candidates would be. As you said though, compare Wilks and Reich in a vacuum and it's pretty difficult not to choose Reich.

General belief is they're hiring Demeco Ryans. Fangio is wanted all over the league so basically he can go wherever he wants to. Yeah, it could be here, but if not he isn't the only good option. Hell, if people study what Ben Johnson did to counter his defensive concepts last season, whoever winds up with him could have issues.

Actually, his limiting Darnold to passing as little as possible is what made the offense at least somewhat workable. As far as what he could have done with Andrew Luck, what did the offensive line look like? Who did he have at the skill positions? Did he have a defense that could keep the other team from scoring? What kind of scheme did they run? And what about the special teams? The notion that if you just change the quarterback, everything else changes too is unrealistic. You couldn't just put Tom Brady on last year's Texans roster and automatically assume they make the playoffs. I'd add if you want to get into Wilks actual area of expertise, then you'd need to try and defend why he handled coverage of Mike Evans the way he did.

You now want to give Steve Wilks credit for coaching a quarterback? Dude, this whole discussion is just getting stupider. Please tell me you're trolling because if not...yikes

I'm pretty sure Mr Fantastic couldn't validate your argument.

Reich earned his additional seasons by winning. Heck, he earned his head coaching job in part by helping a team win a Super Bowl. Every argument you're trying to make here is based on "what if this happened" or "what if that happened". That makes it pretty clear that your argument doesn't stand up in reality.