Mr. Scot

How exactly does a GM who doesn't have authority over the head coach fire him? (Tepper gave Rhule full control when he hired him)

Except you are... exactly that, whether you mean to or not. The draft picks look bad, but it's got nothing to do with how they're being coached. They just are. The coaching is bad, but that has nothing to do with why the free agents and trades look bad. They just do. See how ridiculous that sounds?

That's a lot of spin to avoid actually defending your argument. Fitterer wasn't one of Tepper's guys. In fact, none of the guys Tepper actually suggested even made it to the second round of interviews. He wasn't one of Rhule's original suggestions either. In fact, he only came along as part of the process after Tepper and Rhule had trouble coming to any sort of consensus on their early candidates. Basically, he was the one guy that the two of them were willing to compromise on. But hey, since you're prepared to fire him as well, are you also prepared to cut guys like Horn, Ickey and others that he drafted? You've said he's a bad drafter, so are we parting ways with the draft picks? For that matter, how about pre Fitterer guys like Jeremy Chinn? He started off great but now is ineffective. Since you don't seem to believe coaching has that much of an impact, it must be Chinn himself, right?

He's got two drafts in the books which include players that I like. Among them Ickey, Horn, Christensen, Tremble and Taylor. It's objectively too soon to truly judge those picks, but I like them so far. We've also got two free agency periods, one without Dan Morgan and one with. The one with Morgan is the one I like a lot better. It netted us guys like Corbett, Ionnaidis and Foreman. Mind you, last year wasn't totally bereft of talent either. We got a guy who looks like a real keeper in Frankie Lulu. Now, are you going to tell me all of those guys are worthless?

Again, are you actually talking about Fitterer or are you strictly talking about me? Because if you're just talking about me you're ducking the argument. I'd add you're the one telling me that we should trust in Tepper to build the whole thing up from scratch. I'm asking you to defend that, but so far you're not even trying.

Yep. I've always watched other teams' games for perspective. Never before do I remember feeling we were so far behind as I do now.

And you saw what happened the last time the owner "hired someone". Keep in mind also this is the same owner who wants to do things differently just so he can show everybody that he's smarter than they are. You really think it's wise to put that guy in charge of our future?

Are you prepared to argue that Matt Rhule might be better without Scott Fitterer? For that matter, other than "well, its all the same" (which is a flatly ridiculous statement) I have yet to hear you give me a good reason why I should trust that David Tepper is going to put the right people in place after we clean house...

Put everything in Tepper's hands and you may as well be rolling the dice.

We're watching a team that's run by a college coach fielding a mostly college staff running college schemes in the pros. Knowing that, I'm no more ready to clean out the personnel department than I am to gut the roster and give up on pics like Jaycee Horn.

Joe Ovies and Joe Giglio of WRAL discuss Matt Rhule's statement that the Panthers are "close"...

Dude, you're not even talking about Fitterer at this point.

As someone who chronicled pretty much every step of the GM search, I can tell you that wasn't how it went.

Not even remotely... He already said the last time they did a GM search that he wasn't going to do that. Tepper also stated it was his desire to bring in a "non-traditional" GM who had a background in analytics rather than personnel. If there's one thing we can thank Matt Rhule for, it's helping us avoid going down that path. But hey, if you guys want to argue that the person who thought the best path to success was to give a big contract and full control to a mid-tier college coach is the right guy to choose our future leadership, I'm willing to listen. Gonna have to be a hell of a sales job though...

Come on, LG. That's a cop out and you know it. I can tell you I am not comfortable with putting our future leadership in the hands of the dimmest football mind in the building. Whatever you think of Fitterer, you know he knows more about football than Tepper.

So you're okay with both the next GM and head coach being chosen by David Tepper and whomever he brings along to tell him he's right? You know if you clean house that's exactly what's gonna happen.

I'd say that's probably the best explanation.

If you fire the GM, guess who's hiring both the next GM and the next head coach I'd absolutely give Fitterer and Morgan the chance to pick a head coach before I'd give David Tepper the chance to pick an entire braintrust of his own choosing.

Also this...

I've only given things a very preliminary look see so far, but it's hard not to think that if they believe he's ready to be a head coach, Ken Dorsey will be given a call by his former coworker / current Panthers Assistant GM. Dorsey already spent about seven years working for the Panthers, his first two as a scout then five as a quarterback coach. Also given their ties, if Dorsey were to get the Panthers job while Rivera and company were let go in Washington, Scott Turner could be a possible addition to Dorsey's staff (as could others). Worth noting in that same vein that Rich Bisaccia was coaching in Dallas while Kellen Moore was still a player there. If Bisaccia were named coach of the Panthers and Mike McCarthy et al were dismissed from the Cowboys, Bisaccia could give Moore a call about the OC job. For what it's worth, Bisaccia's also acquainted with Steve Wilks (the two of them spent a year working together in San Diego).

Pretty much...

I'd say there's actually enough good conversation in here that I wouldn't delete it. Change the title maybe...

Clearly...

I did...just not the statement you said I did

We've seen this movie before...