Khyber53

Dang! They ain't wrong, but he'll learn more in Buffalo and develop a longer career by starting there. The man was not ready to be an OC, and still probably isn't.

Honestly, man, Mr. Scott is one of the most knowledgeable and even-handed commentators on this board and has been for as long as I can remember. If he's commenting in a thread, then there's going to be some meat to the discussion. Agree or disagree with him, it'll be informative, well nuanced and have some history or stats to back it up. And if he starts a thread, it's real need to know information. I disagree with him sometimes, but I always appreciate what he has to say.

And him, too~ Of course.

Flame away, but Jake Delhomme was still the greatest Panther. Dude needs a statue. (But not one with the ripped pants...) Cam won game after game because he was such a distinct and unique talent on the field. Powerful arm, huge size, one of the best open field runners to ever play the game. He could become Superman and stay that way for an entire game. Jake, however, could drag a team out of the mud, lift them all up and grind out tough win after tough win. He literally was at his best when things got their toughest. He could read and manipulate defenses, he could call protections with the best of them and more than anything, the dude believed in his teammates and elevated them. He doesn't get enough credit for Smitty winning the receiving triple crown one year and then Moose getting close to it the following season when Smitty was injured. When it was over, though, it went bad fast as these things often do. We remember too much of that Arizona game and the following season, and not enough of when he was the guy that always, always, always gave us a shot to win.

Honestly, it's not a bad idea. Rhule, if he is to evolve, needs someone whispering in his ear that he's mortal. And it would give him a year of scouting this team, the NFC South and learning the personalities and locker room politics here. Such info would put him in an advantageous position to either assist Rhule directly as an OC or to take over as the next HC should the Rhule experiment continue to flame out.

I'd go for the old "dude has a problem and I hope he gets some professional help" but, damn that's not a personal stash. That would be more than the personal stash of Parliament Funkadelic on a three month road trip! Four grams of crack cocaine amongst all of that? Did one of his clients accidentally a rock fall out of their pocket while sitting in the back seat or something? Dude could legit look at that haul and say there's no way the crack is his. Whew, dang. Mobile pharmacy right there. Amazed there's not a cash register and drink cooler stationed by the passenger door.

Back-up, reserve long snapper apparently. Now, one could say that is some deep, deep planning. Everyone else will say, yep, that was a waste.

Wow, Byron has really done well for himself! Good luck on buying the team, I think he'll certainly help the League evolve to a better place!

I really felt that if Harbaugh had made the leap to the Vikings, a whole chain of events would have led to the end of this nightmare debacle. It didn't, no matter how much I hoped it would. Buckle up folks, the car's owner has refused to take the keys from the drunken driver. This next season is going to be the Uber ride from Hell.

My guess for WR coach, considering the DL coach hire: Either: or

We didn't hire him because he took a good profile pic. We didn't hire him to get the early bird senior discount special at Golden Corral. We hired him to coach the defensive line. Sheesh, let's hope he can do it. Last guy couldn't, and that was supposed to be one of our strengths. This guy looks like if he got down into a D-line four point stance he's not getting back up from it. We may not have any linemen with their hand in the dirt this season. Or he could be that old guy that goes out there and shows people how men play the game. That would be awesome.

I'm driving a 2001 Mitsubishi Montero Ltd that I bought new off the lot back in the day. Minor repairs every now and then, but it just keeps running so well that I really have trouble rationalizing replacing it. The sucker can still climb up the side of a building if need be. Man, they really knew how to make 4wd then.

Such an iconic actor. One of his earliest gigs was on The Andy Griffith Show. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0512548/mediaviewer/rm4221206785/

Society in the US is continuing to evolve and will continue to but it's never fast. And the slowest to change are often at the top rung of society. Owners of NFL teams aren't just at that top rung, they are at the very, very top of that rung. Changing their hearts and minds is a very difficult thing to do, even with rules. And when it comes to that level, most aren't thinking social justice and righting wrongs, they are thinking about winning or at the least maintaining their status quo. And that, I think, is where the Rooney Rule has made a difference. By requiring teams at least give interviews to minority candidates it does something incredibly important. In sales, the biggest hurdle is oftentimes getting past what they call the gatekeeper -- an underling of the decision maker that weeds through the throng of requests and lets in just the necessary ones to "see the king." The Rooney Rule made sure that people that were never getting through those gatekeepers would have a shot -- maybe just one per hiring round, but one just the same. Once the candidate got through they had an opportunity to make their pitch and maybe win that shot. And that's all you can ask for, a shot. It might not be an even chance, but if enough get through, you break down the wall. It's a slow process, but it's also a very finite group of candidates. Not all of those candidates are first timers either as experienced coaches (most often white) are in the mix for every spot. And those experienced ones are always going to be at the front of the line in the waiting room. Right now, in the NCAA FBS, there are 14 black head coaches (at some of the biggest name universities) out of 130 constituent schools. It's just a bit above 10% of the coaching jobs. In the NFL, that would mean 3-4 head coaching positions to balance it out. It looks like there will be three this upcoming season barring some kind of change (five if you count Rivera and Saleh who are respectively Latino and Arabic.) These are top end positions in the field, though. Head coaches in the FBS and NFL are a rare job title in the overall scheme of things in America. Still, we should be at a point in our society where the makeup of our institutions reflects better on the makeup of our nation and our People. In that, we're running behind mightily. The Rooney Rule, for all the ways it has been bent and adulterated by those in charge of the league, still serves a mighty purpose -- it keeps that gate cracked open, if just a little bit. Eventually, if enough people get through that gate, they'll have the numbers and strength to force it open. And every minority GM that comes into the League helps as much if not more. Keep the Rooney Rule and maybe give it's penalties for non-compliance some teeth, close up a couple of loop holes and let it keep breaking down the barriers. It's hard to change hearts and minds without a generation shift, but it is very possible through action to change what normal is.

Honestly they should have kept him as HC in Las Vegas. That guy took a team to the playoffs and held them together through a sh!tstorm of a season.

We've kinda been trying hard to become them for a couple of years now. And that sucks.

He's probably not mad enough to even take a phone call from us.

This is the year to go O-line, probably center, and do the wise thing. Of course, that being said, we'll probably trade future draft picks and grab Malik with the first pick and just end up screwing the team for another half decade.

His own personal balls aren't brass. Those he has in his office are the ones you can get in the gift shop of the NYSE.

If we don't pay him, Washington will.

Wanna bet on which has more wins next season? Because in the end, that's all that matters.

And yet, Mac was the right choice. Fields, meh.

I've said it before, bad teams get regular high draft picks and are always in on the hot new coaching prospect. They are, as a group, suckers and even when they do it hit right, they can't do a thing with what they have (Detroit with Stafford for example, or Megatron, or Barry Sanders, or....). Bad teams stay bad because they make bad decisions. As a group they also create a lot of buzz over coaches and players they want creating an artificial lift for those candidates. Before we are to blame Hurney too much (and he is a manager with some serious flaws) he was at the helm during the tenures of both Fox and Rivera, two coaches who brought the Panthers to the Super Bowl each. Still new as a manager at the time of the Fox hiring, his prior positions within the organization meant he was involved in the search and hiring process to at least some degree. The Rivera hiring was fully on his watch. But really, the hiring of coaches rests almost entirely on the owner's shoulders and final say often goes through them. Jerry Richardson had made some bad coaching choices and Fox was his third one. It was pretty obvious that JR had learned some lessons by then. After that set up soured and a new generation of players moved to take over the team, he made another good move in hiring the defensive minded, conservative Rivera. That one proved well for the team again. While with the Rhule courtship, Hurney was a big supporter, I think he's been given to heavy of a role in the decision making process than most lame duck, definitely out-going mangers would be. And I don't think he had anything to do with the abrupt end of the search and the "pay him anything to sign now" approach. That reeks of a rash decision made by someone with money burning a hole in their pocket and wanting to make a big splash. Tepper went plop instead. And to bring this back around, here we are, for the third season in a row, picking in the top 10, coming off a lousy season and looking at the pretty blinking lights of the coaching carousel as it spins. Right now, we're in there with the losers. We've been here long enough now that we almost have our own spot on the bench. Hey, Detroit, what did your Mom pack for your lunch today? Peanut butter and sardine sandwich? Whew. Jets? Half a pack of menthol cigs and a diet Coke? Jacksonville? Your new "uncle" gave you a fiver at the breakfast table and said to treat yourself today? Indy would you stop "eating" your Jell-o with a straw you're making Houston queasy again.

Patience. I've been saying that this ain't over for a couple of weeks now. By next week everything should have shaken out around the NFL. The Harbaugh thing is a big deal that will reshuffle things mightily if it comes to pass.

While I don't agree 100% with you, you're spot on right on an awful lot of this. I think while we do need to look at grabbing a starter grade vet on the line, I think we need to use our first rounder on Linderbaum at center. If we don't we're a lot of picks away from getting someone of quality on the line. Center is where we need influx right now and if you make the right pick, you've got Ryan Kalil for the next decade. Then you can be looking at QB. Heck, maybe take one with our next pick and let him mature on the bench a bit.