Khyber53

Lives are far too short to give Matt Rhule another year to "work this out."

We have a bunch of players who are clutch. We just don't have coaching that's worth them breaking a sweat to be clutch. Plus, there's every chance that our assessment of Marshall before the draft was about as good as our assessment of Brady Christensen and Deonte Brown. And others. We can't really evaluate talent and when we have all world talent, we can't make use of it. That's coaching and management. Or the lack thereof.

In Rhule's tenure here: We've had Teddy Bridgewater, a cautious but Pro Bowl QB, who had done really well at New Orleans filling in for Drew Brees. Teddy was completely underutilized and underperformed. He offered up at the end of the year that the team did not really practice red zone or two minute drills. Woof. We brought in Sam Darnold. Former top draft pick who had a good season and then seemed to suffer terribly from being on a bad team. He came out of the gates with some good performances, but then just got murdered out there and became a fearful interception machine. Never complained, but was thrown under the bus by former Jets teammate Robby Anderson. Coach never came to his defense, coordinator never created new plays. Team never developed offensive line, just a series a semi-mobile speed bumps. Receivers didn't catch Covid, but all brought down with the dropsies. Mercifully benched to IR. Brought Cam Newton, former face of the franchise, multiple pro bowls, league MVP and all around never say die guy, back to the team. Win a couple then the complete lack of game planning around his capabilities leads to firing of "wunderkind" offensive coordinator. Ongoing games are becoming an embarrassment for Newton and his fans. QB doesn't have the arm he used to, but few of his remaining talents are used with any sense of rhyme or reason. Lastly, we have PJ Walker whose claim to quality in the QB room is pretty much he went to Temple and he goes way back with Coach Rhule. No amount of history with the coach will write a good story about Walker's capabilities. He has either learned nothing or has learned everything from Rhule -- neither makes for a good QB. Or even a fair one. Might make it in arena league play. In two seasons, Rhule has had access to two Pro Bowl QBs, three experienced starting QBs, three first round draft pick QBs, two playoff QBs, one Super Bowl QB, one league MVP QB, and some dude that played at Temple. He's had them at every age. He's had experienced QBs. He's had top of the heap draft picks. Newton, Bridgewater and Darnold have all shown they are tough and take hits. They've all had the tools to score touchdowns. Rhule and Co. Should have been able to do so much more with the raw materials, heck top rate materials, that he was given. After the dust clears, it's time to face the fact that the Coach can't coach.

He's a good guy and I hope he comes out of this quickly and completely. He took a lot of crap from his time here that he didn't deserve as we've come to realize.

In Chase's defense, he hadn't been able to train up a placekicker until we got Gonzalez this year. I thought we were going to get to the point where we were going to have to call a Grammatica at some point. Chase apparently teaches guys how to run down the field on ST. That's it. No kicking improvement. No punting training. No tackling. Not much on blocking. Why is he our ST coach again? Continuity?

Considering the amount of stroke that Rhule was given, wouldn't that mean that Fitterer was probably Rhule's choice for GM?

We needed Doug Flutie this week. Emergency QB tryouts during the week, then emergency kicker tryouts 15 minutes before kick-off. Of course, if Doug Flutie had been available, I guess Buffalo would have had his loyalties.

He is our team's Nick Goings at the moment. Not a star player but if you ask, the guy will do anything for the team. Catch the crucial third down pass across the middle and get clotheslined by a MLB? Sure thing boss. Gunner on special teams? Sure thing boss. Kick off and be ready for a field goal? Sure thing boss. The next coach needs to keep him here, just for emergencies.

Perhaps we can direct hike it to the receiver somehow?

Except keeping Fitterer, I agree with you wholeheartedly.

It's the most Matt Rhule Final Season thing ever in Matt Rhule's Final Season. Really, we're snakebit.

This won't be pretty. Bills 31 Panthers 10

French bread pizzas for game time. Just not going to put any effort into it if they aren't.

I'm just going to have to sit through all of the losing seasons. I hope there won't be many, but there will be some, even in the best of situations. Becoming a Panther fan is a lifetime thing for me. This is it. For me, and all the others like me, though -- we deserve better than this crap.

Man plans, the universe chuckles. Just gotta make the best of it.

If Jake's not busy in the broadcast booth, maybe he can dust off the old cleats.

Tepper, Fit and Rhule were ready to grab a guy with 22 unsettled lawsuits (weren't even worried about that), pay him another $10.5 million and be on the hook for $30+ million next year. And that guy has a history of not just sexual predation but of saying he'll sit at home rather than play for a coach/team he doesn't like. What kind of fuging morons do that? Larry, Moe and Curly wouldn't come together and think that was a good decision! We're stuck with Larry but Moe and Curly have got to go! Edit to add: And let's not even talk about never having a decent draft pick for two or more years!

^This 100%.

Current surge says, well, apparently there have been some. Looking at the timing of the surge, I think it was what they call Thanksgiving.

Inevitable things are just that, inevitable. A virus doesn't know from playoffs, ratings or a 53-man roster on game day. The thing they aren't talking about isn't what is happening on the field or locker rooms but what is probably also happening in the stands. Consider how locked down the football players have been and how tied they are to their communities, chances are that team's COVID situation probably reflects their community to a certain degree. If Washington has 21 players out for positive tests or contacts with no vaccinations, they are bringing what, 60,000 fans in to a situation where maybe 5,000 to 10,000 people who are asymptomatic or experiencing light cases. The infection vectors there are just astounding. And let's not even think of the Omicron impact, because that hasn't been driving the recent surge around the country, that's good old Delta still at work. In the next two days there's either going to be some changes to how the games are played, when the games are played and perhaps if the games are played. Testing right up until the game days are going to possibly get worse. At best, we might see them allow teams to activate their entire practice squads to make numbers. We might see them just chalk it up to happenstance and say "Play it like the people are injured and do your best" with all the weird results. I just don't want them to suspend some responsible rules because of money and a hubris that this ain't that bad. If they won't protect the fans, at least do it for the Aaron Rodgers and Antonio Browns of the league who've faked it this far and could be in danger... Edit to add: Latest reports around the country are that Delta is responsible for about 94% of current cases of COVID, with Omicron barely registering on the list as of yet.

Sometimes you have to ask, why are they releasing him now?

I agree. I should have put the if in bold.

There's always the caveat that bad teams choose bad coaches, again and again. The Jags and the Raiders are just those kinds of teams. Perhaps it's good that they get to take the first swing and perhaps thin the herd a bit for us. When selecting the cream of the crop, they both have a talent for grabbing the jug of expired, soured milk. Still, I have to think that if Tepper is as smart as they said he was, there's already a group at work putting together a prospects board and doing their homework before making a firing announcement and setting up interviews. There's no way with a fanbase in revolt and a quiet, but unsupportive team, that Tepper isn't seriously mulling the end of this disastrous experiment. There are probably accountants and lawyers working on that massive contract and trying to work a buyout. We'll know by Monday at 2 p.m.