Khyber53

Deadman walking. Team isn't behind him. Atlanta wants a win, we're not going to be able to keep them from it. It's a sad time for us Pathers fans. Rhule will be out of here by Monday.

I'm not sure we even make it past Atlanta. And New Orleans may beat us with a QB who doesn't even have a uniform yet (man, they've been snakebit this season... that old voodoo hex they bought years ago must have come due). Winning against the Bills and Bucs? No chance at all. We are there to strengthen their playoffs seedings.

Nailed it. The much vaunted plan was chucked out the window early. Then things started getting desperate and we looked and acted like one of the bottom-feeding teams of the league. Now, we're performing on the field like one of those teams. The team has realized this isn't a pro team anymore. Heck, Detroit could beat us on a neutral field eight times out of ten now, simply because their guys are fighting for their coach rather than making vacation plans for January.

Eh. Maybe. Doesn't change the results.

That's also pretty much the story of our entire coaching staff. They weren't ready to be here. Their greatest problem was overconfidence -- they greatly underestimated the challenges they faced.

Yep, you are exactly right.

Not a crime. Gruden lawyered up to the sue the NFL.

Rivera's teams may have fallen short, but they never quit on him. They still don't and he's coaching a broken, limping team that just out toughs their opponents (and he completely out coached us this season). Rivera builds scrappy teams, generally underdogs. Rhule built, well, his bank account. We have a laughing stock team that doesn't even try anymore. Back in the day, I was the last on here to give up on Rivera, but eventually I did because it was obvious that that iteration/generation of the team had just worn out. Maybe it was the years, maybe it was the Gettleman garbage, maybe it was the shake up of JR being "forced" to sell. Maybe it was just entropy. But it was time to change. And here, I think I was among the first to say that Rhule wasn't going to make it, that he was in over his head. I had an employee once who basically suckered me and my partners by promising us the moon. He came in and talked about all that he could do for us, just follow his lead. Of course, none of his lies panned out, he just took his pay and then we found out he was selling our products and having the checks from the buyers made out to him, but reporting them to us as ones to invoice. We had to get the police involved after that. That guy, bullshit artist and con man, teller of big tales and producer of nothing, had the same spiel and demeanor as Matt Rhule. Maybe Rhule isn't a bullshitter, maybe he's just in way over his head. If so, then this fake it until you make it crap just isn't going to work out here.

Sure, why not break up the Rams and Cardinals game with that bit of info?

Can't argue with you there. Hit job or not, he wrote those statements. We've got to believe a man can change, but he hasn't been showing remorse, just lawyered up.

Honestly, I hope he gets back on with a college team and has great success. The guy's biggest fault was that he just wasn't ready. He caught lightning in a bottle once and then found out that it's hard to do twice. The rest is going to require hard work and a lot of lessons learned. We'll see him again in the NFL. He'll be better the next time if he gets some more experience under his belt.

Gruden will never work in the league again or call a game or get sponsorships. What he did was out and out wrong, but someone took that info and did a hit job on him that would make the Mafia proud. And you can believe that Gruden's probably not the only one involved in these kinds of e-mails.

In this day and age, no one can keep news from getting out. Someone was going to leak it the moment it was done, whether it was a minor functionary of the team or even Brady himself. This has all the trimmings of a "Hey, come in for Sunday lunch with me, I want to run something by you" kind of call from the boss. Brady probably didn't know what hit him, just a quick 10 minute speech and someone escorts you out with a box full of your possessions. Probably just Rhule, Brady, an HR person and a security guard in the building, that way the team could handle the release of the info. Also, they picked a time when all the big NFL rumor guys have already done their jobs and are digging into the games. Total dick move, but a calculated one. It also means, I think, that Rhule didn't know what he was going to do until say Saturday night. That may mean Rhule was holding out for either Miami or Oklahoma before having to go back in a cut a sacrificial lamb to save his job here. There are still openings out there and he may still have his agent working on the downlow. Hopefully his agent will be as successful in selling Rhule to a college team as he was in fleecing us.

Power struggles take time.

Honestly, I don't think we stand a chance.

Do you want Terminators? Because this is how we get Terminators!

It's going to be a whirlwind of opportunities. There's also a chance we may wade into this early to get a crack at some coaches before the college carousel winds down. (And that should make us cringe if we're talking about another HC).

We have the Falcons on Sunday at 1 p.m. If we lose, we'll have an announcement of Rhule's firing by 1 p.m. on Monday. I think we're that close. Another loss and it's hit the road. Might survive a loss to Buffalo if we win vs. Atlanta. Loss to the Bucs (and that's almost a guaranteed loss) and he's probably out. Lose to New Orleans (a team that has been falling apart all year) and Rhule is on the street. Personally, I don't think Rhule makes it past this coming Monday.

I didn't want him much after the first year, much less after this year. But ask the players... see what they say. They loved Ron, but it was his time to go. Rhule, I don't think they hold in as high of regard. I don't think he can survive a vote of confidence, especially if you disregard Temple/Baylor players on the team. The guy just wasn't ready for the NFL. He may be a few years from now, but he needs more time at the college level to get there. Duke, Virginia and his old team at Temple would be good landing spots.

Glad he did well, but he's not the guy you set off to rebuild a franchise with. That being said, we've already tried three others that should have been much surer things... Probably should have kept Heinicke.

Honestly, none of us have any actual insight into what Richardson or Tepper really think or want. I don't think anyone buys a team and says, "Yep, I want a team that wins a bit here and there, breaks even over the long run." You have to understand that for guys like Richardson and Tepper, these football teams aren't their real business. They are toys (ones that are pretty much guaranteed to make money) and their goal is to impress their friends, entertain themselves and get them so notoriety in the higher echelons of life as they know it. These guys aren't like Jones and the Cowboys, the Rooneys and the Steelers or the Maras and the New York Giants where the franchises are the majority of the families' wealths and standings. They want their teams to win mainly for the glory. The problem is that they don't have the same know how in growing, managing and developing football teams. Of course, there's the Lions and the Ford Family. Sometimes having a long history doesn't create winning strategies, but their money didn't come from football either.

You have a very good point there, but that year Winston did throw for a crapton of TDs to go with a crapton of INTs. And something tells me that Tom Brady tells you how to coach him, yanno? Can learn a lot from that. Crazy to think Leftwich probably played against Brady in what was thought to be both of their heydays. Tom's seems to still be heying the days.

No one was surprised.

I want to see us head for Eric Bieniemy or Byron Leftwich as our first stops. While it does satisfy the Rooney Rule, more importantly you have two very good coordinators there, one defensive and one offensive. You also have two former NFL players who are genuinely respected by their players and peers. They understand how to work with the players at this level, they know how to evaluate those players and they have a deep number of contacts at the professional level. That's a big plus over the current regime. In addition, both have coached at the championship level. Both are incredibly familiar with the two leading teams in the league, how they are run, what their overall approach to team building is and both well trained in running the show on game day. The knocks against the two can be pretty heavy. Byron is young for a head coach, but that's less of a problem anymore than it once was. Bieniemy is the right age, but he has some legal issues in his past that could rear an ugly head at some point. That may have been what has kept him from a HC gig so far in this day of hyper scrutiny and revenants coming back to get folks. Still, I want to see us start there and I'd be very happy with either of these guys. Honestly, I'd love to see Leftwich here. I think his familiarity with the NFCSouth is a big help, particularly his knowledge of those pesky Buccaneers.

Well, as a fan, did you really want to see him hand it over to someone qualified to do the job? It's better for it to be the same cast of characters so that we can hopefully get an entirely new cast of characters.