d-dave

I heard him talk to Rich Eisen about this yesterday. While he did not say "No, I'd never take it" he did seem like he's interested. His point is that there have been more than enough failures of NFL coaches to justify trying something different, a la John Lynch (has been repeated enough to wonder if he's just a lucky unicorn and not a model for the future). There's a lot of thoughts about the rise through the coaching ranks being necessary or not. Greg is a fantastic leader. Every team he's been on, he's been one of the dudes. A coach on the field. Being the HC does require you to be a great leader. He's also very smart, and he's called a lot of games. He's seen a LOT of football on the field and in the booth. I would not discount Greg's ability to coach football players and to find the right coaches. Greg's been in production meetings with tons of players and coaches. While he doesn't have Reich level rolodex of players - he does have a lot of contact and relationships with current coaches and players. I will say, you can talk yourself into Greg Olsen being the next great Panthers coach. It looks like it could be lightning in a bottle. I have no idea how that would work. It's above my pay grade. It could be entertaining if nothing else. And he'd give great pressers! At this point - I'm just kind of done being frustrated with the Panthers. I'm going to enjoy whatever good times, and laugh at the bad. It's not worth me feeling bad about entertainment. I will just try to be entertained one way or another. I will have the Benny Hill music on loop ready for the mistakes!

Hrm... I'm not sure how I feel. I do love Halo, but my appreciate for the first season has wanned quite a bit. At first, I appreciated the different take. You can tell Paramount poured cash all over the production because it looked fantastic by in large. But when you sit down and think about the story and how divergent the characters are, how awkward it was... Yeah, not great in retrospect. Will I watch the second season? Probably at some point. But there's been a LOT of good scifi that came out that I'd rather rewatch (like Andor).

This seems to be a move towards more power blocking rather than zone.

Honestly, despite what Tepper has said, the Panthers appear to be anything but patient. We've been running through coaches, trading away good players and future assets, and generally look like a team without a plan. We absolutely need someone who can build the team. From a team president who will keep Tepper's mits off the operations of the Panthers, a GM who can identify talent that a coach can use, and a head coach who brings something either schematic or leadership (Wilks). Then they need time. Time to rebuild the culture. Time to find and develop talented players. Time to set up systems, make mistakes, fix them, and develop a winning formula. IF we can get there, we can build a long term winner. For every instant turn around team, how often do they sustain that success? Some teams are fortunate to be able to build on the fly while others need time to put things together before they take off. What it will take is a team and leadership group that can work together, with some time. Tepper needs to get his next coach and GM right, or else we're back to this cycle of firing darts into the darkness, hoping we hit.

Bryce is going to get a 2nd chance. He's different from Trey Lance because Lance had plenty of opportunities to play but kept getting himself hurt. Bryce is in a bad situation. The OL stinks. The plays are not well designed. He's not getting coached hard enough because his mechanics suck. The current staff led by Reich is failing Bryce. Maybe this will be the kick in the ass they all need to step up? Or it will be more of the same (that's where my money would be if I were a gambler - but I'm not!).

Hopefully Brown will take the onus here and try to figure out how to actually game plan for our players strengths. The running game has looked better as they have done less zone so maybe there's hope that we continue to move in that direction. The biggest problem Brown and Caldwell will have is the OL play. The guard position is alarmingly bad. I'm not sure how you manage to protect Bryce when there's nothing blocking the opposing DL. Add in bad Ickey.... Someone somewhere in the panthers media-verse mentioned something like: moving Cade Mays to Center, Boseman to LG and seeing if solidifying LG will help Ickey. I have no idea if that's even possible, but it was an idea. Feel free to destroy it

Here's some changes I would suggest, as a moron with a keyboard: 1. Find a President of Football Operations - someone who can manage the sports side of your investment because you need to keep your billionaire hands off the product. 2. Front office house cleaning. For whatever it's worth - this FO has failed. We have continued to regress. Our talent sucks. Our drafting has been poo. Our FA signings aren't working out aside from a few exceptions. 3. Have your new GM and president evaluate Frank and the rest of the staff. Talk to them and then figure out if you can improve the players to maximize the coaching. If not - move in a new direction. It's Tepper's billions, and he'll pay out the nose to win. Right? 3a. Find a new HC. There is a miniscule chance the same staff returns, greater than zero, less than...0.01??? For as vaunted as this staff was labeled, the offensive side has just sucked buttholes. 4. Have a fire sale. Again, let the new GM determine who is worth keeping and at what positions. Then they need to trade off whoever doesn't work, or cut them. Suck it up and deal with the bad cap if necessary. Try to get back as many draftable assets as you can for guys who don't fit. 5. Resign Derrick Brown. Dude is an absolute STUD upfront. The defense can be built around him. Does that include Burns? Luvu? That's up to the new coaches, but Brown is the best foundation piece for the franchise moving forward. I don't think you give up on Bryce Young. I think he needs better coaching. Maybe a journeyman QB/youtuber wasn't the best choice for a Qb coach, but Young needs competent coaching because he's getting into real bad habits right now. We need someone to fix that with him. But that's just me, an idiot with a keyboard.

I don't think anyone is a fan of Ickey right now. It's just not good play on his part. Now, he's not alone along the OL. Having to dig for a 5th guard is not a going to help anyone. Right now, Ickey is our best LT on the roster. Sad to say. So he's going to have to stick it out the rest of the season. But in the future, he's going to have to move to guard. He's just not playing well enough for a LT. Now could a new coach help? Maybe? Possibly? But I'd tell him (if I was the new HC) that if he wants to remain at tackle, he needs to show it. Else he'll get moved inside, and if that's still a problem - he can find a new team. There's plenty of blame for the poo show of this team, and Ickey has his own responsibilities to bear as far as that goes.

I don't think it serves anyone to be fired yet. There's still a long way to go with the season and other possible coaches. Do we want to put up with a year of interm coaches? Who will it be? Doubt it Evero, since he declined that in Denver. Won't be Brown. Caldwell? Capers? I'm not sure if anything will be better for the team. What needs to happen is we need to see positive development in Bryce. So Frank, Brown, Caldwell and the rest of the offensive staff need to work on giving him answers. That's just the reality. From the outside - it's Tepper giving Frank a chance. The NFL knows this is a poo show of an unimaginative offense that doesn't play to ANYONE's strengths. Give it the season. It's pretty much lost right now. Then depending on the progress or lack thereof, fire folks, clean house, whatever. If you think about it, you don't gain anything firing Monday versus after week 18. The good coordinators will almost all be in the playoffs anyway.

I do agree that this needs more context because even an idiot with a TV (hey, that's me!) can see that Bryce shares his fair share of the blame. But even then, Bryce shouldn't be sitting in the top left. He does need more help. He also needs to play faster, that would help his WRs. I do think that Bryce is very accurate and has the ability to play with great anticipation. There has just been a train wreck of a season which has him thinking too much, overthinking, and not playing fast and lose. Part of that is him, part is the scheme, part is the rest of the offense, and a large part is the vaunted coaching staff.

Good to have another experienced QB voice in the YT space. I recognize him from his AAF/XFL time. Was one of the better QBs in those leagues. This kind of stuff is why Frank and Co are going to be on the hot seat after Dallas gets done having a blast in Charlotte, if the seat isn't already uncomfortably warm right now. The Panthers are broken. There are some real coaching things like the footwork and progressions that haven't been addressed. Sure, rookies are going to have growing pains, but the regression we've seen is not good from such a vaunted staff. Why is this happening? Me, as an idiot with a keyboard, thinks that Bryce can't get out of his own head. He's not playing the offense, he's trying to do too much. As Bilbo Baggins once said: Bryce needs a change, or something. Hubris is one of the deadliest of faults, and I think the Panthers' fans are suffering for it. While I feel for coaches who will have their reputations hurt, players who may never make another team, it's the fan base who cares that's really suffering. The team needs to take this time and work with Bryce on getting his feet right (c'mon Josh! WTF have you been doing?) and the offense needs adjustments so that plays lead into other plays that lead into big plays. Everything looks too hard, and that's a BIG problem. Coaches!?! Good find! I appreciate the different perspective Sloter brings versus JT.

Funny enough, I was listening to a Cowboys/Panthers preview (Locked On), and the Cowboys host said this has all the signs of a classic trap game for the Cowboys - on the road, at noon their time, outdoors, against a team they should roll over with a busy schedule ahead... But c'mon, we all know this 2023 Panthers team. Our D and ST will play well enough, but without anything on offense, it's going to be a poo show of a game. Close early, then wide open in the 2nd half.

If Bryce isn’t it, a lot of people are going to lose their jobs. thats the NFL.

I just finished it this weekend, and I thought it was a wonderful send off to Tom Hiddleston. He played the true Loki variant well, and ended up being very un-Loki. It also gives Marvel an easy out for Jonathan Majors (which sucks that he's such a poo person because he's a joy to watch on screen) as Kang. Was it super strong? That's up to the individual, but I did enjoy it. Season 1 was better, but it's much harder to write an ending than the beginning/middle of a story.

I wouldn't say anything is written in stone. There's a fair bit the saying about insanity and doing the same thing over and over again... IF Bryce Young shows improvement week to week, getting better and more confident in his play, even if we lose out, then you keep the team going. But this is going to depend on the development of Bryce Young. That's what this season needs to be about. Can't look at other guys and compare, though I know that's what it feels like 99% of posters do. They are different guys, and Bryce Young is our dude for better or worse. The coaches and their millions of years of coaching XP need to show it by helping Young develop. IF we DO NOT see Bryce Young getting better, then I'm totally fine blowing up the FO and coaching staff. I'm very concerned after the past two weeks seeing him play worse. He needs to be improving, and it's up to the coaching staff to do that. I will say I'm really not happy with Reich's comments about not changing the offense at all. We have a POWER run OL. We do not have a zone running OL. Our guys play best when they push a DL out of the way. Reich has forgotten far more about football than I will ever know, but even I can see that the current running game is not having success. Reich needs to fix that.