Mage

Regardless of how you feel about Bryce as a player, this should be a lesson to not predict injuries based off someone's size. A player who can hold up in the SEC isn't suddenly going to break in half in the NFL. Being "injury prone" really just comes down to genetics and bad luck, not size, especially for athletes who are all in great shape. I'm not saying this to defend Bryce's play, he sucked. I just feel like that was a narrative held against him and for no reason. That he wouldn't hold up taking hits. In the future if a player doesn't have a history of injuries, we shouldn't assume he'll suddenly start getting hurt.

I'm sold. GIVE ME SLOWIK. Having someone from the Shanahan tree would be nice.

Once Ben Johnson completes his interviews with us and the Commanders, we should start hearing more information. Panthers should have a good feel after that interview where we stand with him.

He'd be smart to return IMO. There is risk but the Texans offense has so much potential to be even better next year that his stock could skyrocket. Right now I bet he wouldn't get the deal Ben Johnson likely will get. But with another year under his belt, he could. And 2nd year CJ Stroud is something I'm willing to bet on as an OC.

Brian Callahan's resume on paper seems super weak.

Hmmm. I'd probably prefer Harbaugh if I was a Falcons fan. I'd be concerned about Belichick acquiring and developing a new young QB. And that is a young team. Harbaugh seems like he'd be the easier coach to resonate with for a lot of their players.

Don't teams have to make that information public? Don't think they can just interview a candidate on the low without anyone finding out, but I could be wrong. Because they have to put the request in through the NFL anyway (not sure how that works with college coaches though).

The one positive IMO is that you aren't tied down to anyone long-term (even Bryce with it being a rookie contract wouldn't be crippling to move on from if he shows no development). If you are confident in yourself as a GM, you can mold this team to your liking as opposed to going to a team with less flexibility.

Also, the Browns are still a good team. The trade sucked, but it didn't ruin them. They will be in the playoff race with Watson next year. Panthers made the trade and ended up being so bad they earned the No. 1 Pick the following year, which now belongs to another team. The Panthers trade (as of right now, unless Bryce turns is around) has done far more harm to us than the Browns trade has done to them. And IMO it is more likely Watson turns it around than Young does.

My (small amount) of optimism is due to Tepper being mostly in the background during the first couple of years of Rhule's tenure here. I do think if the team was winning he would chill out a lot. The problem is he needs to get us to the point where we are winning.

Almost all teams do this before they hire a new HC unless they know for 100% certainty they are doing a clean sweep. Last year the Broncos denied the Falcons a chance to request Evero for DC. Sucks for them but not a big deal.

I mean the Panthers suck lol so no. But if in this hypothetical the Panthers were in the playoff race almost every year and had recently been to a Super Bowl, then yeah I wouldn't be against my team hiring them despite the dysfunction. Because on the outside looking in, it would seem like someone who has been in an environment with dysfunction and still found success because of it. Say whatever you want about Howie Roseman but he's always got those Eagles playing with talent and winning games. Yeah maybe he uses underhanded tactics but I just think maybe that is what we need with an owner like Tepper, so if Halaby follows in his footsteps then by all means. I mean I get why someone would be against that, I understand. I just want to win, really. So I don't care how it gets done. It just needs to get done.

Those teams didn't miss out on a 22 year old dude who looks like he could be a future Hall of Fame QB. Those teams didn't trade away a future No. 1 overall pick, making them trading for the No. 1 overall pick look dumb. Imagine if Bryce busts. The Panthers would have essentially chosen him over CJ Stroud, Caleb Williams, and Drake Maye. All those two really need to be is somewhat decent in their rookie seasons to make the Panthers look like fools (unless Bryce turns it around).

To play devil's advocate. If Tepper is as bad as most think he is, then would hiring a candidate from a similar organization be a bad thing? After all, "iron sharpens iron". I'm not saying that in defense in how they get the job done, but maybe we need a GM as ruthless and cutthroat as Tepper if we want to make this work. Because that same person will know how to check Tepper. After all Philly has been able to maintain success in spite of it.

I think so. We actually fired him really fast by NFL standards. Teams will give really bad GMs like 5 years sometimes. It usually takes that long for their plan to completely bottom out anyway. Look at how long Steve Keim lasted as GM with Arizona. Matt Millen lasted EIGHT YEARS. Imagine 8 years of Scott Fitterer? Imagine how much more damage he could have done? Think about that. It took 8 years for the Lions to go 0-16. The Panthers damn near accomplished that last year. We came pretty damn close. Didn't even have a 4th quarter lead - those Lions were MORE competitive than us. And guess what Millen's Lions didn't do? Trade away their 2009 1st round pick or WR1 Calvin Johnson. They got Matthew Stafford out of it. We are not going to get Caleb Williams out of our suckage. We crap on Tepper and rightfully so. But thank god he pulled the trigger. Firing a GM 3 years in almost never happens, but that is how fast Fitt tanked this team. He took a team that was in perfect position for a rebuild, an attractive destination, and he blew it up into flames in 3 years. And you can't blame Rhule. If anything, Rhule saved us from Fitt. Because after Rhule got fired is when Fitt was at his absolute worst, beginning with not doing the Burns trade (I'll admit I was wrong on that one - we should have done it). So when you consider how far he nuked the team in the shortest amount of time, I think he's gotta be in the convo as worst GM. We should be thankful we won't have to endure 8 years of it (which does keep Millen at the top).

You're right. I don't have anything. If you want me to admit you are smarter than me on the subject, than I will. Because you almost certainly are (and I mean that seriously - you have introduced me to candidates I have never heard of). Just as my time as a fan in the NFL, I've seen "good" GM candidates. I've seen "bad" GM candidates. And they all seem to hit or bust more or less the same. At least at head coach, you can (for the most part) see how involved a coach is as a coordinator or positions coach. If a front office guy isn't a GM, how can you really evaluate him? Sure, the article sounds bad, but it is also just that. An article. I'm not debunking it, I'm not saying it isn't true (it more than likely is), but it might not also tell the full story. And how can we verify it? But that's just my stance. I admit I don't have anything beyond that, because I'm outside the buildings and I don't think anyone outside the building can really know what is going on inside the building or how good a worker is (obviously this is different with someone who is actually a GM, because you can evaluate him on variables that you can see ie free agent signings, trade quality, drafts, etc). That doesn't mean we can't speculate, I just feel like it is hard to take a hardline stance against a guy. Maybe that is just me playing it cautious. But it feels impossible to know outside of extreme candidate cases.

Saying "I can't help you" is 100% putting down someone who has a different opinion than you. But I get why you don’t want him. Just understand why some do.

People can like different candidates. Nobody here actually knows how any of these GMs will pan out. People thought John Lynch was an atrocious hire when the 49ers got him. People thought Scott Fitterer was a great hire when we got him. People thought Nick Caserio was a bad Patriots hire when the Texans got him. It is all just guesswork. The best you can hope for is the guy you get comes from a team known for stockpiling talent and that it rubbed off on them. That is why some people, including me, want Halaby. Now I'm sure you'll tell me to go read the article again and that is okay. I'm not pretending like I know Halaby will be a success for a fact. But you shouldn't pretend like you know he will be a failure either (which you seem to be doing by putting down anyone who dissents from what you believe in). None of us really knows what these front office people are doing on an everyday basis. Predicting a good GM is even harder than predicting a good HC (and that is a crap-shoot too).

We are such a garbage organization. Baker and Stroud about to be in the 2nd round.

I'm not defending the job Thomas Brown did as an OC here. But I'll just say this 1) There is a lot of evidence of guys being FAR worse here than they are in other places. Coaches and players included. Brown still may have a very bright future. 2) Thomas Brown is only 37 years old and was an assistant head coach under Sean McVay (the type of coach every team pursues nowadays) for a team that won a Super Bowl. Even if he was white, he would be getting HC interviews. Teams will pursue any notable assistant under McVay.

My concern would be that Dorsey's work has been with Cam and Allen. Two QBs with a whole different set of traits than Bryce. I'd prefer a QB coach who has experience working with QBs similar to Bryce in skill-set or in the kind of offense that makes the most sense for him.

Honestly Greg Roman would be far and away our best OC in years. He has his flaws but I'd actually be happy to have him here as an OC. At least to help us reset and get us to being somewhat competitive on offense.

That is a great comparison.

... but why does it have to be one or the other? You can value both things. Caring about football doesn't stop you from caring about an ill family member. Nobody (reasonable) actually thinks football is more important than human lives. You can care about both in different ways.