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I've lost belief in Tepper already. Rhule too. Best of luck to the greatest, most impactful player in Panthers' history, Cam Newton..


Proudiddy

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Our franchise is run by a bunch of drunks.  I tried to buy in on Rhule, but if this is his plan, it sucks.  And at this point, under Tepper, all I see are breadcrumbs that lead me to believe he is an impulsive, meddling owner - to a much greater degree than JR was.  I dont really get a sense of a master plan at the end of all these seemingly random impulse moves, but rather a rich big boy who gets to tear down his playset and then fix it how he likes, just to tear it down again.  

This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.  I understand Cam was hurt the last few years, and ironically not from all of the running he did over the years that everyone was worried about, but in fact because he couldnt be protected in the pocket by two different GMs.  But, if he returns to form, he is 2000x the player Bridgewater is and 10,000x the player Allen is.  If he returns to form, you're getting an MVP caliber player for relative peanuts.  Letting Cam go at this juncture feels like a mistake of a move that we're going to regret down the line.

Back to Bridgewater - to add further insult to injury, nothing against Teddy, but Cam fell out of favor after repeatedly getting injured behind a porous OL.  Cam, at 6'5" 260 lbs, couldn't stay healthy.  Now you expect the same GM to build said OL to keep a much more slight-framed Bridgewater healthy, all while paying him quite handsomely...  and mind you, Bridgewater also doesnt have the escapability or arm strength of a Cam...  seems like a solid plan.

And furthermore, not only do I think you're botching the on-field product up,  but you really couldn't have done much worse in the optics and presentation of all of this.  We went from he's gone, to "I'm gonna win a Superbowl with him," to Cam declaring with absolute certainty that he was led to believe he would be back, to Hurney being non-committal, to now today, our team signing an inferior replacement and then telling Cam publicly to go find another team while thanking him for how great he is.  Sloppy.

I will always be a Panthers fan, but I feel less invested than ever before.  I'm just tired of bad move after bad move and stupidity running rampant, regardless of who is in charge.  We'll see how all of this plans out, and maybe Bridgewater ends up being fine...  as a Panthers fan, we have to pull for him and the best outcome, but man, this just looks and feels bad.

And finally, thank you for all you have done here, Cam.  You are a legend of untouchable stature now and forever.  In your prime, there never has been and never will be anyone like you.  In a gladiator's sport, you were the ultimate gladiator...  one who could put an entire team of 52 other players on your back and carry them to the endzone, time and time again.  It has been an honor to see you grow, mature, and become the incredible player and humanitarian you have become - all while wearing the black and blue.  There will never be another Cam Newton - the greatest player in Panthers' history.  Period.

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Hot take. And a stupid one. This place goes crazy so much. Things will work out. Things will be fine. We weren’t going to extend Cam and we were a 6 win team this season with him coming up. Hard decisions had to be made. This is a business. 

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2 minutes ago, Steve_Smith_Sr. said:

I get lots of people love Cam, but let's at least give Teddy a chance.  He did pretty well with the Saints last year.  

And we'll be running a similar system.

Mind you, I'm not counting on us winning a lot of games next year, but that doesn't mean Bridgewater is going to be horrible.

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As to the topic...

Rhule is a complete unknown. Whether you choose to be optimistic or pessimistic about him, either is a valid choice. I'm in "wait and see" mode, though admittedly the fact that he stacked his coaching staff with so little NFL experience concerns me.

Hurney is garbage. We've known that for a long time. whether or not he stays around and in what capacity is still up in the air, so there's that.

Tepper? Still somewhat unknown but I have to say there are a lot of things that concern me. The fact that he kept Marty around and his giving Rhule such a long commitment are eyebrow raisers. My current impression is that he genuinely believes he knows what he's doing, but I'm not so sure he actually does.

I'm at least glad that we moved on from the mediocrity of Ron Rivera, but I'm not absolutely convinced we've gotten better.

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