Breaking down the David Tepper interview - My Thoughts

[Zod]

The Carolina Panthers media recently spoke to owner David Tepper about his recent hire of Scott Fitterer in the role of Panthers GM. 

Here is a breakdown of what was said and my opinion of what is happening between the lines. 

- Tepper confirmed he spoke to 12 outside candidates and 2 internal candidates. He confirmed what I had posted last week, these interviews were as much about him learning what he wanted in a GM as much as learning about the GM candidates.  

- Scott Fitterer is regarded as excellent evaluator, something Marty Hurney himself recently has said he was not. 

- Fitterer has experience in draft room for Seattle. Tepper put emphasis on Seattle's luck in drafting later rounds and would like to see the Carolina Panthers improve in this area. (amen)

- Fitterer has experience with salary cap strategy in Seattle. 

- Tepper likes Seattle's flat organizational style, meaning fewer levels of management and more direct information flow. Less supervision and more delegation to employees to do their jobs. 

- Tepper mentioned Seattle has the second best record over past several years next to New England. He adds without prompting "It doesn't hurt to have a QB that can take you there" which can easily be seen as him not being satisfied with the current QB situation.

- Tepper mentioned he likes a GM that will challenge the coaching staff. Fitterer certainly has the credentials to do so. 

 

At the end of the interview, Tepper reflected on his first seasons here and confirmed what many of us had suspected. He screwed the pooch. I imagine what he is referring to mostly here is keeping Rivera for a season too long and even worse keeping Hurney two seasons too long. That is precious wasted time. 

The good news here is that Tepper recognizes his own misgivings. Not every owner would own up to it, most would not. Tepper concludes by saying he hopes the Rhule and Fitterer hiring are among his best when all is said and done. 

[unicar15]

It would be interesting to hear his reason for keeping Hurney and Rivera too long. He doesn’t strike me as someone who is scared to take a big leap (like immediately firing and hiring a coach/GM combo). Which means he either mismanaged the situation or kept them longer intentionally to learn the process before making the leap. 

[kungfoodude]

40 minutes ago, unicar15 said:

It would be interesting to hear his reason for keeping Hurney and Rivera too long. He doesn’t strike me as someone who is scared to take a big leap (like immediately firing and hiring a coach/GM combo). Which means he either mismanaged the situation or kept them longer intentionally to learn the process before making the leap. 

I think it was the latter scenario. Keep in mind, you learn as much(sometimes more) from seeing bad performances from employees as you do good ones. Now he is at least aware of the red flags that can exist. 

Also, I believe he was on record as saying his first season in Carolina was more about fixing the organizational flaws on the business side of the Panthers(something he didn't have a learning curve to deal with). 

It seems like he has been fairly methodical about the changes, rather than burning it all to the ground at once and trying to rebuild everything from ashes.

[electro's horse]

i love/hate his fuging corporate speak 

pretty soon we're going to need to shift the paradigm and vertically integrate the new team members.

let's take this to email and touch base later

[Zod]

7 minutes ago, electro's horse said:

i love/hate his fuging corporate speak 

pretty soon we're going to need to shift the paradigm and vertically integrate the new team members.

let's take this to email and touch base later

Will there be synergy?

[top dawg]

1 hour ago, unicar15 said:

It would be interesting to hear his reason for keeping Hurney and Rivera too long. He doesn’t strike me as someone who is scared to take a big leap (like immediately firing and hiring a coach/GM combo). Which means he either mismanaged the situation or kept them longer intentionally to learn the process before making the leap. 

He basically answered the question:

 

"There's a little bit of walking in the door and going, 'Wow, football, the NFL,'" Tepper said. "De-mystifying it, a little bit, for myself. I was in Pittsburgh, but I wasn't making those decisions."

Gantt broke it down:

 

"Tepper has freely admitted over the years that he's learning the football industry on the fly. When he bought the team, he started with the business side of the operation because the business world was one he moved comfortably in. So that's the first thing he turned upside down and gave a good shake to.

As a result, the coach and GM he inherited were left on their own for a bit, while Tepper decided what he wanted his football operation to look like."

In other words, Tepper had to do a little bit of learning, reflecting, planning, then building---or rebuilding as it were---and that's where we are now!

[Davin Frankosky (koskadelli)]

I also recall repeatedly reading that he was heavily advised by people both inside and outside of the organization to keep Rivera, so I don't blame him given he needed time to ramp up. 

[Zod]

8 minutes ago, Davin Frankosky (koskadelli) said:

I also recall repeatedly reading that he was heavily advised by people both inside and outside of the organization to keep Rivera, so I don't blame him given he needed time to ramp up. 

That is true. 

[Waldo]

It was a bad sign when he kept Hurney, it looks like he has learned from that massive mistake. That is a very good thing to see.

Hire good football people and get the hell out of the way. That's what ownership needs to do if they are serious about being continously competitive.

[thefuzz]

Not really sure how to feel about this.

 

[thefuzz]

Just now, Waldo said:

It was a bad sign when he kept Hurney, it looks like he has learned from that massive mistake. That is a very good thing to see.

Hire good football people and get the hell out of the way. That's what ownership needs to do if they are serious about being continously competitive.

This was my point from the very start.

How the hell can you be smart enough to build what he had built for himself, earn and keep that kind of money, then purchase a billion dollar asset and look at Marty Hurney's and Ron's record and think thats the folks you want to trust with your 10 figure investment?

Maybe those "football people" telling him to keep Marty and Ron.....possibly....maybe....perhaps....didn't have the Carolina Panthers' best interest in mind?

Whatever, water under the bridge...but once again....missed opportunities.

[LinvilleGorge]

13 minutes ago, Davin Frankosky (koskadelli) said:

I also recall repeatedly reading that he was heavily advised by people both inside and outside of the organization to keep Rivera, so I don't blame him given he needed time to ramp up. 

I mean, if you were from outside the organization wouldn't you be encouraging keeping Rivera? And if you're inside the organization, coaching changes often lead to a lot of internal change meaning all of a sudden your job might be in jeopardy. Tepper being encouraged to keep Rivera and even Hurney is completely understandable.

[trueblade]

3 hours ago, unicar15 said:

It would be interesting to hear his reason for keeping Hurney and Rivera too long. He doesn’t strike me as someone who is scared to take a big leap (like immediately firing and hiring a coach/GM combo). Which means he either mismanaged the situation or kept them longer intentionally to learn the process before making the leap. 

He used the term 'rookie mistakes' in the interview.

[Waldo]

1 minute ago, thefuzz said:

This was my point from the very start.

How the hell can you be smart enough to build what he had built for himself, earn and keep that kind of money, then purchase a billion dollar asset and look at Marty Hurney's and Ron's record and think thats the folks you want to trust with your 10 figure investment?

Maybe those "football people" telling him to keep Marty and Ron.....possibly....maybe....perhaps....didn't have the Carolina Panthers' best interest in mind?

Whatever, water under the bridge...but once again....missed opportunities.

I kind of get it. We are fans, we knew what was what and have for the better part of 13 years at that point. He didn’t. Ownership cares more about the business then the product, that's just normal. It was when we fired Ron and kept Hirney that was frustrating. He should have nutted up and hired a good consultant to assist him but like you said, water under the bridge. If that failure leads to Tepper making better decisions in the future then we are better off now.