Person: Tepper indicates he's learning and changing his approach

[Mr. Scot]

Person talked about some of Tepper's recent remarks and what they mean in his latest article for The Athletic.

Excerpts:

The Panthers are on their third head coach since David Tepper bought the team. He’s working with his second general manager and is on to his fifth quarterback, which doesn’t even count the likes of Kyle Allen, Taylor Heinicke, Will Grier or P.J. Walker.

The one constant since 2018 has been Tepper himself, but the hedge fund manager has been making changes to the way he runs his team.

Tepper delivered some of the most interesting comments of the draft weekend when he dropped in on Scott Fitterer and Frank Reich’s news conference Thursday after the Panthers took Alabama quarterback Bryce Young No. 1.

...

Tepper, the self-made businessman worth $18.5 billion, acknowledged he was learning on the fly the first couple of years after buying the team from Jerry Richardson. He also emphasized a commitment to overseeing more thorough processes in hiring coaches and selecting quarterbacks, both of which were readily apparent over the past several months.

Tepper was funny, informative and self-effacing, which has not always been his strong suit.

“You guys have to understand, we were here a year and a half trying to figure out — I didn’t know what the heck. I was on the business side,” said Tepper, who was a minority partner of the Steelers. “Then COVID hit. So we’re out of the building for 2 1/2 more years. Then we are in the building and had a better chance last year to see what was going on, right, wrong and indifferent.”

...

When the Panthers hired Matt Rhule in 2020, Tepper led a three-person search committee that also included former general manager Marty Hurney and Steven Drummond, a senior adviser to Tepper who recently left the organization. They interviewed four candidates and one had a second interview — Mike McCarthy, with whom Hurney circled back.

During the search for Rhule’s replacement, there were four people on the committee besides Tepper — Fitterer, assistant general manager Dan Morgan, vice president of football administration Samir Suleiman and chief administrative officer Nicole Tepper.

They interviewed nine candidates, three of whom received second interviews — Reich, interim head coach Steve Wilks and Kellen Moore. After Reich was hired, Tepper gave him a blank check to bring in assistants ranging from former head coaches (Dom Capers and Jim Caldwell) to several who look like future head coaches (Thomas Brown, Ejiro Evero, Josh McCown).

...

Tepper employed a similar strategy after the Panthers decided to scrap the rent-a-quarterback model of the past three years and go with the draft-and-develop approach, which Fitterer had said was the preferred route since he arrived in Charlotte.

After acquiring the No. 1 pick from Chicago in a franchise-altering deal, the Panthers filled two private planes to jet from Columbus, Ohio, to Tuscaloosa, Ala., and north again to Lexington, Ky., for the pro days of Young, C.J. Stroud and Will Levis over three consecutive days. They also traveled to Florida for Anthony Richardson’s pro day after the owners’ meetings.

“I can’t emphasize enough, we are true to this process this time. Not all the time in other past years,” Tepper said. “But process in this coach. Process in getting this quarterback and not leaving a stone unturned. This is truly in everything we’re doing and everything that we did with the coaches and when Frank was hired. The process of, do we have the best person?”

“We’re not messing around. I’ll say it that way,” he added. “The work is here, truly.”

...

Having a plan at quarterback and sticking with it is the opposite of what happened during Rhule’s tenure. And though Rhule might have been the impetus behind most of those moves, Fitterer and Tepper signed off on them.

Of course, the draft-and-develop strategy may not work either, which Tepper acknowledged by saying there’s no “sure thing” even when taking a quarterback first overall. And Tepper is still going to be a hands-on owner; that’s who he is. But the fact he’s acknowledging where he’s failed in the past, taking a more deliberate approach and surrounding himself with smart, serious people is a good step.

[TheBigKat]

He needs to win back the fan base. He’s done some boneheaded things of past years

[Pantherzilla91]

Other than Matt Rhule and the Rock Hill fiasco he really hasnt been that bad.

I think we do forget how much Covid screwed things up.

Give the guy a chance.

[Mega Pint of Wine]

2 minutes ago, Pantherzilla91 said:

Other than Matt Rhule and the Rock Hill fiasco he really hasnt been that bad.

I think we do forget how much Covid screwed things up.

Give the guy a chance.

Truth.  Fans need to stick to the game, and get out of the business they don't understand. 

[thefuzz]

19 minutes ago, Pantherzilla91 said:

Other than Matt Rhule and the Rock Hill fiasco he really hasnt been that bad.

I think we do forget how much Covid screwed things up.

Give the guy a chance.

Other than my wife running around with my brother, and racking up 100k in credit card debt...she really hasn't been that bad.

 

[KSpan]

29 minutes ago, Pantherzilla91 said:

Other than Matt Rhule and the Rock Hill fiasco he really hasnt been that bad.

I think we do forget how much Covid screwed things up.

Give the guy a chance.

Hanging on to Rivera and Hurney too long, moving to turf, letting the 'Keep Pounding' chant disappear for a bit (even if only passively)... it's been ugly. It's nice to hear this from him though and hopefully the words continue to drive actions and positive results.

[Sgt Schultz]

8 minutes ago, thefuzz said:

Other than my wife running around with my brother, and racking up 100k in credit card debt...she really hasn't been that bad.

 

Oh, you're the poor slob that married my ex-wife!

Saying he is on his third coach and second GM is technically true, but his first of each were not "his."  He inherited them, they both needed to go, but between the timing of when Tepper took the keys to the place and what seems to be a tendency on his part to take a breath before sending people packing, they stuck around for a while before getting the axe.

Rhule is on him, as if Fitts.  One failed miserably and one is in front of the jury.  Reich is on him.

I'm not a "come in with guns ablazing and fire everybody" type.  Personally, I would have sent Hurney packing after the season started and then probably done Ron the solid of chopping him about the same time Tepper did, to give him an early shot at finding another job.  But, I probably had a stronger opinion of them both at that point than Tepper did.

Dumping and replacing Hurney first may have also saved us from hiring The Process.  Assuming his replacement was a good hire, they might have sniffed out the snake oil salesman and his wife's meat balls during the interview process.  Maybe not, but there is a chance.

[Khyber53]

Show me don't tell me. This season has a lot to prove yet, right now it's just all on paper with warm, fuzzy vibes. That first real game in September is when we will begin to know and we should have a real feel by the end of October.

Until then...  it's all just words on the wind. A lot of folks fell for the Rhule hire from the get go, too. 

Show me something in the wins column and the playoffs. Then we can start saying he's learned his lessons.

[TLGPanthersFan]

57 minutes ago, Pantherzilla91 said:

Other than Matt Rhule and the Rock Hill fiasco he really hasnt been that bad.

I think we do forget how much Covid screwed things up.

Give the guy a chance.

Fandom is peaks and valleys. We win all will be forgiven. 

[rebelrouser]

I think he won the title of worst owner in the league. Now let's see if he can improve. I can't imagine him being any worse. 

[travisura]

3 minutes ago, rebelrouser said:

I think he won the title of worst owner in the league. Now let's see if he can improve. I can't imagine him being any worse. 

I know he seems bad because we're Panthers fans, but he's never been the worst owner in the league.

[Pantherzilla91]

4 minutes ago, rebelrouser said:

I think he won the title of worst owner in the league. Now let's see if he can improve. I can't imagine him being any worse. 

How?

Jim Irsay hired an espn analyst to coach his football team

[rebelrouser]

2 minutes ago, Pantherzilla91 said:

How?

Jim Irsay hired an espn analyst to coach his football team

And they got a good draft pick out of it. What did we get with Steve Wilks? A slight moral victory and no. 9 pick that forced us to mortgage our future.  Tepper not only hired Matt Rhule but paid him way too much and left him in control too long. He then defrauded an entire South Carolina town. We have fake turf. The list goes on and on.  He is worse than even Irsay.  It's telling you mentioned only one other owner in response. 

[NorthTryon]

Yeah, glad to hear things are changing, but he still has his wife engaged in all of this team business with the credentials of an attractive Walgreens cashier.