While we all are mad at Tepper, can we give him credit for FIRING Reich?!?!

[Panthercougar68]

22 minutes ago, tukafan21 said:

No, because I think it was a shortsighted mistake to fire him.

I still contend that we won't get anyone we actually want, as any good up and coming HC candidate isn't going to risk their HC future on Bryce.

Our best bet was to keep Reich into next season and then fire him a month into the season. 

Then when we end up with a Top 3 pick in the 2025 draft, you can attract a new coach at that point by telling them they can draft a QB to replace Bryce with the pick and leave the decision 100% up to them.

THAT's how you get someone like a Ben Johnson.

We'll either end up with a sub-par new HC who Tepper will be too afraid to fire after one season because of how bad it will look to do it 3 years in a row or he'll actually fire them and then even the good candidates aren't going to come work for a guy that just forced the Bryce decision and fired 3 HC's in 3 years.

That only worked out for the Texans because one of the hottest names in the HC cycle was one of the Texans best players in franchise history and wanted to be there, we don't have that option.  

Tepper cut off his nose to spite his face here, for once we needed to just embrace the suck and play for the 2025 #1 pick and use that to attract a high quality HC candidate.

Firing Rhule was the smart decision and it re-set the franchise, but they then didn't go about a proper re-set, they tried to game the system and only made it worse.  But the trade and subsequent drafting of Bryce set the franchise back 3-4 years.  Firing Freich now just set us back an additional 2 more years, rather than staying with the 3-4 window it would still be if we stuck with Reich and did a full re-set after 2024.

 

That’s not how this league works in this day and age. 

[CRA]

Frank Reich is a bad coach 

Tepper doesn’t really get credit for eliminating a problem he created 

[tukafan21]

1 hour ago, DFive said:

This makes no sense. You would keep Reich only to know you're going to fire him a month into next season? You essentially waste an entire off-season and negatively impact Bryce Young's development. That is how dysfunctional franchises work. Even if you don't believe in Bryce Young (which it clearly sounds like you do not), you give the kid every chance to succeed like Tepper is trying to do now. If Bryce sucks then he will still land you the #1 overall pick but at least you give your team and him a fighting chance by allowing a real off-season and a change in offensive philosophy. 

Right now, we have almost zero chance of hiring a HC that we actually will want.  We want a young up and coming offensive coach, those guys worked their whole lives to get a shot at being a HC and most only get the 1 chance, they're not wasting it on Bryce, they'll take other jobs or wait another season.

The majority of the fan base will not be happy with whoever our new HC is, I'm quite confident in saying that because I honestly don't think anyone the majority would want is going to be willing to take the job and be tied to Bryce.  We're most likely going to end up with someone like Bienemy who nobody has ever wanted to hire because players don't like him, or a re-tread like Flores, who also nobody actually wants for the same reason, players don't like him.  Those type of coaches are best as coordinators, because they are smart football people who work for well liked HC's who are able to get the players to play hard for them. 

Again, Patrick Mahomes HATED Bienemy, if you can't get along with the current player who has the best chance at catching Brady's GOAT status, then you're the problem.

Our best chance at having an HC during the 2025 season that we actually would want, is to hire one going into that season.  We also can't fire a coach in 3 straight seasons, not with how much of a mess this franchise is currently.

Thus, the only way I see us having a HC in 2025 that we actually want, is to fire Reich next season and align the new HC hire with having a Top 3 pick.

Firing Reich is playing the short game, keeping him for one more year is playing the long game.

We've been playing the short game since Tepper bought the team and it's only caused us to keep moving further backwards, we needed to play the long game for once and do things the right way.  Neither Tepper nor the fans want to do that, everyone wants to be good ASAP again, but that's not how good NFL teams are built, you have to do it from the ground up the right way.  

I very much think firing Reich right now is 1 step forward but 3 steps back and we're going to end up with a bum of a HC for at least 2, if not the next 3 seasons because Tepper can't fire another HC that quickly.

Honestly, if that happens (which is probably a better than 50/50 chance at happening), will you look back on firing Reich as the smart move?

And yes, I get your point about Bryce, but that ship has sailed, his absolute max potential is a serviceable game manager who is around the 20th best QB in the league (and frankly, I don't even think he'll be that, I personally think his best outcome is a career backup somewhere, but out of the league within 5 years is more likely).  

That's not a franchise QB in today's game, that's someone you use as a bridge to your next hopeful franchise QB, I really don't care about trying to develop him next year, he isn't the guy and we can't make decisions based on Bryce, we need to make it about what our actual future will be, and he will be gone by 2026 before his rookie deal is even up.

 

Edited November 29, 2023 by tukafan21

[frankw]

To a degree yes. But he also hired him in the first place and passed on Steichen over a zoom interview.

If he can ever put his ego aside and hire the right people and be hands off I'll sing his praises. But he won't budge.

[TheBigKat]

1 hour ago, DFive said:

He definitely deserves credit for biting the bullet and getting rid of Reich before things got any worse. Honestly, for as bad as the mistakes Tepper has made you cannot argue the fact that he desperately wants to win. Maybe that's the keyword here: desperate, but I'm glad he did what he did. People on the board are talking about both sides of their mouths. One on hand every is all mad that he canned Frank 11 games in, yet, these same people would be screaming for Reich to be fired after every game he was allowed to keep coaching in if Tepper didn't. So which is it? You can't have it both ways. If any of us were the owner, wouldn't you fire Reich after all this? Offense has shown ZERO improvement in 12 weeks (BYE included), Bryce is starting to regress in his foot work, and Reich's game management was so bad he made Rivera look like Chuck Noll. Anyone who says that they would allow him to keep coaching with them as the owner is a liar. Tepper did the right thing here and will throw money at our next HC. I'm not a Tepper apologist by any means because how he allowed Rhule to do Cam was horrific, and that Rhule contract was also stupid. But give credit where credit is due. He learned from his mistake and gave Reich a normal contract and had him hire coaches with actual NFL experience. When that didn't work out, he didn't wait another 3 years, he canned him and will start the search again. As much as it sucks right now, I do believe it'll pay off in the long-run which if the right HC is hired next, may not be as long as we think....

this perfectly encapsulates what I was trying to articulate

 

well done!