Bad news for an old friend

[Mr. Scot]

On the other front, while he certainly had his limitations, Bridgewater did at least warn us about Matt Rhule.

Wish we would have listened.

[TN05]

29 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

I'd call zero back to back winning seasons pretty mediocre. It always embarrasses me that this fanbase thumps their chest about going to the playoffs with a losing record. We were a bad team, the rest of the division was just worse.

Would 2014 have been better if we went 9-7 and didn’t make the playoffs? Would 8-7-1 have been magically better? Not really. We made four playoff appearances in five years, with three straight division titles. 

Edited December 16, 2023 by TN05

[Bear Hands]

 

13 minutes ago, Mr. Scot said:

Again, can't agree.

It's all about combinations. Rivera / Gettleman worked. And I'd love to have seen what would have happened had they been able to continue working off that 2017 draft.

Rivera / Hurney didn't work. Gettleman / Shurmur didn't work. Whatever working chemistry those two had just didn't transfer to anybody else.

Maybe it was the combination of nice and nasty that had a happy medium.

Gettleman had Star fall into his lap year 1, had a good pick in KK.  Otherwise, his drafts were pretty spotty.  I will say, he was able to identify talent in later rounds, something that hasn't really happened here much recently.  Our recent late rounders have barely made it through initial camps and onto the roster.      

Although I'll never forget when he took Kugbila 1 pick before Bahktiari.  I wanted DB so bad that draft and thought he fell perfectly to us.  Justa mixed bag and he obviously got on the outs with JR.  Seemed to be more of the issue than anything else, although that move saved us from his perpetual, egregious reaching for big dudes that he loved and had tunnel vision for.

 

[LinvilleGorge]

12 minutes ago, mrcompletely11 said:

rah rah give him hell type coaches like Wilks, ron, etc are being phased out by these up and coming wonderkids.   The game is much more complex then it was even 10 years ago.  Its way more schematic and constantly testing and looking for holes/weaknesses.  Those old school guys simply dont understand that nuance  

It's one thing I give Saban a lot of credit for in the college ranks. The guy played very vanilla schemes for most of his career leaning on dominant defense and a ground and pound offense but as he saw the game evolving more and more toward spread passing attacks he adapted. Hell, his new high flying offense made Mac Jones a 1st rounder and Bryce Young #1 overall and look at them now.

[LinvilleGorge]

4 minutes ago, TN05 said:

Would 2014 have been better if we went 9-7 and didn’t make the playoffs? Would 8-7-1 have been magically better? Not really. We made four playoff appearances in five years, with three straight division titles. 

Yay! We won the worst division in football!

[KillerKat]

59 minutes ago, CBDellinger said:

2 time coach of the year.  

Cam Newton and Luke Kuechly. 

[Johnstonny]

12 minutes ago, Mr. Scot said:

We did that with Phil Snow though and got run over.

Yea...College Phil Snow....

[KillerKat]

Im not a fan of either, but a big reason why Fox is above Rivera is that he gave a damn about the offensive line.

[Mr. Scot]

Not to knock Rivera but I've never taken the Coach of the Year award all that seriously.

For one, those two years that Rivera won it he was alternating with Bruce Arians.

Also true that if you take a look back at the history of the award, the guys who want it had great seasons but very few of them finished them out with Lombardi trophies.

[t96]

43 minutes ago, TN05 said:

I wouldn’t call four playoff seasons in five years mediocre, personally

But that was Ron and nippleshorts, not Hurney. 

[CRA]

40 minutes ago, Johnstonny said:

He had 2 MVP's and Hall of Famers on each side of the ball and couldn't get it done...I liked him, especially after that locker room swear out, but he under achieved with the talent we had....The players gave him the distinction of COY....He never seemed proactive creative...but a solid coach... 

convo is just the best Panther coach.  And a solid coach is the best we have ever had. 

I give Ron the slight edge simply because he allowed a culture to be created here around Cam and for Cam to whatever he wanted …..and most NFL teams wouldn’t have allowed that to happen.   Ron never gets  credit for that and should.   It’s not what most coaches are comfortable with allowing and greenlighting.   Which brought us the best window in franchise history.  

[Mr. Scot]

2 minutes ago, t96 said:

But that was Ron and nippleshorts, not Hurney. 

Ron and Marty were awful together. Probably as much as anything because they just too similar in their weaknesses.

Both tended to favor players too much, as with Rivera's desire that every veteran have a good ending to his career.

[CRA]

10 minutes ago, KillerKat said:

Cam Newton and Luke Kuechly. 

Steve Smith and Julius Peppers for Fox.   

John Fox also had the best overall rosters IMO of any coach here. 

 

[TN05]

18 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Yay! We won the worst division in football!

And then we won a playoff game, and played a tough half against Seattle.

would an 8-7-1 season or 9-7 with no playoffs have been better? What matters more - playoffs, or a “winning season”? I’d take either at this point.