Hurney's Interview: The Hurney-Fox Divide

[Mr. Scot]

There hasn't really been anything to indicate that Hurney's job is in danger.

Fox? Sure. But not Hurney.

[panthers55]

I think you guys are wrong about this. There is no divide. I have no doubt that Fox realizes that teams have to move the ball through the air just as much as Hurney does. If you look at the years we have had good offenses (03, 05, 08), we had a decent to good passing. And in 03 we had a very good passing attack. And its not about the plays that are called, its about execution. When we have had even an average passing attack, we have had a pretty good balance of run to pass.

What is in doubt is the current coaching staff's ability to draft, develope, or sign the players needed to have a good passing attack. The three best receivers we have had during Fox's tenure are Smith, Moose, and Proehl, none of whom was drafted by Fox's staff. And Fox hitched his career to Delhomme for so many years, and was never able to get a solid replacement for him through the draft or thru free agency. Eventually Jake couldn't do it anymore, and we had no one to take over. It seems that when it comes to quarterbacks and receivers, the team just has no clue as how to judge or develope talent.

It isn't just the coaches fault. Hurney signs the players and controls the draft while Richardson is in charge of the overall direction. What I mentioned a few days ago is how few top 3 round WRs we have actually drafted in our history. That would be Smitty, Moose, Carruth, Colbert, and Jarrett up to this year when we added LaFell and Edwards. Think about it. In 16 drafts we have drafted 7 WRs in the first 3 rounds. Of those 7 players we picked up 1 in the first, 3 in the second and 3 in the third.

It doesn't surprise me that we have struggled at WR. How many quarterbacks have we drafted in the first 3 rounds? Collins in the first round in 1995 and Clausen in the second in 2010. One every 15 years. No it doesn't surrpise me we can't pick them in the draft. We don't try often enough to hit on a few good ones. It is like complaining how you never do well in the lottery when you play very sporatically.

[Mr. Scot]

I think you guys are wrong about this. There is no divide. I have no doubt that Fox realizes that teams have to move the ball through the air just as much as Hurney does. If you look at the years we have had good offenses (03, 05, 08), we had a decent to good passing. And in 03 we had a very good passing attack. And its not about the plays that are called, its about execution. When we have had even an average passing attack, we have had a pretty good balance of run to pass.

What is in doubt is the current coaching staff's ability to draft, develope, or sign the players needed to have a good passing attack. The three best receivers we have had during Fox's tenure are Smith, Moose, and Proehl, none of whom was drafted by Fox's staff. And Fox hitched his career to Delhomme for so many years, and was never able to get a solid replacement for him through the draft or thru free agency. Eventually Jake couldn't do it anymore, and we had no one to take over. It seems that when it comes to quarterbacks and receivers, the team just has no clue as how to judge or develope talent.

You have to look at how Fox views the passing game to get the full picture.

An ideal passing game for Fox requires only the ability to chuck it downfield every once in a while to keep defenses from being able to stack the box.

You might throw in an occasional smoke pass to Steve Smith or a quick out route to Brad Hoover, but primarily it's about vertical passing to make room for the run game.

When that's all you really want, then what we've had in the past is enough.

And truly, you can win with that kind of gameplan if you have the right players in place to execute it well.

In 2008, we did. In 2010, we don't.

But, sadly, we're still running the same gamplans