hepcat

Go Lions cat bros for life. Go get that first cat team Super Bowl title

It is Canales decision to keep Evero, so be it. But it’s clearly a decision coming from Tepper. I just think holdovers from a previous staff are risky, even successful ones.

The staff Canales hires is going to make or break his tenure. That's true for all head coaches and especially first time head coaches, but it's even more true for Canales in a very rough Panthers organization that has had dissension, division, backstabbing, bad vibes, just overall a dumpster fire caused by a bad owner. Canales will need to surround himself with people he trusts and knows. He will need resilient personalities that tell him the truth. And he will need to be insulated from David Tepper's meddling. I don't love the fact they are keeping Evero without interviewing any candidates Canales might want to hire. He needs to be responsible for his whole staff, not just the offense. He is head coach of the entire team. I have this bad feeling that if Evero is retained, and the offense continues to struggle, it's just going to be a repeat of the 2023 season.

We will see if Tepper has learned anything. Canales is the type of coach the Panthers should have hired in 2020. A young up-and-coming coordinator with some leadership traits to roll the dice on developing into a long term head coach. He was not my preferred hire but I will admit this team could do worse. At the very least, Canales is young and intelligent. On topic, I’m encouraged to hear that Canales can hire his own staff. Because the thing that will make or break his Panthers tenure is who he has around him (like Ron Rivera said, hiring people who will tell him what he NEEDS to hear, not a feedback loop), and keeping David Tepper out of his business. The latter might never happen and continue to derail every head coach the Panthers have until Tepper dies or sells the team. Slightly off topic, what sucks about all of this is that the Panthers needed to embrace a complete tear down and rebuild after Rivera was let go and all the veterans from that era left or retired. What happened between Rivera’s firing and the hiring of Canales is a master class in how to destroy an NFL franchise. The amount of resources they spent trying to find an answer at QB after cutting Cam Newton is flat out embarrassing. Pair that with letting talented players leave for no return and trading away the team’s best offensive players, and the result is the worst stretch of seasons in franchise history. And the Panthers own the worst winning percentage in all 4 major US sports since 2019. David Tepper deserves every bit of the shade thrown at him and he should be thoroughly embarrassed. The damage done to the Panthers fanbase will take a long time to repair. He missed capturing an entire generation of new Panthers fans and jettisoned many others with the teams poor performance and decisions. But if he hits on Canales and the team starts winning, things will get better quickly.

Ron is a good guy. I like him as a person. And honestly Dave Canales should reach out to Ron just to pick his brain about being a head coach in the NFL and leading a group of grown ass men. If Matt Rhule had done that from the first day he might have had a wildly different tenure in Charlotte. I’m not sitting here saying Ron was a great. I still remember the time he called a timeout right before the half with the clock running so the opposing team could have a chance to kick a field goal because he said the defense had too many men on the field and he didn’t want to be penalized. And in the biggest game of his life he didn’t change the scheme one bit to be ready to attack a potent Denver defense. But all in all he was not a bad coach. I think this article shows he might be lobbying for a consultant position on the Panthers staff haha

https://x.com/avl_mike/status/1751029277854744749?s=46&t=04sKNnhiiGcTDblLYKGiJQ I don’t think we’re losing much here

It’s for the best. They really shouldn’t keep any coaches from the old regime. Even Evero and the defensive staff, it’s questionable and could create divisions in the coaching staff. They need to avoid what happened last season and have a cohesive staff with a single leader.

Good and honestly I don’t care if they keep Evero either. Evero did a great job but having been on the staff the year before it might create division on the coaching staff

Best hair? Def

Honestly, no. The "hunger games" culture of the last staff, rife with dissension and back channel conversations, should have been addressed with a full and complete teardown of the organization. They should not have promoted Dan Morgan and they should not retain any of the staff from last year. Despite Evero's success I can see animosity building because he feels he deserves the top job. He's getting a lot of attention elsewhere in the league for head coaching positions and he will get an opportunity eventually. Chris Tabor is obviously in Tepper's ear since he made it through the Rhule staff and onto the Reich staff. If Tabor survives three different coaching regimes, something is wrong. Same with James Campen. I get these are "good" coaches, but given the culture issues the team has had, you have to accept some growing pains for the sake of team chemistry and harmony. It would have made a lot more sense to keep them had they retained Wilks for the top job. Dave Canales has worked on a couple NFL team staffs and should have some connections to build his own staff. And he should have the autonomy to do that. But I doubt he does. And if they keep Evero or bring in another defensive coordinator, that coordinator should be allowed to build his own staff. But obviously Tepper is going to review every decision, and who knows what ends up happening. I just don't like the idea of keeping anyone who made it through the last 1-2 seasons considering how bad things had gotten in the building and I think they're making the same mistakes again. It's insanity.

Unless Mine Evans has given up on his career and just wants to collect a paycheck I don’t think there’s any way he’d sign with the worst organization in the NFL. Evans has a real shot to break some NFL receiving records.

I thought his name was poopeepoo

At the very least he’s far and beyond the best looking head coach the panthers have ever had.

I gotta diverge from the Huddle here…. I actually think it’s a good hire. Morris has come a long way since he was the head coach of the Bucs. He spent time under Mike Shanahan in Washington, Kyle Shanahan in Atlanta, and Sean McVay in LA. That’s a pretty great group of coaches to work under to hone your craft. And it wasn’t like he was a total failure in Tampa when he was really young. Josh Freeman’s Adderall season was pretty solid. I was hoping they were going to hire Belichick.

I am hoping for the best but what irks me is this was probably a result of promoting Dan Morgan who I feel like probably shouldn’t have received the top job after being a part of the worst 3 year stretch in team history. But I guess we will see what happens. Canales won’t have anywhere close to the amount of offensive talent he had in Tampa. Mike Evans is a HOFer and Chris Godwin is a damn good receiver himself. Their offensive line isn’t horrendous either. It’s going to be interesting to see how it pans out with a talent deficient roster and deeply flawed QB.

Aside from the fact I don't think he's a good fit, I think it's too late to hire Vrabel. They had a better shot when they hadn't promoted Morgan yet. One of the reasons Vrabel fell out in Tennessee is they didn't hire his preferred GM.

Third times the charm! You'd think eventually he'd get something right. SOMETHING.

Let’s have some fun since it’s the Panthers offseason. He already promoted Dan Morgan to the GM spot, who had a large part in the worst 3 season stretch in team history. Was it because none of the external candidates they interviewed actually wanted the job? Who knows. The optics of promoting Dan Morgan suck. So how can he make it worse? Because I think it’s going to get worse. David “Murphy’s Football” Tepper seems to just figure out the worst decision he can make and double down on it. Hiring Mike Vrabel seems like a possibility. I’m not a fan of hiring another retread coach and Vrabel seems better suited for a team with a more playoff ready roster. The Panthers are going to be a long term rebuild and need a cohesive staff to be there for the long term. Or will he hire Dave Canales, who was a position coach only a year ago? His connection to Dan Morgan certainly nudges us to believe he will be the hire. Is he too inexperienced? Or will they throw Tepper’s entire bank about at Ben Johnson who I’m not sure has any desire to coach the Panthers? Lets wait and see how much darker it can get!

If they had hired Dan Morgan directly from the Seahawks or Bills, we'd be calling this an amazing hire, a homecoming for a guy who played for the Panthers, etc etc The reason the hire sucked was because Dan was a significant part of the worst 3 year stretch in Panthers history yet still got promoted to the top job. The optics of it suck.

I'm not sure he's getting hired anywhere this offseason. Maybe he takes a year off and one of the talented but underachieving playoff teams (Cowboys, Bills come to mind) want to hire him to get them over the hump. Who knows.

Not a fan of Vrabel for this particular team. Vrabel is a good coach for a more playoff ready team. Chargers come to mind. I think he might have been a good fit on the Raiders. But no, for the Panthers, he's not the best candidate. The Panthers need to hire a young offensive minded head coach and let him take his lumps alongside the rest of the team. But I am starting to wonder if Vrabel and Arthur Smith are teaming up again wherever Vrabel ends up. Not a big fan of that pairing for this roster.

He's a terrible candidate. He just wants to plop somewhere for a few years to beat Don Shula's win record

It’s already happened, and it’s going to get worse. The Panthers are going to miss out on capturing an entire generation of Panthers fans. It’s incredible how little interest I see in the team compared to just 8 or 9 years ago. Having Cam was a huge boost to the fan base and brought a lot of kids to become Panthers fans. Now? They are missing out on getting a new crop of kids to become Panthers fans. I moved back to NC after living in TX 13 years and after talking to some other dads in my new neighborhood, they all say their kids do not care about the Panthers and some didn’t even know the Panthers existed. Some dads say they have tried to make their kids Panthers fans to no success and others say they’ve tried to actively NOT let their kids become fans by not watching games and renouncing their own fandom. A older couple lives across the street from me who are big college basketball fans and I asked them if they are Panthers fans. They said “used to be!” and mentioned how disappointing it’s been lately. One clear consistency across all these people I talked to was they are all fed up with David Tepper and think has done a horrendous job. I am not sure if Tepper knows how deep the damage he has done to the fanbase goes.

Of all the coaches in the NFL who might have a gambling habit or tax issues, Ron is at the bottom of the list. I think he just loves football and has nothing else really in his life to do at this point.