Mr. Scot

My worry with Tepper is that with regard to football, he sometimes comes across as a guy who isn't nearly as smart as he thinks he is. He's seemed to indicate at least that he's willing to let the football decisions be made by the football people. He also said he was committed to a long term rebuild but now we're talking about crazy deals and winning now. Like I said, incomplete.

Worth remembering that Watson himself has said he doesn't want to go to a team that has to mortgage their future to get him. Naturally, what complicates that is that most trade scenarios have the Texans asking potential trade partners to mortgage their future.

Reasonable.

Saw that...ouch.

The positive there is that none of the guys he brought into the process made it to the second round. He deferred to what Matt Rhule wanted, and while I'm uncertain about him that at least is a good sign.

From what he's said recently, I think even Tepper acknowledges keeping him for another year was a mistake.

Not negative, nervous. Twenty five plus years as a Panther fan will do that to you.

Not quite what I meant

Jansen (for the moment).

I remember him saying that, and I hope he's true to it. But then you read an article like the one from Jason LaCanfora, who makes it sound like Tepper is so committed to Watson that he'll do anything it takes, even if it doesn't necessarily make good sense. LaCanfora could be wrong, of course (he has been plenty of times before) but if he's right, that makes me nervous.

See above, and don't frame it in terms of the Watson situation because that's not what I'm talking about. We're pleased with the results from Matt Rhule so far, but we were also pleased with the early returns from Ron Rivera. Later results, not so much. Likewise, while it's not difficult to imagine that Scott Fitterer will be a better GM than Marty Hurney because Marty was terrible, it's not guaranteed that he's going to be a good GM either. We'll have to wait and see. And then there's David Tepper. His grade is still an incomplete to me, but he's definitely done some things that make me wonder if he really knows what he's doing (his praise and retention of Marty for example). I haven't seen enough good from him to make me trust him yet. We all hope there are better things to come. But it's not guaranteed.

Ron Rivera wasn't John Fox either, but he found his own ways of screwing up. Logically no, these aren't the former Panthers. But the lessons from years of Panther fanhood are going to take time to overcome.

Even if not offering him is a dealbreaker for the Texans?

Not a big Darnold fan, but I'd still rate him significantly better than Bridgewater. He at least has a chance to make a turn around like Ryan Tannehill did. Don't know that he will, but I do feel pretty comfortable saying that Bridgewater won't.

Which is why I'm hoping for better. Also hoping David Tepper doesn't try to be Jerry Jones.

I'm not just talking about quarterbacks, and not just recently. Think of Sean Gilbert, for example.

Or just call Dan Morgan, who our current GM is known to be very well connected with.

Only if they want him though. One of the things that puts us at a bit of a disadvantage is that there are other teams out there who can offer a ready made starting quarterback in return. We can't do that. Neither can we offer a high enough pick to guarantee one of the best quarterbacks available in the draft. The Jets and Dolphins can do both.

Definitely. If you hired me to run your team, and then the first thing you did was start overriding my decisions, I'd likely tell you to kiss my ass and good luck searching for a new GM. From what I've read about Fitterer, I don't necessarily think he rolls over for something like that either.

I've seen the Panthers "shoot their shot" before. I'd like different results.

I'd agree, and that's something of a subtext in all of this. Said previously, the last thing I want is Tepper having any direct involvement in personnel decisions. It's one thing for an owner to say "you need to get a franchise quarterback". It's another for them to say "it has to be this guy and you'll give up this much". David Tepper is not qualified to make those kinds of evaluations, and if he overrides the people who are, it's not a good thing.

Fair enough...

The idea of trading up for Fields makes me nervous because he's inconsistent. Honestly, the idea of trading up for any of the "runner ups" to Lawrence makes me nervous (for different reasons with each one)

I don't know what the DC equivalent of Hydra is (if there is one).

I'm just waiting to hear "Hail Hydra"