Mr. Scot

You'll notice in the article that Fitterer was questioning Rhule about developing young players.

Someone else said it's possible that even if he completely bombs his interview, the Texans might hire him anyway just to try and put out the fires. Breer also raised a good point. If they interview Bieniemy and then don't hire him, that could piss Watson off even further because he could see it as just a lame attempt at placating him. It's very possible that the job is his if he wants it.

Probably depends on what Caserio thinks of him. He's had a chance to view Jimmy Garoppolo on the team and Sam Darnold as a division rival. He has informed opinions on both.

In other developments on this front, Eric Bieniemy has accepted the Texans interview request, and is in fact interviewing today. The league decided to give permission for teams to go ahead and do virtual interviews with candidates from the four remaining teams this week rather than making them wait.

Figured you were tired of saying it.

Bill O'Brien doesn't work there anymore.

Negotiating with an old colleague who's probably less likely to try to screw you over helps too. San Francisco and Miami can each offer both young quarterbacks and friendly connections with Caserio.

That did take some balls Breer's piece actually a load of good info about the process here. That's just one that stood out to me. Also have to say for Tepper to talk about not wanting "redundancy of skill set" only to wind up hiring a guy whose primary traits were evaluation based tells me he must have impressed the hell out of them. Said it before: I want to learn how to interview from this guy.

Well, it hadn't hit me till now, but you know who else Caserio has a connection with? Adam Peters. They worked together in the Patriots personnel department from 2003 to 2008.

Some insight into the GM hiring process from Albert Breer (MMQB) Panthers owner David Tepper was all parts hedge-fund manager in his GM search. And here’s how to explain it: Tepper made clear to candidates, and those who were part of his search committee, that he wanted the GM hire to be a value add. In other words, after interviewing internal candidates, and having a year working with Matt Rhule, redundancy of skill set to people already in the building would be a strike against anyone. That’s why, through the process, the team took a good hard look in places some weren’t, with cap/analytics candidates coming through (Cleveland’s Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Kansas City’s Brandt Tilis interviewed, and Baltimore’s Nick Matteo turned down a shot to) with the normal scouting types. So what does new GM Scott Fitterer add? One, he was on the ground floor in Seattle to see Pete Carroll’s college-to-the-NFL transition. Two, he worked in Carroll’s kingdom, with a coach who had a level power in personnel decisions (for what it’s worth, Carroll’s and Rhule’s styles have similarities, too). Three, he has a vast level of experience, spanning college and pro scouting, cap management and trades. And four, Fitterer got along easily with those in the room—which is why the process moved so fast. In fact, one story from that time really encapsulates it. Fitterer had asked Rhule about developing and playing young players (a staple in early-Carroll Seattle). Rhule responded with example after example from last year of rookies and other young guys growing into big roles fast, and he then explained how important it was to him to maintain a “start-up mentality.” Tepper then jabbed at Rhule, saying the coach had stolen that phrasing from him. At which point Fitterer jumped in and deadpanned to Tepper, “And you stole it from Jeff Bezos.” That brought the room down—and showed everyone the potential for chemistry there. And the best part is that the Panthers knew that was there quickly. Fitterer wasn’t in the first wave of interviews. Last weekend, after meeting with those internal candidates, Carolina decided to reset, and a request went in on Fitterer Sunday afternoon. Monday, he had his Zoom interview. Tuesday, he flew to Charlotte. Wednesday, he had his second interview. Thursday, he got the job. Which is a pretty good indication of how quickly an impression was made.

I'm sure the team will have the conversation, but they may decide it's not the best idea. If that's their decision, that isn't gonna be "sitting back and accepting our suckage" either.

Smart. Gotta figure playing in Shanahan's system would be a big draw too.

Hadn't thought about the 49ers being able to offer Jimmy Garoppolo.. Could see Caserio biting on that if the surrounding package was good.

Not doing this deal isn't "sitting back and accepting our suckage" especially not if it's a bad deal.

It came from the same site that gave us this gem: Joe Brady is leaving It's basically just one of those places that retweets pretty much anything they see and makes it look like it's their own. (and they're not necessarily all that discriminating in what they post)

You think he's going to come here and exchange for us trading away one of his best weapons or one of our best defenders? The Dolphins and Jets have way more capital than we do.

Watson wanted the Texans to look at Robert Saleh as a head coach, plus the Jets have the #2 pick as well as a young WB to offer in return. I'd definitely call them a real possibility.

I'd trade a fifth rounder for #3 overall too but somehow I don't see it happening. As to Watson, I'd absolutely consider a deal in a heartbeat if it wasn't a Gift of the Magi type transaction. Most of what I see people offering here is exactly that. And do you really think if say, the Dolphins offered a better deal than us, they'd take a worse deal just because of that? (not even mentioning the relationship between Caserio and Flores) The Texans are gonna get hammered and look like fools if they trade him anyway. You're asking them to accept looking even worse.

You really think that's enough to merit serious consideration? There are a dozen other factors and a load of them are not in our favor. I get the desire to have a franchise quarterback but reading this thread I feel like I'm watching a masterclass in rationalization.

He didn't say the Texans were game to do a deal with us either, but we're running with it as if he did. Heck, all he basically said was "maybe the Panthers are an option too".

In a year when we already can't afford to keep both Moton and Samuel and the salary cap might end up going down?

Plus you're going to have to trade him somewhere he wants to go. Are we ready to believe he's only interested in NFC teams?

The Rapoport tweet we're basing this discussion on lists two AFC teams as likely trade targets. Are we gonna say that Rapoport's right about us but wrong about them?

Also not entirely accurate. The Rams didn't just give those picks away. They traded them for returns (Jalen Ramsey, for example).

He burned bridges to hand the team to Nick Caserio and now he's not gonna let him make a deal?