Mr. Scot

Yep. I feel like with everything that was happening, the 2023 Panthers we're going to be an absolute disaster. You had Fitterer with full roster control (and per stories, a willingness to undermine his head coach in an effort to save his own ass) pretty much selling the farm to get Bryce Young, which put us where we are now. Then throw in David Tepper, who has of last year still believed that his involvement in football operations was a positive. As of this year, he says that's over. We'll see. So yeah, it was gonna be awful. The only question is which head coach would have taken the fall for it.

See above... Fitterer was thoroughly sold on Young and had final say. The only way for him not to be the choice was if Tepper overruled it, and there's zero indication that he was inclined to do so.

I don't know that you necessarily have to involve Tepper. It's pretty well known that Scott Fitterer wanted Young. And since he had final say on draft and roster decisions, yhat's who we were going to get unless Tepper stepped in and overruled him on Reich's behalf. Based on the way Tepper talked about Young after their interview dinner, it's highly unlikely there was any chance of that happening.

Schefter and others reported him wanting Stroud. I think the whole truth is most likely that if Reich had final say, he'd have taken Stroud. For all intents and purposes though, Reich was third (maybe even fourth) in the chain of command. Reich also isn't a muckraker, so most likely when it became clear that the organization was going with Young, he went along, publicly said all the right things and just hoped for the best. The full behind the scenes story will likely never be known because Reich isn't the type to tell all. While I respect that, I know I'm not alone in wishing that he would.

Not sold on the first point, at least not in the Xs and Os and the actual football stuff. On the broader front, Reich probably needed to push back harder against both of his owners in some areas. That's on him.

Any coach we hired still would have had Tepper as owner, Young as quarterback, etc. etc. So you really see anyone who could have succeeded in that scenario?

That still would have been better than what we ended up with, though. How much better is debatable, but it's hard to say it could have been worse.

Same thing though. That requires believing that Jim Irsay made a good decision.

I'd say several of them probably are. Now that said, it's also possible he should have fought back in some of those areas harder than he did.

Honestly, I see little difference between judging a coach working under David Tepper ans judging an offensive player with Bryce Young as his QB.

Bucs losing, Malik Willis looking good, Eagles struggling but defending the Saints well

Looking back at last year, what do we see? ______________________________ Reich was right... ...to be interested in Derek Carr ...to bench Bryce Young, regardless of the reason ...to, if you believe this (I do), basically throw up his hands and walk away from the position he found himself in ______________________________ Reich was wrong... ...to not adapt the offense (particularly blocking schemes) around the skill sets of his players ...to not fight harder for CJ Stroud ...to assemble an "all star" staff ...to put too many people in charge of quarterback development ...to trust Thomas Brown with OC duties ...to retain Chris Tabor and James Campen ...to accept the "weekly meetings" ...to listen to suggestions from David Tepper* ______________________________ * This point lilely factors into several of the above points; which ones depends on who you believe

I do too, but I'm also wise enough to know that not all my prayers get answered with a "yes". Pretty sure if I prayed to be taller, more handsome and a much better cook, those prayers likely get a negative response.

That'd basically be a big "f--k you" to every other player on the team, especially guys who are in the last years of their career. Not exactly a good thing for guys that are just starting out either. You have people for whom this season might be their only chance to catch on. Screwing those people over is bad business.

Decisions like this aren't made without due diligence, at least not if your coach is smart.

Yes he is. I don't expect this to suddenly turn the Panthers into a good team but the reality is that Young just isn't an NFL quarterback.

You bench a starter, you leave him benched.

I seriously doubt anybody would trade for him, especially not if Dalton looks even halfway decent this Sunday.

Sure did... but that doesn't diminish the fact that it took a massive set of balls to actually pull the trigger

I could see him potentially becoming a decent QB coach, maybe an OC if he excels at it. Probably at the college level though you never know... But no, he's not an NFL player.

Yes, there is, and it's a valid one...

You're being disrespectful to dog sh-t

Aaaaaand picked...

How much wear and tear will be have had by that time, though?

Wasn't that a Bears challenge?