KSpan

The merits of Rhule, or lack thereof, have been discussed ad nauseum and I'm not going to revisit that here. However, your prior comment implied that only those who twisted his words would find them negative and that's just not accurate. Regardless of his merits the dude straight up sounds like a clown at times, and there are comments here that fit right in with that perception. ...It's 1000% working, you just can't see it... ...Team lose because they don't know why they lost... ...We hired adults... It's nonsense.

Good on him - not a small feat. Whatever the motivation I'm sure he just feels better, and that is definitely healthier for him.

I don't hate anyone and certainly not people I've never actually met, but overt incompetence is a pet peeve of mine.

There's no twisting of anything. Speaking and conveying a message is a key part of coaching and this is the nonsense that consistently comes out of Rule's mouth. When hearing it again and again and seeing what has been happened during his time here such a sentiment forms naturally, no twisting needed.

Von was only the symptom. Ron and Shula are the ones that fell flat and cost the team.

Rhule digs his own holes with the nonsense that he says. It's comical at times, with gems like "Most teams lose because they don’t know why they lost."

I'm very anti-Rhule but no question that the offseason actually resembled an actual NFL franchise this year. Need to see it on the field at this point but it was cuts above the Erving/Elflein clown show.

If they were going to do/announce anything publicly I assume it would be known by now.

Lolz.

Plenty of people have thrown out that '#2 defense' nonsense all offseason as evidence of some major leap that will take place of there is better offense, and it's nonsense. Aside from that the stat still supports that Rhule has been an inept strategist and HC and that hasn't changed, so it's rational to expect more of the same until it's proven otherwise. With better offense the defense will clearly appear as average as it is.

This isn't complicated - while 2021 was better than 2020, the unit was average at best against actual competition and claims that last year's defense was #2 are nonsense. Carolina's 2013 defense was #2. and that team did not have prolific offense, and 2015 was #6; are you and others really arguing that that group last year was comparable? I sincerely hope not. With better offensive play and net minor additions to the defensive personnel, reasonable expectation is continued average performance with fewer points scored but expecting legit #2 defense is unrealistic. That's all that's being said.

Often enough yes, which is why the stat is what it is but hardly the sole reason the team gave up 24 or more 10 times, 27 or more 8 times. With better offense the defense us still average at best and nowhere near the , which is the whole point. Nothing about it was genuine "#2 defense" and little has changed, so expect more average play this year but with perhaps a few closer scores.

No one is expecting to stop all scoring, and few would expect a defense to hole a minor lead with no offensive support. However, anyone who came away thinking the defense was anything other than average at best must have only watched the first quarters as well.

I don't understand how anyone who actually watched several, if not most/all, of the games last year can honestly state that the defense deserves to be considered top-tier. There is no comparison to years like 2013 where they were legitimately fearsome, and while the offense sure didn't help things it's not like other teams struggled to move the ball at all. The defense wasn't bottom tier across the board but they were pretty average, looking solid in some ways and very exposed in others, and with Phil Snow still around I'm not sure where the argument that the strategy and scheming will magically improve is coming from. At least in the other phases people can put on the rose-colored glasses and hope for the best when it comes to change and McAdoo, Campen, Tabor, etc, but the defense had no such changing of the guard. They're poised to continue to be pretty average at best, good at times (particularly against any weaker competition Carolina comes across) and schematically abused by superior offensive minds in others. This '#2 defense' stuff is just silly.

Bingo. Were they the worst defense in the league, particularly when factoring in the offense? No. Were they legitimately a top-tier NFL defense? Absolutely not. This was an average-at-best unit that was bolstered by feasting on poor competition for a portion of the season and having low yards against, ironically, due to the poor offense.

Rhule is the head coach and is therefore responsible for making sure the team can perform strategically. Full stop. If an OC or DC isn't getting the job done, where do you think that knowledge/ability is supposed to come from? That's management 101 and a requirement of such a position in any job anywhere. Dude has shown himself to be entirely inept in this regard at the NFL level.

Yeah, no. The guy at the top is the one in charge.

Right, but that's 1 of 10. It takes a lot of failure to lead this category.

Carolina frequently had a strong first driven that resulted in some points. It was everything after that first drive that was Rhule-esque lack of strategy and inability to stay competitive.

Yeah but he wore Bills gear that one time.

Hopefully the head coach has stopped playing Tecmo Super Bowl as well.

Then what is gained by saying it at all?

Seasons like Darnold's 2021 would qualify as 'Holding the ladder.'