Sgt Schultz

It all evens out. There were people predicting Denver was going to make strides, but there were also people predicting we were going to win double-digit games. Some also had the Saints challenging the Bucs (I have no idea why). All those people were wrong on those points. And some of the teams that were predicted to be rock bottom have played okay, and better than expected. We play one of them twice (Falcons). Atlanta is not going anywhere, but they look better than we do at this point. But, we just emerged from September which is notorious for giving hope to some teams that are fools' gold and casting doubts on some teams that wind up being very good. Regardless, our major problem is looking completely unprepared and lost on offense. We have also shown that when we are in a position to assert ourselves and grab the win, the coaching staff has no ideal how to do that. That latter one tends to mitigate the "any given Sunday" potential.

It would be handy on Sundays, or so it seems. Change your name to General Burkhalter and you can send Rhule to the Russian Front.

Uh-oh. Next up: competitions. Brought to you by Matt Rhule. Creator of "The Process," progress you can't see, and other fine products.

Or lack thereof.

Too many "missed opportunities."

It really does make you wonder. That is why the thought of us drafting a QB high in the first round is almost pointless while Rhule and company are around. There just does not seem to be a lot of coaching, and that is not likely limited to the QB position. None of these guys will make anybody forget about Dan Marino, but right now we are on that list of places where QBs go to have their careers die.

It's all part of "The Process," my friend. Embrace it.

My guess is he is more likely to get a drill to solve this problem from the reporter that asked the question than from the coaching staff.

What did we think CMC, any team captain, or almost any player was going to say: we are capable of playing better football, but our effing coaching staff is like the Keystone Kops in every phase, and we can’t do enough to overcome that? It would probably be true, but not something I would expect anybody to say at this point.

The problem with trying to reach a verdict on Fitts is a little like trying to reach a determination of most of our roster......what is on them and what is on the coaching staff/Rhule? For Fitts, we can blame Tepper for creating what organizationally is a bureaucracy. It is set up in a way that it is almost impossible to hold anybody responsible for anything because the lines between the duties are so blurred they are unrecognizable. I can't tell what is Fitts and what is Rhule because Rhule's "lane" includes so much of what should be the GM's responsibility. And we are not talking about Hoodie, or Reid, or John Harbaugh, we are talking about a guy who has proven absolute zero in the NFL, both before and after he was given that much leeway. Is YGM a bust? I dunno, it is certainly not looking like he is going to realize his potential. But before I make that judgement, I would like to see him play for an honest-to-gawd NFL coach (HC and DC) in an NFL system. This is the same crew that managed to neuter Chinn.

Kyle Shanahan on facing the Panthers.

How does it feel to be a Panther fan right now?

You can see the vultures circling. I wonder how many calls Rhule is getting from real estate agents that specialize in selling? Off topic, but years ago the company I worked for brought in a "golden boy" to be a technical manager on our program. He was not a technical person, but basically a BS artist. To give you an idea, his solution to a program that was behind schedule and running over budget was to have twice-daily meetings with his software engineers. Yeah, right, that'll solve it. He took a couple of weeks of vacation, and when he came back there were 50 job applications, mostly for fast food restaurants, in his mail folder. While he was out, whenever anybody would go out for lunch, they would pick up an application for him.

Is it that severe that it will take several years to heal? Based on that prediction, what kind of injury heals faster with a change of coaching staffs?

I'm glad you mentioned that. Who said that? Vince Lombardi? Tom Landry? Chuck Knoll? Bill Walsh? Bill Parcells? Joe Gibbs? Marv Levy? Jimmy Johnson? Mike Shanahan? Bill Belichick? Andy Reid? John Harbaugh? Nope, somebody with more experience losing than any of them!

I don't know that you could assemble a roster of the league's best players, both starters and backups, and have enough talent to overcome the Rhule Effect, uh Process.

My guess is we score 6 points on two FGs against their defense. Which means our defense is going to have to score a at least two touchdowns. Given my track record in predictions, that means a 41-36 game is incoming.

Kye Shanahan is also the guy who called the plays with 4:00 to go, the lead down to 8, but the ball on the Pats 22. At that point they could have played it smart, taken the gift of two big gains, re-extended the lead to 2-scores (11 points) and forced the Pats to burn time outs. But he wanted to go for it, and they wound up not even getting the FG attempt, didn't cause NE to exhaust their time outs, and kept the deficit one score. Yet Shanahan was able to get a job pretty quickly. It was not as much of a gaffe as Darrell Bevell's brilliant strategy, but it was on the short list. I'm not saying Quinn is the guy I want or would be a great move, but that meltdown was just as much on Shanahan's play calling when everything was on the line as anything Quinn did.

Look on the bright side: they had 28 points in the middle of the third quarter. Our current brain trust takes almost two games to get to that point! I'd personally rather take a swing at an up-and-coming NFL coordinator (a risk, but not as much of a risk as another college guy with a Process/system). But I'd rather bring Rivera back than another swing at a Rhule/Kelly/whoever is the latest college coach everybody is drooling over. Not only can Tepper not know how to figure out who in that group might work out, I don't think anybody can.

I guess the question is whether this team is so far behind the eight ball that we need to bring somebody in to steady the ship and stop it from taking on water before we can forge ahead. Think what Fox did in Denver. That is what I see Dan Quinn as. That role is pretty much what you hire Rivera to do. And I am not comparing Quinn to Rivera, just their strengths. I don't know that we are at that level of dysfunction or not. I do think that if we are not, we are close.

Tepper likely cares more about what the other owners and organizations think of him than the fans. We are the "peanut gallery." Those are the other NFL country club members.

I agree on both points. While I don't see any improvement by sending Rhule out the door now, this year is probably a major loss, regardless. I don't see anybody on the current staff changing that, including Rhule. Unless they did something incredibly stupid with Rhule's contract, the end result in terms of dollars and sense is going to wind up being background noise. Especially with some big-time NCAA jobs opening up as this plays out. In terms of Tepper, he just needs to stay out of sight or get some advice of how to handle this mess from someone with bonafide NFL credentials. Right now, this whole mess looks like amateur hour at almost every level.

A lot is going to depend on Fitts (who apparently is not in hot water with Tepper, per reports) and the new coaching staff (assuming there is a new coaching staff). IF CMC stays healthy, the new staff may want him because nobody else is proving to be a catalyst on offense. Let's face it, even though we put the blame on QBs and the play calling, if you are coming in as a new coach, you are looking at our receives and perhaps thinking a couple are good to decent, but there are a lot of unknowns. That even includes DJ, just because of results. But, this is not a plum job to a prospective HC. If the guy is a defensive coach, there are more people they could find intriguing than on offense. The Process has screwed this team. Rhule is apparently all about developing a culture, but in the NFL that comes with success and is a product of it. Trying to develop a winning culture without the winning just doesn't work in the pros. The end result is the players may love you, but they won't even help you carry your bags or pack your stuff when you are sent out of town.

Exactly. A lot of people don't understand that unless they did something incredibly unusual for the NFL, and stupid, Rhule doesn't get the money from his Carolina contract AND the money from his next gig. He likely gets at least the money he is guaranteed from the Panthers contract (which will essentially be split between the Panthers and whoever hires him), and if he makes more from his new job, Tepper is probably off the hook. If he quits for a job of equal or more money, he has lost zero. In fact, the dollars and sense probably work out the exact same as if he is canned. If he quits for, say, $7M a year he loses $1.5M, but that may be worth it to him in the long run. The guy has already made roughly $25M here (counting this season). He's 47, and apparently enjoys coaching (although maybe not right now, and maybe not in the NFL at all). He's got 20 years ahead of him to continue to talk to 18-21 years olds about "the Process" and they will mostly believe him. If he tries to play out the Panther string, there is no guarantee that his name will be viewed as a hot commodity at the major NCAA programs in 4 years. While Tepper still owes him 4+ years of salary, he also owns his rights for those 4 years.

Everybody will be much happier when they give up all hope.