tukafan21

I'm still of the belief that unless one of the top 3 falls to us, we re-sign Darnold for another year or find another patch for this season and then trade whatever is necessary next year to move up for a QB. Or actually, I'd still draft Hooker in the 4th this year and let him and Corral battle it out next year to see if either has potential to be the guy. Next year's QB class is supposed to be significantly better than this year, if we're going to be trading multiple future first rounders, there isn't a QB in this year's draft that feels safe enough to do that for, there are multiple in next year's draft that it would be worth the risk for.

VERY hard pass Zero interest in Fields, he’s an even worse passer than Lamar and will want a huge contract after next year. I’ve said from the start that the Bears should trade him and start a new clock on a QB contract extension with one with better passing upside, but that’s also why I wouldn’t want us to take him on.

I have no issue with a re-tread, so the whole "didn't win a SB at their first stop" thing doesn't bother me at all. And just because something is rare, doesn't mean it isn't something to strive for. The most successful coaches are with their teams for 10+ years, so why would we not want to shoot for that? It would be like saying, sure, I could make a million dollars this year if I really try for it, but not a lot of people do that, so I'm going to settle for an average salary this year instead. It might get you by for the year, but you're not going to be living your best life. This is the NFL, if you don't compete for SB's, then you're not doing well enough, nobody wants to be an above average team every year, you want to win championships. And I just don't see Reich as the hire to win championships, it's the hire to compete for division titles, hardly something to get excited over.

And all 3 of them have constant rumors about them considering retirement after almost every season. It's also pretty rare for coaches to still be doing it into their 70's as well, not to mention those are 3 coaches who have all won SB's as HC's. Your'e really trying to compare Reich to 3 sure fire HOFers?!?!?! C'mon now

I'm sorry, but that's a REALLY bad plan. Those young assistants that are being groomed to be HC's keep getting hired within 2, maybe 3 years of them getting the OC job. The odds of us being successful enough that we have one of those coaches at the time Reich is ready to step down is pretty low. Plus... we're literally turning down said groomed young OC's to hire the stop gap now... why not just skip the stop gap and go for someone who helped launch Herbert's career when he had questions coming out of college about being ready and helped shut down any questions about Hurts being a legitimate starter in the league as well!?!?! In the last 4 years he has literally taken 2 QB's who were not sure fire NFL starters and helped turn one into an MVP candidate and another who is likely better but had a lot of injuries around them this year and still had a great season. In the end, I just can't get on board with the idea of hiring someone of his age when we're not already in a win now mode. Why are we wanting to hire someone with the idea of then drafting a young QB who we'd hope will play longer than the coach will still be coaching?!?!?

Reich is 61, Steichen is 37... don't tell me Reich was "literally Steichen 5 years ago" when 5 years ago Reich was still almost 20 years older than Steichen is right now. Steichen was an OC when he was 34, Reich wasn't an OC until his mid 50's. So sure, Reich was an OC on a SB winning team, but that still gives Steichen a 20 year head start over him right now, and could get that same SB this year. Literally that's all you need to say for me to not like Reich over Steichen. Why are we hiring someone who has max 10 years left in their career?!?! It's one of my biggest issues with the idea of Payton as well. You hire Steichen and things go well, we don't need to look for a new HC for at least 20 years. I thought Tepper wanted to be more like the Steelers, well the Steelers have only had what, 3 coaches in the last 60 years or something?

I'm not calling him or his play calling conservative, I'm calling the hire conservative, it's called a metaphor. At best he feels like the hire to help turn our franchise into a solid squad, not the one that can lead us to being legit SB contenders. I'd rather take more of a risk on someone like Steichen, "bad interview" be damned, than go with Reich who feels like a re-tread with minimal upside.

I'm sorry, but hiring Reich just feels like the equivalent of punting from the 50 yard line with 2 minutes left in OT. Playing for the tie instead of going for the win.

If any of the top 3 QB's fall to us, you take them unless the new coach REALLY doesn't think they will be a starter in the NFL. If not, I'd say take hopefully the top WR in the draft whoever it ends up being (could happen, lot of mocks don't have a WR going before us) and then take Hooker in the 3rd or 4th. If Hooker can be healthy by camp, let him and Corrall battle it out for the starting spot while having a vet on the squad to be the 3rd string and mentor to them. Either one of them looks good enough to try and move forward with as our QB or we then bet the farm in a much better QB class and pay whatever it takes to move up and draft one. I'm not saying tank next year, but I think we have a good enough base group of players that drafting smart this year to fill holes like WR, DE, LB, DB, and then trading away all our future draft picks for a QB next year would set us up for a possible strong run of contending seasons while on that rookie QB deal. The core base of Burns, Brown, Chinn, Horn, Ickey, Moton, BC, Moore, TMJ, is a great grouping and all of them still well shy of their 30's. Don't screw this up by trying to fix all our leaky holes in one year, especially on a rookie QB deal, you want the team put in place before you get that QB if possible and I think we can do that by next season and then overpay to move up.

I can't see Rodgers wanting to go there, even with Adams there. Considering all the talk about how McDaniels is with his players, including his QB, I can't see that being a good fit for Rodgers. Not that the guy can't be coached, but I just can't see how those two would be able to co-exist and not just want to constantly kill each other. Just seems like a bad Coach-QB fit Think Brady would work well with him given their history, but without that history already built like with those two, I can't see how they can go with an established guy like Rodgers, it's gonna have to be a rookie.

If that's the case, if there isn't a hire in the next couple of days, to me that means Steichen will be our next HC. The other 3 can all be hired right now, most "experts" have ranked us as the best destination out there for the HC openings, and Tepper is likely also the owner willing to spend the most money to get his guy. So if he hasn't moved on any of the other 3 in the coming days, to me that means he wants Steichen, and at this point if Steichen wasn't interested in coming here, he'd have withdrew his name by now. Hence, Steichen to the Panthers seems inevitable at this point to me...... assuming this rumor is true of course.

Call me crazy, but I think this is intentional. To me, it sounds like Wilson is more interested in Payton than the Broncos ownership actually is. If that's the case and they don't want to upset their clearly fragile QB with them not hiring his preferred choice, seems like a good way to turn Payton off on the Broncos and get him to turn them down. That way they can still save face with Wilson and say they went after the guy he wanted, but still actually hire whoever they wanted to. Win-Win for ownership there.

I'll be very angry if this happens, but nothing against that guy. It will have everything to do with us not even interviewing 2 of my personal top candidates who are DC's, one being Ryans which I detailed above, but the other being Quinn. If we hire a young DC with no HC experience without even interviewing Quinn, it would very much upset me, particularly with Tepper having said he would like someone with previous HC experience early in the process.

More like Translation: Everyone knows Ryans is going to the Texans It just makes too much sense, they got hit hard in the media for hiring black HC's who they subsequently fired after giving them only one season. On top of all the Watson stuff they had to deal with, looking at a minority hire always made sense for them if there was a good fit as it helps them from a PR standpoint. Add in that he's one of the better players in franchise history and it just seems like it's too obvious of a fit for both sides that it is bound to happen.

Also guess this means regardless of who wins/loses the NFC championship game it would both help and hurt us this offseason. Niners win and it hurts our draft picks a bit but we get to try and move on Steichen faster. Eagles win and it helps our draft picks a bit but we can't hire Steichen faster.

ugh that sucks, hopefully Tepper doesn't get antsy and do something stupid before then. We're easily the best opening out there (could see some arguments for the Broncos, but choosing to go coach in a division with Mahomes and Herbert over the garbage QB's in the South would be awful), Tepper has deep pockets, if he wants Steichen, he should be able to land him, just wait on him. Although I'd still more be okay with Payton if, and ONLY, if it leads to Gronkowski being a Panther, which I actually think could happen if Payton comes here as Brady would seem too logical for all parties at that point. That's actually my first option given my Gronkowski fandom, but since that is too many dominoes and too much time to make me happy after the hiring, I'd rather just get Steichen and be happy from day 1.

Anyone know the rules in regards to a second interview with Steichen this week and/or weeks leading into the SB if they make it? He's really the only realistic candidate left that I actually want (my top 3 was Harbaugh, Ryans, or Quinn with a second level down of Johnson and Steichen), so I'm really hoping we're allowed to do a second with him sooner than later as I get the feeling Tepper isn't going to want to sit around and wait 3 more weeks to make a hire (or at least have an agreement in place that could be announced once the SB is over if they make it).

There is a literal 0% chance that the Texans pass on a QB at 2 because they decided to sign Carr, just won't happen, absolutely not even a remote chance of it happening. No franchise is passing on drafting a top QB prospect to sign 32 year old Derek Carr Just lolz

Yea, if it's 2 firsts, Payton shouldn't even want to take the job, he has to know that's too much to give up for him to do the job successfully. I'm still very strongly against giving a division rival draft picks for a 60 year old coach, but if it leads to my fellow Arizona alum in Gronkowski to being a Panther, then I'll give them as many first rounders as they want, it's always been my dream scenario for Gronk to be a Panther, I'll live with a stupid trade under those circumstances lol.

I'm guessing he can't do that, he didn't take a leave, he retired, it's not like they have to keep paying his contract. They just retain his coaching rights until the contract would have been over, if not, coaches could "retire" any time they wanted just to switch teams, it would be wild. Also pretty sure they have his rights through the 2024 season, so they do have a lot of power in this as they could force him to sit out 2 more years if they wanted, think that eliminates a lot of leverage Payton could have in it all because at his age, 2 years might be around 20% of the rest of his career.

almost all of my friends are Spartans, they struggled with Hutch early in the year, but they've come around since then on him. I might be the only person in the world who still regularly wears an authentic Biakabutuka Panthers jersey for games. When I wear it to the bar here it definitely gets a lot of comments from Michigan fans. My favorite was a few years back when the Panthers were in town I wore it when I went to the game, which in Detroit is always a questionable decision to wear an opposing team's jersey. Game was in the winter so was wearing a coat into the game, as we were getting to our seats a guy in the row behind us saw me in my Panthers gear and immediately started chirping. Then I took my coat off, he saw the name on the back and couldn't stop laughing as I guess he was a Michigan guy. It made the game pretty enjoyable with him from then on, instead of the standard Detroit fans bashing on the away fans, we had some fun back and forth banter.

I think as things stand right now, they make the most sense if SF doesn't decide they want to make a run at him. But if Payton comes here, I think we would make WAY more sense for Brady than the Raiders. Would he rather go into a division with Mahomes, Herbert, and Wilson as it's QB's, with 2 playoff teams from this season including maybe the SB favorite? Or would he rather go to the worst division in the league last year, where the other 3 teams don't have a clear cut starter amongst them for next year and team up with the coach he's been trying to play for the last couple years? Payton/Brady in Carolina makes a lot more sense than him going to Las Vegas.

no, it's in Buffalo, only a KC-Buffalo AFC Championship game would be in Atlanta

Really??? The guy is interviewing for another job the day before their playoff game?? That's very surprising in itself, but it also means 2 things to me... First is that it means Steichen is Tepper's favorite or he's setting up future interviews to try and leverage going another way over Payton/Saints negotiations. As if Payton was the top target, I'd think Tepper would be trying to get it wrapped up ASAP and not drag into the weekend, so setting up a weekend interview would be weird.

The problem here isn't Tepper's willingness to give Payton "anything he wants" as he has the money to do that. It's about what he's willing to give the Saints to get him. I just really hope he understands the differences between the two of them and makes smart decisions in regards to that. My hope would be that he could somehow convince the Saints to take back maybe just 2 mid round picks with one in the future, and then give them like 20-25 million in cash on top. The guy has the money to do it and it wouldn't be giving up good draft picks to a division rival. I doubt the Saints would do that, but it would make me MUCH happier if we went that route as my big issue with Payton is giving high draft picks to a division rival.