Mage

I mean, I love Cam Newton as much as the next guy... but it absolutely *did* matter. Newton didn't maximize his potential as a QB (outside of 2015) because of it.

This IMO is what makes by far the most sense and is probably what happened. People talk about Bryce like he wasn't considered the #1 QB throughout the college football season. It wasn't until Stroud's game against Georgia that he got #1 buzz. By all accounts, scouts across all teams loved him and the Texans 100% would have taken him. So it is quite likely the Panthers scouts agreed. I can buy Reich and the staff preferring Stroud, but I don't think there is any evidence that Reich outright didn't want Bryce. I do think that his offense didn't fit Bryce's skill-set (in an ideal world) played a role though.

They wouldn't have gotten anything out of asking him about that. If Fitt isn't fired yet, it is because Tepper either still has faith in him or is waiting until the end of the season. Either way Tepper isn't going to throw Fitt under the bus. Reporters only had 1 question each it seems so they had to make whatever they asked count. And they did ask good questions - Tepper just ducked all of them. It felt like he was prepped with every answer EXCEPT the one about Stroud/Young. You can see in his body language and how he was fumbling over words (unlike in his earlier responses) that he didn't know the right words to say.

Tepper got shook by that Stroud/Young question.

To be fair he did take responsibility for the bad Rhule hire. I'm not the biggest fan of Tepper right now either. But I do think this could be a good press conference if he does give insight on what went down.

Hubbard is so mid. Every team has a Chuba Hubbard. Saying he is our "best offensive player" says more about everyone else than it does Hubbard.

Jim Harbaugh come on downnnn

There are only so many openings each year. Outside of big-name HCs like Jim Harbaugh and Sean Payton, who will have teams interested in them guaranteed every single year, young HCs don't have the same ability or security to pick-and-choose. Because you can get fired so quick. Or what if your offense underwhelms due to circumstances out of your control? You went from being a hot candidate to someone teams aren't interested in. Again, I get the concern. But there really isn't anything to be concerned about. Not to mention the $$$$. Coordinators / assistant coaches aren't going to turn that down and risk not being pursued or hired in the next cycle. Hell, look at Brian Daboll. It took him YEARS to get a HC job. Imagine if he turned down the New York money and then the Bills offense regressed under him? People will point to Ben Johnson but like I said in another thread, he's a big exception. And Detroit IMO was a very special situation. The energy in that city and with that team is different. It made sense why Ben Johnson wanted to give it another go. Now anything can happen. So we'll see. But I would be shocked if there wasn't interest in this job. Sure a guy like Harbaugh probably won't be that interested, but plenty of young coaches and up-and-coming offensive minds will be.

We'd probably be winning this division if we just kept Baker, CMC, DJ, and simply got a new head coach.

Yes, and I am saying it was a poorly designed screen. It should have asked him to remain more lateral to the LOS. That way he is led to the sidelines, where he had the edge and blockers. If you are going to have the WR take it back inside, you need someone physical that can break tackles. That is why Shenault is usually the guy on that play. A screen was the correct play-call. We just chose the worst screen design.

Hell nah.

It was a poorly designed screen, but a screen play in that situation was not a bad call. Chark has an opportunity for the 1st if the screen asks him to go more lateral of LOS rather than taking multiple steps back.

Will Kunkel knows nothing.

Yeah, I remember a LOT of Panthers fans hating him around this time. We weren't spending any money and Fox was the ultimate lame duck coach, it felt like we were just throwing away a season. Was it as bad as the Tepper hate? Maybe, maybe not... but it was close IMO. I wonder how much the heat would have intensified if we never got Cam.

Bro is talking like he was about to make a play.

Jerry Richardson was despised around these parts in 2010.

And? This is a football game, not "make fans happy" game. And it did matter - the Titans got 3 points out of it. The score would be 10-14 otherwise. It was stupid for the Panthers to not call something that would be guaranteed to run clock. Titans had 0 TOs. Instead of we threw past the LOS 3 straight times and gave them a free possession. That is terrible coaching.

Panthers gonna get their 1 TD of the game soon.

Ikem got Arden Key looking like Lawrence Taylor

Everyone sucks. HC, QB, RBs, WRs, TEs, OL. All bad. People keep trying to pin it on one thing or another when the truth is that the offense is just the perfect amount of suck everywhere.

There was like a minute left... no chance we were getting into FG range. And Titans had 0 timeouts. It made the most sense just to take it to halftime.

What are we doing? Offense has 0 chance of moving the ball to get into FG range. So lets keep passing and give the Titans another possession to try something?

Gotta kneel it out here. This is Bryce turnover territory.

PLEASE fire Frank Reich. Give us something to be happy about.

It is time to bench Bryce Young so we can get an evaluation of the rest of the offense.