BlackPanther22

Firing Fitterer and finally getting proper alignment between a GM and HC by hiring them both during the same cycle. Tepper hiring a President of Football Operations would be a mature move too but I don’t know if that’ll happen. Him firing Fitt on black Monday is an absolute must though. If he doesn’t, that’ll kind of tank my excitement for a HC hire because that exposé article made it seem like Fitt had no problem undermining a HC.

I mean I think it’s as simple as the fact that he’s had the Detroit Lions (of all teams) as a top 5 offense in his two years as playcaller. They’re 3 this year in total team offense and the only teams above them are SF and MIA whose playcallers are also the head coaches. Thats impressive. They are more talented offensively this season but he’s still cooking with rookies and last season with even lesser personnel. As for his leadership, I personally think the best way to try and tell how well a OC is as a leader is just seeing how well prepared his unit is on a week to week basis, especially when the OC is the actual playcaller. The Lions offense seems pretty prepared week to week imo.

The Lions offense was not good when Lynn was the playcaller lol. It’s been well documented how Ben Johnson changed that whole playbook and started playing to the strength of his guys and Goff. Since he’s taken over the Lions offense has been top 5 in the past couple of years. So yeah, Ben Johnson is innovative lol. We don’t have to talk ourselves into reasons a guy may not be good just because Tepper may like them. There’s a reason Johnson is considered the hottest candidate in the HC cycle this offseason.

Also, idk why we care how much coaches get paid to begin with. It affects nobody but Tepper and his steep pockets. He could give Ben 20 million dollars and I would not care as long as he does his job well.

This mindset got us Reich lol. Being established doesn’t automatically = better. I mean hell this past year 2 first time coaches have their teams in playoff contention in Demeco and Steichen. Young coaches can adapt quickly in the same way an established coach could lose their touch in a new situation. Honestly I think hiring a young hotshot coach would energize the fan base especially if Tepper was able to land somebody universally thought of as a “good candidate” like Ben Johnson. When the team starts winning all the other things you mentioned will increase. So I’m not passing up on potentially finding a guy who can be here for years and years just for the sake of hiring an established name.

I’m not coming at you so don’t take this the wrong way, but the whole “leader of men” thing when it comes to NFL head coaches is such a standard and boring talking point to me. It’s almost like a “duh, obviously” kind of pre-requisite for being a NFL HC. I think the thing that gets me is that folks act like only one type of coach can be a leader of men, and it usually aligns with being some older, experienced/defensive minded coach. Im tired of this franchise leaning in that direction. The NFL and its (successful) coaches are skewing both younger and have an offensive background (although I’m not against a defensive minded HC). Mike McDaniel, Sean McVay, Kyle Shannahan, Shane Steichen, Kevin Stefanski, Nick Sirriani, are all offensive minded head coaches that are leaders of men and have their teams playing damn good football pretty consistently in some of these guys cases. They don’t achieve that without getting buy in from their guys and being “leaders of men”. Now, I say all this to say that I don’t necessarily think Tepper should limit himself during this coaching search but I’m also not gonna be mad at him for targeting a young OC like Ben Johnson because it’s the way the league has been trending and with the positive results to back up that trend. I just think the idea/narrative that these young OC’s can’t be great football minds AND leaders of men is a bit overplayed.

To be fair, we do know Scott and Dan were involved in the Reich hiring and Hurney was involved in the Rhule hiring. So at least Tepper isn’t going full on commando and doing it with no help. I’m sure whoever the next GM will be involved or he’ll just hire a head coach in GM in tandem. It doesn’t really matter who gets hired first imo as long as their visions are aligned. Also, Ik some have been mentioning him using a search firm but I kinda think the league is moving away from that. Albert Breer had an article out earlier this year about how owners are being more involved in their hires and not leaning on firms as much. Somebody can correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think a hiring firm has been used for a HC/GM hire in at least a few years. The only recent one that comes to mind for me is Cleveland when they hired Stefanski. Edit: Here’s the Breer article: https://www.si.com/nfl/2023/01/06/nfl-gms-names-to-watch-potential-future Search firms may be a thing of the past lol.

I don’t think this is a crazy take lol. It was widely reported last offseason that a lot of teams had Bryce as QB1. I don’t think an up and down rookie season would change people’s interest in coaching him.

Genuinely could not care less how much Tepper pays or wants to pay Ben Johnson. Coaches salaries don't count against the cap and Tepper clearly does not care if he has to spend money or not. Johnson is my number 1 guy this offseason, and Tepper has wanted him since last coaching cycle, so if it truly comes down to money Tepper probably won't allow himself to be outbid. My only question arises if he doesn't land him again. Because its been so widely reported how all in he is on him, it's gonna be so obvious that if he doesn't get him that whoever he hires instead is a second option lol.

Did I say he wasn’t in the war room? I said he wasn’t in there telling Fitterer to draft all the poor players that he’s drafted over the past 3 seasons lol. Relax. Tepper and Nicole were at all the QB pro days and had dinner with all of them so it wasn’t just Bryce’s. I’m not tryna give Tepper a pass but this man did not assemble this roster and draft the players that has been on this roster the since Fitterer got here lol. Also, Josh Norris (who we know is buddies w/Josh McCown) is on video saying he talked to a ‘source’ saying the Panthers had Mingo graded high as hell lol. Dan Morgan is on video urging Fitterer to draft Jammie Robinson, etc. So again, before you get all tight, I’m not denying Tepper had input but the scouting staff clearly had high grades on these players too. Tepper deserves blame yes, but my point is Fitterer assembled this roster, not the owner.

Look I hear you and I agree, I just kind of think people see Tepper as a Jerry Jones in that he personally picks players and put this roster together himself, and I just don’t think that’s true. One, because I don’t think he’s smart enough to do that and two, we have video evidence of that not being the case w/Scott and co making selections. There are organizations where the owner is the GM, and thankfully we haven’t gotten there yet (and hopefully we never do). When we signed Darnold there were reports Tepper wanted Fields and in 2020 there were reports he liked Herbert and neither ended up here (the Fields example is more relevant because we could’ve picked him). But I agree with the overarching point that he has to be better because he isn’t going anywhere. To me, the first step in showing that is firing Fitt at the end of the year. I don’t mind that he hasn’t fired him yet because like I’m of the mindset that there isn’t much a interim GM can change in the middle of a lost season but as long as he cuts him loose at the end of the year, I’m good.

People in the fanbase have been running with the idea that Frank wanted Stroud but there has been absolutely nothing concrete to back that claim up lol(and no liked tweets from his angry daughter isn’t evidence lol). There were articles last offseason way before the draft citing people close to Frank saying he was a Bryce Young fan even in the fall of last year. I believe PFT had that article. Also, some of the most trusted reporters we have around this team has said it was unanimous. It’s very easy to blame Tepper, and I think he does deserve a lions share of it for hiring Frank in the first place but it’s also incredibly irresponsible to absolve Frank of his piss poor coaching job by just going “omg Frank didn’t get the QB he wanted so that’s why he failed” because that simply isn’t the case. He did a poor job coaching, specifically in what was his “specialty” and that’s just that. It’s two seasons of evidence to back that up (which again why even hire him Tepper? But alas) I feel the same way about Fitterer. Again, it’s easy to blame Tepper and he deserves it but let’s be for real, that man is not in the war room telling Fitterer to pick DJ Johnson, Jammie Robinson, Terrace Marshall, etc. Hell, that much is on video. Blaming Tepper is easy and deserved but Fitt, Frank, Rhule etc. have just as much blame in this as anyone.

Idk, I mean her and Joe Person just wrote a whole exposé on the Panthers not even 2 weeks ago so idk what she’d gain by writing a fluff piece on Tepper lol. But I get waiting to believe it when you see it because that’s how I feel too. All this stuff means nothing if he doesn’t truly clean house this offseason and start over. The next HC and GM hires are crucial.

I mean if she’s the best candidate and ends up doing a good job, it shouldn’t matter honestly. I’ve seen some interviews with her and she’s sounds the part. I’m just glad Tepper was reportedly active in talking with potential GM’s at the league meetings. It at least makes me think he’ll do the right thing and start completely fresh.

Question, and not trying to be facetious or anything but do we have evidence that Tepper has directly been involved with the building of this roster from top to bottom? I’m sure he’s had a say in high level things like QB but the rest of the team, idk. I think Tepper has his faults for sure and should probably just hire good people to do good work on the football side. However, I can’t sit here and genuinely say he has Jerry Jones level impact on how this roster has been constructed. That falls on Scott and his staff for failing to properly build a team with depth in multiple spots. Scott has been given free rein to reconstruct the front office and to this point, him and his staff have done a poor job of keeping the roster competitive internally w/depth and with the rest of the league. Tepper has issues for sure, but I genuinely think he wants to win. He just has sucked at hiring the right people to this point. I can’t blame him for Frank not having the team prepared week to week and installing a god awful offense but I can blame him for hiring Frank in the first place. It’s a duality with him. All we can do is hope that if he cleans house this offseason (which he should), that he actually hires good people the next time around.

Yeaaahhh even if Burns and the team aren’t close on a deal, the last person I’m looking to for reliable info is Kunkel. He’s isn’t terrible but he hasn’t scooped anything worth while to warrant people hanging on to his every word lol.

I’m not fully out on Fitterer despite my frustration with how this situation has been handled. I do wonder sometimes though how things would be had Tepper hired Andrew Berry like he reportedly wanted to back in 2020. I believe the only reason he didn’t hire Berry was because he didn’t want to get rid of Hurney at the time and they were trying to get Berry as an assistant GM — probably with the intent to promote him after they fired Hurney — which was a lateral move.

That’s the odd thing too, I feel like a lot of the details are sparse with these negotiations which is a lot different from how some of the other contract situations have been this offseason. Which I mean maybe it’s a bit of neither side wanting to publicly slander the other which is respectable but idk it’s weird. I’m still sticking to my guns about this being poor time management by the FO by not getting anything done sooner. It’d suck if this is just like a cloud that lingers over the team during the season but Fitt and Co. would have nobody to blame but themselves.

While I still feel optimistic that a deal will get done (because it basically has to if you’re Fitterer) the main thing I’m taking away from this whole ordeal is that it’s largely a result of the FO not being proactive and dragging their feet to get this done. Fitt didn’t seem to have any urgency to get this done in the spring and they allowed stuff to drag into the season now. Idc about them not trading him last season, it’s just about how non-chalant they’re been about being proactive and getting this done before this point. I think Burns will play the games but if they don’t get it done by Sunday that’s a big missed opportunity imo.

Yeaaaahhh, that’s solely on the media for not asking. Most of our media people are solid but there are some that were asking about a lot less important things than Burns’ contract last week.

Just with how his teammates have glowed about him, I would’ve been more surprised if Bryce wasn’t a captain. It’s really felt like the whole team brought in to him early on.

I’m asking if they have a reliable track record though? lol. In my short time on here I’ve seen people come on here and claim they know stuff and be totally wrong. And I’ve seen others who turn out to be legit. Just tryna wade through the shenanigans lol

Whatever it is, just figure it out. Samir is supposed to be a cap wizard so they should be able to figure out a way to make everything work. And I mean if they do extend him they’d ask him to restructure his deal next offseason anyways. Just tired of the discourse around the contract, which was largely avoidable had they been more aggressive in getting this done in the spring/early summer. Also, do we have people in here with good track records saying that they’re close or is this speculation?

Honestly the only thing that’s frustrating to me with this whole deal is that Fitt spent the whole off-season talking about aggression and how the FO would be forward thinking with getting stuff done. When it has come to this contract situation though, all they’ve done is drag their feet. I like Fitterer but I think the way they’ve handled this has been really bad. Good front offices get ahead of the curve on extensions and make sure their good (homegrown) players get taken care of. Good front offices also always find a way to make deals work with the cap. We see the Eagles do this year in and year out. Im not calling for Fitterer’s job but if these negotiations go south…..there needs to be discussions happening on Mint St. Just get it done.

Also, we can’t act like Kunkel was one of the more reliable reporters when he was here to begin with lol. He’s one of the only reporters outside of David Newton I remember having something named after him for having bad info …..getting Kunkel’d lol