Analyzing Tepper

[lightsout]

Here's a quick breakdown of the kind of man/owner Tepper is, from what I gathered based off his conference today. This will be long.

 

He starts looking like a man who is defeated. I get the feeling he views this as a defeat, on a personal level.

When asked why he made the decision now, he consistently avoided a direct answer beyond "this felt like the time". Again, see point one.

Tepper accepts responsibility and then IMMEDIATELY distances himself from decision making for player selection. There's a conflict. He wants the disappointment to stop. His posture noticeably shifts during this point from the start of the press conference. He comes more upright. He's confident in what he decides to do, but he absolutely cannot accept the failures of people he hires wholesale. Partly fair, at least.

Tepper doesn't want to talk future. Again, he's hurting. He wants to focus on right now because the decisions to come have him terrified. Understandable but weak in the way he communicated it.

VERY nervous when talking about the reasons for firing Rhule. Gets fidgety, doesn't get too direct. Him mentioning the fans is telling. He's either clueless and got tired of the boos so he made the call based on that, or his reasoning is purely about him. He wants to not seem influenced but I think we all know he was. If it was about winning, he would have fired Rhule in the offseason.

Tepper avoids speaking directly on his past remarks in reference to Rhule and the 5-7 year plan. He tries to fish out progress and "getting over the hump" but in truth, our progress was one offseason, an improved but still troublesome OL and an offensive philosophy about a decade too old. The "hump" is bad personnel decisions. He knows that but can't say it, again, because he doesn't want take the loss there.

Speaking on Wilks, he is more confident speaking to his reasons for the appointment. Not a lot of choices anyway, so he was confident there and it shows. Wilks is absolutely the best man in the building currently. But again, his response betrays his demeanor when asked about his reasoning for firing Rhule and his refusal to look at the future. As owner, he has to be thinking of the future some and for him to just avoid it is troubling.

He speaks to the progress we've made and he's not wrong on any of it. Again, this is a confidently answered question. But he's anxious to say it and get it done because he knows the fans are holding his feet to the fire and he's an impatient guy. He wants this to be a quick turnaround and he's seeing it isn't.

When asked about Snow, he immediately put it on Wilks. Either 1) this was entirely a Wilks call, which is fair to defer to him or 2) he's throwing this in his lap and Wilks should be pissed. I'm hoping it's the first one.

Tepper knows we're screwed this season. He says he has confidence in Wilks but EVERYTHING he said before those final words shows otherwise. Again, he can't say the season is over and I know that but you're seeing Tepper's feelings a lot here.

Tepper being questioned on his patience. Tepper takes this as "slow to act" and the way he approached the question shows it. This is about ego.

Tepper addressed the opposing fan takeover of BoA and then again doubled back to say "that's not the reason"....sure guy. He also confirmed Wilks made the decision to fire Snow. Fair enough.

Tepper for the first time gets REALLY anxious here. He wants to walk off. His head and eyes go nuts for a sec while the GM question is asked. He then explains team resources have to be used wisely. And again, avoids the future. Once more I get it, but no reassurance that he's considering it is concerning.

He falls back to getting over the hump. I am officially considering this as "this is taking too long and we're stagnant before I get blamed for being slow to act".

He actually looks calm as he says a balance of HC/GM making roster decisions is needed. Big change from the past and you can tell that's something he has come to terms with. First time he's admitted to being wrong (though obviously he didn't say those words).

Getting over the hump means winning. If there isn't season to season improvement, he's not happy. Good. Why the fug was this hard to say until the 5th time it was brought up? 

Asked about Fitt, he avoids. Future scary. 

Asked about what he has learned about being an NFL owner. Maintain patience. Watch resources. Get the feeling he allowed Rhule and Fitt to be a little too careless there. Probably pissed at what we've done with the QB situation and him saying as much would be reassuring. Get the feeling the patience and resource management comments here are directly about the QB decisions.

He tries to say that he didn't want to be too quick to demand change and make change but didn't want to sit on it too long. He's unsure of himself here. He almost looks like he's asking the reporter about it moreso. He really doesn't like being questioned on his decision making.

Doubles back on all the comments about resource management and patience and says "sometimes you gotta take risks". Gets a touch hostile. He's officially done taking questions, he just wants this over. 

He basically says "I'm not hiring college coaches with no NFL coaching experience again" without saying it. He really doesn't want to have to regret his words later so he's so vague.

Tepper avoids rebuild talk. Get the feeling he's not about trading good players for future value. Again, laser focus on right now with blinders to the future. Not necessarily a good thing.

Tepper ends a bit frustrated. He heard the criticism and he hates it, but he knows why it's there.

He's proud of the Charlotte work. He's proud of Charlotte FC, and should be. But it seems like everything but the Panthers is his focus and pride.

Tepper is disgusted at Scott Fowler for holding his feet to the fire on reasons why he made the decision to fire Rhule. Very hostile. Absolutely hates being questioned on his decision making once again.

 

My conclusion: Tepper is a man hold who just wants to be recognized for the positive and absolutely does not want to give details on any of the negative or his reasons for making decisions to correct those things. It's the classic "look at all I've done for you" tactic. 

I'm not convinced he cares about building the Panthers into a winner. He wants there to be steady progress so people keep showing up but if we have a coach who is perpetually a wild card contender then he's satisfied because that'll keep fans satiated enough to show up. Sure winning cures all, but if his focus is winning he sure seems clueless at how to get there and damn sure doesn't want to be portrayed that way. 

[CRA]

man with fug you money bought a toy and doesn’t know poo about it.  

[Snake]

Yeah I'm going to agree and disagree. He seemed very frustrated. This is definitely not what he wanted to happen but his anger is what actually gives me hope. JR more than once came out totally unemotional and it showed no matter how crappy things get he wasn't going to change. Even refusing to fire head coaches midseason for that very reason. Tepper seems a bit stuck in the now and that's very true but hopefully he will review the past and make adjustments off season. This is definitely a ego blow but he could have rode out the season and not even stood before us. He coming out to talk is his way of saying I screwed up and I'm not use to that. I don't like taking Ls and it pisses me off. Young owners have a learning curve and tepper just learned one. 

[4Corners]

Lots of huddle psychologists suddenly 

[ncstatekwi]

[lightsout]

14 minutes ago, Snake said:

Yeah I'm going to agree and disagree. He seemed very frustrated. This is definitely not what he wanted to happen but his anger is what actually gives me hope. JR more than once came out totally unemotional and it showed no matter how crappy things get he wasn't going to change. Even refusing to fire head coaches midseason for that very reason. Tepper seems a bit stuck in the now and that's very true but hopefully he will review the past and make adjustments off season. This is definitely a ego blow but he could have rode out the season and not even stood before us. He coming out to talk is his way of saying I screwed up and I'm not use to that. I don't like taking Ls and it pisses me off. Young owners have a learning curve and tepper just learned one. 

 

That's fair. I just have such a sour taste when it comes to this franchise right now. Maybe I expect too much.

[lightsout]

13 minutes ago, 4Corners said:

Lots of huddle psychologists suddenly 

Yeah I know it's a bit pretentious. Just really didn't like the vibe of about half of that presser. 

[Tbe]

He just seems very insecure and defensive.

He’s not used to this level of scrutiny and doesn’t like being disliked.

[BIGH2001]

27 minutes ago, Snake said:

Yeah I'm going to agree and disagree. He seemed very frustrated. This is definitely not what he wanted to happen but his anger is what actually gives me hope. JR more than once came out totally unemotional and it showed no matter how crappy things get he wasn't going to change. Even refusing to fire head coaches midseason for that very reason. Tepper seems a bit stuck in the now and that's very true but hopefully he will review the past and make adjustments off season. This is definitely a ego blow but he could have rode out the season and not even stood before us. He coming out to talk is his way of saying I screwed up and I'm not use to that. I don't like taking Ls and it pisses me off. Young owners have a learning curve and tepper just learned one. 

In JR’s first 8 years of ownership we went to two NFC title games and a super bowl. In his first five Tepper hasn’t even sniffed a winning record. We are way off from even JR success at thIs point. Tepper is a clown until proven otherwise. 

[Snake]

20 minutes ago, lightsout said:

 

That's fair. I just have such a sour taste when it comes to this franchise right now. Maybe I expect too much.

Rightfully so but I think Tepper actually realized that's exactly how the fans felt and it was time to dump the bad stock. I liked the anger. Defeatist don't get angery they just give you word salad. It's also very hard to pull real truth because he spent 90% of the time avoiding headlines from bait questions from the media. I do miss a time when people could be more truthful and you got a better picture but that time is way gone. 

[LinvilleGorge]

He just seemed mad to me.

Mad at himself for being so wrong about Rhule. Mad at Rhule for making him look like an idiot. Mad about having to answer questions from reporters he sees as beneath him. Mad at being pushed with some tough questions you rarely see from Panthers beat writers. Mad he can't figure out how to build a winner.

Just mad.

[top dawg]

He was frustrated about the state of things, and perhaps a little angry about questions that he felt were rhetorical in nature (especially one from Scott Fowler). In that same vein, I don't think that he appreciates some of the perceptions about the overall success of his sports and entertainment ventures in Charlotte. I didn't glean nervousness at all. I think that he's still open-minded to a degree and able and willing to learn from his mistakes. He's not commiting to any course of action right now, except to give Steve Wilks a fair shot at seeing what if any improvements he can bring about for the remainder of the year.

[Jackie Lee]

1 hour ago, LinvilleGorge said:

He just seemed mad to me.

Mad at himself for being so wrong about Rhule. Mad at Rhule for making him look like an idiot. Mad about having to answer questions from reporters he sees as beneath him. Mad at being pushed with some tough questions you rarely see from Panthers beat writers. Mad he can't figure out how to build a winner.

Just mad.

Yeah I rewatched and it wasn't as bad as I thought initially. Just the last couple questions where he got defensive and talked about the soccer/concerts bs and the very last one about regurgitating Scott Fowlers articles. I actually dislike Fowler so that was whatever to me, just not very professional. The smile when asked about Wilks being excited for the opportunity was the little glimmer of hope. He didn't seem like he wants to micromanage the Panthers at the least, he just wants to hire guys that get the job done so he can worry about his stupid events. I still mainly dislike him because of the turf and field level suite BS

[Ocpanthertew714]