Inside the Carolina Panthers' three seasons of quarterback failure

[Vox]

Great story by Jeremy Fowler of ESPN. Has some details from behind the scenes of Rhule's tenure in Carolina.

https://archive.ph/o6jZP#selection-14307.0-14316.2

 

[Snake]

Boy how I don't want to read that. Not only did we pick 3 dud QBs, run off our franchise QB, but also not take Fields who is looking more and more like a franchise QB. Complete failure in the QB department. 

[WUnderhill]

6 minutes ago, Snake said:

Boy how I don't want to read that. Not only did we pick 3 dud QBs, run off our franchise QB, but also not take Fields who is looking more and more like a franchise QB. Complete failure in the QB department. 

This take on Fields is different than all the others I’ve seen. I don’t watch him play but I just checked his stats. What am I missing?

[KSpan]

 

3 minutes ago, WUnderhill said:

This take on Fields is different than all the others I’ve seen. I don’t watch him play but I just checked his stats. What am I missing?

He isn't, though that doesn't mean that he sitll never well. You're not missing anything.

[mrcompletely11]

19 minutes ago, Vox said:

Great story by Jeremy Fowler of ESPN. Has some details from behind the scenes of Rhule's tenure in Carolina.

https://archive.ph/o6jZP#selection-14307.0-14316.2

 

Holy poo that is unreal.  I was on the fence about Fitt before now, damn man that doesnt paint a pretty picture

[Santee_Panther]

2 minutes ago, mrcompletely11 said:

Holy poo that is unreal.  I was on the fence about Fitt before now, damn man that doesnt paint a pretty picture

That wasn’t my takeaway from the article. Fitt made one bad choice: the $18mil guarantee for Sam. It was a calculated risk that didn’t work out. But the conviction in Sam came from Rhule, not Fitt.

[mrcompletely11]

9 minutes ago, WUnderhill said:

This take on Fields is different than all the others I’ve seen. I don’t watch him play but I just checked his stats. What am I missing?

He still has a long way to go but seems to be slowly developing.  They are moving him around more now, which is his strength.  Nagy refused to do this and wanted him as a pocket passer.  He is on his 2nd oc and 2nd coach.  Not good.

 

In a perfect world he would have sat his rookie year and kept the same coaches around him. 

[mrcompletely11]

Just now, Santee_Panther said:

That wasn’t my takeaway from the article. Fitt made one bad choice: the $18mil guarantee for Sam. It was a calculated risk that didn’t work out. But the conviction in Sam came from Rhule, not Fitt.

He was in on darnold and in on baker when the scouts and others were not.  Thats not good

[mrcompletely11]

and damn, we kept hurney that last draft and totally didnt listen to him about the first pick

[KSpan]

Quote

Competition for Bridgewater's free agent services was fierce,

Lolz.

Quote

Tepper had a predilection for tracking social media mentions and media reports on his team, multiple sources said.

Easy to see even from the outside.

Quote

As Rhule began to leave, a prominent team member stepped up to address the reeling team in an attempt to galvanize and move forward. The franchise leader was the star running back McCaffrey. It was telling that in this moment leadership would come from neither a coach nor a quarterback. 

Interesting comment.

[Mother Grabber]

3 years of looking for your next franchise QB is usually just getting started. if we were able to have 3 year gaps between each 10 year franchise QB, we’d have the most successful franchise ever seen. Cam can be considered the only true franchise QB we ever had. we had a 15 year journey before that. no, Jake doesn’t count.

[Mr. Scot]

30 minutes ago, Snake said:

Boy how I don't want to read that. 

I do.

I'll post some excerpts...

Edited October 26, 2022 by Mr. Scot

[Mr. Scot]

Opening paragraphs regarding the tone of practice the week before Rhule was fired...

In the final week of Matt Rhule's 33-month tenure as a first-time NFL head coach, his Carolina Panthers took the practice field situated in the shadow of Charlotte's Bank of America Stadium for what should have been routine 7-on-7 work.

Routine would have been good. This was something worse, a scene of uninspired football borne partially if not totally of harsh roster realities.

Overthrown passes. Turnovers. Mistimed routes. Rhule and his coaching staff looked on, standing oddly quiet. Panthers players appeared restless, the stress of a bad start palpable and "very heavy," as a team source described. Perhaps, in the grim prelude to a 37-15 home loss to the San Francisco 49ers that would send Carolina to 1-4 before a sea of empty seats, the entire organization had become resigned to its fate.

This team can't win without a quarterback.
 

[Mr. Scot]

Summing up the disaster...

The ousted Rhule and fourth-year Panthers owner David Tepper have shouldered much of the blame for the franchise's downturn, and all threads of Carolina's unraveling lead back to the choices made at one position -- quarterback. The Panthers' instability and dubious decision-making, which sometimes included disagreements among ownership, the coaching staff and front office, highlight the direct connection between quarterback play and franchise strength.

In all, five quarterbacks started for Rhule -- the coach handpicked by Tepper in January 2020 and given control of the roster along with a seven-year, $62 million contract -- a revolving door reflecting organizational efforts to locate a top passer that ultimately failed.

"They shot for the stars," a veteran NFL coach and former Rhule staffer said. "They ended up with Teddy [Bridgewater], Sam [Darnold] and Baker."

Those with inside knowledge of the Panthers' three-season signal-caller saga paint a picture of bad deals, for the wrong quarterbacks, decided upon in large part by Rhule -- who proved to be the wrong coach.

Edited October 26, 2022 by Mr. Scot