Game 224 is tonight. Then 32 to go until the play-offs …
• The story of how the Panthers fired two-time Carolina GM Marty Hurney is interesting. Owned by David Tepper early on, Hurney was a trusted ear and a great resource to the new boss as he learned the ropes in professional football. That said, Tepper was already a minority owner in Pittsburgh and had a pretty strong idea of what he wanted his team to look like – just as progressive as his hedge fund.
So what does that mean? Tepper, I am told, knew that a modern structure would be part of the solution, which meant there would be a general manager, with football operations and scouting reporting to that person – Kansas City and Philadelphia are two teams working on the same way (the Eagles had actually poached their heads of both, Andrew Berry and Joe Douglas, to become GM in the past two years). And so went his recent conversations with Hurney.
I don’t think Hurney knew it would lead to his resignation. But I don’t think this separation was a shock to him either. I believe he knew the news he got on Sunday was the possible endgame to all of this, and that’s partly because, I’ve been told, his contract still expired after the draft, so this would be a natural time to split.
It doesn’t seem like there are any hard feelings here, and I don’t think the GM search has been resolved for any particular candidate. Adam Peters, VP of player staff in San Francisco, was actually a defensive end for Panthers coach Matt Rhule at UCLA when he was a GA there in 2011, and the two have stayed in touch for the past twenty years. He would line up as an opportunity. So does Saints assistant GM Jeff Ireland, who turned New Orleans luck into design and built a monster roster there. (Ireland happens to be a Baylor alum.)
This much we know: the rent will be tailored to Rhule. So guys like Peters and Ireland, as well as Carolina’s own director of player staff, Pat Stewart, who have a keen understanding of what Rhule wants, are lining up as men who make sense as potential big pieces in the second phase of Tepper’s reimagining of the De soccer side of Panthers.
• As we dove into the Jets and assessed the impact of Sunday’s win in the MMQB column, I thought we could turn back here and look at the decision Joe Douglas will face in the spring of 2021 if the Jags lose and he ends with the second choice. And first, there will be quarterbacks worth going second, with Ohio State’s Justin Fields and BYU’s Zach Wilson first in line.
So yeah, Douglas’s decision will be some form of Darnold versus those guys. But it is not as easy as one against the other.
Let’s say they go with Darnold and deal with the second choice for ransom. So it seems academic to get Darnold’s option, which is likely worth about $ 25 million, by 2022, and under the new CBA, that option is fully guaranteed. If you add that to the $ 4.6 million he owes for 2021, they’d be $ 30 million for two years, and then probably have to either pay $ 40 million or so a year or find his replacement afterward.
If they go with a rookie? Then they get that player, say Fields of Wilson, for about $ 35 million over four years with an option for 2025. Which is a nice idea when you consider Darnold’s massive financial commitment and opportunity cost. The bottom line: they should feel strong that he’s the man to continue with a quarterback at two o’clock.
This, of course, would be a much easier decision if the Jets were still on track to pick first. Under the current circumstances, it will be a very, very complicated one, and the most important, by far, will have been Douglas made it as Jets GM. I really believe the Jets really like Darnold and the idea of building around him. How much do they like him? If they have the second choice, we’ll find out.
In that sense, Jaguar coach Doug Marrone now has to answer the questions Adam Gase has had to answer for over a month.
“No one has advised me other than to go out and win,” Marrone told local media on Monday. “I was young growing up and had a favorite team and was excited to see where they would choose. I look back and I get it, but I mean we’re trying to win. We are doing everything we can and that is my job at the moment and I owe it to the coaches and players.
“None of us will look at this and the future. Nobody knows what’s going to happen tomorrow, let alone at the end of the year. But I understand the question and appreciate it.”
And I appreciate Marrone answering it that way – he’s not blind to reality, nor does he expect his players to be (something he and I discussed last week).
We can be like that too. It is possible to empathize with the position of these players and coaches, while realizing exactly what is at stake and how the results of the next few weeks could affect the Jets and Jaguars franchises for the next decade and a half. Based on the level of prospect Trevor Lawrence is, that’s just the truth.
• Everyone is to some degree a product of their own experiences – and therein lies an interesting backstory to Jalen Hurts’ landing in Philadelphia. It had been eight years since the current and then Eagles GM Howie Roseman and then Eagles coach Andy Reid became intrigued by a small but dynamic Wisconsin quarterback named Russell Wilson. Philly would take Wilson in the third round (the Packers were another team interested in Wilson in that series), before the Seahawks picked him up with the 75th pick.
Philly ended up with Nick Foles at 88 instead, and that one has a lot of history too.
But how he and Reid saw Wilson stay with Roseman, bringing Philly in search of equally competitive, athletic quarterbacks. And Wilson’s 2012 loss came to the fore among Eagles people in the spring, on the premise that if you really love a quarterback, don’t get cute and wait. That’s a big reason the Eagles jumped on Hurts midway through the second round, a move that would have brought Wilson to Philly in 2012.
• Bears coach Matt Nagy’s team has returned with some sort of defiance in recent weeks, beating two wins after losing six games. And 9–7 is in sight, with the Jags this week and the possibility that the Packers game will be played on January 3 with Green Bay already trapping the No. 1 seed.
A four-game winning streak to end the year could get Chicago into the playoffs. It would also likely strengthen the terrain on which Nagy and GM Ryan Pace stand. Just a few weeks ago? That ground looked shaky, so I asked Nagy on Sunday evening what it was like to spend most of November speculation about his own job security. And I thought his answer was quite enlightening.
“I’d say this – that’s part of the territory,” Nagy said. Like you said, if you sign up for this job, you always get it. And if you go through a six game loss streak, you always have. But what happens in those times is you realize who the people are who are really with you. And the ones who really aren’t. What you need to do as a leader then is to make sure that your people who are a part of this have full faith and trust in everything you say at all times.
And you must have an action plan. When you’re going through a six-game loss streak, it’s all about communicating with others where we stand and keeping fighting, because sometimes the message can get old and monotonous after every loss. But you have to find ways and think of ways to keep the team motivated. And let them play. And it is not easy. Especially in these times.
“But that goes back to talking about culture. And you talk about, well, the culture is great, but if you don’t win, it doesn’t matter. Do you know when culture matters? Culture is important when you lose. If you lose and you have a bad culture, you have no chance. If you have a good culture, you have every chance. Now you see it. “
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Cam Newton’s future in the NFL is uncertain because of his game, and because he doesn’t have a contract until 2021, and in large part because he never actually had to fight for a squad or playing time – so few really know he does. would do. welcome that opportunity, if that’s what he had to do to stay with the pros. I do know that Newton had told people earlier this year that he didn’t want to go anywhere as a mentor or a bridge.
Is he ready to be Josh McCown now? That is unclear. But at least he scrapped the idea that he is preparing to walk away from WEEI on Monday by saying, “I’ve got a lot of football left,” while insisting that he wouldn’t want to go out with the kind of year he just had. had.
• When the Chiefs picked up Le’Veon Bell in October, most saw it as buying a fancy hood ornament for a luxury car – it looks good, of course, but it probably wasn’t necessary. Now? Now things look different. With Clyde Edwards-Helaire’s high ankle sprain, which will knock him out for the rest of the regular season (and that could linger), Bell now looks big on KC’s plan.
It’s a good thing they got him a lot of reps and got him used to the offense well.
• Interesting note: Patrick Mahomes has reportedly recommended his OC, Eric Bieniemy, to Deshaun Watson as a good candidate to become the Texans’ next head coach. Houston owner Cal McNair has already consulted Watson about the situation and plans to proceed.
• Because I forgot to mention this in the MMQB – thanks to Titans GM Jon Robinson and Coach Mike Vrabel for the work they have been quietly doing in Nashville. This is the first season with 10 wins for each man, with two games to go, and marks five winning seasons in five years as GM for Robinson and three winning seasons in three years as head coach for Vrabel. And the arrow generally seems to point to that program.
A note on this: With Vrabel’s success, it’s not that hard to see more ex-NFL players becoming attractive as potential head coach candidates. And there are promising guys in the pipeline like Aaron Glenn (Saints DBs coach), Jerod Mayo (Patriots LBs coach), Larry Foote (Bucs LBs coach) and Kevin O’Connell (Rams OC) to choose from. This could also be the year when the Zoom interview dynamic causes most teams to cast a bigger net.