Retaining Rivera good move by the wrong man

    I like Ron Rivera. Think there were more reasons for the Carolina Panthers to retain him as head coach than to let him go.  He was a much better coach in December than he was in September and October. He grew into the job. If the growth continues, the Panthers made a very good move.

     But should owner Jerry Richardson have made the call, or should he have entrusted the decision to the general manager he hires?

     Although Richardson knows Rivera better than any GM would, the GM should have at least helped make the decision.

      If the Panthers are going to succeed, the general manager has to run the football operation. Owner as GM doesn't work, as the Dallas Cowboys will attest.

       So: I like the decision to bring back Rivera.

       I don't like that Richardson made it.

 

Comments

[John W.]

Does the decision affect the appeal of the job to the candidates currently under consideration?

Hiring a coach had to be something they were weighing as a positive.

[Todd]

The Panthers are not going to the playoffs next year people. They are 16 Million OVER the cap now. They will have to let Kalil or Beason Or Gamble go. They won't have enough money to sign the draft picks. This team is "screwed" for the couple of year. Thanks Marty, you a-hole!! This organization won't see the playoffs for atleast 3 more years!!

[catsnmbr1fan]

@ Isaiah - I agreed with your post, until you mentioned Steve Smith pushing his stats up to make the HOF..

Steve Smith is never making the HOF as a WR, there are (10+) WR's ahead of him. He doesn't have the stats, and will never get them at the pace he is going now. By the time SS retires and is qualified to make the HOF, Calvin Johnson will have passed his stats.
Chris Carter, Torry Holt, Larry Fitzgerald will all make the HOF first. And since the HOF committee doesn't add very many WR's, it would be 15 to 20 years before he would qualify as a senior selection.

[Clay]

Spongebob rocks

[John]

Tom, the flaw in your "logic" is that it appears that the Panthers are pursuing an "up and comer" for GM rather than one with previous experience. That being the case, most seem to agree that the decision on head coach should rest with Richardson instead of a new, first time GM who doesn't have the experience to make that call.

The GM decision is, perhaps, the most important decision to be made right now, and the only choice is to either make the head coach decision first, or RUSH the GM decision so that a head coach can be hired and in place before all of the good candidates are gone and before draft decisions have to be made. That is just plain unrealistic and demonstrates clearly that you would make a LOUSY GM!

As one who has made a living troubleshooting problems with computers for more than 25 years, I can attest to the fact that you try fixing/changing ONE thing at a time and check to see if it works before changing something else. Anything else and you stand a good chance of just confusing things and making it worse!

You have a GM who failed with multiple head coaches. That was your most likely problem, so you've fired him. Replace him and keep the current coach and see what happens. Anything else is just throwing both people and money at it, like a gambler trying to recoup his losses with another long-shot bet!

[Daniel]

I get the feeling that Tom only makes the statement that the decision was made by the wrong person because he stated in an earlier article that it should be made by the new GM, and that it would be made by the new GM, and then it WASN'T made by the new GM.... therefore it must have been a bad thing since it wasn't done the way Tom said it should have been..... lame!