http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4776316

Quote :

"Helping keep the Giants out of the playoffs -- in convincing fashion -- apparently has kept the jobs of Carolina Panthers coach John Fox, his staff and general manager Marty Hurney safe. According to a report in The Charlotte Observer, the Panthers have offered Fox, his staff and Hurney the chance to return for 2010, a day after a 41-9 victory over the Giants in their last game at Giants Stadium. Last week, Carolina (7-8) handed Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings their third loss of the season with a 26-7 victory. But the Panthers won't offer Fox an extension to his contract, which expires after next season during which he is set to make $6 million, the Observer reported, citing unnamed sources. Carolina started the season 4-7 before struggling quarterback Jake Delhomme was sidelined with a broken finger for what would be the rest of the season. Delhomme's replacement, Matt Moore has led the Panthers to three wins, throwing for 828 yards and seven touchdowns with one interception in the four games he's started. "

[Edited on December 28, 2009 at 1:58 PM. Reason : *]

12/28/2009 1:57:32 PM

aha

12/28/2009 2:01:04 PM

so is that good or bad for you Panther fans?

12/28/2009 2:01:34 PM

no big shocker there, although i would hope that fox interprets his lack of an extension to mean "bench delhomme or else"

12/28/2009 2:01:40 PM

Quote :

"the Panthers have offered Fox, his staff and Hurney"

i read this and lost my breath for a second, thinking it was going to continue on to read "contract extensions"

12/28/2009 2:01:41 PM

Quote :

"so is that good or bad for you Panther fans?"

If Delhomme is cut after the season it's fine with me.

Even if I am the owner, and like to stay out of football affairs, that would be the ultimatum I make to Fox & co. Cut Delhomme or you're gone.

[Edited on December 28, 2009 at 2:27 PM. Reason : ]

12/28/2009 2:26:14 PM

well I guess this pretty much seals the deal on Cowher going to Tampa Bay

12/28/2009 2:32:09 PM

Just when I thought he was out










They PULL him back in

12/28/2009 2:33:13 PM

He did just enough to not get fired...imo, the combination of Delhomme's extention in the off season and Fox's outright refusal to bench him in the middle of this season more than warranted the ax.

Quote :

"If Delhomme is cut after the season it's fine with me"

Doubt he will be...They'll take a pretty big cap hit if they outright cut him. Unless they find a way to rework his contract, he'll prolly just be one of the highest paid backups ever.

12/28/2009 2:46:16 PM

unless next year is uncapped. I'm thinking they will probably just rework it though. Actually more interested in what happens to pep. If he can play like he has I would love to keep him. However, I'm sure he will just go back to half-ass playing once he feels like he isnt trying out for teams.

12/28/2009 2:55:53 PM

^pep isn't staying

12/28/2009 3:00:18 PM

Don't be shocked if Jake starts next year in Week 1

12/28/2009 3:01:42 PM

^I would renounce my Panther fanhood for ever...I would expect many others to do the same.

12/28/2009 3:15:34 PM

Fox is a pretty good coach, and if Carolina fired him then he'd be immediately picked up by another team.

However, if he sticks with Delhomme next year, and the Panthers shit the bed, it's time to go.

12/28/2009 3:24:14 PM

keeping Fox for 1 more year is fine as long as they get rid of Pep, get rid of Delhomme, get rid of Feeley & McCown, and bring in someone decent to back up/compete with Moore. if Delhomme plays another down as Panthers QB they should just move the team to LA

12/28/2009 3:24:23 PM

if it were a movie, Moore would lead them into the playoffs, get hurt early in the first game, then here comes Jake, who throws the best games of his life then retires

but this isnt a movie, and the pathers will probably just suck again next year

12/28/2009 3:33:37 PM

Fox is better than a lot of other coaches in the NFL. Dealing all the draft picks and not hedging against delhomme are his biggest mistakes

12/28/2009 3:48:02 PM

Quote :

"if it were a movie, Moore would lead them into the playoffs, get hurt early in the first game, then here comes Jake, who throws the best games of his life then retires"

i can see it now, jake throwing passes till his arm is numb ... he sees an unfavorable defense and calls a timeout ... meanwhile Mick Mixon is calling the game and thinks Fox is about to take Delhomme out and goes "All I can say is...it's. about. time." ... while Jake is on the sideline, he's telling Fox "I got nothin left in me Foxy" ... and Fox is like "yeah you do, you got one more pass in you" ... you see that? :points over to CatMan as he starts to wave his arms up and down: you got an angel with you right now " and then the crowd all starts to follow along with the gay angel arm thing, and jake throws a pick 6...mick mixon says 'fuck' on the radio and then Jerry Richardson comes in and is like "HEY MICK...YOU'RE FIRED"...and mick is all like "YOU CANT FIRE ME! IM MICK MIXON..I GOT A CONTRACT" ... and then John Fox adopts CatMan at the end of the movie

12/28/2009 4:05:27 PM

I don't know if I have ever laughed harder at a post

wow

12/28/2009 4:10:19 PM

12/28/2009 4:22:52 PM

12/28/2009 4:31:49 PM

I really think that Fox is a good football coach. The biggest problem with him is his love affair with Jake Dellhomme.

^That pic is true on soooo many levels!

12/28/2009 4:36:30 PM

Quote :

"The biggest problem with him is his love affair with Jake Dellhomme"

and mike minter before that... and Dan Morgan before that....and deshaun foster before that....and steven davis before that...

The man is loyal to a fault

12/28/2009 4:42:32 PM

wish he was loyal to will witherspoon

12/28/2009 4:47:51 PM

I could deal with keeping him as long as they fire Hurney and replace him with a hardass GM who wont take Fox's shit when he tries to play DeShaun Foster over DeAngelo and continually stick with Delhomme

As it is, giving him a 1 year ultimatum is ok...until they trade away next year's first rounder again

12/28/2009 5:46:53 PM

Delhomme's contract is too big, no way he gets cut just for us to take the cap-hit. We'll def. let Peppers walk though.

12/28/2009 6:00:17 PM

let peppers and delhomme go

12/28/2009 6:02:04 PM

Quote :

"no big shocker there, although i would hope that fox interprets his lack of an extension to mean "bench delhomme or else""

I thought they cooked up some career ending thumb injury so they wouldn't have to show a little spine. What happened to that?

12/28/2009 6:31:35 PM

Quote :

"Fox is better than a lot of other coaches in the NFL. Dealing all the draft picks and not hedging against delhomme are his biggest mistakes"

Agreed about the Delhomme thing, although there's no way he could have predicted how far Jake would fall. Jake has been an above-average QB for most of his career, and I'm sure they assumed last year's set back was a result of the rust/arm surgery. I'm guessing they gave him the extension as a vote of confidence heading into this year, hoping it would erase some of his self-doubt. Well, it didn't.

I also agree that dealing this year's first to move up a few picks in the second round was craziness, even though i think Everette Brown will be a good player for us. That said, Fox has had a lot of success in the draft since he took over, and I have no doubt he knows what he'd doing on draft day. A quick review of his #1 picks proves it:

2002: Peppers
2003: Gross
2004: Gamble
2005: T. Davis
2006: DeAngelo
2007: Beason
2008: Stewart/Otah

12/28/2009 9:18:24 PM

Cowher is right there for the taking I don't care how much Fox has done he will never amount to Cowher. He lives in NC and you know he would take this job over the Bucs.

Fuck the Panthers and Delhomme.....another 7-9 season upcoming

12/29/2009 4:20:15 PM

IMO there wouldn't be much of a change if Fox was let go and Cowher was hired

12/29/2009 4:27:08 PM

I wish people would get off of Cowher's sac. There seems to be the perception that as soon as the news broke that Fox was fired, Cowher would cruise in to town and we'd be in the Super Bowl next year. Its hard to consistently win in the NFL.

I'm not really anti Cowher. If you told me today he'd be the coach next year I'd be fine with it and probably excited about the season. But I certainly don't think the season is doomed with Fox and success guranteed with Cowher.

They basically need to figure out a way get something back for Pep, which i don't even know is possible. Then they need to bring in a serious option for starting QB and have him compete with MM for the job. Jake is just fine as a back up and since apparently we owe him a shit ton of money anyway you might as well keep him around in case a sistuation calls for wildly flailing your arms and yelling about nothing.

12/29/2009 4:58:34 PM

yeah i kind of agree. they're really the same kind of coach, except that cowher won a superbowl. but let's be honest, fox was a botched kasay kickoff from winning one as well

12/29/2009 5:00:55 PM

i'm happy about this, though i hope he sits jake next year from the get-go. i've never been infatuated with cowher, and i don't think he'd be the savior some people make him out to be.

12/29/2009 5:47:44 PM

^^Or maybe if the Pats didn't cheat and tape our plays we woulda won

12/29/2009 6:06:03 PM

we can just do the same thing with peppers we did this year can't we?

and if delhomme starts the first game next season I'm going to light bank of america on fire

12/30/2009 12:03:38 AM

yeah, except he'd get about 20 mil for the season instead of 16

12/30/2009 12:05:07 AM

depends on whether richardson wants to spend that 20 million on him

i think next year has no salary cap, so it shouldn't affect the pay of potential newcomers i guess

12/30/2009 12:08:56 AM

Pep already made 18.5 mil this year, whats another 2 mil

12/30/2009 1:47:29 AM

1.5MM bonus for making the pro bowl. If you make that much money shouldn't it kind of be expected you make the pro bowl?

12/30/2009 8:34:45 AM

Quote :

"mike minter before that... and Dan Morgan before[/qutoe] I don't see the problem with these guys. Dan Morgan was good but was to often injured. I actually was on a cruise with him and 4 other panther players during spring break 07 coincedently... Mike Minter was an original panther and simply got to old and finally retired. Loyalty is a good quality but Fox needs to learn when to get his losses. Peppers needs to go. Trade him for a 1st round draft pick to either get a new RE or potential QB to compete with Moore. [quote]I also agree that dealing this year's first to move up a few picks in the second round was craziness,"

I still do not get this. RETARTED. Maybe I should buy a TV at best buy using my credit car and sell it to my buddy at a 10% discount
for CA$h.

Quote :

"Cowher is right there for the taking I don't care how much Fox has done he will never amount to Cowher. He lives in NC and you know he would take this job over the Bucs."

I have a feeling that if Cowher had any inkling of coming to Carolina they would have hired him. Perhaps him and Richardson
did not get along to well.

Quote :

" we owe him a shit ton of money anyway you might as well keep him around in case a sistuation calls for wildly flailing your arms and yelling about nothing. "

I also do not get why we signed a 30 yr old QB to a 5 year contract.....

12/30/2009 9:07:05 AM

If we go into the offseason with no CBA in place, then it becomes an uncapped year correct? Doesn't that mean we can cut Jake penalty free and save all that money?

The only way to get something back for Peppers is to resign him and then trade him. We just need to cut our loses and let the guy walk instead of trying to save face yet again and failing. We could get a nice 3rd receiver, LB depth, and some special teams players with that money.

[Edited on December 30, 2009 at 9:46 AM. Reason : typo]

12/30/2009 9:45:51 AM

Quote :

"I have a feeling that if Cowher had any inkling of coming to Carolina they would have hired him. Perhaps him and Richardson did not get along to well."

Richardson doesn't want to pay Fox's salary and pay another coach next year too. Notice the wording on the releases...something along the lines of "the panthers will give fox the opportunity to return next year"

Imo, they would like nothing more than for him to resign.

12/30/2009 11:39:45 AM

Quote :

"Its hard to consistently win in the NFL."

You hate on Cowher and then post this and he won consistently more than any recent coach.

So which way is it? 8 division titles in 15 years is pretty damn consistent.

12/30/2009 12:55:44 PM

its not hard to win when 70% of your career was spent playing teams that were mostly bad like Cincy and Cleveland.

[Edited on December 30, 2009 at 1:05 PM. Reason : .]

12/30/2009 1:04:46 PM

You've got to be trolling with that shit. That's 4 games a year. Just like Fox got the Bucs twice this year.

The Browns weren't even a team half of those years.

12/30/2009 1:07:03 PM

Fail. Suspend.

12/30/2009 1:24:12 PM

12/30/2009 2:06:41 PM

^^^you were just saying how great he was based on his division championship. The Browns were only out of the league for 3 season from 96-99. I wouldnt consider that half of 15.

12/30/2009 2:31:01 PM

Quote :

"After the Carolina Panthers complete their regular season Sunday against the New Orleans Saints, they'll set off into an uncertain offseason. The futures with the franchise of defensive end Julius Peppers, quarterback Jake Delhomme and coach John Fox - three men who've been fixtures with the team for most of the decade - are among the key issues ahead. So here's a breakdown of their scenarios: PEPPERS: Sign, Trade Or Set Free? Decisions the Panthers make about Peppers should provide some of the NFL's most compelling drama over the next several months. The stakes are high, lots of money is involved and the end result could be Peppers staying, getting traded or perhaps even being allowed to leave in search of the highest bidder for his services. Though he turns 30 later this month, his market value remains high after a strong season (10 1/2 sacks and five forced fumbles) that resulted in the fifth Pro Bowl selection of his eight-year career. Up next is Part II of a drama that began a year ago when Peppers sought to go elsewhere but was blocked when the Panthers used their franchise tag to keep him off the free agency market, albeit for a record $16.683 million base salary plus the $1.5 million Pro Bowl bonus he just earned. Peppers' contract expires after this season, putting him back in the same situation as a year ago - but with the potential to have an even bigger payday. However, he may no longer be as intent on leaving Carolina. Though he hasn't stated his preference, teammate Damione Lewis, a defensive tackle, said he thinks Peppers wants to stay. Linebacker Jon Beason isn't sure, but has said he sure hopes No. 90 returns. Keeping Peppers could be ultra-expensive and getting into position to trade him ultra-risky, but the alternative of losing him with no compensation isn't attractive either. Here are the Panthers' primary options with Peppers: Sign him to a long-term deal. The Panthers can begin negotiations as soon as the season ends, attempting to reach an agreement they were unable to accomplish over the past two years. However, it's likely that Peppers won't back off his desire for a contract that would make him the league's highest-paid defensive player, and that price tag of more than $15 million per season on a multiyear deal might be more than the Panthers are willing to pay. It certainly was last summer when the two sides tried to strike a deal. If there's another stalemate, the Panthers will have to decide whether or not to allow him to become an unrestricted free agent, which could mean losing him without getting anything in return from his new team. Tag him to play or trade. This is a very expensive, potentially risky option. If Carolina were to use its franchise tag, terms of the NFL's collective bargaining agreement would require the team to make Peppers a one-year tender offer with a 20 percent pay increase over this season. That would bring his base salary to $20.1096 million for 2010, plus his $1.5 million Pro Bowl incentive would carry over. Once the Panthers tag Peppers and extend the tender, they're committed to pay him that amount unless they're able to trade him or come to terms with him on a long-range deal. A tag-to-trade scenario would be full of risk since there's no assurance a team he's willing to play for would meet both his contract demands and Carolina's compensation requirements in the form of draft picks, players, etc. - as was the case last year. Let him test the market. If the Panthers can't reach a long-term deal with Peppers and don't want to tag him at the gigantic price tag, they could allow him to become an unrestricted free agent, but that could mean losing him and getting nothing in return. Becoming unrestricted and on the open market is the dream scenario Peppers wanted last year. He'd be able to shop himself to teams he likes in hopes of getting the record contract he desires. It would be extremely painful for the Panthers to let Peppers go for nothing, but they could also hope their offer exceeds any others he'd get and that he'd wind up staying anyway. DELHOMME: The guarantee, the commitment, the reality. Though there are plenty of fans and critics who want to see the Panthers cut ties with Delhomme, the organization has steadfastly pledged its confidence in him. He turns 35 next Sunday and has a contract extension, signed last April, set to pay him $12.675 million in guarantees regardless of whether he's back with the team next season. It appears likely that he'll be back, but also that the Panthers will try to upgrade the position either through the draft or by bringing in a veteran to compete with Delhomme and Matt Moore, who's 3-1 as a starter since Delhomme's season was ended by a broken finger. Delhomme is coming off the worst season in his seven-year stay with the Panthers. He threw a career-high 18 interceptions in 11 games before the injury and also had a career-worst passer rating of 59.8. His supporters point out that he's won lots of big games in the past and has led the team to three playoff berths, including a Super Bowl and a second NFC championship game. It's also worth noting that quarterbacks sometimes are able to come back strong after dismal seasons. Minnesota's Brett Favre has excelled this season at age 40, four years after throwing a career-worst 29 interceptions for Green Bay in 2005. FOX: Free agency ahead in 2010? With the team deciding not to fire Fox, according to sources cited in an Observer report last week, he faces the less-than-ideal situation of going into next season in the final year of his contract. That could be both good and bad for Fox. Ideally, coaches prefer to have multiple years remaining as a reflection of management's commitment to them. However, being in a contract year would put him in position to potentially be a top-tier coaching free agent after the 2010 season. Of course, the threat of a 2011 lockout of players by owners looms unless an agreement can be reached to extend the collective bargaining agreement. Fox also could draw interest this year from teams with head coaching vacancies. They'd have to be careful since he's under contract to Carolina, but it's possible he could be freed from the final year of his deal if an attractive opportunity arose elsewhere. If Fox is back, it doesn't necessarily mean the Panthers will have problems competitively. Wade Phillips has led Dallas to a 10-5 record this season in the final year of his contract, minus assurances he'll return next season. Panthers players interviewed this week said their approach to next season won't be affected by the amount of time remaining on Fox's contract."

1/3/2010 2:01:33 AM