“The owner is an issue to me,” Ryan Clark, a former Pro Bowl safety, said Monday morning on ESPN show Get Up. ”When you have a superfan as an owner who wants to play with the team like it’s a toy, you have a lot of issues.”
“This is probably the best thing to happen to Frank Reich, because now he’s going to have the guaranteed money to go away,” former NFL head coach Rex Ryan said Monday on Get Up. “I saw a man that literally looked like he aged 10 years. And this is what happens when you make the wrong decision on the first pick and set your team back so much.”
It’s a (darn) joke is what it is,” Mike Golic, former NFL defensive lineman and ESPN radio host, said on DraftKings’ GoJo and Golic live internet show Monday morning. “Frank Reich doesn’t even get a year? That’s a joke. Your organization … guess what, you’re not getting better when you keep changing the landscape like this this quickly.
“Unless there’s something that was going on in the locker room, I will not understand this move at all. You have now stopped the progress and will now go backward bringing in a new coach and a new system.”
“Not sure I quite understand what David Tepper is doing here,” former ESPN host Trey Wingo said in a video posted to X, formerly Twitter. “Yeah, it’s been a bad season, and you have a rookie quarterback. Maybe you’re upset that you picked the wrong rookie quarterback, we’re seeing that from what CJ Stroud is doing. But I’m not sure firing Frank Reich is going to fix any of the problems the Carolina Panthers have right now.
“Seems like a panic move, and something he’s done on more than one occasion.”
These are all some idiotic quotes. Anyone who watches the games can see Bryce is NOT the problem - it’s the coaching and personnel around him. And keeping this coaching staff and trotting Bryce out there every week to get killed would have been idiotic. Tepper made the right move by moving on quickly before we permanently scar Bryce.
Look, we can say all day that the trade up to get Bryce was stupid, that it would’ve been better to have the #1-2 pick this next draft with a much better QB class, etc. etc. I’m not even sold on Bryce myself - I think it remains to be seen if he’s the guy. But unfortunately we are where we are, and we need to invest in and protect Bryce as our QB1 and get him some good coaching/scheming. Firing Reich is a small step in the right direction.