Why you would give a coach a four year contract, and then fire him after two is beyond me when he was tied down with some poor moves made by the previous GM….and maybe owner.

They let go of their linebackers coach, the wr coach, and rb coach.

Oh btw they finished with a top 10 defense, top 10 rushing attack, and our receiving core had 1 player over 500 yds, 1 over 800, and 1 over 1000.

Totally scapegoats. Yep.

NO. It’s called evaluation. Every team does it.

Rivera came in to coach a 2-14 that was gutted, and then has to play with mediocre players that were overpaid after the lock out.

Ron Rivera should be allowed to coach for 5 years, that is how long it will be to rebuild this team, with all the cap problems and lack of talent.

Hey Richardson, try looking in the mirror, there your main problem…

its not a bad things that you were with the Panthers, you don’t have to keep trying to prove to people you aren’t a biased writer.

1. John Settle RB coach was a cheap option because the staff figured Williams and Stew were veteran pros who didn’t need an outstanding coach to learn from. The thinking was, “It aint broke, don’t need to fix it.” With both running backs struggling it makes sense he’s gone. I would agree that the fact that we had PS players starting on the O-line half the season played it’s role in the lack of production, but still this makes some kind of sense.

2. Fred Graves WR coach was Smitty’s personal choice. Recall that at the time Smitty wanted out of Carolina. To appease Smith they let him get his guy for position coach. However, while LaFell has consistently improved the past two seasons, Rivera probably feels he could have improved more and besides LaFell and Smitty our WRs are a crapshoot at best. They might catch the ball on third and 5, or maybe not. Besides Smitty’s market value continues to decrease every year limiting his trade options and he seems to be relatively happy (as much as Smitty ever is) with his QB and the offensive system and even seems to have warmed up to a teaching role that the staff feels he won’t cry to be traded again because Graves isn’t here. Hence he’s gone.

3. Warren Belin LB coach was the most surprising firing but still I can see the reasoning. Despite the excellent linebacker play, Belin was another cheap option (college coach, no NFL experience doubt teams were beating down the door to bring him into the NFL) but again this was a group Rivera felt was already solid. Also, I think Rivera thought he was going to be personally very hands on with this group. I think he has realized as a HC that’s not as much the case as he’d probably like, but the main reason is Luke Keuchly. The franchise sees him as the face of the defense for the next decade and wants him to maximize his potential. When they drafted Cam they went out and got him Shula to be his QB coach and he’s no nobody. Makes sense they would want to get somebody equally as capable of coaching young LB talent to groom Kuechly for a few years at least.

Rivera knows full well it’s playoffs or bust for him next year so why wouldn’t he want to put together the best possible staff to try and help this team get over the hurdle? As you pointed out, it’s not like we were setting the world on fire with these coaches, so why are you so against a little change? Changing coordinators would signify major change that could disrupt the continuity of the team but some changes at the positional coaching level may be just what this team needs to take their game to the next level, assuming of course the replacement coaches are indeed better than what we already had. BTW why do you write about the Panthers when you so clearly hate everything about them?

9-7 next year..realistically

Also, why is it so hard to think that maybe they want the new GM to evaluate for a year and really scrape from top to bottom? See if this staff is the one for the future or if the future lies with someone else? I’d rather that than firing a guy just cause it’s “change for the sake of change”; Hurney is hardly a sacrificial lamb, he was living on borrowed time. Now Rivera’s the one with the short leash, but it’s certainly not the open and shut case that he should be dumped/he’s scapegoating that’s being presented

“But this team has too many weapons to not have a double digit Win total next year.”

What weapons are those? Cam Newton’s legs and arm yes, maybe Steve Smith’s aging skills at WR and…..???? No running game, no #2 WR (LaFell, maaaaybe), Greg Olsen is a weapon now?

This team needs to draft a whole lot better, like a lot of other teams, and that starts with talent evaluation. They need a GM in place soon.

-Broncos Fans.

All things considered I think he has done a reasonable job given the hand he was dealt.