NFL Panthers Reportedly Plan No Changes To Upper Management

The NFL Panthers have "decided not to make any changes or firings on their coaching staff or upper management" after this season, according to sources cited by Chandler & Sorensen of the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER. The sources indicated that Panthers GM Marty Hurney, as well as head coach John Fox and his assistants, "all will be invited back for another season." The team's decisions are said to be "influenced by financial considerations related to the uncertainty of whether NFL owners will be able to reach" a new CBA with the NFLPA in order to avoid a lockout season in '11. By neither hiring a new coach nor offering Fox an extension, the Panthers "avoid potentially paying a coach big money for a season when there might not be any football." Firing Fox "would have been costly, making the Panthers liable for his salary, minus whatever he made if he joined another team, plus they'd have to hire a replacement" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 12/29). The OBSERVER's Tom Sorensen writes the Panthers' decision on Fox "probably has more to do with the possibility of a lockout after the 2010 season than with Fox's body of work." NFL teams "will tend to spend conservatively," with only "one more season of football guaranteed" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 12/29).

NEW MAN IN CHARGE: New Browns President Mike Holmgren yesterday revealed he has been given "final say on everything" as part of a five-year deal to run the team's football operations. Holmgren confirmed plans to hire a GM, and said of his new job, "I have way too much responsibility. But I'm really looking forward to it. It's quite different from what I'm used to. I answer to Randy Lerner, and then it's my job to direct traffic and put the organization together after that" (Cleveland PLAIN DEALER, 12/29). Holmgren said of the Browns' owner, "I had never met Randy until this. I will tell you this. It was very refreshing. Clearly, he wants his football team to do well. When he presented the job to me and what it would entail and the type of access I would have to him and his vision, as far as I was concerned he hit a home run. I took this job because of the owner. I think he cares that much, and I really don't want to let him down" (Warren TRIBUNE CHRONICLE, 12/29).