New NFL Panthers GM Scott Fitterer will be in charge of assisting coach Matt Rhule in "taking the Panthers to the next step in the 'process'" and putting to the test Owner David Tepper’s "vision of building sustained NFL success," according to Alaina Getzenberg of the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER (1/24). In Charlotte, Scott Fowler noted Tepper now has a "roomful of 'his guys' at the very top of the team’s organizational chart." Tepper has "done a lot of good" for the Panthers. But what he "hasn’t done yet," two and a half years into his tenure, "is win." With Fitterer’s hiring, Tepper has "now replaced the two most important members of every NFL team’s football brain trust" -- the head coach and the GM -- over the past 12 months. Fitterer described Tepper’s questions during the hiring process as "probing" and said that while he "enjoyed the process, his first interview with the owner was a significant challenge." Fitterer: "It was intense. It was not a lot of football at that point. It was more about the (salary) cap. Analytics. He really pushed me to my limits to figure out what I knew and what I didn’t know. And it was a really intense conversation." Tepper said, “Listen, I’ll never be close to the evaluator that Scott or Matt Rhule is. And I won’t try to be that. But I am somebody who has some idea of how things should be run. And that’s where I think my greatest strengths will be” (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 1/23).
