Carolina Panthers Hire Matt Rhule Per Report, Leaving Just the Browns and Giants With Vacancies
The Carolina Panthers have hired Matt Rhule to be their head coach, according to Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports. Rhule was a sought after candidate after resurrecting a Baylor football program that was in ruin after the scandals under former head coach Art Briles. Believed to be the preferred candidate for the New York Giants, Rhule going to Carolina not only takes another contender for head coaches out of the mix for the Cleveland Browns, but puts a little added pressure on the Giants.
Rhule had taken himself out of consideration for the Browns job, so going to Carolina makes no difference to the Browns. However, given the fact that there are only two NFL jobs open now, the Browns and Giants, the Browns seem to be in excellent shape as far as hiring the candidate they want.
The Browns are scheduled to interview New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels on Friday and are going to interview Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator, Kevin Stefanski possibly Thursday. They have recently requested to speak with Jim Schwartz, the Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator and have already spoken to Greg Roman and Eric Bieniemy, who are offensive coordinators for the Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs respectively as well as defensive coordinator Robert Saleh of the San Francisco 49ers.
The Browns obviously need to determine who the best candidate for them is and be able to get the deal done, but they are one of two jobs remaining, arguably the better job and there are a number of viable candidates remaining.
