WATCH: Panthers Owner David Tepper Discusses Firing of GM Marty Hurney
Monday morning, the Carolina Panthers announced that general manager Marty Hurney will be relieved of his duties. Hurney's contract was set to expire this season and the two sides mutually agreed to part ways.
Following the announcement, team owner David Tepper met with the media to discuss the move. Full quotes from the press conference can be seen below.
The timing of the decision, why it was made now
"It was no 'now' to the decision, it was ongoing. Ongoing discussions about how we were going to move forward and over the last week or so, I think in discussion with Marty we thought that it was mutually best for both sides."
If Matt Rhule wants control of player personnel decisions
"I don't think Matt wants control. Matt has control of what he does on a daily basis. I think he wants to have alignment and collaboration with whoever is in that GM seat. Quite frankly, alignment and collaboration and some sort of integration with the whole organization up and down should be something we look for in this position."
What qualities he is looking for in candidates to be the next GM
"Like I said, there has to be an alignment between the coach and the GM. The person has to be a collaborator, not afraid to make decisions. Collaboration doesn't mean you don't have arguments about who you're picking. Somebody who is a good decision-maker, a good manager."
On timetable of hiring a new GM
"I think we can start going out and talking to people who aren't on other teams right now. We have to wait until the end of the season to talk about other folks. If we can bring somebody in earlier the better. We'll have provisions if we don't get it done by the draft. The earlier the better and on the other hand if we don't very soon, we'll be ready for the draft no matter what."
Differences between him and Marty Hurney
"I think Marty is a little bit more traditional and I'm probably a little more data-driven analytical. I think meshing those two things can be good, but sometimes I think you need a change."
Any problem with giving a big contract to Christian McCaffrey
"Well nobody knows how any player is going to be injured or not. It's just a general process. How a process is done or not done."
Why not clean house at this time last year
"Marty has a lot of good characteristics. I do think he's a good evaluator of individual talents. There are some process things, evaluation things that are questionable - methods I'm saying. How we do things and how we go about it. Quite frankly, I think it was good for Matt [Rhule] and good for me to have another year with Marty. Marty is a great guy to have as a teacher and a person like that around. People think that you can come in here and even though I was around football for a while, I wasn't there. Sometimes I think it's not a bad idea to have a good teacher around to teach you some aspects and at some point, you graduate and try to figure if you can do other things away from it and maybe better. That's kind of where we are. Again, Marty Hurney is a very good evaluator and has a lot of good aspects to him. Me and Matt learned from Marty a lot. Sometimes the students have to graduate."
If there were any collaboration issues between Rhule and Hurney
"No."
Would the move still have been made if the team had more wins
"I think at the end of the day, at some point it was going to be inevitable. I don't know if it was inevitable but it was a question of where we are now and how processes are done. I'm a very process-oriented, analytical person, and not that Marty is not. It's just a little bit different process. And I'll say it again - the students are graduating from what is a very good teacher."
How much thought was there to making this move last year
"I did think about it. But I did think that they're were still some things that I could learn from Marty. Marty is that type of individual that is easy to talk to and easy to get along with."
Satisfaction level with Teddy Bridgewater/whether drafting a QB is in play
"I think when you get to quarterbacks in the NFL in general, you always want to try to figure out do you have the best in the position it is right now. It's constant re-eveluation of that and that's what we'll constantly go through.
Team needs
"As far as our early draft picks, it's one of those years where everyone can figure out what kind of player we're taking in the first two rounds, maybe even into the third. I mean, the needs are very apparent as we go forward. Everybody knows it on this call, I don't have to tell you, you know what they are. After evaluating and after thinking about it, obviously the secondary would be one place, that's no secret. You guys write it up every freakin' week. And listen, the quarterback questions are something that I get. You have to evaluate and re-evaluate. Whether we go with Teddy [Bridgewater], P.J. [Walker] or Will [Grier] or we could see if there's somebody else out there that we bring into the mix to see if that's a possibility. The NFL, when you talk about quarterbacks, it's an on-going process. It's a question of who can be that guy that can help you win, it's the most important position on the field. Unless you have that guy for sure that gets you to playoffs and Super Bowls, you have to keep re-evaluating that because that's the only thing that matters is Super Bowls. And until you have that guy, you're evaluating, evaluating, and evaluating every year."
If he anticipates Pat Stewart interviewing for the GM job
"Pat Stewart was brought in and at least in my mind I'd like to hold onto Pat Stewart in one capacity or the next."
If an outside firm will help with the selection process
"No."
Differences in the evaluation process between you and Hurney
"For instance, you should look at how people perform at different times of a game. You know, make sure you have that understanding before you make a contract with somebody. How do they perform in the 4th quarter or how they perform in a two-minute drive? Making sure you have those sort of data points, which would make sense when you're making a decision as much as how you think they throw."
If speculation of Hurney going to Washington played into the timing of the decision
"I have great respect for Marty. Some of the timing of this decision was out of respect for Marty and make sure he has the opportunity to look at other places."
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