Peter King gets some Lig sources to confirm the general lay of the land with an NFL lock-out looming in 2011: In-house head coach candidates will have a tremendous built-in advantage to fill any head coaching vacancy — perhaps insurmountably so. King:
1. There’s a very good chance the new coach won’t have access to the players beginning in March, when a potential lockout would happen. He may not have access to the players until a new labor deal is signed, which seems more and more like it won’t happen until at least the summer. And that’s being optimistic.
2. The new coach won’t be able to work with his new staff very much either, because most teams will put assistant coaches on varying part-time contracts. The new coaches won’t be in the building much, if at all, during a work stoppage. …
“What all that means,” one head coach not on the hot seat told me Friday, “is an advantage for the in-house candidate unlike there’s ever been. Financially and functionally, the top coordinator makes sense more than it ever has.”
Fair or not, there is no one on the Panthers’ offensive side who is a credible candidate to replace John Fox given the units horrid performance this year. In contrast, the defense under Ron Meeks has played fairly well for stretches and has only been consistently undone by a lack of experience at the safety position and a lack of size at the corners.
Here’s the question for the Big Cat, though. If you are reasonably certain that forces are going to lead you toward Meeks come January, why not go ahead and make the change now? Give the guy a head start working toward 2011. The big PR downside is why — Jerry Richardson would be bursting the bubbles of legions of Panther fans who really, truly believe that some big name, outside coach is going to be the next coach of the Panthers.
That ain’t gonna happen and Richardson will use the reasons King has laid out in November to explain — excuse really — a Meeks hiring come January. Charlotte’s supine sports media will then take notes and write it up that way.
