In the first year of his sole ownership of an NFL franchise, David Tepper was in the backseat of an automobile heading south on a freeway from Charlotte, North Carolina.
practically on a dime coming out of one of the worst sexual assault scandals in college football history. And he was also a hot commodity, drawing feverish interest from multiple NFL teams. Once Tepper had confidence in the investment into Rhule, he was going to close. That's just how he operated.
Once that investment began to falter, which was basically almost instantaneously with the Bridgewater signing, there was a flip side to Tepper that we should have seen coming. We’ve learned this over the past three years: Once something is not working, Tepper isn't going to drag it around forever. Sometimes moving on from a bad investment takes the priority over staring at it and wondering why it broke down. And let’s be honest: Tepper’s decisions on the back end have largely made sense.
Bridgewater has proven to be exactly the low-ceiling starter Tepper thought he was. If he wasn't, he would have stuck with the. And you can say the same for the rest of the quarterback merry-go-round of the past five years. Cam Newton's health was washed. Kyle Allen was a never-was. Sam Darnold was fundamentally flawed and Baker Mayfield might be, too.
As for the two who might have made a difference, start with Watson. Nobody is debating the hesitancy once litigation surfaced or crying about the loss of him in a warped sweepstakes that resulted in one of most stunning trade packages and contracts in NFL history. At best, that was a pursuit with as much downside as upside. Not to mention the reality that we still haven’t seen what Watson will look like after basically two years out of competitive football.
All of which leaves the Stafford moment. If Rhule someday looks back on his stint in Carolina and laments anything, it would be understandable if it was failing to land Stafford when he was in reach. That also doesn’t mean Tepper asked the wrong question. If anything, many franchise owners would be leery about giving up a consequential trade package for a player who had a significant back injury.
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