FanHouse JohnFox

NFL Coaches Fight Club: the Tournament. Because we have nothing better to do than predict what might happen if head coaches started punching each other in the face.

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NFL Coaches Fight Club: the Tournament. Because we have nothing better to do than predict what might happen if head coaches started punching each other in the face.

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NFL Coaches Fight Club: the Tournament. Because we have nothing better to do than predict what might happen if head coaches started punching each other in the face.

Consider this hypothetical: what if two coaches met in a dark alley and threw down in a no-holds-barred brawl? Who would emerge victorious?

First, some background: back when I was in high school, when my friends and I were pretty creative in finding ways to avoid actually paying attention in class, we'd create brackets (think NCAA Tournament) where we'd pit our teachers against each other**. Whoever we thought would win in a fight advanced to the next round. It always ended with our offensive line coach against our wrestling coach in the finals and a huge argument as to who would come out on top.

Anyway, last week, the Back Porch staff somehow ended up discussing whether Rex Ryan or Tom Cable would win in a old school playground scrap. I passed along the above information, and shortly after that, an idea was born -- NFL Coaches Fight Club: the Tournament.

Who moved to the head of the NFL class during the draft? Find out with FanHouse's team-by-team 2009 Draft Grades.

John Fox and Marty Hurney have always done a good job selecting first-round talent. Since Fox took over the coaching reins in 2002, they've picked Julius Peppers, Jordan Gross, Chris Gamble, Thomas Davis, DeAngelo Williams, Jon Beason, Jonathan Stewart and Jeff Otah. So, yeah, not too shabby. This year, the Panthers didn't have a first-round pick, but somehow managed to stumble into first-round talent anyway, landing Everette Brown with the 43rd-overall pick in the draft.

With the draft approaching, we ignore projections and identify the dream scenario for each team in a series we call The Perfect Draft.

Yes, the Carolina Panthers are late to the party. But I thought it only appropriate given that the Cats have no first round pick in this year's NFL Draft. Of course, that's not necessarily a bad thing whatsoever. Last year, the Panthers traded this year's first-rounder (plus 2008's second and fourth round picks) for the Eagles' first round pick (No. 19 overall) and selected Jeff Otah. Carolina made the playoffs and looked like a Super Bowl contender late in the season.

Jake Delhomme is the undoubted goat of the Carolina Panthers' failures last season, because of the 72 six turnovers he had against the Cardinals in the playoffs. Whether he deserves total blame or not is an entirely different issue, but Panthers fans are still going to blame him.

That should make the news that the Cats are talking contract extension with the 34-year-old quarterback go over quite smoothly with the Carolina faithful.

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

John Fox and Marty Hurney headed into 2008 with their jobs on the line after an underwhelming 2007 that featured a whole lot of Mittens and not a lot of excitement in Charlotte. They decided to throw caution to the wind and play for "now" by trading their 2009 first-round pick for a chance to pick up both Jeff Otah and Jonathan Stewart in the first round of the draft.

With a healthy Jake Delhomme, Julius Peppers finally deciding to care, a road-grading offensive line and a rejuvenated Smash and Dash running game that featured DeAngelo Williams and Stewart, the Panthers surprised some people by winning the NFC South and looking like a Super Bowl-caliber squad.

Following the success of an NFL team, it's fairly typical to see members of said team's coaching staff begin quickly departing, as jobs located higher in their professional spectrum begin to open up.

Given that the Carolina Panthers won 12 games this season, it would be unsurprising to see any of the coaches leave, if the right job presented itself. But for Sal Sunseri, Panthers defensive line coach, it's kind of hard to imagine that "University of Alabama linebackers coach" is a promotion. Still, that's where he's headed.

There's no doubt that both Chris Johnson and DeAngelo Williams won a lot of money fantasy championships for owners this year. Johnson was a late round draft pick (although Snyds and I both loved him coming out of the draft) whereas DeAngelo was almost an afterthought with Jonathan Stewart coming into Charlotte (guilty on all fronts here of whiffing this one).

That being said ... who's the better bet for the long term in fantasy? Well, for starters, both appear to be locked into a tandem situation for a while; Stewart and LenDale White are both young and each do a superb job complimenting the two guys we're discussing here. Hence the hysterically overplayed 'Smash and Dash War'. (Again, guilty.)

Outside of "job security" (meaning touches and tandems), there are three other key components for a fantasy running back: big plays, environment and the feature factor. Yes, I am making these up; allow me to explain.

Notes from the press box at Bank of America Stadium for Panthers - Cardinals.

Jake Delhomme just had a pretty rough birthday. You would excuse him if he didn't want to talk to the media after the game and just decided to take off for whatever the hell he's planning on doing for the next week, simply in order to try and forget that the past 60 minutes of football just happened.

But he didn't do that, of course, because, as bad as Jake was tonight, he's still the type of guy to own up for his mistakes.

I'm at a loss for words. For one reason or another, I didn't give us a chance tonight.

[...] We'd get something going, we ran the bootleg and I throw a pick there. It just started snowballing.