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Who hired Palmer?

dalemurphy

Hall of Fame
I was never sure if Capers' hired Palmer or if he was hired by Casserly. And if so, how much input did Capers' have in it?
 
That's a good question. The power structure of the front office has never been publicly revealed, as far as I've ever heard.

When Palmer was fired and it was brought up that he was running Coach Capers' offense, I wondered the same thing. Maybe these were just the people available when they were putting the team together? idonno:
 
it was Capers who hired him, but was he his 1st choice?
 
dalemurphy said:
I was never sure if Capers' hired Palmer or if he was hired by Casserly. And if so, how much input did Capers' have in it?

There's ample evidence in the Chronicle archives that indicates Casserly being very involved with the Palmer hire - moreso than the Fangio and remaining staff hirings. All of the articles I found put it in the context of joint C&C pursuit as opposed to Capers hiring Palmer autonomously and simply getting Charley's stamp of approval (or Casserly ramming him down Dom's throat). But this was Capers' first big hire and Charley was all over it - as was McNair.

One example from a related 2-1-01 Chronic article by McClain follows. There are several others like this...

As soon as Capers was hired, he and Casserly began to pursue Palmer, who was in high demand as a coordinator but was in no hurry to accept an offer because he was fired with three years left on his contract with the Browns.

When Casserly and Capers called, Palmer was immediately interested for a variety of reasons, including another chance to work with a quarterback selected with the top pick in the draft and the added luxury of returning to one of his favorite cities.

"My family's always loved Houston," Palmer said. "We spent three great years in Houston, and we've still got a lot of friends there.


I'm sure that the question "Who is on your short list of candidates for offensive coordinator?" was asked of Capers during his pre employment interview with Casserly. The fact that Palmer was hired only 12 days after Capers tells me that Casserly had already targeted Palmer, and C&C probably agreed during the course of the interview and the following few days that CP would be the best option to pursue.
 
aj. said:
When Casserly and Capers called, Palmer was immediately interested for a variety of reasons, including another chance to work with a quarterback selected with the top pick in the draft and the added luxury of returning to one of his favorite cities.

That should have read "including another chance to ruin another quarterback selected with the top pick" or "turning David Carr into another Tim Couch".
 
I still don't think Palmer was ever the problem. I think he was a scape-goat. Look how much we've improved since he was fired.
 
What's not known is how much input do the coaches have in player selection, how much input did Charlie have in assitants. Did the budget for coaches restrict who could be hired? There are a lot of unknowns in how the Bob,Charlie, Dom power is shared. Perhaps more will become clear as guys are asked to leave. We know for instance that Palmer faught against a QB coach, even though that need would seem obvious with a rookie QB. We are pretty sure it was both Palmer and Dom who panicked after last year and changed the offense with dire consequences at the start of this year. We know the last two places that Fangio has worked the head coach has been fired, soon to be three.
 
donbmt said:
I thought Palmer was hired before Capers, guess I'm wrong.

January 19, 2000 - Casserly
January 21, 2001 - Capers
February 2, 2001 - Palmer
January 14, 2002 - Fangio

Not sure on the length of Casserly's contract - that's something worth following up on...
 
not only am I starting to think the Palmer was the scapegoat, I am beginning to believe that Capers set him up to be the fall guy. Think about the fact that we now have absolutely no one to even consider as an interim HC, with Palmer gone. Anyone else think that Capers could see the 'writing on the wall' and eliminated his only competition at Head Coach, to ensure his job security throughout the year? Palmer was a Head Coach once, and you gotta wonder why his offense noted for its down the field passing and big play making QB's all of a sudden went 'dink and dunk'.

Wonder if McNair is re-thinking his decision to allow Palmer to resign? I do.
 
Honestly, I wouldn't want Palmer as our HC. I'm glad that possibility doesn't even exist!

There has been various rumors about a tumultuous relationship between Capers and Palmer, but it's tough to discern fact from fiction. I do know that the offensive scheme was not Palmers', so you had an OC that was running someone else's gameplan. I don't imagine that is ever conducive towards a happy coordinator.

Then, Capers brings in his man Pendry to split o-line duties, and I'm sure that was a source of friction, as well. From what I gather, it is rather uncommon for a team to have two offensive line coaches. Then add to the fact that Pendry is promoted when Palmer was fired, and it seems that a little power struggle was happening before our very eyes.
 
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