The Carolina Panthers reached a deal to hire Baylor’s Matt Rhule as their new head coach, it was reported Tuesday.

According to ESPN, 44-year-old Rhule had been speculated to join either the Panthers or the New York Giants, who recently fired head coach Pat Shurmur. Just last month, Rhule reportedly said he hoped to return to Baylor. He will now replace Ron Rivera, who was fired this year following a nine-year tenure with the Panthers.  The news concerning Rhule follows the Dallas Cowboys’ hiring of former Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy on Monday.

Rhule helped the Baylor Bears significantly improve their football team during his three-season stint with the team. Baylor finished the 2017 season 1-11 but went 11-3 in 2019 and also had a winning season in 2018. Carolina will now hope Rhule can do the same for them. The Panthers — who appeared in the Super Bowl 50 four years ago but lost to the Denver Broncos — failed to reach the playoffs this year after finishing 5-11 and fourth in the NFC South. Carolina is also hoping to land one of several new free-agent quarterbacks — like Ryan Tannehill, Teddy Bridgewater or Tom Brady — in the wake of Cam Newton‘s season-ending foot injury, which he suffered early last month.

SLIDESHOW: GREAT SPORTS FIGURES WHO DIED IN 2019

Rhule, a former linebacker at Penn State, also formerly served as an assistant coach at Temple University and coached the Giants’ offensive line in 2012.

The Panthers and Giants had also both reportedly interviewed New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels for a head coaching position.

There are times when a Stephen A. Smith segment is iconic. There was his “weed addiction rant” or the time that he got into a full-blown argument with Lavar Ball. But Smith hit a new level when he heard that the Arizona Cardinals hired Kliff Kingsbury.

ESPN’s Smith Blasts Team After New Coach Hire

Kingsbury was definitely a questionable hire. He ran Baker Mayfield out of his program, couldn’t maintain a .500 record, and left USC as soon as he got there. Besides that, he had no prior NFL coaching experience.

But the Cardinals’ Twitter account got wind of Stephen A.’s rant and shot back. They tweeted, “We thought you would be in a good mood since the Chargers activated Hunter Henry this week.”

This is in reference to Smith saying that the Kansas City Chiefs should watch out for Henry, Spencer Ware and Derrick Johnson during a game against the Chargers. That week, Henry had been out for seven months with a torn ACL, Ware was out with a foot injury and Johnson was retired.

30 SPORTS FIGURES WHO DIED IN 2018 – TRIBUTE SLIDESHOW

Smith shot back with tweets of his own. In a series of posts, he wrote, “I don’t care how many mistakes I’ve made in my 25 years in this business, I can assure you it falls short of the moribund product you guys contaminated the state of Arizona with over the previous 4 months…” He followed that up with “You found a scapegoat in your coach, hid the real culprits and now trying to sell everyone on a sub .500 coach who should be on The Bachelor. No matter! Wishing you the best of luck. Certainly not rooting against Mr. Kingsbury. But I WILL be watching!”

No comments from ESPN clarified if they knew they were remaking One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.

Mike McCarthy plans to sit out the 2019 NFL season. McCarthy previously coached Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers before being fired midway through this past campaign. After that, he had only one job in mind: head coach of the New York Jets.

Ex-Packers Coach McCarthy Was Seeking Jets Job

However, on Wednesday the Jets announced they’d hired former Dolphins coach Adam Gase. McCarthy previously interviewed with the team last weekend and also had the opportunity to interview with the Cleveland Browns, an offer he rejected. The 55-year-old does plan to return to coaching at some point.

“I’ll be locked and loaded and ready to go for next year,” he told ESPN.

McCarthy’s family seems to be on board with the plan as well. “We looked at everything, and it was either New York or stay out. That was our outlook,” McCarthy said. “My family’s excited. We were eating dinner when I got the message and they all started cheering. So it was kind of funny. I think it tells you where they’re at.”

30 SPORTS FIGURES WHO DIED IN 2018 – TRIBUTE SLIDESHOW

McCarthy and his wife Jessica, a Green Bay native, have five children. Four currently attend school in Green Bay. As for this year, the family will live off of McCarthy’s 2019 salary. When he was fired, he still had a year left on his contract, estimated to be a payout of more than $8 million.

During his time in Green Bay, McCarthy went 135-82-2 but was fired with four games left this season. His teams went deep in the playoffs when they made it but struggled to win their division at times, despite having one of the premier quarterbacks in the league. The coach won one Super Bowl and reached the NFC Championship Game three other times. His teams made the playoffs nine total times, including a franchise-record eight straight years from 2009 to 2016. Towards the end of his tenure, tensions boiled over and the front office chose to stand by two-time MVP Rodgers.

The AFC East is basically just recycling personnel between each other, aside from the New England Patriots. Joe Caporoso first pointed out that the New York Jets fired Rex Ryan, who was then hired by the Buffalo Bills.

Gase Joins Jets After 3 Years With Dolphins

The Dolphins fired Todd Bowles, who then became the head coach of the Jets. The Jets fired GM Mike Tannenbaum, who was then hired by the Dolphins. So when the Dolphins fired Adam Gase, it wasn’t a surprise that he wound up back in the division.

Gase coached the Dolphins for three years, posting two back-to-back losing seasons to cap off his run. Despite this, he was for some reason still considered one of the top head coaching candidates.

30 SPORTS FIGURES WHO DIED IN 2018 – TRIBUTE SLIDESHOW

The Jets mortgaged their future for quarterback Sam Darnold before the 2018 season. It hasn’t worked out for the best. Now, they’ve pinned their hopes on Peyton Manning‘s former defensive coordinator to fix the 21-year-old. However, just because you worked with Manning or Sean McVay, you aren’t guaranteed success. The Jets ignored the facts that Gase had very little to do with Manning’s success as a Denver Bronco or the widespread failures as a coach and leader during his time in Miami.

Defenders of Gase point to the Dolphins roster, particularly the quarterback position that cycled through Ryan Tannehill, Jay Culter and Brock Osweiler, to defend his losing tenure. Miami’s head coaching position is still vacant and was considered one of the least optimal landing spots for a new head coach this offseason.

In New York, Gase will get a young thrower in Darnold, as well as a ton of salary cap space to potentially sign Le’Veon Bell (who remains on a contract holdout) or trade for Antonio Brown, both Pittsburgh Steelers. Gase will also deal with one of the most outlandish media markets that will seize in on him fighting players and front office staff, unlike his time in Miami.

On Wednesday, the Cleveland Browns named Freddie Kitchens as their ninth-full time head coach since 1999.

Kitchens To Replace Interim Head Coach Gregg Williams 

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, former defensive coordinator and interim head coach Gregg Williams was relieved of his coaching duties. Kitchens, 44, beat out Minnesota Vikings interim coordinator Kevin Stefanski for the job. Stefanski will not be joining the staff and instead returns to Minnesota.

The 44-year-old Kitchens began the 2018 season as Cleveland’s assistant head coach and running backs coach. However, after Hue Jackson was fired, he was moved to offensive coordinator. In the next eight games, the offense would shine: No. 1 overall pick Baker Mayfield would go 5-3 as opposed to 1-4, and his passer rating would jump almost 20 points to a 106.2 rating.

30 SPORTS FIGURES WHO DIED IN 2018 – TRIBUTE SLIDESHOW

Some critics claimed that Kitchens wasn’t ready to be a head coach. His response: “Who the hell is ready to be a head coach?”

Even before his hiring, general manager John Dorsey endorsed Kitchens as a coach, saying he’s “moved the bar on the offensive side of the ball” and “He’s gotten the ball out of the quarterback’s hands quicker.”

Cleveland fans have loved the hire. Here’s how social media reacted:

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers hired Bruce Arians on Tuesday night. He’s now the third coach this offseason to receive a four-year contract with a team option for a fifth year.

Arians’s Deal Includes A Fifth-Year Option

Unlike Vic Fangio and Kliff Kingsbury, he’s the only hire with previous NFL head coaching experience.

From 2013 to 2017, Arians was the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals. However, the Cardinals didn’t fire Arians: he retired. When Arians first announced he wanted to return to coaching, the Cardinals argued that they should be compensated. The NFL shot down the claim because the team didn’t exercise Arians’ fifth-year option. However, a late argument by Arizona succeeded and now the Buccaneers will send over a sixth-round pick to the Cards. Arizona, in exchange, will trade them a seventh-round pick and the right to sign Arians.

Arians initially claimed he’d only come out of retirement to coach the Cleveland Browns. Arians is already assembling a staff. Former New York Jets head coach Todd Bowles is tapped to lead the defense. In Tampa Bay, the 66-year-old head coach will be tasked with turning around a 5-11 team that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2007. He’ll also be given an incredibly problematic enigma in Jameis Winston.

The Tampa Bay front office is ecstatic over the hiring. “Bruce Arians is one of the NFL’s most well-respected coaches over the past two decades and we are excited to have him leading our team,” Buccaneers owner Bryan Glazer said in a statement. “Throughout this process, we focused on finding the right coach with a proven ability to elevate our players and lead our team forward. Bruce has played a large role in the development and career success of some of our league’s best players and we look forward to seeing him continue that work here with our franchise.”

On Tuesday, the Arizona Cardinals hired Kliff Kingsbury for their head coach vacancy. The former USC coach received a four-year contract.

ESPN reported that the contract also includes a fifth-year option for the team.

Kingsburgy’s Contract Includes Fifth-Year Option

Kingsbury’s career is one of the most confusing tales in coaching. From 2013 to 2018, he coached at Texas Tech. During his time there, both Baker Mayfield and Patrick Mahomes came through the program. Mayfield angrily transferred after a season. He started it off by beating out one quarterback who was injured, then got injured himself and lost the starting job to Davis Webb. Mahomes took over the program in his sophomore year, something Mayfield might have done if he had stayed. In his last season at the school, Mahomes led the country in passing yards, total touchdowns and points responsible for before going pro.

Despite having these two amazing talents, Kingsbury had an overall record of 35-40 at Texas Tech. He also lost most of his bowl games, ending with a 1-2 record in them. During his time there, he never lost less than five games. Kingsbury was fired by the school in November 2018. Somehow, he fell into an offensive coordinator job at USC. This might have been due to the fact that his Red Raiders team led the league in total yards per game in 2016.

30 SPORTS FIGURES WHO DIED IN 2018 – TRIBUTE SLIDESHOW

When Black Monday occurred on December 31, NFL teams were interested in the USC play-caller. Let’s be real: working with Mayfield, Mahomes, or Sean McVay looks tremendous on a resume this season. But USC Athletic Director Lynn Swann blocked his new hire from speaking to the Cardinals or the New York Jets. Eventually, Kingsbury was granted permission to speak with the teams.

Arizona hopes the coach can develop their first-round pick, quarterback Josh Rosen, into a talent similar to Mayfield or Mahomes. Kingsbury should be unsure of how long his tenure will be. Bruce Arians coached the team for four seasons from 2013-2017 before stepping down. Prior to that, Ken Whisenhunt led the Cardinals for five years. But most recently, Steve Wilks was fired just after his first season, one where he found himself stuck with a rookie quarterback and a battered defense. After this hiring, every coach in the NFC West, other than 67-year old Pete Carroll, is under 40 years old.