I was over at Mile High Report earlier today and saw John Fox's press conference quotes and let's just say his answers were all to familiar. I will spare you an example as I'm sure you have no problem remembering how unmemorable Fox press conferences were.

Yet this is the Era of Rivera! (Yes I thought of that myself) We are just a little giddy that we have a guy in charge who is actually trying to enlighten us a bit. Pat Y with ESPN is among those who quickly noticed the difference:

Previous coach John Fox never was flat-out nasty to the media. He just wouldn’t say very much in public. His answers were short and they didn’t always clear up what he was asked. Transcripts of Fox’s meeting with the media were usually minuscule. In fact, the last couple of years I covered Fox on a daily basis in my newspaper days, I always taped his sessions, but seldom had to listen to them again. That’s because there almost never was anything worth quoting him on.

So Pat Y was kind enough to run through the transcript of Rivera's press conference at the combine and he pulled out some nuggets of knowledge:

On McDermott's exit from Philadelphia:

The situation came about with (Philadelphia coach Andy) Reid when it was all happening and this was a chance to get Sean out of the shadow of Jim and a very difficult situation. But I think he handled that very well. He really showed his maturity so I was excited to have an opportunity to work with somebody I knew and somebody who shares the same philosophy.

It does appear McDermott was in a 'No Win' situation in Philadelphia having succeeded the fan favorite Jim Johnson. I had kind of wondered if HC Andy Reid was just providing cover for a young coach who may have been promoted too quickly.

On taking over the last-place team from the NFC South:

"This is going to be a challenge. Look at all three of those teams and they all three have franchise-style quarterbacks and I think if there is something that has to happen we have to identify that and come up with our own and then we have to continue to prepare ourselves to be ready to take the challenge on.''

Is anyone else getting the feeling Rivera really wants a Franchise QB?

On if having three franchise quarterbacks in the division make it important for Carolina to find one:

"Very much so, because again it’s all part of the game. Look at it throughout the league and franchise quarterbacks are what’s happening in this league in terms of it becoming a passing league. Teams that have those guys that can attack you vertically really I think are tough.’’

Maybe he thinks if he says it enough he's making sure Hurney and JR knows he wants a sure fire franchise QB...he does want to try and find one in the rough so to speak. My theory he realizes that is the one thing he can't over come. He knows he can improve the defense, he knows we most likely will have a nice running game. But the vertical passing game? Got to have that guy...