I'm just hoping the era of blind loyalty is over. It has been killing the team for the last 5 years or so, all starting after the Panthers lost to Arizona in the playoffs. Jake Delhomme had one of the worst playoff performances in the history of the NFL, but still received a massive contract extension. In the following offseasons they re-signed most of the key players from that 2008 playoff team to massive contracts - Beason, D-Williams, J-Stew, Charles Johnson, among others. The trend has continued to coaches with Richardson keeping John Fox in a lame duck year in 2010, then keeping Rivera for an unnecessary extra season, crippling the team's development each time. Then Rivera not only retained but PROMOTED Shula in a trickle down effect. What's next...another season for Rivera? Breaking the bank to re-sign Brandon LaFell? A bigger contract for Greg Hardy than Charles Johnson got?
With Gettleman in place I think player contracts will be more reasonable and cap friendly, but Richardson is still calling the shots as evidenced by Rivera being retained for a third year as head coach, even though he brought in a new GM. It might have been a money thing...since the team was in such bad shape financially after the 2012 season, he might have just mortgaged the season to see if Rivera could finally put it together while Gettleman cleaned up the cap so a new head coach to have some flexibility to bring in some of his own players. Time will tell.