AU-panther

I would guess his agents are already asking for the bigger number. Although Cam hasn't made a deep playoff run yet his agent could argue he constitutes a larger part of our offense then almost any other QB in the league. I would guess one of three things is going on here. 1. Team isn't convinced Cam is the long term answer yet and is content with him playing one more year at the 5th year option price. Option 1 can be risky if his value goes up, but if he is already asking for huge money there might not be as much risk as you would think. For example if he wants $23m a year now will an extra year really add that much? 2. Cam wants more then we are willing to pay. 3. (least likely) Cam wants to become a free agent and control his own destiny like you see in the NBA with some players.

Special teams contributions might play a part in these decisions as the roster is trimmed to 53.

Unless Cam is surrounded by 10 pro bowlers that clarity might never happen for some posters around here.

Maybe all three need to improve. Better coaching Better talent around Cam. Better execution from Cam. Here is an interesting article that talks about Cam leading the league in coverage sacks. http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stat-analysis/2014/2013-quarterbacks-true-sack-rate Not only can a good Oline make a QB's job easier a good QB can make an Oline look better. Personally I think Cam has as much talent as any QB in the league but I do think there is room for improvement. Luckily for us most QBs continue to improve over a much longer period then other positions. Better talent around him should help facilitate that improvement.

DG isn't going to put himself into a position where he has to take a particular position in a specific round. Our draft choices are going to be dictated by what other teams do ahead of us. This is why mock drafts are so inaccurate. Going into the draft we might want to go OT>DE>WR, but what if Parker drops to us in the 1st? Our draft could quickly change to WR>OT>RB. From looking at the visits list it is pretty clear that they are looking at certain positions throughout the draft.

The last 3 years on his contract look to be voidable years. For all practicable purposes 2015 is the last year of his contract.

The article linked by the OP actually explains some of this. They lost 7 eligible free agents and gained none. Sent from my iPhone using CarolinaHuddle

Revis was cut by his previous team, therefore he doesn't factor in the equation.

Maybe the "pickins" will be better in the first few rounds of the draft because of this.

I would disagree. I would think other teams would consider you more unpredictable if they thought you were a BPA based drafter. Part of being successful at drafting is having a feel on how the board will fall.

Would it be more beneficial for other teams to believe you are picking based off of BPA or Need?

$14.8 million of that $33 million is from his signing bonus. Two years left at $7.4 million. That money has already been paid and there is nothing the team can do to avoid the cap hit associated with it. The other $18,750,000 is guaranteed in the form of his 2015 salary. If he was to be traded another team could assume that guaranteed salary. http://overthecap.com/player/drew-brees/1492/shows this breakdown. Here is an article that explains some of the differences in the different types of guaranteed money. http://overthecap.com/trading-dead-money-nfl-expiring-contract/

Not exactly. The Saints would be responsible for the dead money from his prorated signing bonus. Guaranteed salary can be traded. If another team was willing to assume his salary and to guarantee it the Saints could theoretically save cap space by trading him. I always assumed the Saints would continue to push cap charges down the road until Brees retired. At that point they would probably be really bad anyway and they could clear up the cap while getting some high draft choices. Seems to me they are hitting the reset button early.

To get a player to agree to a back loaded contract you have to give them a signing bonus. That is exactly what causes dead money when you cut a player early. Also the Niners didn't cut Crabtree, his contract expired. That is the reason he is not affecting their cap.

Because their top guys don't make as much as our top guys. Top 5 cap hits for each team: Panthers: CJ - $20m Cam - $14m Kalil - $11.7m Davis - $9.9m Stewart - $8.3m http://overthecap.com/salary-cap/carolina-panthers Seahawks Sherman - $12.2m Lynch - $8.5m Bennett - $8m Avril - $8m Thomas - $7.4m http://overthecap.com/salary-cap/seattle-seahawks If working the cap is drafting well and resigning your own players before they hit the open market so be it. If you notice, one list above was inherited by a GM and one was not.

Did you even read the article? The myth he is referring to is the idea that teams can't sign a player because of a lack of cap space. His point is that thru restructures and signing bonuses you can almost always free up enough money to sign a particular player. With a big enough signing bonus you can get most contracts down to a pretty low number in the first few years. Same with restructures. Heck, we could have about $40m in cap space if DG wanted us to with a few cuts and restructures. If you read the article he actually states that "secret to managing the cap" is keeping cash and cap spending close to the same. This prevents you from incurring future charges and also allows you flexibility. This philosophy is the exact opposite of what he is talking about with manipulating the cap to fit a guy in. The above scenario is exactly what happened to the Panthers. Hurney manipulated the cap in order to fit more talent on the team and DG inherited the future charges and the decreased flexibility, especially in 2013 and 2014. We actually have a little more cap space and flexibility this year but that doesn't mean we need to go out and overspend. Everyone likes to reference the Pats as big free agency players but in reality they are one of the most frugal teams in the league. While they occasionally get a "big name" player like Revis or Moss they very rarely over pay for a guy. They traded away a fan favorite pro bowler (Logan Mankins) in the middle of the season because they felt like his production to match with his cap hit. How would this fan base react to us trading away Kalil? Look at what they did with LaGarrette Blount. They had him on a cheap one year deal. He played well and left for more money. They didn't overpay to keep him. He later was released from his new team and the Pats resigned him to another cheap deal. Sounds like what happened to Ginn. What about the free agents that they let leave. They asked Brandon Browner to take a pay cut and when he wouldn't they let him walk. http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/03/10/report-brandon-browner-wont-take-pay-cut/ Even with the Revis deal they didn't overspend. Although it was listed as a 2 year deal for all practical purposes it was a one year deal for $12m dollars. $12m for arguably the best corner of this generation seems quite fair. http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/03/13/revis-gets-12-million-this-year-20-million-or-free-agency-next-year/

Their ability to build thru the draft is exactly why they are able to do moves like this.

New England won the Super Bowl with him as a #2. Not sure how though, a lot of people here had me convinced he was the problem in our offense. There is a lot of truth to this. We don' t seem to have that all around guy. Fast enough to get behind the defense, good hands, big enough to catch in traffic, and explosive enough to make something happen after the catch. Sounds more like a #1.

I don't understand why people keep trying to turn this into a McCoy vs Alonso argument. This wasn't a trade where each team was trying to get the better player. This trade was about the Eagles getting rid of a bad contract. Picking up a quality player with two years left on a rookie contract was just a bonus. Can they replace his production with the 8-10 million they are saving? What if they replace 90% of his production for 10% of the cost. That is a lot of money left over to improve other areas. What if the trade was McCoy for Alonso and Maclin or Alonso and Hardy? Would people have a different opinion then?

Cecil Short is slower and shorter then Hartline. http://www.nfl.com/combine/profiles/cecil-shorts?id=2495341 http://www.nfl.com/combine/profiles/brian-hartline?id=81831

The people over at overthecap.com have been doing some write-ups on every team's financial outlook for next season. Thought some might find it interesting. http://overthecap.com/panthers-2015-salary-cap-outlook/

Great points about the savings not happening until after June 1st and the fact teams are limited to only 2 designations a year. Another misconception that I often see is that the dead money is not split evenly between the 2 years. The current year's dead money is realized in that year and then all of the remaining years of dead money accelerate in the following year.

The fact that he has lasted in the league for 4 years is an accomplishment in itself considering he was an UDFA. Even if he spends the next 4 years as a backup RT for some team he has still reached a level that very few football players do. While I understand fans wanting an upgrade I never really understood some of the hatred directed towards him. Its not like he was some player who signed a huge contract and then decided to become complacent.

I don't expect Cam to take less but at the same time I don't expect the team to pay extra because Cam was on some rookie pay scale. Good teams pay players based on what they can contribute in the future. Sent from my iPhone using CarolinaHuddle

It's not about how much money a person needs. It's about being paid what you are worth relative to your peers. How many here would be content to make less then a coworker who did less work? Cam might feel like he should be the highest paid contract in the league. If that is the true DG is going to have a tough decision to make. I know most here want to keep Cam long term, myself included, but at what point is it not worth it?