Mr. Scot

I'd like to think most folks would realize this is a 'wrong place at the wrong time' thing and nothing more. Granted, when I say 'most folks', I'm not including rival fans who will probably try to make whatever they can of it.

Yikes.

More like Canadian Bacon.

Whole Lotta people seeing wishful thinking as reality. Everybody loves Hardy for his 'Kraken' character, but as Gettleman has stated, you can't allow emotion to factor into business decisions, and that's what this is. Nobody hates Hardy. Nobody's happy about seeing him walk. But some of us are capable of understanding why it's a valid decision.

Not gonna happen.

Patriots chose to franchise Gostkowski rather than McCourty.

Makes him sound like one of those "play well enough in a contract year to get paid and then put it in cruise control" guys.

The team that won the Super Bowl this year traded away a pro bowler at the start of the season. Likewise, teams like the Steelers have let plenty of big name free agents walk. If you build well, you can afford to be picky. The notion that dumping Hardy dooms us to mediocrity is just unfounded.

PFT reporting that the Chiefs will use the non exclusive version of the tag on Houston. This means another team could trade for him, but the asking price would be two first round picks unless alternate compensation were negotiated.

Curious, Zod. Did you consider Devin Smith or Jamison Crowder in there anywhere or did you think they would be gone already?

And just for the record, we will be franchising...nobody.

Afraid you might want to look again.

I could probably live with that draft. Granted, mocks made this early are roughly equivalent to trying to predict what the weather will be on the 20th of next month.

We did franchise him last year. No one came calling, and they had the entire offseason to do so. Why would they come calling now? Even players who don't have off field issues only rarely get signed or traded away after being franchised. It's far from guaranteed that anyone would step up and make an offer. But regardless, the minute he signed the deal, we'd be on the hook for the full salary. Heck, why shouldn't he sign it? He gets the money whether he plays or not. And you can't just tell him not to sign. Once the offer is on the table, he has a right to it. I understand what you want out of this deal, but that just isn't how it works. We'd be risking devoting a big chunk of cap to a player we don't want. If we were sitting here unable to sign free agents again because of Greg Hardy, would you still defend that deal?

To be fair, how often have you seen the Panthers - or any other team, for that matter - make an 'official announcement' that they didn't plan to sign a particular free agent? This isn't the sort of thing you issue a press release for.

Don't post stupidity.

Lord, posts like this are so incredibly ignorant.

So is the "OMG WE LET MY FAVORITE PLAYER GO I HATE THIS TEAM I HOPE WE LOSE EVERY GAME I HOPE THEY GO TO OUR RIVALS AND BEAT US THE FRONT OFFICE DOESN'T CARE ABOUT WINNING SCREW DAVE SCREW RON SCREW JERRY WE'LL NEVER BE ANY GOOD I'M GONNA HOLD MY BREATH TILL I TURN BLUE" fiesta an annual thing now?

I honestly wouldn't have known who Jason is either

Unless Hardy is the greatest player to ever hit the field, then I'm pretty sure it's possible to replace him. Hardy wasn't that great his rookie season, but who's to say our first round pick won't be a pass rusher that starts off quicker than Hardy did? Who's to say Kony Ealy doesn't make a leap his second year? Plenty of players do. Is Hardy good? Sure. Is he easy to replace? No. But is he impossible to replace? No.

So...Zero chance of building an effective defense unless we throw money at Hardy? He's our only chance at a pass rush?

We're excluded from the draft and free agency?

And yeah, the idea that this is gonna cost us free agents is just silly.

How much of your salary are you willing to wager that Hardy doesn't get in trouble again? You're certain he won't, right? Should be no problem to put your money where your mouth is, then.

Because we don't throw huge money at time bombs that will likely be suspended for part of the year? Funny, but I recall the team that won a championship just two years ago shipping a talented headache player to the Jets for pretty much nothing. And yet somehow they amazingly made it back to the championship.