BlitzMonster

Thanks for providing this info on void years. It's a much more clear explanation than the way Spotrac displays the data, which appears fairly misleading (at least to me): I looked over several web pages on void years and they said exactly what you did:. the entire bill for the voidable years comes due the very first void year that occurs. So the 8,293,332 amount is on the Panthers 2022 salary cap. And there are no further charges in 2023 (even though the spreadsheet seems to suggest it's 4,146,666). The salary cap hit for Paradis in 2023 is 0. It still sucks that the Panthers are paying over 8M for a player not even on the roster anymore. But at least these extra charges will not continue after the current season.

Mayock: JaMarcus Russell's Pro Day a cautionary tale "Mayock said this morning on The Dan Patrick Show. “The best Pro Day I ever saw as a quarterback was JaMarcus Russell. . . . I’ve never seen a quarterback throw the football like that in my life” Ultimately, Mayock said, teams can’t allow what they see in a workout to supercede what they see in game action. “The tape work and the body of work in college has to take precedence,” Mayock said."

Getting rid of the void years is a "nice to have" not a requirement. Void years just kick the salary cap problems down the road. If the rest of the plan were enacted, I'd be more than happy to give up the void year acceleration. Anything to be done with those ridiculous contracts for Darnold & Anderson.

The draft process for QB's is so poor. It's all shorts and t-shirts where the athletic, big armed guys shine. JaMarcus Russell looked like a god at his pro day (and we all know how that turned out). It's boring but having QB's dissect white board formations with coaches asking questions would be far more instructive on who's going to make it as an NFL QB and who won't. But that's not nearly as fun as watching some kid throw a 50 yard frozen rope while the crowd ooo's and ahhh's.

PLAY OUT FINAL YEAR IN 2022 Sam Darnold QB $18,858,000 Cameron Erving LT $6,510,000 ACCELERATE ALL VOID YEARS INTO 2022 Matt Paradis C $12,440,000 Haason Reddick OLB $7,014,000 DEAD CAP FOR 2022 7,000,000 CUT IN 2023 Robby Anderson WR $3,836,668 DEAD CAP Pat Elflein OL $366,668 DEAD CAP ********************************************************* Final total would be about 40M in cap savings for 2023. And the team would be out from under the horrible contracts of Darnold, Anderson, Erving, Elflein and those stupid void deals.

Rhule chose Sam Darnold. He traded away a bunch of draft capital to get him. Now make Rhule accountable for that decision. Let him succeed or fail with Sam as his starting QB for 2022.

Reading defenses and good decision making is what makes a great QB. The running around stuff, arm like a cannon, etc are just a bonus. If you can't do the first part, you won't be a successful NFL QB (and definitely won't take your team to the Super Bowl).

Strong is an improvement over Pickett, sure. But I like Corral better than Strong.

If I were Tepper, my goal for 2022 would be to make the team as attractive as possible for a new coach. That means building what you can this year ( improve that OL ), keep all of the 2023 draft picks and don't hand out any crazy new contracts that would limit the future salary cap. Eat the bad contracts on the books this year so in 2023 the team's cap would be pretty open. Do all of that and the team will be attractive to lots of potential new coaches. In particular don't let Rhule mortgage the future with stupid draft picks, trading away picks or giving out sweetheart contracts to save his job.

The Panthers had a bunch of dead money coming off of their cap and what do they do with it ? Go on a bad contract spree and just throw money around everywhere for poor performance. The team's handling of their salary cap has been just gross incompetence.

In all likelihood an admission that Reddick is too expensive for Carolina and will sign elsewhere.

I assume this signing means Luvu is going to be a starter now.

Luvu signed a two-year, $9 million contract extension with the Panthers on Thursday, Darin Gantt of the Panthers' official site reports.

“Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well.” ― Dwight D. Eisenhower

To successfully develop a QB prospect, you need a stable franchise and an above-average coaching staff. Carolina has neither of these.

A team has to be somewhat close to being a SB squad for it to work. A lot of the big pieces have to already be there. During the prime Cam years, that would have been a good strategy.

Bottom line is that when CMC gets injured next season (and he will) the Panthers will be getting productive play from less than 2/3 of their total salary cap. So the team just throws away over 1/3 of its cap. It's no surprise Carolina is so bad. What team could win with a financial handicap like that ??

Wow - laying it all out there really depresses me. The years of financial mismanagement, bad decisions and horrible contracts are all coming back to haunt the Panthers in 2022: void deals (paying ghosts) 12M Sam Darnold guaranteed at 19M Robbie Anderson at 17M Paying a RB who can't stay on the field 14M. Other teams pay their RB 1M or 2M and get better results. Sweetheart deals for career backup OL Pat Elflein (6.7M) and Cameron Erving (6.5M). Based on performance alone in 2021 both should be cut. So another 13M down the drain. Grand total for all this mess is 75M. That's for 5 lousy / injured players and 2 void deals. Which is over 1/3 of our total cap space for 2022. Spotrac

Campen is a well respected OL coach. Some FA may be specifically interested in playing for him. If the contract offered is similar to other teams, having a boss that you enjoy working with makes all the difference.

Just give me one good free agent OL. Somebody who's an instant starter and will fit well with Campen's new OL scheme. Preferably an interior lineman since that is where the Panthers had so much trouble. Also those guys are not as expensive compared to Tackles. In any case one free agent OL won't break the Panther's salary cap.

The article is written for the Bengals but I would happily take any one of these guys for the Panthers. Here are the top 11 OL in free agency: article

I sure don't want the Panthers to move there. But if some team did, that would be an awesome name ! The team could come out of the tunnel for each game behind 3 or 4 galloping Clydesdales. What a sight that would be !

I think Neal could be a very good starting LT in the NFL. But his best position may really be at Guard. He has All Pro potential there, especially if he plays for a run-centric offense like the Ravens, Browns or Titans. With his massive size and nasty demeanor, Neal would shine blowing holes open for the RB.

At this point Hamilton is generally considered the top player in the draft. We'll see how he performs at the Combine. But S / LB is pretty rare to take very high in the draft. Those positions just aren't as highly valued. Would Hamilton be a reasonable option at #6 if all the LT were gone and no trade down were possible ?? I actually wouldn't hate the pick at that point because I think a team gets better in the long term adding great talent. But the draft value (and salary cap numbers at that position) wouldn't be ideal.

I think institutional accountability is a really important philosophy for any large organization. Rhule pushed all his chips in with Sam Darnold. Now Tepper has to hold Rhule accountable for that decision with Darnold starting in 2022. If Darnold falls on his face (a fairly good chance of that happening) then Rhule has to pay the consequences for his decision - which means being fired. No going after other free agent QB's this year. No drafting a QB with pick #6. Play the guy you wanted and let the chips fall where they may. That's what it means to be responsible for your decisions.