Smitty may be even more pissed than we thought (Panthers related)

[LUUUUUKE]

The problem is you act like this franchise was the New England Patriots while he was here. No back-to-back winning seasons and no playoff victories since 2005.

If you want to get off the train of mediocrity, you've got to make some big decisions regarding the "old guard." The idea that you stay loyal to players regardless of their performance or salary crippled this franchise for years and even after a 12 win season in Gett's FIRST YEAR with little to no flexibility to improve a 6-10 roster we have fans like you that still prefer the good ol' days.

You're right, we weren't the Patriots. Was that Smitty's fault? No it was not. It's not about mediocrity, there's nothing about Steve Smith that's mediocre. Our team was, but he stayed and signed extensions due to his loyalty. The loyalty should have been reciprocated. He could have gone elsewhere to a team with a better QB than Jimmy freakin Clausen and a better supporting cast than Gettis and LaDrops. He stayed, and my point is that he should have been rewarded for it. He should have been given the option to restructure. The bottom line is he deserved better than what Gettleman have him, which was a swift kick in the gonads.

Please tell me you didn't buy that "old guard" BS either. This was personal, and yes I'm speculating, but I believe it to be true. There's only one person on this board that could confirm or deny my suspicions and he runs the place. He may not even be privy to that info. I bet if he asked around to a few of his confidants on the team, I bet they'd say they wish they could say to Gettleman what he did. Gettleman is our GM, and he's done a fantastic job in almost everything he's done to this point. He really really F'd this Smitty situation up badly. There's really nothing anyone could say to me that would convince me otherwise. Just remember, Smitty deserved better. Smitty was fired up in that video, and he should be. I hope he breaks every single receiving record that stands in the NFL on week 4, but I hope we win by 1 point.

They're going to have to triple cover that man during week 4! Just wait and see

[lindseyj14]

holy poo LMFAO this arugment no no hun, you need to do some real math

 

We had more money than anyone on here will every admit this offseason, and we still have some to work with at this moment. Greg hardy being franchised was dumb, especially not understanding how our OL or WR corps would look like, but we still had enough money for Smith & Cam. Hardy probably won't be here next year, if he is it'll be a contract that wouldn't have conflicted much with Smith's current one, the one we're paying dead money to. Besides it was Gettleman's fault for not seeing Hardy's potentional and signing him before last season got underway, like many in the fanbase, and some in the media suggested. Such a great GM, he even managed to sign a lot of guys off the street last year to only single year deals, making this offseason much harder than it needed to be, but he learned his lesson this year and has finally started doing multi-year deals.

 

Just go over all the money on off season signings we've used this past off season.

 

 

tl:dr you're using a tired ass argument that doesn't hold water when you actually look at the numbers, but none of you dipshits will do that. you'll just grab your gettleman bible and read page after page or bullshit.

  

lol were paying smith to play in bal.....cam hasn't been extended and most likey won't until the end of the season..........hardy was tagged before smith was released.........so yeah

 

we could have kept him,olsen and got kb.........if smith truly was asked to take a pay cut and refused then this situation would make a whole lot of sense but that may not be the case

It's not about paying Smith this year. That wasn't an issue. Cutting him had nothing to do with this year and everything to do with 15/16 (which would've became fully guaranteed if he was kept this year). The problem was paying him over $25 million in 15/16 when he's 36/37 and Newton/Kuechly are due for extensions.

Why is that so hard for people to understand?

[KaKow]

And for all the talk about how we're so much better off without Smitty (which is basically just bullshit), you better hope that we don't waste KB's prime years like we wasted 89's.  Talking about failure to maximize the talent of a beast on the field in his prime. Hopefully those days are over.

 

You know it's going to happen.

 

Actually, I have an odd suspension that'll we'll end up dumping too much money on DL, ignoring OL, and putting the offense on the back of Cam & his new sidekick. Cam is going to have to start calling some shots if he ever wants to put up a top half offense.

[LUUUUUKE]

what if cutting smitty now meant we could afford both star and kk in the future?

What if we had given Smitty the option to restructure rather than throwing him out like yesterday's garbage?

you're probably thinking touché right now. There's no way anyone can quantify it. The best way to look at this whole scenario is this, because it's the most plausible explanation with this franchise's track record and it's this.

What if we got rid of Smitty now, to draft Kelvin Benjamin? Let's be honest with one another. If they would have kept Smitty, they likely wouldn't have taken a WR in the 1st round. Not with the CBs and Safeties that were still on the board.

If we got rid of Smitty to get KB then was it worth it? I say yes to that, even though my heart hurts admitting it. KB appears to be the future for us and a promising talent to say the least. I still can't help to think about KB and Smitty together though! My God, who would they double? I digress

[TheRumGone]

You know it's going to happen.

 

Actually, I have an odd suspension that'll we'll end up dumping too much money on DL, ignoring OL, and putting the offense on the back of Cam & his new sidekick. Cam is going to have to start calling some shots if he ever wants to put up a top half offense.

 

so in 2 years our new gm drafts a wr in the first round. and you somehow know he's not gonna add more talent because after 2 years you know so much

[Cpt slay a ho]

It's not about paying Smith this year. That wasn't an issue. Cutting him had nothing to do with this year and everything to do with 15/16 (which would've became fully guaranteed if he was kept this year). The problem was paying him over $25 million in 15/16 when he's 36/37 and Newton/Kuechly are due for extensions.

Why is that so hard for people to understand?

i stated if it's confirmed that smith wouldn't take a pay cut then yea this was only move to make but that is not the case

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[KaKow]

  

It's not about paying Smith this year. That wasn't an issue. Cutting him had nothing to do with this year and everything to do with 15/16 (which would've became fully guaranteed if he was kept this year). The problem was paying him over $25 million in 15/16 when he's 36/37 and Newton/Kuechly are due for extensions.

Why is that so hard for people to understand?

 

Because we still have to pay someone to play, and now pay him dead money as well. His production won't be replicated with cheap alternatives that in all only save us a bit of cash. Cam & Luke, and I guess you've given up on Hardy's contracts will probably be back loaded. The cap is going to rise quite a bit in the following years, and with Beason's and other contracts being dumped he was still a viable player for the money we were going to pay him. I know everyone here likes to laugh at his almost 900 yards or whatever last year as the only real option at WR, outside of our fuging TE Olsen, but he still put up those numbers with a Shula offense, while missing games because of injury. He and Benjamin, and Olsen would have made this team a fuging nightmare.

 

This is the problem, we went from a 12-4 team last year that SHOULD have beat the 49er's, and with only a few small pieces to being in Superbowl talk this year, to now possibly making the playoffs by the skin of our ass and even that being an unknown at this point.

[TheRumGone]

What if we had given Smitty the option to restructure rather than throwing him out like yesterday's garbage?

you're probably thinking touché right now. There's no way anyone can quantify it. The best way to look at this whole scenario is this, because it's the most plausible explanation with this franchise's track record and it's this.

What if we got rid of Smitty now, to draft Kelvin Benjamin? Let's be honest with one another. If they would have kept Smitty, they likely wouldn't have taken a WR in the 1st round. Not with the CBs and Safeties that were still on the board.

If we got rid of Smitty to get KB then was it worth it? I say yes to that, even though my heart hurts admitting it. KB appears to be the future for us and a promising talent to say the least. I still can't help to think about KB and Smitty together though! My God, who would they double? I digress

 

all these are hypotheticals we have no way of knowing.

 

we have a new GM. this isn't marty hurney

 

[Rockahype]

What rifts in team chemistry? If Cam needed smith gone to become a leader then cam will never be a leader. Cam and Luke have been leading this team before smiths releases.......Idk how smith could effect lukes leadership since he's on defense but cams the one calling the shots he showed that all last year

You're right, our owner, GM and head coach probably let the most loved player in Panthers history go for no real good reason at all.

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[top dawg]

Little confused how we wasted his prime years.  Care to elaborate?

 

Come on, man.  Smitty needed a true play maker at WR2 during his prime years which basically began once Moose went to the place where receivers die.  Sure Moose returned, but he had lost a step.  If we had made it our mission to get that play maker on the other side of Smitty when Smitty was still putting up those thousand yard seasons, then Smitty's talent could have been used more effectively, and the passing game wouldn't have been the broken-winged bird that it was for so many years (and arguably continues to be to this day).  We are not going to get that Lombardi with a WR1 and a bunch of WR3s and WR4s.  I don't give a poo how good our Tight End is.  We will always meet a superior force in the playoffs that is more well-rounded.  We have to get that other play maker on the field to take the pressure off Benjamin, much like we should have done with Smitty for several years---hell, most of his years here.

[KaKow]

all these are hypotheticals we have no way of knowing.

 

we have a new GM. this isn't marty hurney

 

 

He's not that far off. Good first round pick, meh mid round, and poo late rounders. His management style might be getting us out of cap hell, but really he's kind of keeping us there. I mean he did franchise Greg Hardy, cash strapping us this year, sound familiar? He hasn't yet given out a large contract, but he will soon, and we'll know if he's better than Hurney then. This whole "12-4, 12-4" talk is rubbish as the players that got us there was Hurneys picks, with the addition of Star, who Hurney would have more than likely drafted. Short was a good call, no question, but the rest were a dumbster fire as usual.

 

As for him not drafting more WR talent, OL talk. I'm looking at where the Gmen are right now, and it looks like overpaying some positions, depleting others didn't get them too far.

[Cpt slay a ho]

You're right, our owner, GM and head coach probably let the most loved player in Panthers history go for no real good reason at all.

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Pretty sure jerry and Rivera had no say in the issue, dg has the keys

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[lindseyj14]

What if we had given Smitty the option to restructure rather than throwing him out like yesterday's garbage?

you're probably thinking touché right now. There's no way anyone can quantify it. The best way to look at this whole scenario is this, because it's the most plausible explanation with this franchise's track record and it's this.

What if we got rid of Smitty now, to draft Kelvin Benjamin? Let's be honest with one another. If they would have kept Smitty, they likely wouldn't have taken a WR in the 1st round. Not with the CBs and Safeties that were still on the board.

If we got rid of Smitty to get KB then was it worth it? I say yes to that, even though my heart hurts admitting it. KB appears to be the future for us and a promising talent to say the least. I still can't help to think about KB and Smitty together though! My God, who would they double? I digress

About a week before he was cut, Steve was on WFNZ and laughed when asked if he'd take a pay cut. Steve said he'd already restructured once and he wouldn't take a cut on his current deal under any circumstance.

If you think Dave cut him without so much as giving him or his agent at the least a heads up (as they suggested) then you're a gullible person and blinded by homerism. I bet you bought his sob story about how he wasn't even asked to restructure (just days after he laughed at the idea of a pay cut).

Dave called his bluff. Steve lost.

[Rockahype]

Pretty sure jerry and Rivera had no say in the issue, dg has the keys

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You and DG are tight like that huh?

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