It's becoming very clear to me

[Johnny Rockets]

Gettleman has clearly stated that his first and foremost responsibility is to fix the salary cap.  That way they can be in a position to attract talent and also sign guys like Cam and Keuchly to long term deals. He said as early as this year he hopes to be put in that position within TWO YEARS. 

 

When they got an extra 5 million in cap space this year from what they expected he had no intention of spending it and in fact said:

 

"The best analogy I can use is the credit card,'' Gettleman said. "You've maxed out your cards, you paid part of it down, then all of a sudden you get a bonus. What's the smart thing to do? The smart thing is to pay the credit card off, not max it out again. 

 

I understand fans want to win now because expectations were elevated with the 12-4 season last year but whether the Panthers went 12-4 or 4-12, Gettleman's plan was not going to change.  The plan to field a consistent winning team is a long term plan and many fans won't accept that because we now live in a world of instant gratification. 

[Mr. Scot]

funny how it seemed like a good majority of the people realized a long time ago there would be a pretty significant drop off from last year. now that it is happening, yes at an alarming rate, but there are people acting all surprised.

 

You know, if it were as simple as a step back, if it were just losing games, I wouldn't be that upset.

 

But we're losing games in an embarrassing fashion and seeing loads of evidence of locker room / behind the scenes dysfunction.

 

Lose games but handle the adversity well?  You're good.

 

Lose games and have the kind of circus we're seeing?  Unless you're Rex Ryan, you're gone.

[Peppers90 NC]

How much dead money are we talking?

im not one to speculate but it cant possibly even be close to half of what we had this year. i am including Hardy though this year in that number along with Gross, Beason, Smith and now Godfrey. it depends who else we drop, i would imagine Deangelo would be one guy but who knows who else.

[Mr. Scot]

Gettleman has clearly stated that his first and foremost responsibility is to fix the salary cap.  That way they can be in a position to attract talent and also sign guys like Cam and Keuchly to long term deals. He said as early as this year he hopes to be put in that position within TWO YEARS. 

 

When they got an extra 5 million in cap space this year from what they expected he had no intention of spending it and in fact said:

 

"The best analogy I can use is the credit card,'' Gettleman said. "You've maxed out your cards, you paid part of it down, then all of a sudden you get a bonus. What's the smart thing to do? The smart thing is to pay the credit card off, not max it out again. 

 

I understand fans want to win now because expectations were elevated with the 12-4 season last year but whether the Panthers went 12-4 or 4-12, Gettleman's plan was not going to change.  The plan to field a consistent winning team is a long term plan and many fans won't accept that because we now live in a world of instant gratification. 

 

Logic doesn't apply here, JR.

[Galvatron]

I think it's going to be a looooong offseason

 

...especially since it's kinda almost started already.

[Bj-Monster23]

You know, if it were as simple as a step back, if it were just losing games, I wouldn't be that upset.

But we're losing games in an embarrassing fashion and seeing loads of evidence of locker room / behind the scenes dysfunction.

Lose games but handle the adversity well? You're good.

Lose games and have the kind of circus we're seeing? Unless you're Rex Ryan, you're gone.

This is the problem that I have. We are not just losing but we are getting blown out half of the time. At least in 2010 we knew what we was working with and we knew things wasn't going to be good. But at this point in this season the team has completely regressed offensively and defensively. At the end of the day I don't think Rivera getting six wins will save his job this time. The entire coaching staff needs to go before they completely ruin Cam's development.

Sent from my iPhone using CarolinaHuddle

[Johnny Rockets]

Logic doesn't apply here, JR.

 

 

I hate to even say it this way and it won't sound logical to most but the biggest priority was not to win this year, it was to build on creating an organization that can sustain winning year after year and that will take time. That is something this organization has lacked since it's inception. 

 

Winning this year would have been a bonus just as it was last year and will probably be next year as well. Gettleman has stated his strategy since the day he walked in the door and has never waivered from that to my knowledge. 

 

Gettleman knows this will piss of a lot of the fans and even many of the players along the way, but he is doing what he feels is in the best interest of the organization and that is what he was brought in here to do. 

[Johnny Rockets]

You know, if it were as simple as a step back, if it were just losing games, I wouldn't be that upset.

 

But we're losing games in an embarrassing fashion and seeing loads of evidence of locker room / behind the scenes dysfunction.

 

Lose games but handle the adversity well?  You're good.

 

Lose games and have the kind of circus we're seeing?  Unless you're Rex Ryan, you're gone.

 

 

Couldn't agree more. It's not the losing that people should be concerned over, it's the way they are losing and the dysfunction that is coming with it. 

 

That needs to be addressed. 

[Mr. Scot]

I hate to even say it this way and it won't sound logical to most but the biggest priority was not to win this year, it was to build on creating an organization that can sustain winning year after year and that will take time. That is something this organization has lacked since it's inception. 

 

Winning this year would have been a bonus just as it was last year and will probably be next year as well. Gettleman has stated his strategy since the day he walked in the door and has never waivered from that to my knowledge. 

 

Gettleman knows this will piss of a lot of the fans and even many of the players along the way, but he is doing what he feels is in the best interest of the organization and that is what he was brought in here to do. 

 

I think that could have applied last year too.

 

But lo and behold, we won.

 

[LUUUUUKE]

I hate to even say it this way and it won't sound logical to most but the biggest priority was not to win this year, it was to build on creating an organization that can sustain winning year after year and that will take time. That is something this organization has lacked since it's inception.

Winning this year would have been a bonus just as it was last year and will probably be next year as well. Gettleman has stated his strategy since the day he walked in the door and has never waivered from that to my knowledge.

Gettleman knows this will piss of a lot of the fans and even many of the players along the way, but he is doing what he feels is in the best interest of the organization and that is what he was brought in here to do.

Okay, I see your point. Still though, he had a chance to have back to back winning seasons (never been done in franchise history) and a chance to win the Division (also never been done in the history of the Division)

I'd say that's the correct way to build a consistent winner

[Towelboy]

I hate to even say it this way and it won't sound logical to most but the biggest priority was not to win this year, it was to build on creating an organization that can sustain winning year after year and that will take time. That is something this organization has lacked since it's inception. 

 

Winning this year would have been a bonus just as it was last year and will probably be next year as well. Gettleman has stated his strategy since the day he walked in the door and has never waivered from that to my knowledge. 

 

Gettleman knows this will piss of a lot of the fans and even many of the players along the way, but he is doing what he feels is in the best interest of the organization and that is what he was brought in here to do. 

 

We've begged for years for consistency. And I agree, Gettleman is doing what he thinks needs to be done to field a winner for the future. What fans don't get is that we may have to suffer through a couple bad seasons in order to build a winner for years to come. We can get mad all we want, but I think this plan is solid and has Richardson's approval. It wouldn't surprise me if we keep Rivera around through the process. What other coach could be lured in with a plan of "we're going to play our current guys and cheap fill ins until the old, bad contracts expire?"

 

Also, don't be surprised if we tell Kalil and CJ to take less money or walk. We might field an offensive line of 2-3 rookies and the cast offs we have now. Our D-Line might be Ealy, Star, KK, and Addison with 1 year contract stop gap veteran minimum guys rotating in. This is what we have guys. This year and next might be the most painful Panthers seasons of their 20 year existence. If we can ride it out and see it through, we might actually have consistency in the years to come.

 

We have good, young talent (Luke, Benji, Norman, Cam, Star, KK) and if Richardson allows Gettleman to stick to his plan, we might look back and compare them to the days of Smitty, Moose, Gross, DLo, Jenkins, and Pep. 

[LUUUUUKE]

We've begged for years for consistency. And I agree, Gettleman is doing what he thinks needs to be done to field a winner for the future. What fans don't get is that we may have to suffer through a couple bad seasons in order to build a winner for years to come. We can get mad all we want, but I think this plan is solid and has Richardson's approval. It wouldn't surprise me if we keep Rivera around through the process. What other coach could be lured in with a plan of "we're going to play our current guys and cheap fill ins until the old, bad contracts expire?"

Also, don't be surprised if we tell Kalil and CJ to take less money or walk. We might field an offensive line of 2-3 rookies and the cast offs we have now. Our D-Line might be Ealy, Star, KK, and Addison with 1 year contract stop gap veteran minimum guys rotating in. This is what we have guys. This year and next might be the most painful Panthers seasons of their 20 year existence. If we can ride it out and see it through, we might actually have consistency in the years to come.

We have good, young talent (Luke, Benji, Norman, Cam, Star, KK) and if Richardson allows Gettleman to stick to his plan, we might look back and compare them to the days of Smitty, Moose, Gross, DLo, Jenkins, and Pep.

It could be argued that we have the talent to be consistent now. I would strongly disagree, but I think if we had a different offensive coordinator and a decent line we could be a hell of a lot better.

How do u explain the tension of Shula?

[gettlemanjack]

I'm not the most homer of fans, but I think it's a bit silly how people are throwing around all of the conspiracy theories ... The conspiracy stuff doesn't fly though.

basically it was either done on purpose or by incompetence. Reasons it could have been done on purpose are: On top of being saddled with bad contracts, we weren't in a position to build a Super Bowl contender like Denver and New England, so tank the season to:

1) get better draft picks to make us stronger for the future

2) drive down the value of our core guys so we don't have to spend as much on them when their contracts are up, giving us more money for the future so we can get even more talent

A few years from now, we will have Cam, KB, Luke, Star, Short, Ealy, Turner, etc in their primes. If we have them signed to very reasonable Panther-friendly contacts (like the Patriots often do) and we have stock-piled draft picks (like the Patriots do), then we will be in position to assemble an annual Super Bowl contender (like the Patriots do) with an aged 28-29 Cam at the helm

[tailg8or]

LUUUUUKE, you are assuming that our front office actually has a plan that is working.  You're giving them way more credit than they deserve.  Their plan was ... well ... already on the roster and only the homers bought into it.  What's clear is that their plan blew up and once again we question ... what were they thinking?