Free agency not the draft will be the key this off season

[panthers1234]

We need the pass rush of 2014 again. Denver killed Cam with pass rush. We need that pass rush. Defense wins championships. I want DEs

[Zaximus]

10 hours ago, ncfan said:

Just like every other offseason everyone doubting Gettleman after he's proven people wrong.  People want to say sign Jeffery sign Mario. This isn't freaking Madden.  Jeffery is going to get some Huge deal.  We sign him kiss any idea of signing Kk or Norman extension goodbye.  We've got a core of players that just made the Super Bowl just 3 pleated the south and some people on here want to throw money out Hurney style.

KB is coming off an ACL tear.  Plenty of young guys come back strong from it. This  isn't 10 years ago where it was a career ended.  TD's torn it 3 times.  Gurley tore it as a Big RB and had a awesome year.  

Yeah and what happened in the superbowl?  WR core got exposed and O-line got exposed.   We should shoot for the superbowl.

Plenty come back from ACL, but plenty don't.  KB was also not consistent when he was here, granted he was a rookie, he had a ton of drops that year and half of his stats were in garbage time.  You keep getting better and you don't feel good about anything, ever.  Jeffery may command a good bit, but he may help us to play in the Carolinas.  He's from here.  He may not.  It's something we SHOULD look at.  Teams win with free agents AND drafted players.

Denver showed you that.   Seattle showed you this.   You don't buy EVERYONE but a smartly placed signing can push you over the top.  When Jeffery's deal runs out, KB would be up for one, and then you can figure out what to do.

And you are wrong, you can sign Short and Norman even with signing Jeffery.   Short has another year before he has to be signed anyway so you can front load one of them.   If a team wants someone, they usually can do it, especially with 30 mill or something in cap space.  

[SetfreexX]

Ya'll do realize Norman, Short, and Lotulelei's contracts are coming up this year and next...

[Untouchable]

How about Quinton Coples as a low cost DE in FA? Miscast in jets 3-4. Got very little paying time in Miami after release last year and won't be back there.  Maybe Alan Ball for a cheap CB too. Carolina was interested last year but he took more money in Chicago and didn't perform well along with the rest of that team. Both seems to be the Gettleman mold for FAs so far. 

[AceMan]

5 minutes ago, Untouchable said:

How about Quinton Coples as a low cost DE in FA? Miscast in jets 3-4. Got very little paying time in Miami after release last year and won't be back there.  Maybe Alan Ball for a cheap CB too. Carolina was interested last year but he took more money in Chicago and didn't perform well along with the rest of that team. Both seems to be the Gettleman mold for FAs so far. 

Now that's someone I totally forgot about.  Would be a very underrated signing IMO.

[AU-panther]

On 2/8/2016 at 3:12 PM, GoobyPls said:

its time to start cashing over money in free agency and stop dollar store shopping.

 

Lets look at the last 4 SB winners, Broncos built almost entirely through FA, Patriots brought in Revis, Browner and Amendola, Seahawks brought in Harvin, Bennett and Avril, Ravens had Boldin.

 

We can't rely on and expect rookies to come in and contribute right away on a Superbowl caliber team.

I'm not saying we shouldn't or won't sign any of the bigger free agents this summer but you just can't compare the number of free agents brought in from other teams.  What about your own players that were resigned?

I agree that Denver has done a really nice job in free agency but how many of their own players did they resign or extend over that time.

Is adding a free agent from another team really any different then giving someone like TD an extension.  

There are only so many big contracts on a team at any given time.  The team handed out several of them 5-6 years ago with guys like CJ, Kalil, and Stewart.  Recently we have extended guys like Olsen and TD.  Also Cam and Luke have received huge deals last year.

Here are top 10 2015 cap hits  for the Broncos and Panthers according to overthecap.com

1. 20     17.5       
2. 13     13.2
3. 11      9.8
4. 8.3     8.7
5. 7.7     7.5
6. 6.7     7
7. 6.3     6.3
8. 3.4     5.9
9. 3.1     3.3
10. 2.6     3

As you can see we are spending just as much on "big time players".

Like I said earlier I'm not saying we shouldn't sign anyone this year but you have to look at the entire picture.  At times you have to decide whether you want to resign your own player or someone from another team.

Can we afford to resign Norman this year?  of course 

Can we afford to resign Norman and sign an upper tier free agent this year? I think so

Can we afford to sign Norman, a FA, and give an extension to Short next year?  probably

Can we do all of the above and sign Star, Turner, and KB in the future?  Maybe not

If you overspend one year you can back yourself into a corner where you have to release players later just to create cap space.  This creates dead money which decreases your effective cap space.  Over the last 3 years in total we have probably had 40-50 million in dead money counting towards our cap.  If we would have been fiscally more responsible 5-6 years ago we might have had an extra 20 million in cap space this year.  

Either way it should be an interesting off season.  This is the most cap space he has had yet.  Also there are several players that he can cut to create more if he wants to go after someone in free agency.