Carolina Panthers Top 3 Offseason Priorities

[Proudiddy]

Again, not questioning Gettleman, and i agree with all 3 points, but aside from retaining Josh, WR and tackle are the number one priorities in my mind.  I feel like DE, S, and RB have to be addressed to, but i think those are better addressed through FA (and most likely will be cheaper than a FA WR or T).

[pantherfan49]

OT, DE, and 2nd CB.  Those should be your first picks. 

Edited February 11, 2016 by pantherfan49

[panthers1234]

14 hours ago, LawCat said:

Seems like it would be in everyone's best interest if JNo signs a 4 year deal here for a hometown discount, that pays him $9-10 Million a year. We get him for a relative bargain and he gets financial security. If we end up tagging him...sure he gets $14 Million but with no other guarantee. Maybe he has a sub par year, maybe he gets hurt. He will also be going on 30 this time next year, will other teams be willing to pay shell out top flight CB money to a 30 year old CB? I think Revis was about 30 when he got his last deal...but will JNo really command Revis money?

I trust your sources just thinking out loud.

There is no chance this is happening. His value is around 14-15mil per year and your asking him to take 9-10 mil and lock it up for 4 years. Why would he take a 30% pay cut when he has made relatively no money. This is his ONLY window to cash out BIG. He missed out from 23-27 to get his first big paycheck. 

[panthers1234]

We are at that point where we are running out of money by signing all our great draft picks. We spent a ton of Cam, Luke, TD, Olsen. From the upcoming picks we gotta sign KK, Star, Josh, KB. Josh is probably on the bottom of that list due to age and positional importance. CB is probably one of the lower priority defensive positions. Pass Rush >>> Pass coverage

[CatalystNX]

Jeremy, what do you think the chances are of DG actually putting some decent money into a pass rusher in free agency? Seems to go against the model he's established thusfar.

[Doc Holiday]

17 hours ago, Jeremy Igo said:

Now that the Carolina Panthers offseason has begun, it is time to look ahead to the team's priorities. 

 

1. Josh Norman will receive the franchise tag paying him 14 million.

 

Also Short is apparently playing for peanuts next year, any idea on the likelihood that he signs long term??

Over the cap has him listed as $1.4M for 2016-17 season, and Star is listed right at $3M, I think Star is more likely of the two to continue to play out their rookie deals but you think we could do something better for Short

http://overthecap.com/salary-cap/carolina-panthers

 

[KSpan]

5 hours ago, CatalystNX said:

Jeremy, what do you think the chances are of DG actually putting some decent money into a pass rusher in free agency? Seems to go against the model he's established thusfar.

Ignoring that his overall approach seems to be to avoid huge-money FAs, if he was going to do that at any position DE sure seems like the best match.

[CatalystNX]

I wonder if Mario Williams would be willing to sign a 1 or 2 year deal (relatively) team-friendly in order to have a shot at a championship late in his career?

[KSpan]

53 minutes ago, bull123 said:

J Stew is a huge problem....injured way to much (first play of Super Bowl??)....totally unreliable and taking up too much cap $$....got to get another option here

Stew had 242 carries for just under 1000 yards before getting hurt in Week 15, followed by another 50 carries for 220 yards throughout the playoffs. While Carolina definitely needs to look at upgrading the 2nd RB situation to lighten his load, Stewart is a perfect match for this offense and held up well this year.

Is he overpriced compared to market? Probably, but IMO he earned his money grinding out very hard yards in this offense. Can Carolina just go out and replace him? Another question entirely, as he blocks relatively well, runs very hard, and is skilled in option looks.

[Fan01]

I think Jeremy is hearing from everything that Josh will be tagged because that is exactly what Gettleman wants out there. 

There are two ways I can see his thinking going on this.

1 - Ideally, he's love to have Josh under a 3 or 4 year deal and will use the leverage of Josh's age and the franchise tag to get the best long term deal possible.  If Josh wants to break the bank then there's no choice but to franchise him.

2 - Gettleman really does only want to franchise Josh for one year because he doesn't believe in paying conners big money long term.  His approach to football is to put the bulk of your money in the d-line, into the Hog mollies.  So, expect to see Short get a huge deal.  I don't think he'll break the bank on a FA d-lineman but he wants to have that money available for when we need to sign Short, Star, Ealy and whomever other dlinemen he finds in the draft. 

 

As to RB, I'm not sold that the answer isn't already on the Roster.  CAP and Wegher have shown great flashes and are only rookies.  They were behind a probowl RB, a great short yardage and valued guy in Tolbert along with Fozzy who excelled at blocking.  The fact that they never even tried to put Wegher on the practice squad tells me they see real future potential in him. 

[MechaZain]

These guys are super bowl contenders and like brothers so I don't think a small discount on a 3 year deal for Josh or so is out of the question. I could see sign and trade demands maybe if we hadn't done so well.

I'd be shocked if a CAP or Wegher level RB even falls our way.

Edited February 11, 2016 by MechaZain

[KB_fan]

9 hours ago, CatalystNX said:

Jeremy, what do you think the chances are of DG actually putting some decent money into a pass rusher in free agency? Seems to go against the model he's established thusfar.

 

4 hours ago, KSpan said:

Ignoring that his overall approach seems to be to avoid huge-money FAs, if he was going to do that at any position DE sure seems like the best match.

As I looked carefully at the DE situation today, I was a bit surprised to see in black and white just how much turnover we could potentially have at that position.  It has really rocketed up the list in my mind to be quite a critical area.  Here's what I posted about the DE position in the "2016 Roster Building" thread a little while ago:

DLine:

DE is a REALLY BIG Need with 3-4 DEs questionable as to whether they'll return.

Assume Ealy starts.  We don't clearly have a starter on the other side. 

• Alexander isn't eligible for anything until late November.  He's not on the 2016 roster.
• Ron hinted Allen had an "announcement" about his status.  He once talked about offseason surgery... maybe he'll retire.
• Horton was waived twice & demoted to the practice squad in the wake of his 4 week suspension, and unlike all but 1 other PS player, he has not been announced as receiving a futures contract.  We may decide we need to keep him, but there's a definite question re: his status.
• Johnson:  Obviously there's the huge problem of his contract.  His play has also declined sharply.  Will he accept being a rotational player and not a starter?  50-50 in my mind whether we keep him.
• Miley & Cox are both pretty unproven... showed some flashes in preseason, but almost certainly would not be ready to start yet.  Webster is a total unknown, at least to me.

With just Ealy, Addison and Delaire in the rotation (along with newly acquired players)  we wouldn't have much strength against the run.  That suggests we might keep CJ and/or Horton, but CJ's cap hit is monstrous and MUST come down, so he's still quite a question mark for me.  

Another veteran strong pass rusher to start opposite Ealy is my #1 priority in the offseason.  We're NOT going to find a solid starting DE in the draft...

[mwright350]

Can we just bury (or at least partially cover with dirt) the Stew isn't reliable and won't make it through a season narrative?  He was a workhorse for us this year and an important part of our very good offense.  At the end of the season when he had some dings he sat out some time where he probably would have played if our record wasn't as good as it was.

I'm 100% with needing to address the future of the position (especially if they don't think CAP is the future of that position) but the statements made by some I don't want to dignify with a "you got quoted" notification that he's a huge problem are so far off base I'm not sure they're in the same ballpark as said base.  

[TheNewStandard]

3 minutes ago, mwright350 said:

Can we just bury (or at least partially cover with dirt) the Stew isn't reliable and won't make it through a season narrative?  He was a workhorse for us this year and an important part of our very good offense.  At the end of the season when he had some dings he sat out some time where he probably would have played if our record wasn't as good as it was.

I'm 100% with needing to address the future of the position (especially if they don't think CAP is the future of that position) but the statements made by some I don't want to dignify with a "you got quoted" notification that he's a huge problem are so far off base I'm not sure they're in the same ballpark as said base.  

There's little doubt that Stewart spearheaded our offensive rushing attack and because he's missed so much time over the years, due to injury, I feel he's still got some decent tread on those tires. 

Having stated that, he's gonna be gone after next season regardless and we need a feature back that is as diverse as our play calling demands. Wether the answer is on our roster or not is the big question and this draft would be the optimal draft to get that feature back that we need. 

I still think there's plenty of room to improve on our OL, DB and at DE. DB especially needs upgrades across the board.