Bill Barnwell's 5 offseason moves Panthers need to make

[TheSpecialJuan]

1. Stick the franchise tag on Josh Norman. "Hold onto Josh Norman" isn't exactly next-level analysis, to be fair, but sometimes the obvious moves make sense, too. Norman emerged as one of the league's best cornerbacks this season, and the Panthers can't let him leave town. Franchising Norman would lock him up for 2016 at somewhere around $14 million (since the franchise-tag figures haven't yet been determined) and give Carolina general manager Dave Gettleman time to negotiate a longer-term deal with his star corner.

2. Move on from Jared Allen. The Panthers head into 2016 with more cap room than they've ever enjoyed during Gettleman's successful reign -- $21.3 million, if you use the $154 million estimate -- but Norman's deal will wipe away much of that space. They acquired Allen from the Bears to help deliver a pass rush in the absence of Charles Johnson, but it was never likely that the Panthers expected to hold onto Allen for the 2016 campaign. Carolina would save $8.5 million by cutting the 33-year-old edge rusher, who accrued just two sacks in 12 games for Sean McDermott's defense.

3. Lock up Kawann Short. One of the most dominant players we saw this postseason, Short has become a devastating interior pass-rusher and a critical member of Carolina's suffocating defense. He played 69 percent of the Panthers' defensive snaps last year -- notable given that no one else on the defensive line was up above 59 percent -- and led the team with 11 sacks and 18 quarterback knockdowns. With Short entering the final year of his rookie deal, Gettleman will need to look at Geno Atkins's five-year, $53 million deal as a baseline for getting an extension done for his star defensive tackle.

4. Rework Charles Johnson's deal. Former GM Marty Hurney gave Johnson a six-year, $76 million deal before the 2011 season to keep Johnson off the free-agent market. Since then, Johnson has produced 42 sacks in 70 games, an average of 9.6 sacks per 16 games. Not bad, of course, but for the defensive end with the third-largest cap hit in all of football, that's not good enough. With the 29-year-old Johnson entering the final year of his contract, the Panthers should be able to convince their long-time edge rusher to take a pay cut as part of a contract extension that would keep him in Carolina for years to come.

5. Find a replacement for Roman Harper. When you go 15-1 and make the Super Bowl, you don't need to ring in too many changes. One place coach Ron Rivera will likely make a change is at strong safety, where 33-year-old Harper is an unrestricted free agent and on the wrong side of his career. It's a very strong market for safeties this year, but unfortunately for Carolina, many of the better candidates are free safeties; the Panthers are already set at that position with Kurt Coleman. Gettleman loves a reclamation project, so it wouldn't be a surprise to see Carolina opt for the aforementioned William Moore or Kansas City's Tyvon Branch to compete with 2014 fourth-rounder Tre Boston for the starting job.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/14777459/five-moves-bucs-falcons-panthers-saints-make-offseason-nfl

[PanthersGOATFan336]

Why do they need to be set with Coleman? He was very suspect minus the interceptions...competition for EVERYBODY!

[ShutDwn]

5 minutes ago, PanthersGOATFan336 said:

Why do they need to be set with Coleman? He was very suspect minus the interceptions...competition for EVERYBODY!

Minus the good plays he really sucked

[Semaj]

Pretty spot on.  I agree with this  As we all now know Allen is gone.  Reworking  Johnson's contract is a no-brainer.  That being said, it needs to be at a much better cost or we would be best moving on altogether.  

[davideinstein]

Good insight.

[Hotsauce]

49 minutes ago, TheSpecialJuan said:

1. Stick the franchise tag on Josh Norman. "Hold onto Josh Norman" isn't exactly next-level analysis, to be fair, but sometimes the obvious moves make sense, too. Norman emerged as one of the league's best cornerbacks this season, and the Panthers can't let him leave town. Franchising Norman would lock him up for 2016 at somewhere around $14 million (since the franchise-tag figures haven't yet been determined) and give Carolina general manager Dave Gettleman time to negotiate a longer-term deal with his star corner.

2. Move on from Jared Allen. The Panthers head into 2016 with more cap room than they've ever enjoyed during Gettleman's successful reign -- $21.3 million, if you use the $154 million estimate -- but Norman's deal will wipe away much of that space. They acquired Allen from the Bears to help deliver a pass rush in the absence of Charles Johnson, but it was never likely that the Panthers expected to hold onto Allen for the 2016 campaign. Carolina would save $8.5 million by cutting the 33-year-old edge rusher, who accrued just two sacks in 12 games for Sean McDermott's defense.

3. Lock up Kawann Short. One of the most dominant players we saw this postseason, Short has become a devastating interior pass-rusher and a critical member of Carolina's suffocating defense. He played 69 percent of the Panthers' defensive snaps last year -- notable given that no one else on the defensive line was up above 59 percent -- and led the team with 11 sacks and 18 quarterback knockdowns. With Short entering the final year of his rookie deal, Gettleman will need to look at Geno Atkins's five-year, $53 million deal as a baseline for getting an extension done for his star defensive tackle.

4. Rework Charles Johnson's deal. Former GM Marty Hurney gave Johnson a six-year, $76 million deal before the 2011 season to keep Johnson off the free-agent market. Since then, Johnson has produced 42 sacks in 70 games, an average of 9.6 sacks per 16 games. Not bad, of course, but for the defensive end with the third-largest cap hit in all of football, that's not good enough. With the 29-year-old Johnson entering the final year of his contract, the Panthers should be able to convince their long-time edge rusher to take a pay cut as part of a contract extension that would keep him in Carolina for years to come.

5. Find a replacement for Roman Harper. When you go 15-1 and make the Super Bowl, you don't need to ring in too many changes. One place coach Ron Rivera will likely make a change is at strong safety, where 33-year-old Harper is an unrestricted free agent and on the wrong side of his career. It's a very strong market for safeties this year, but unfortunately for Carolina, many of the better candidates are free safeties; the Panthers are already set at that position with Kurt Coleman. Gettleman loves a reclamation project, so it wouldn't be a surprise to see Carolina opt for the aforementioned William Moore or Kansas City's Tyvon Branch to compete with 2014 fourth-rounder Tre Boston for the starting job.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/14777459/five-moves-bucs-falcons-panthers-saints-make-offseason-nfl

Cut Allen huh?

well his is retired so we should be good

[KSpan]

I think Coleman would be a solid SS anyway, and that was where he projected to play when Gettleman signed him. Wouldn't be surprised to see Coleman make the move, and if a bigger-name safety was signed it be an FS.

[Doc Holiday]

Short still under contract for next year. would be nice to lock him up long term but not necessary for this offseason.

[TheSpecialJuan]

I think Gettleman will cut Charles Johnson outright and re-work Ryan Kalil's deal.

[MHS831]

7 minutes ago, TheSpecialJuan said:

I think Gettleman will cut Charles Johnson outright and re-work Ryan Kalil's deal.

He could save $11m by cutting CJ.

However, the $4m dead money would hurt--if we rework his deal--a three year deal around $18m, Keeping CJ this year would only cost the Panthers an additional $2m if you look at it that way.   Curse you, Marty Hurney.

[Ship]

not super excited about CJ getting reworked because i don't think him and Kony co-exist on the D-line very well. they both play better on the same side. i guess it all depends on how the office sees CJ's health. he could just as easily come back next year and play out of his mind. or he can continue to turn into an overpriced back up until he gets cut next year.

[ItsNotGonnaBeAlright]

I'm sticking to CJ being gone unless proven otherwise.

Tagging Norman is probably the biggest no-brainer of the offseason, but we'll see.

Locking up KK would be nice, but not ultra important. I'd like to see it happen though.

Allen was probably gone no matter what. Would have been nice to see him take a pay cut for a final run, but that ain't happening now.

I think the secondary gets much more work than the article suggests.

 

[Kuech the Sneak]

I want CJ to get reworked, don't wanna rely on a rookie  starting opposite kony. Maybe grab another vet DE to add to the rotation

[KB_fan]

1 hour ago, ItsNotGonnaBeAlright said:

Locking up KK would be nice, but not ultra important. I'd like to see it happen though

We've got some time to make this happen.... August would be fine, once we know what we're working with in terms of our roster for this season.

By getting him signed this offseason, you avoid having the pressure of a tag and pending free agency this time next year.   I assume G'man will get it done.  He's been planning for this.

 

It was also interesting reading Barnwell's thoughts on what our NFC South rivals should/will do.

Atlanta: 

1. Cut Roddy White and Devin Hester.  

Boy, wouldn't that be nice not to have to worry about the thread of Hester on returns.

5. Trade for Kam Chancellor.

Seriously?  Wouldn't really want Kam in Atlanta, though we seem to play Seattle just as often as our NFC south foes!  But, as the article notes, as good as Kam is, he struggles against Greg Olsen, so even if Quinn wants one of his former star players from Seattle, we could deal with it. 

 

Saints:

2. Release Brandon Browner and Marques Colston.

Will be sad to see Browner gone.  There goes lots of free penalty yards!

 

Tampa:

Quote

4. Target a No. 1 pass-rusher.

Barnwell suggests they could go after Mario or Vernon.

Ugh.  Don't really want either of them to go to a division rival.

 

Quote

5. Target a No. 2 pass-rusher. No, really. Let's not stop there. The Bucs should be in the market for whatever they can find. Bring Jason Pierre-Paul back to Florida. Go after Tamba Hali. Take a shot on a rotational edge rusher like Wallace Gilberry. Forget the No. 1/No. 2 ordering. Just try to sign them all. Offer the Broncos your pirate ship to let Von Miller leave. The Buccaneers were 26th in pass defense DVOA last year; team up a couple of viable edge rushers with Gerald McCoy and Lavonte David, and this could be a very good defense very quickly.

Seriously, let's hope the Bucs front office doesn't read Barnwell....!  The thought of Von Miller in Tampa is like a bad nightmare....  But I don't think it has a chance of happening.