PFF Panthers free agency preview

[hepcat]

Kalil made that announcement that he's retiring in 2018 knowing that Hurney will be the GM next year and won't cut him or change his salary. So y'all can most likely drop the idea that he's getting cut or restructuring his deal.

[LinvilleGorge]

10 minutes ago, mc52beast said:

No chances Worley could become a serviceable safety?

I'm all for it. Even made a thread about it. I've just seen no indication that the coaching staff is even considering this as a potential option.

[LinvilleGorge]

44 minutes ago, MHS831 said:

Where did you get that number for Lawrence?    Seems low to me...

It's way low. Olivier Vernon signed for 5 years for $85M last offseason with $40.5M guaranteed at signing and $52.5M in total guarantees. His cap hit this season was $13M. 

That'll probably be where Lawrence's agents will want to start their talks. They're gonna want to cash in on those 14.5 sacks this year. Personally, I'd stay far away from the injury prone one year wonder.

[KDawg004]

Yeah, I don’t see Kalil getting cut out of respect. Lawrence is definitely going to get paid. Dallas is also struggling to find pass rushers. I think they’ll find a way to franchise him. Same with Ansah. I’m holding out hope Seattle cuts Michael Bennett and we can sign him to a cheaper contract than the aforementioned.

[grimesgoat]

1 hour ago, Pantha-kun said:

20 M is before potentially resigning anyone like Peppers, Gano, DA, Norwell, or Star too. 

Look at it this way though, we could cut Stewart, Charles Johnson , Shepard , Fozzy or Cap, (all these are very obvious cuts to me if I were GM) and suddenly we're sitting on 37 mil instead of 20. Id bring back Peppers and gano back on cheap deals and have 30 mil left to spend on FA is not too bad. Thats enough to get even a couple big paydays out, or spend wisely (more likely) and fill alot of holes in fa before the draft. Id do something like : 

• Name	Position	Cap Hit
  Julius Peppers	EDGE	2,400,000
  Graham Gano	K	3,200,000
  Mike Wallace	WR	4,500,000
  Morris Claiborne	CB	2,800,000
  Calvin Pryor	S	2,800,000
  Demarcus Lawrence	EDGE	9,800,000

• Cutting those guys only nets additional cap of about 10m.
• Peppers at 2.4m after making 4m last year and getting 11 sacks.  Good luck with that.
• Over the Cap has TD cap hit at around 5m while Sportrac has the hit around 10m.  Anyone know which one is correct?  Its the difference between starting with 15m in cap vs. 20m in cap.
• Also, we need to save some room for the draft picks.

[KDawg004]

19 minutes ago, grimesgoat said:

• Cutting those guys only nets additional cap of about 10m.
• Peppers at 2.4m after making 4m last year and getting 11 sacks.  Good luck with that.
• Over the Cap has TD cap hit at around 5m while Sportrac has the hit around 10m.  Anyone know which one is correct?  Its the difference between starting with 15m in cap vs. 20m in cap.
• Also, we need to save some room for the draft picks.

I would think TD’s cap hit is $10M after the whole ordeal with his contract. Correct me if I’m wrong but it was Hurney that solved the issue. Enough said about that.

I believe we have to save $5M or so for draft picks too. So we’re probably starting with $10M or $15M depending on which figure is right without signings or cuts. Yikes.

[t96]

3 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

I don't disagree. I consider DE, S, and WR our top three needs. But CB might be #4. CB and center would round out my top 5.

Yeah I think I'd put our needs in these tiers:

Tier 1:

DE, S (I'd prefer DE but both are about equal needs and our most pressing)

Tier 2 (very close to tier 1 but slightly behind):

WR, G (if Norwell walks, our left side of the line is sh*t... we would need to upgrade there for sure, and I'm convinced that we see Moton purely as a tackle not a guard, and that if he can get up to speed and show he can play then he'll replace Kalil at some point, possibly as soon as this year and then cut Kalil after the year)

Tier 3:

CB, C, TE (none are all that pressing this year but C and TE we really need for the future and TE2 could be upgraded now as well although Dickson is okay. CB would definitely love to upgrade Bradberry/Worley but they're not so bad that it's more important to upgrade DE, S, WR and G in my opinion)

[Carolina Cajun]

1 notable missing thing, either running back or o-line.  Our run game was good, but only because of cam Newton, we had zero outside of him, and if we don't find a way to get a traditional run game going in this system then were not gonna succeed as an offense.

[Snake]

We might need DE and CB in FA but we won't be players. One can hope we do address WR for once with a quality WR to complement our young core. 

[top dawg]

14 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

It's way low. Olivier Vernon signed for 5 years for $85M last offseason with $40.5M guaranteed at signing and $52.5M in total guarantees. His cap hit this season was $13M. 

That'll probably be where Lawrence's agents will want to start their talks. They're gonna want to cash in on those 14.5 sacks this year. Personally, I'd stay far away from the injury prone one year wonder.

You can call him a one-year-wonder all you like, but it's not like this past season was a surprise.  Everyone suspected that he had that in him.  Sure his injuries are concerning,  but I'm more concerned with his past suspension, and whether or not he's mature enough and ready to be a pro.  This past season would indicate that he is maturing, but you never know.  Between the back surgeries and drug suspension,  it would seem that his value has to take some type of hit.  That being said,  if there was the chance of getting him around 10 mil per year,  I'd jump at the chance.  I'd have to take a look even at 10-12.

I don't know the Cowboys' situation with their free agents, but they probably don't want to really franchise Lawrence. If he actually hits the market, I wouldn't arbitrarily rule him out. He could be a good to great value. 

[heel31ok]

15 hours ago, Pantha-kun said:

There's a bunch of decent G/C prospects in the draft too. Not saying they are as good as Ryan but you just brought up a great point of cutting Ryan. I just dismissed it uncounciously but if we do cut Ryan we save 7.5 mil vs the cap . That shoots my figure of 37 mil (after cutting Stew, Shep,  CJ, Coleman, Fozzy,) up to 44 mil and suddenly we can make some splash plays in free agency.

Quenton Nelson, Billy Price, Will Hernandez, Isaiah Wynn, Branden Smith, Frank Ragnow, Sean Welsh , and strictly centers like Mason Cole and James Daniels. Not to mention we have moton on the roster to kick out to LG, and let the drafted rookie play center.

With our continued need at Lt why not draft outside in...it is way easier for OL  to kick someone inside...we need LT  

[unicar15]

I think we re-sign Norwell. I don’t think any GM is going to start his tenure off with letting go of a pro bowl guard. Especially when 2018 is Kalil’s last year. You’d basically be saying that you’re willing to part with 3/5 of the OL...given both Kalil could be gone.

[LinvilleGorge]

27 minutes ago, unicar15 said:

I think we re-sign Norwell. I don’t think any GM is going to start his tenure off with letting go of a pro bowl guard. Especially when 2018 is Kalil’s last year. You’d basically be saying that you’re willing to part with 3/5 of the OL...given both Kalil could be gone.

Matt Kalil isn't going anywhere this offseason. It would cost us an additional $3M in cap space to cut him now.