Panthers have had a successful free agency period so far.

[Camp Fodder]

The only thing I don’t agree with is keeping smith at 5 million

[Black&BlueBubba]

Agreed.  H2.0 has done much better than I thought. 

 Panthers re-sign OT Daryl Williams (1 year, $7 million): A+ Grade 
I don't think the Panthers expected to be able to retain Daryl Williams. Yet, that's exactly what they did, and at a huge bargain to boot. 

Williams is an extremely talented right tackle, but apparently couldn't find a market because teams were concerned about his knees. He's played just one full season in his career, and he was available for just a single game in 2018. 

Williams, however, is still just 26. He's young enough to bounce back from his health woes. If so, the Panthers will have a great, very cheap right tackle for 2019. If not, then the Panthers aren't really risking anything. That makes it easy to grade this 1-year "prove it" deal as an A+.

 Panthers sign C Matt Paradis (3 years, $27 million): B+ Grade 
The Panthers desperately needed a talented center in the wake of Ryan Kalil's retirement, and they certainly found one. In fact, Matt Paradis was the top center on the market. 

Paradis broke his leg late last year, causing him to miss the first game of his career. It sounds like Paradis will be ready by training camp, so the Panthers shouldn't be worried. Assuming this is the case, Paradis will be a big upgrade over the regressing Kalil from last year. 

I usually reserve grades in the "A" range for great bargain signings, but I'd be willing to make an exception here if Paradis weren't coming off an injury. This seems like a perfect signing otherwise, as Paradis will be able to help Cam Newton stay healthy.

 Panthers re-sign S Eric Reid (3 years, $22 million): C+ Grade 
Carolina's secondary was largely a mess last year, though there were two players in that group who weren't complete liabilities. One was rookie cornerback Donte Jackson. The other was safety Eric Reid. 

Reid is a physically gifted safety who performed well at times in 2018. However, he was penalized far too often. This hurt the Panthers at times, though Reid made up for it by occasionally making quality plays. 

This signing should be in the B-/C+ range. Reid should've been retained, but this seems like a slight overpay, given how penalties Reid accumulates throughout a season. 
 

And while he gave a C+ grade at the time because the market wasn’t set.  I think it is a solid “B” at this point. 

H2.0

[musicman]

Man, some of you are so negative. The post started by saying so far, so good and we should all agree. With limited money (some of you think we can just get anybody) we started out FA nicely to hopefully set us to draft better. Hurley had to be close to perfect to give us a shot and so far he's pretty close. I even understand the Smith move for the right reasons. We didn't see a healthy Smith last year ad we have young, mature WR's. He's the 4th option and probably more reliable then Funchess who get $13 mil. It's a re-tooling year based on if Cam comes back healthy this year, this team could be built to last a few years near the top. Is every move perfect, no. But games are not won in March. Again, so far not too bad with limited cap space and not pushing more dead money to the future like the Saints. 

[panthers55]

2 hours ago, Jon Snow said:

Success is measured in December, not March.

Success may be measured in December but it is obtained based on what you do between March and December.

[Mr. Scot]

3 minutes ago, panthers55 said:

Success may be measured in December but it is obtained based on what you do between March and December.

So you're saying there's still plenty of time to screw it up... 

[panthers55]

Don't agree we have all these holes. Some of our backups have played and started due to injuries. Other guys needed time and experience to improve. But we need and expect some of these backups to step up into starting roles. You can't have free agents and super stars at every position. Plus every draft pick this year isn't automatically better than draft picks we made last year or free agents we picked up previously. 

[panthers55]

Just now, Mr. Scot said:

So you're saying there's still plenty of time to screw it up... 

That is one way to look at it if you are negative and "awfulizing" about everything. I prefer to stay positive particularly in March thinking we will have a long playoff run like we would have last year before Cam's shoulder issues. 

[steven8989]

2 hours ago, Untouchable said:

You don't resign Williams (especially at that exact price) and keep Kalil.  It's has to only be a matter of time at this point.

I think your dreaming like all other Panther fans but we really know it's not going to happen. Rivera just will not let's guys go I don't understand it.

[Mr. Scot]

10 minutes ago, panthers55 said:

That is one way to look at it if you are negative and "awfulizing" about everything. I prefer to stay positive particularly in March thinking we will have a long playoff run like we would have last year before Cam's shoulder issues. 

[Untouchable]

19 minutes ago, steven8989 said:

I think your dreaming like all other Panther fans but we really know it's not going to happen. Rivera just will not let's guys go I don't understand it.

Guarantees tomorrow so only hours left to go....it would be on Hurney too because it's terrible cap management to keep Kalil now.

[steven8989]

3 minutes ago, Untouchable said:

Guarantees tomorrow so only hours left to go....it would be on Hurney too because it's terrible cap management to keep Kalil now.

I don't want to keep him but man a dead cap of 14 mil sucks ass. Gettleman knew he was getting fired and said F U JR.

[TheSpecialJuan]

3 hours ago, kungfoodude said:

We have been much more successful this offseason than I would have ever predicted up to this point. Not every move has been a home run but we shored up the OL and appear to be setting the stage for the draft. 

 

agree

[Navy_football]

We can't expect Hurney to go out and fill every "position of need" with a high-calibur player. Barring injury, the o-line is in really good shape now. Possibly the best it's been since the Gross and Wharton era. 

If Hurney can find an average Nickel and an average FS in free agency, I would give that f'er GM of the year.

Draft young talent dictated by how the pieces fall and the strengths/weaknesses of the draft class, and not based on need - period. No team has above average players at every position. Coaches have to earn their paycheck and coach around a couple of weaknesses and mismatches. That's the job of OCs and DCs - exploit advantages and mask disadvantages. 

[Navy_football]

1 hour ago, Camp Fodder said:

The only thing I don’t agree with is keeping smith at 5 million

I tend to agree with this statement. But if Hurney can adequately fill needs, then I guess Smith is insurance in case of injury. If Hurney was gonna sit on his hands while giving Smith $5M, then I'd be pretty disgruntled. 

As long as he has a plan and he's executing/monitoring/adjusting.