Bradberry drawing significant interest ahead of free agency. Not expected to be back with the Panthers

[WarPanthers89]

Cornerback James Bradberry made it clearat the end of the 2019 season that he is looking for a big payday this offseason and it looks like his chances of landing it are going to be pretty good.

It also looks like he’ll be landing that deal with a team other than the Panthers. The Panthers could use a $16 million-plus franchise tag on Bradberry, but TheAthletic.com reports that the team isn’t going to move in that direction and also won’t hit Bradberry’s asking price for a multi-year deal.

Per a report from Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com, that asking price is believed to be in the neighborhood of $15 million and it appears there are a lot of teams willing to shop at that end of the market. Connor Hughes of TheAthletic.com reports the Jets were one of 22 teams to check in on Bradberry and his colleague Rhiannon Walker put Washington in that group as well.

Washington’s new head coach Ron Rivera coached Bradberry in Carolina and Bradberry said last month that he’d be happy to be reunite with his former coach.

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2020/03/02/james-bradberry-drawing-interest-ahead-of-free-agency/

 

[Bronn]

Who cares?

TBQH he was one of the softer players on defense at times.

Yeah, he can cover okay, but he got beat just as much as anyone.

I never saw any fire out of him or any kind of grit or swag.

Let him be someone else's cap anchor. Move on.

[Carl Spackler]

He's a good player and a reliable CB, maybe even worth what he's asking for. But not here, where we have to solve a ton of other problems and can address CB in the draft.

[WarPanthers89]

4 minutes ago, Bronn said:

Who cares?

TBQH he was one of the softer players on defense at times.

Yeah, he can cover okay, but he got beat just as much as anyone.

I never saw any fire out of him or any kind of grit or swag.

Let him be someone else's cap anchor. Move on.

I highly disagree. I wish we could keep him because now we are right back in a disaster state at CB with only Jackson returning who was benched at the end of last season. James was our only dependable CB. You are going to get beat from time to time, no CB is really shut down anymore, but he more than held his own against the leagues top WR. Also...if he sucked like you are saying he wouldn’t command over 15 million a season like he is going to get 

[Black&BlueBubba]

The upside is loosing him would certainly put us on the way to the #1 pick next year.  
 

Our secondary will be trash if our number 1 CB is Jackson with a rookie on the other side.  

[Bronn]

2 minutes ago, WarPanthers89 said:

I highly disagree. I wish we could keep him because now we are right back in a disaster state at CB with only Jackson returning who was benched at the end of last season. James was our only dependable CB. You are going to get beat from time to time, no CB is really shut down anymore, but he more than held his own against the leagues top WR. Also...if he sucked like you are saying he wouldn’t command over 15 million a season like he is going to get 

No. He's in demand because the league is a passing league, and he is a good CB on paper and in most games.

We can bring back Cockrell in a pinch, and I am pretty sure we're going to pursue other options in FA and the draft at CB anyway.

I'm saying our whole defense sucked for the most part. A lot of it was identity, and his personality/lack of pop contributed towards this.

[Real1zOnly]

Can anybody explain to me why we don't tag him and trade him since he has suitors?

Seems like we just wasting a good asset by allowing him to walk for free. What is the downside of a sign n trade for us?

All this does is just create another hole on defense. I get we are rebuilding but at least try to make use of your only assets. We could get a 2nd round pick for Bradberry easily with his market value.

[Bronn]

1 minute ago, Real1zOnly said:

Can anybody explain to me why we don't tag him and trade him since he has suitors?

Seems like we just wasting a good asset by allowing him to walk for free. What is the downside of a sign n trade for us?

All this does is just create another hole on defense. I get we are rebuilding but at least try to make use of your only assets. We could get a 2nd round pick for Bradberry easily with his market value.

It could very well happen. We have time to do so.

[TheRed]

11 minutes ago, Bronn said:

Who cares?

TBQH he was one of the softer players on defense at times.

Yeah, he can cover okay, but he got beat just as much as anyone.

I never saw any fire out of him or any kind of grit or swag.

Let him be someone else's cap anchor. Move on.

To be entirely fair, if this is the standard we are employing moving forward, we would not bring anyone back from the 2019 season. We won just a single divisional game all year, and ended the season on an eight game losing streak. On top of that we lost to multiple two win teams at home. If that isn't soft, I don't know what is.

[bababoey]

Bradberry's contract is going to seem like a bargain in the 2021 off season

Quote

Spotrac

@spotrac

Early reports are pointing to a normalized increase in #NFL Salary Cap for 2020 ($200M) then back to back big jumps in 21-22 (not unlike how the NBA agreement worked). Potentially as high as $40M increases.

If that happens contracts are going to increase a whole damn lot.

[CanadianCat]

This will be a big loss. 

[BrianS]

Team is in a tough spot for sure.  I don't think he's worth 15 a year, I just don't.  Unfortunately, there are teams that can pay it.  We're going to lose him because it makes sense long term for us, but our secondary is going to be bad again. 

We don't have anyone who can fill that role for us.  DJax is fine as a matchup corner against smaller, faster receivers.  He struggled last year, yes, but I expect him to turn it around.  Ross Cockrell and Javien Elliot are the closest we have to JB, but they aren't of his caliber.  Free agency won't give us anything better than Cockrell and Elliot.  We can't afford to pick a CB in the first couple rounds.  It's gonna be ugly man.

[Bronn]

Just now, TheRed said:

To be entirely fair, if this is the standard we are employing moving forward, we would not bring anyone back from the 2019 season. We won just a single divisional game all year, and ended the season on an eight game losing streak. On top of that we lost to multiple two win teams at home. If that isn't soft, I don't know what is.

Hopefully with Rivera being gone and Cam coming back, it will improve.

But yeah, not a lot of FAs I really hope we bring back, honestly. And there are a lot of guys we should cut.

I'm tired of the soft-ass, "bad day to have a bad day" and "it is what it is" Panthers teams we've fielded for the past decade and a half.

[Bronn]

Let him chase the money, and he can go rot on the Browns or some other loser organization. Good for him.