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Investing in the Offensive Line

Icege

By Icege,
in Carolina Panthers

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Icege Grand Master

Icege

Posted
Posted (edited)

The OL at the start of the season:

Position Player 2021 Cap Hit (Millions)
LT Cameron Erving $2,240,000
LG Pat Elflein $1,360,000
C Matt Paradis $5,698,000
RG John Miller $1,127,500
RT Taylor Moton $4,000,000
  TOTAL $14,425,500

 

The OL at the end of yesterday's game:

Position Player 2021 Cap Hit (Millions)
LT Dennis Daley $881,838
LG Michael Jordan $613,886
C Sam Tecklenburg $549,990
RG Trent Scott $1,650,000
RT Taylor Moton $4,000,000
  TOTAL $7,695,714

 

According to Spotrac, the average cap space spent on a starting OL this season is $19,600,000. The Panthers have spent $17,900,000 on the entire OL. That's nearly $2M less for the position group than what teams pay on average for their starters. The Pittsburgh Steelers starting OL has a cap hit of $8.1M, the lowest in the league... until Carolina finished yesterday's game.

Meanwhile, look at the cost of the starting OL from some of the more successful teams this season so far:

Team 2021 Cap Hit
Tennessee $35,000,000
Buffalo $30,000,000
Arizona $28,400,000
Cleveland $28,400,000
Tampa Bay $27,700,000
New Orleans $19,000,000
New England $18,700,000
Denver $18,000,000

 

There are teams such as the Rams ($14.4M), Ravens ($13M), Chiefs ($10.5M), and Packers ($10.4M) that have spent significantly less than average on their starting OL while enjoying success, but they are also getting significant production out of players still on their rookie deals. Baltimore, Green Bay, and Los Angeles are all starting 3 offensive linemen still on their rookie contracts. Kansas City is starting 4.

This team needs to find a way to draft and develop offensive linemen if we want to see sustained success. A franchise QB is great for selling tickets and entertaining the drunks, but as we saw with Cam Newton and more recently Matt Stafford, that is only going to get you so far until you put a competent offensive line in front of them. Overpaying veteran free agents is not the way. Get a guy on a second contract (Moton, check!), get a known commodity on the back end of his career if you have to have that greybeard in the locker room, and start teaching these young men how to block a pro level D-Line.

Oh, and I most definitely didn't forget:

Draft Tyler Linderbaum

s reactions genius GIF

Edited by Icege
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frankw Grand Master

frankw

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It's been obvious to some of us for a long time. Which is why not everyone was ecstatic over making our running back the highest paid in the league behind a makeshift oline that has been above average one time within the last decade. But some people do not listen or learn from the past.

Edited by frankw
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DaveThePanther2008 Grand Master

DaveThePanther2008

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Here's the dilemna.  Being near the top of the draft Again, at least at our current pace.   Do you snag a QB? Or do we go with the 2nd coming of a reclaimation project? 

Do we draft excluesively O-line help or do we rebuild our O-line with top of the line free agents.

I think we are going QB in the drat and stocking our O-line with top of the line free agents.  We got money. 

Edited by DaveThePanther2008
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Icege Grand Master

Icege

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6 minutes ago, DaveThePanther2008 said:

Here's the dilemna.  Being near the top of the draft Again, at least at our current pace.   Do you snag a QB? Or do we go with the 2nd coming of a reclaimation project? 

Do we draft excluesively O-line help or do we rebuild our O-line with top of the line free agents.

I think we are going QB in the drat and stocking our O-line with top of the line free agents.  We got money. 

The troubles of being a shittacular team. 😞

So long as Tyler Linderbaum is snapping the football to a different Panthers' QB next season, I'll be happy.

Edited by Icege
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