Why does everyone want to trade J-Stew?

[NFL Executive]

Here is a concpt I have never really understood. Why do people complain about trading our first rond draft pick every year? I understand last year might have been a litle much for Everret Brown, but lets look at the year before that.

People complained so much about us trading back into the draft to get Jeff Otah. But we ended up with a stud player in the middle of the first round. We ended up trading a lesser 1st round pick (from our 12-4 record) and got OTAH!

Now I am hearing a ton of people saying we need to try to trade Stewart for more draft picks. WHY!!! We have a stud RB and we want to trade him for more unproven tallent?!?!? What happens when we trade J-Stew, a probowl talented RB for the likes of someone like Charles Rogers? Remember, he was supposed to be the next Randy Moss... he was drafted in 2003 and he doesnt even play in the league anymore. Or we can stay at home. What if we pulled another Jason Peter. We all remember how he turned out (well, those of us he can remember Jason Peter at all... worst pick the Panthers ever made IMO). The point is, NO, we should not trade J-Stew for draft picks. There is about a 81% chance that the player we would end up drafting would not be half the player J-Stew is.

I am very much the kind of guy that would rather us draft the best player available over the next postional need. With that being said, it simply makes no sense to trade J-Stew, a Carolina fan favorite, for draft picks which may or may not end up starting over the next 4 years here.

[KSpan]

I don't. Absolutely keep both 34 and 28... those guys work incredibly well together.

[csx]

I'm not sure Otah is 6 rounds and a 1st rd pick better than Schwartz.

People like to speculate about the possibillities. Thank god the management doesn't listen to us, I wouldn't worry about it.

p.s. I'd trade Williams first.

[thetrooper]

i'd keep williams and stewart

[Zaximus]

Trade Otah

[jpniner]

IMO, if going to trade one of our horses to improve in other areas it should be D-Will for the following reasons:

1) Older than Stewart

2) Stewart is a big back, Sutton and Goodson are more the smaller back for the combo

3) Sutton/Goodson seem capable to do well enough as a #2 back

4) D-Will only has one more year left on contract, he will get paid and odds are we can't justify paying 2 Superstar contracts at RB, so we'd end up losing Stew down road.

It sucks, since we love our stars and all, but to be a better overall team we need to improve the Passing Game, D-Line and Secondary.

So I think there are 2 things it comes down to:

1) With Salary Cap, can we afford both and not take a hit elsewhere? If No, do you let one walk or get something for them? In this case you keep Stewart and his rookie contract and dump D-Will as his rookie contract is expiring.

2) Would the team be better overall if you could trade one RB and could get better elsewhere. As far as Wins/Losses are concerned? If Yes, I think you make the trade. If No, then you don't obviously.

I don't think Fox/Hurney thought they were getting 2 Superstar Running Backs when they drafted Stew, D-Will hadn't broke out yet at the time.

Depends on what either are worth in a trade as well.

[Peppers90 NC]

Only a few ignoramus' have mentioned this awful idea. Most who understand the game know that trading him for draft picks is unreasonable, and for the few who thought we would get a strong DT is just even more dumb and ignorant, as they are valued higher than RB's. Why anyone would mention trading our best weapon(s) doesn't have a clue to begin with, and I am sure they have crawled back in their holes after the last 4 games.

[Samuel L. Jackson]

Neither will be going anywhere for a long time... Same goes for Pep, Gross, Smitty, and Beason... There are some players so integral to a team that you don't move them... ever...

[Khyber53]

I'd keep JStew and DWill around even if I had to pass the hat to help pay for the two of them. They are now the greatest rushing duo in the history of the NFL.

Read that statement again: Greatest Rushing Duo in the History of the NFL.

And as far as anyone can tell, there is no jealousy or me-first between them at all. And apparently, both of them really like being here.

And with the two of them sharing carries, we should be able to get a good decade of work out of each of them. And that is a rare thing in pro football anymore -- most good running backs are lucky to still be playing at 28, much less 30. The injuries and wear and tear just catch up with every down featured backs. And that's not even counting the possibility of a catastrophic career-ending injury.

And should that happen to one of ours (and let's sure hope it doesn't), where would we be if we traded the other one away for the handful of magic beans that most first round draft picks end up being.

[jpniner]

If Panthers keep both long term, they end up with by far the highest Payroll for Running Backs in the NFL, paying 2 different top 5 RB's big bucks. This would likely mean we have worse players at other key positions.

Remember how we paid Dan Morgan the big bucks, which resulted in losing Witherspoon later on?

[Swarly]

Because people put too much stock into 1st round picks. Don't get me wrong, they're nice to have and you certainly shouldn't trade them away. but.. it's not the end of the world that we don't have one.

1st round picks are high risk high reward. You never know if the player you're going to get will do well or will bust. Not to mention they cost a lot more than 2nd round picks who are usually just as valuable and sometimes were meant to be 1st rounders but their stock dropped because of a bad game or something.

You don't trade your stars for picks. It's common sense, don't trade a proven player for an unproven player. Don't get why that's so hard to understand.

[csx]

Read that statement again: Greatest Rushing Duo in the History of the NFL.

That's neat, it really is...but I'm more interested in what's best for the team as a whole. That might mean keeping them, it might not. You just never know what might come up that is worth considering.

[CatMan72]

Right now I wouldn't even think about trading either one... our whole offense is based on the run and like we saw this season if one of these guys goes down the other can carry the load.

We don't need to take drastic measures like trading our best players to bring in some big-name FA... we can take smaller steps and still find quality out there, we just have to be smart.

Maybe we need to beef up our scouting department with folks that specialize in WR's?

[jpniner]

If Money grows on trees, the NFL limits the size of the tree to spread around to all positions.

You can't invest, what the Market will likely end up dictating both are worth, in 2 RB's with Huge Contracts.

If they could get something like the Walker of Faulk trades, they probably will do it. If RB's aren't worth what they use to, but they could get a Franchise QB, Eric Berry(top 5 draft pick), or a Top Receiving threat in some sort of package, my guess is they do so for Pragmatic reasons.