Boldin to ravens

[panthers55]

All you guys do is complain. Without JR there wouldnt be a Carolina Panthers for one thing. You didnt think he was cheap when he signed Jake long term did you? Nope. I am not surprised we didnt go after Boldin. Look at all the cuts we have made. It is not because he is cheap. He is setting this team up for long term success. Think about it long term. We dont want both of our starting WRs to be over 30 years old. Smitty and Boldin may only have 2 or 3 more years until they start declining. We are bbuilding a long term team. Young O-line talent, young QB, young D-line, young lbs, young Secondary. I am fine with passing up on Boldin. We build through the draft anyway. I dont understand why so many people complain when we dont sign a big name every season and make big trades. We build through the draft and then lock up our key players. Good move JR.

JR hasn't been cheap up to this point but the landscape has changed. It seems that he is preparing for a lockout. If he locks up some of our core- Williams, Davis, Moore, among others it might make a difference. But up to this point he hasn't done that either. All three of these guys are playing with one year left on their contracts assuming 2 are tendered and Williams will be a free agent in 2011. So I can't agree he is locking them up. It is still early though so things could change. But to this point it is hard to say he is free spending to this point. Guys like Brayton and Diggs are both still productive and cheap. The only negative is their age. If we are counting on guys like Hayden for our backups, it seems we are hardly getting better at this point.

[panthers55]

lol....you make that all sound like a bad thing.

much better strategy than over paying.

you sound like you have a case of hurt feelings right now and you're feeling a little bitter.

maybe you should go back to drinking the kool aid.

all moves we have made an haven't made so far this offseason have been good (except letting brayton get away). panthers are playing it smart and not letting decisions be based on emotional ties. now they can get on the business of building a winning team.

Brayton isn't the only guy we will regret letting go. Lewis surely was an asset as well as Diggs and Moose among others. I can't agree that we have made good moves until we actually do something besides dump many of the veterans who have provided stability in the locker room as well as the field. I can assure you that my feelings don't get hurt when players come or go, I simply dont see a defining strategy to get better. What I see to this point is that we are counting on a bunch of marginal and inexperienced players to show up this year much like when we dumped Johnson a few years ago and counted on Jarrett to fill the void. Hopefully things work out better than they did with Jarrett but unless they do, it could surely be another down year despite the easier schedule this year.

[panthers55]

How is JR cheap? He dropped 17 million on peppers last year and offered him a contract that would make him the highest paid DE in the leauge.

He just dropped Jake to clear his contract which cost 13 million. This a year after giving him Jake massive extension. We gave gross and gamble big contracts.

He does all of this and you call him cheap just because he isn't drunk with cash and dumped a bunch of expensive mediocre 30 year old vets. Teams all around the leauge are going to be dumping players the clear the books for 2011 and beyond.

Word is that we could of had Peppers for another 1.5 million per year over what we offered him. Plus the contract with Jake won't clear the books and instead creates 10 million in dead cap space over the next several years. At this point discussing what we did in years past has no bearing on this year. The landscape has changed and so has our strategy. Richardson hasn't been cheap in the past but when was the last time we dumped so many veterans as we did in the past 48 hours? Seems to me that we are embarking on a new strategy likely initiated by Morrison who is new this year.

Until we actually spend some money there is no other way to see it other than we are going on the cheap.

[John Fox]

wow i can't believe that people here wouldn't take boldin for a f**king 3rd and 4th rounder.

im sure dwayne jarrett and a 80 year old moose are so much better

[g5jamz]

3rd and 4th? no...I wouldn't have done it either.

[Urrymonster]

Word is that we could of had Peppers for another 1.5 million per year over what we offered him.

Think of it the other way round. If he really wanted to stay here, would $1.5mil a year really make much difference when he would be raking in over ten times that amount already? Ever think that the Panthers were getting a little fed up of him saying it wasn't about the money and then continuously rejecting our contracts that made him the top paid player? Yet the only reason he gives for not signing is that is was not enough money...

That is not a team player. That $1.5mil could of gone to another contract player if he had just played ball. Ask yourself this, is the contract we offered him a decent contract for what he is? Without a doubt. If we had offered him something that hit his initial demands, would you put it past him to ask for another $1.5mil a year?

Running a franchise, when someone repeatedly rejects your deals you finally say enough is enough. You make an offer, stand by it and then it's up to them. You can't jump through hoops for anyone player, otherwise it sets a precedent for any deal in the future.

Plus the contract with Jake won't clear the books and instead creates 10 million in dead cap space over the next several years.

Pretty sure that is completely untrue. In the event of a capped year everything is accelerated, causing all due guarenteed money to be paid upfront. This is why this year was the only way we could correct the mistake with Jake's contract. This is why a lot of teams are using this year to dump badly made contracts, as the repurcutions do not carry over into future years.

People should be happy that they realised the mistake they made and that they corrected it at the first available time. Anyone thinking you can carry a $20mil guarentee carrying the clipboard is fooling themselves. It would have undermined Moore as starter and been a lot of wasted cap room if the cap came back.

At this point discussing what we did in years past has no bearing on this year. The landscape has changed and so has our strategy. Richardson hasn't been cheap in the past but when was the last time we dumped so many veterans as we did in the past 48 hours? Seems to me that we are embarking on a new strategy likely initiated by Morrison who is new this year.

Until we actually spend some money there is no other way to see it other than we are going on the cheap.

So? Do people realise Richardson is actually running a business, not a fantasy team for the fans. The guy has the most inside information on the CBA amongst the owners, so if he is getting ready for 2011 then it spells a bleak forecast.

Regardless I could not care less if the team runs itself on a shoe string budget, only pays vet minimums and is a perenial average team. That is NOT why I support them. I love the way we run a franchise as it's sustainable, I feel sorry for the teams that are always struggling to get by and each yar brings an uncertainty if they will be moved to a different state. I love the type of players the FO are interested in bringing in, as they for the most players to be proud of. When you look at the sorts of things other teams have to deal with, year in year out, it makes you thankful of the Panthers FO as I literally could not support a Pacman or Matt Jones.

Is JR being cheap? No, not really. He 'could' of had Peppers, according to Peppers, but then I do not exactly pay too much weight on his words. Ever think he is doing damage control on his image? Strange our FO says nothing, because if it were true you would think they would be doing damage control with their fan base.

We cut Jake in the only year that would free us up from his potential cap hits. They knew Moore would be starter, why have an enigma standing behind him with a contract that demands him to be the starter???

They sign Ed Johnson, to replace Lewis, who wanted an extension at 31, who also grossly failed at what he was supposed to do this past year - provide pressure.

Kemo was not on the roster last year, so why the problem with him being cut???

Diggs actually saw a HUGE reduction in playigtime last year and with both Anderson and Connor given the opportunity to start in Diggs' position, it clearly showed that the drop off was insignificant and it made no sense in keeping either player as a back up.

Johnson is a cut that everyone knew was coming.

No one is scrabbling for Moose's signature right now, so what do you think our FO might do if we fail in filling the WR position after the draft? Not many people ar einto the 34+ Wrs, hence why Holt & Harrison had such trouble getting on a team.

Brayton was a player we could have kept, but at 30 he would have wanted a 3-4 year deal, which would have put us in exactly the same situation than we have had the past few years with Lewis and Kemo.

Face it, each move has logic behind it and not all of it is based on money, only one or two moves are and even then there are other factors to be considered.

Is JR preparing for the future? Yes

Is JR being cheap? No

There is a big difference in the two sentiments.