That United Owner Front is looking great Jerry.

[Kurb]

JR, he Big Cat, Jerry Richardson owner of the Panthers wanted the owners to stand together and show a united front on the CBA issue.

To support this Jerry has slashed costs, fielded a SUPER young team with some glaring oles, and generally ignored signing his young talented SuperStars.

The Panthers have the NFL version of a preschool at WR to couple with the NFL version of a temp service for Defensive Tackles. I would mention depth problems at O-line but I have run out of mildly amusing analogies.

To add insult to injury, ticket prices went up, again, with an inferior product.

All of this, to protect the glory of the might NFL Shield and his Billionare pals (insert 50yardline rant here) from the evils of paying millionares a few more millions.

The problem is this. Not all his buddies are on board.

Ravens: Add Boldin, Stallworth, Housh to make themselves serious contenders.

Niners: Resigned two of their young superstars to longterm extensions.

Cowturds: Resigned newly crowned WR star to longterm deal

Bears: Signed big name players in the offseason to add talent to both lines.

Jets: Resigned 2-3 young stars to long deals, signed several vet FA for depth.

Dolphins: Signed superstar WR

Not to mention: Atlanta, Seattle, and a few others.

Way to go Jerrahy. While you basically tell the Fans(/PSLowners/people who helped make your dream of having an NFL team in the Carolinas come true) that your buddies are more important than them, those same buddies have improved their teams and couple very well be having a chuckle at your rahrah attempts.

Sooo I have decided this. I won't be buying anything in your stadium this year. Keep your 10$ cans of coke and your 20$ BOJANGLES. To be honest it's going to be hard for me to even step foot in the PSL owners stadium until you start worrying more about winning and less about how many 100's of millions you and your pals can squeeze out of the NFLPA.

PS: I will acknowledge the huge cap space created, but what use is money if you can't spend it.....

[thunderraiden]

the only problem i have with this logic is the massive amount of money he is paying all the players that got cut this season.... that and the fact he will have enough money to buy half the nfl free agents when the lockout is over.

[janderson20vt]

yeah umad

[DaCityKats]

kurb i applaud you.

[Kurb]

the only problem i have with this logic is the massive amount of money he is paying all the players that got cut this season.... that and the fact he will have enough money to buy half the nfl free agents when the lockout is over.

and if he does get some of that talent that will be floating around, ALONG with keeping the stars we have grown ourselves I will gladly say I have overreacted to all this and that he had some Mad Genius/Comic Book villain plan that worked out perfectly.

[pantherfan81]

....speechless.....

[PantherBrew]

Business Man making a Business Decision.

This would be the first year in a while that J.R. hasn't threw down the cash. As long as it is just this season, and we sign our guys after the labor deal. I can live with it.

Granted, I know fans will still be "throwing down the cash", but one season I can handle. But, I still believe it is a plan.

We still have an opportunity to be good this season.

[Kurb]

BruceB, it's ok to not do your best to win for a season ?

[jasonluckydog]

Kurb going to give JR some serious infraction points.

[PantherBrew]

BruceB, it's ok to not do your best to win for a season ?

Well, its about perspective man. You need to get yourself out of "fan" mode, and try seeing things through his eyes.

Pessimist: "J.R. is cheap and saving money with his buddies".

Optimist: " J.R. is trying to help the league get better, and a good NFL, is good for the franchise. Rising Waters raise all ships"

But again, as with most things, its about perspective.

You could say he needs to see things through the "fans" eyes, and youd be right too.

Its a little bit of both to be honest.

[Skew]

I'm not buying the "Can't do big contracts because of possible lockout" excuse either.

Brady deal proves that big contracts can get done without a new CBA

Posted by Mike Florio on September 10, 2010 12:12 AM ET

In late July, the NFL faced a problem. After an offseason that generated plenty of circumstantial evidence to support a finding of collusion when it comes to the failure to sign restricted free agents and or key veterans with a year or two remaining on their contracts to long-term deals, the owners had to decide whether to play hardball with the incoming crop of rookies, or whether to continue to sign unproven players to big-money packages.

The approach that many teams applied to restricted free agents -- offering the minimum tender and, in multiple cases, slashing it to the absolute minimum permitted by the labor agreement -- if applied to the rookies would have resulted in teams squatting on their rookies via a one-year, $310,000 offer, the minimum permissible tender under the CBA.

But the league likely realized that such an approach would come dangerously close to providing smoking-gun evidence of collusion, even though it would have been the logical extension of the approach taken regarding the league's proven players who are in line for new deals.

And so after the Rams gave a quarterback who had never played a down of NFL football a contract with $25 million guaranteed upon signing and another $25 million in guaranteed money vesting within a year, it only made sense that someone would break ranks from the "we can't do long-term deals until there's a new labor contract" mantra and sign a big-name player to a landmark deal.

The Patriots did just that on Thursday, with multiple reports indicating a guarantee of $48.5 million for quarterback Tom Brady.

The message? Teams really can sign veteran players to long-term deals notwithstanding the labor situation, and hopefully the fact that the Patriots finally have done it will get others to do the same -- which in turn could thaw the icy relations between the league and the union.

[PantherBrew]

I dunno, I can just see both sides of the argument.

But, for now, I am just not really offended or upset about it.

And that is probably because I dont have PSLs or a big finincial investment into the team. But I do invest emotionally.

I think I am just so happy about the changes in the roster, as far as, losing some of the old guys. And I am just really wanting to see some of these young guys play.

[rayzor]

the only problem i have with this logic is the massive amount of money he is paying all the players that got cut this season.... that and the fact he will have enough money to buy half the nfl free agents when the lockout is over.

and if he does get some of that talent that will be floating around, ALONG with keeping the stars we have grown ourselves I will gladly say I have overreacted to all this and that he had some Mad Genius/Comic Book villain plan that worked out perfectly.

yeah, i'm trying to look at a bigger picture here and hope it's not an illusion. when the new CBA is reached and things get back to normal, there are going to be tons of FA hitting the market. probably the best FA there has been in a decade at least.

All those teams that have spent a lot of money and have wrapped up players in big long term deals will be wishing they waited while they watch those who pinched their pennies and cleared cap space take advantage of it.

we may be down at the bottom in money spent and with some loser neighbors but of those teams, the panthers are the only one who are normally big spenders and keep themselves at or near the cap ceiling.

if we have a new coach, he'll have the ability and money to build up the team's weak spots through FA the way he wants to and will have the cap space to do it.

just a quick look at the potential WR FAs next year there are mike sims-walker, steve breaston, malcom floyd, davone bess, jacoby jones, and james jones. i can see several of these guys actually getting free and being able to make an impact on our WR corps if none of the non-smithers steps up this year.

of course this could all blow up in jerry's face but whatever.

[bleys]

we could have made a serious attempt to get Marshall and been just fine in the cap area.. while improving our WRs tremendously for quite a few years, while having a true #1 to replace Smitty and let him play slot.. the sky could have been the limit..

we won't find a Brandon Marshall type receiver when we have "this huge cap space to spend and buy half the NFL".. we could have, but didn't.. and I doubt we'll see that in the future.. especially not as young and talented as that guy..

the best I see the Panthers doing regardless of who is available is to go for a 2nd rate receiver to "step into that role".. and that is a garbage plan, IMO...