Cap room, money to burn?

[panthers55]

all of them save us money immediately. Lucas is the only really tricky one, I believe His cap hit is 9 million close to ten, but if he's cut after/before (can't remember the date) a certain date then his cap hit want occur till next season. So he still saves us that 5.6 mill for this season and then next season we would take a hit on the signing bonus which is 4.5 mill per season. ( the possibility that next season wont have a cap and that doesn't really affect us now does it.)

Not true. The only guys who don't cost you money are those who are free agents or their contracts have expired. So to answer a question above if we franchise Peppers and trade him it doesn't cost us a thing. For example Lewis has a three year contract so he is signed through 2010. if we cut him his prorated signing bonus and roster bonuses as well as incentives likely to be earned will all become due immediately. I read somewhere that his cap cost for 2009 is actually over 6 million although his base salary is around 3. If we cut him now we would still be on the hook for all the guaranteed money left unaccounted for in his 13 million deal. If we cut him after June 1st we could spread it out over 2 years but we still are out several million and we have to factor in the cost of who would replace him. More than likely if we want to keep him we can restructure his contract to save cap now and still keep him for no more than it would cost us to cut him.

Lucas is still under contract through 2010. His base salary for 2009 is 5.6 and 6million in 2010. But his cap number is around 10 million in 2009 and 11 million in 2010. If we cut him as a June 1 cut we will not have to pay the 11 million in salary over the next 2 years but he will still cost us 4.5 against this year and 4.5 next year or a total of 9 million for a guy who we don't have (dead cap space). So we are out 9 million dollars for nothing and we still have to replace him with someone else like Marshall who will cost an arm and leg as well if we keep him. So my point is that after we replace him we may not be saving anything at all.

There are several players you mentioned in the same boat. I don't have to time to detail each one but someone else will in the next few weeks I am sure. Still the cap space we could save by making the moves you suggest may not be that great since salaries and cap cost are 2 entirely different things.

[rayzor]

Could the panthers deal Pep to the Pats for Cassel and maybe a 2nd rounder...would that be even possible and worth it. Just a thought cause would work for both teams.

we are ok on offense but hurting on defense. we have a giant sized hole opening on defense and we go out and pick up a backup QB.

why would we do this?

maybe we could follow it by trading lucas for a backup running back.

we don't need a new QB now. we don't need anything on offense.

we need defense.

DEFENSE!!!!!!!!!!