Robert Kraft: We're Going to Get a Deal

[pantherclaw]

JR was a big reason the last CBA was completed.

I bet that he's going to be a big part of the new CBA getting done.

Fans want to hate on him for this season.

Talk about misplaced hate.

Richardson, isn't the reason thee team hasn't been winning games.

But I know. Y'all gotta have a fall guy.

[Anybodyhome]

The uncapped year and the very real likelihood of the lockout next year are the only reasons the Panthers did what they did this season. Under no other circumstance could Jerry Richardson have gotten away with gutting the team similarly to what the Florida Marlins did after winning it all.

That being said, what really screwed things up was Jimmy Clausen falling into the Panther's lap during the draft. There is no way Carolina saw this coming and going into the draft with the plan in place to cut old, go young, draft for 2 years down the road and hope for the best in 2010 all went to crap among fans when Clausen was immediately, prematurely and possibly mistakenly anointed the savior of the franchise. Suddenly winning in 2010 became a priority when it appeared the Panthers had put that entire thought process away until 2012.

Enter a couple other players who turned some heads during preseason (Hardy, Gettis) and all of a sudden the rebuilding process of 2010 may show some promise. Until reality sets in. The Panthers are 2-3 years away from being good or even being relevant again. It's a choice they made and had second thoughts about after it was too late. Now it's a decision they are forced to live with for another 9 games.

[mav1234]

Not signing guys like Moose, Hoover, Keydrick, were all money moves. If he wanted us to be competitive he could have at least signed those guys for cheap (at least Moose/Hoover). The fact they weren't signed to vet min. or something just shows he didn't really care. I hope it all works out, but he may be standing there with egg on his old face by the end of it.

I don't agree they were money moves at all. As you said, they could have been signed for cheap. They made a conscious decision to go with youth so that youth could gain experience and playing time... limited roster spots & active spots, imo, contributed as much if not more than contracts.

WR is an area I don't think we are as weak on as we thought we were early this season, but it's a spot I think they felt somewhat comfortable with. The perception around the Panthers seemed to be that Jarrett would come along since he'd finally have his shot at the #2. that didn't happen. Further, they wanted to invest very heavily in youth at our WR spot because Moose was basically ancient and Smitty is getting up there. Moose could still make catches and still had game but he was taking up a roster spot and playing when we needed to get experience to our incoming youngsters. We rarely ran 3 WR sets, and we have some decent tight ends, so they probably figured that Smitty & Jarrett would be our starters while the rookies developed.

To say that Hoover really would make a big difference is a little inaccurate, I think. I don't think Fiammetta is poorly at all, and he was the "future" for us, a guy coaches were very high on. How the hell do you keep Hoover, Fiammetta, Sutton, Goodson, Stewart, D-Will? That's just too loaded of a backfield, but they felt supremely confident in our young players, and still do - hello, refusing to trade Sutton at all despite him not playing.

You can say that's going cheap or not trying to put out a competitive product, but I actually think it is building for the future. I seriously believe this team thought they had a much better lineup than they did, and I think had Otah not been injured we'd probably be a lot closer to mediocre than to terrible.

[CRA]

JR was a big reason the last CBA was completed.

I bet that he's going to be a big part of the new CBA getting done.

Fans want to hate on him for this season.

Talk about misplaced hate.

Richardson, isn't the reason thee team hasn't been winning games.

But I know. Y'all gotta have a fall guy.

I'd say coaching is the reason....and that is Jerry's fault. Jerry gave us another year of Fox....and Jerry has handicapped him in terms of players (this year) and coaching staff (the past few). Jerry created this season of crap.

[Montsta]

A CBA deal will get done. I have no reservations in predicting this. IMO the writing is on the wall that it'll get done and there will be football. I can't think of one team that will be in a better financial position to sign all of it's core young players after the CBA gets done. We will have a ton of money even after locking up guys like Kalil, Williams, and Davis. And even if Fox is gone and the new regime doesn't like his current QB options, we will be able to draft a QB high at probably 1/3 of the cost that STL spent on Bradford. That's just fine by me.

Look at it this way. Dallas spent money and has all this talent and hasn't had nearly the injury problems to key players we have (1-5 before Romo went down), and we'll be in so much better shape than them it's not even funny. Both Dallas and the pundits thought they had built a contender, and they haven't done a damn thing.

I know throw away seasons are tough to swallow, but next year when it's business as usual you will see a Panthers team that is leaps and bounds better than what we have now. And then some quality FA's and depth signings won't be out of the question like they are this year.

[mav1234]

Just curious, what did JR do to handicap him in terms of coaching staff?

[Mr. Scot]

Fox has had full leeway to choose his own staff.

[pantherclaw]

Not signing guys like Moose, Hoover, Keydrick, were all money moves. If he wanted us to be competitive he could have at least signed those guys for cheap (at least Moose/Hoover). The fact they weren't signed to vet min. or something just shows he didn't really care. I hope it all works out, but he may be standing there with egg on his old face by the end of it.

Actually, the fact those old vets are still out of work/retired, shows that it was the right moves.

But keep twisting poo to support your bs hate.

[rayzor]

Just curious, what did JR do to handicap him in terms of coaching staff?

Fox has had full leeway to choose his own staff.

only thing i could see as a deterrent would be the lack of job security we could provide here. any potential candidates would have to know that n contracts would last beyond the 2010 season. even if contracts weren't limited to just beyond 2010, when the HC situation is up in the air and no moves have been made to extend his deal, chances of getting released to make room for the new regime would be high.

this might be something that a lot of good assistant coaching candidates would look at and say, no thank you".

agreed that fox can choose who he wants, but the situation they would be coming into would be less than desirable.

[pantherclaw]

I'd say coaching is the reason....and that is Jerry's fault. Jerry gave us another year of Fox....and Jerry has handicapped him in terms of players (this year) and coaching staff (the past few). Jerry created this season of crap.

Really. Well, we already know you don't like the coaching staff.

Fox can coach.

The oline has sucked this season. You can blame that on whatever.

If we had the running game to lean on, this season would be a lot better.

Without the run game , the offense just isn't good enough to over come the mistakes that are being made.

[mav1234]

do you really think that was a consideration when hiring Davidson and Meeks? It seems like there was still a good chance for a contract extension back then if the team performed...

[CRA]

Fox has had full leeway to choose his own staff.

he has been handicapped in that process though. He has been given the green light to go out and hire anyone.......anyone willing to come for a 1 yr contract or a 2 yr contract etc. That limits what Fox could do heading into the season. I mean, even if Fox wanted to go out and get a good QB coach or OC heading into this season.......he couldn't

[Proudiddy]

Think about what you said here for a second, and answer me this.

Among the people we let go, who would you have given "huge extensions" to?

(don't bother saying Peppers; he was offered and didn't want to stay)

The team had a bunch of older guys that were decent, but overpaid. They got rid of that bad money and went young. It's a strategy a lot of teams have used in the past to set up for long term success. We had a unique opportunity to do it because of the uncapped year.

I get all that. I don't really have a problem with any of the guys we let go, they were all old and on the last leg of their careers. My problem is we didn't do anything else, like DWill, for example. The guy was a TOP 5 NFL RB coming into this season by many accounts... Why hasn't he been offered an extension? Unless it is, as SC suggested, that JR promised it behind closed doors after a CBA was done.

Everyone's saying it was his opportunity to go young, but that's just putting a nice pretty bow and wrapping paper over an empty box. His REAL reasons for the cuts and lack of FA activity this offseason was saving as much money as possible. It was primarily money-motivated, but because much of the money we got rid of was 'old' it made for a good, 'we've got young talented guys we're ready to develop' story. James Anderson IMO was just as good last year, maybe even the year before that, as he is this year. Only improvement he made was perhaps in his coverage... He's cheap, so he's playing now.

Again, I wouldn't have extended anyone that we let go. I don't disagree with those moves, I'm questioning the legitimacy of the motives... And as far as Pep, he turned down the contract last year and said he wanted to come back and sign here after last season and our FO didn't communicate with him at all. It depends on who you believe, and after seeing what else was done money-wise this offseason, I have every reason to believe we didn't offer the contract again and let him walk. I don't have a huge problem with letting him go now, b/c I was excited for what Johnson could do, although he's nowhere near the athlete Pep is... But, then we got Hardy. Again, my problem here is how it was handled. We let him hold us hostage the year before and made no moves b/c he was making $16 Mil. Then, we don't even tag him and trade him for compensation this offseason???

That's why it seems insulting to the fans. It appears as though we made NO attempt to get better, and JR just said, "well, we have to start over... there's no CBA in place, so I don't really care how we do this year... we'll start from scratch when a new deal is in place, this year's a wash." No compensation for Pep. No extensions for our top players still here. No additions through FA outside of ST IIRC... It really seems more like 'I don't care' than 'we're going young.' That's why this has been frustrating.

If we would've at least tried to be competitive through getting some solid FA additions - A vet QB for example, A vet WR (Boldin, Housh, Walters, etc.), etc., I'd have an easier time just accepting a bad season. But, if we would've won, and say, gone on and won the Super Bowl and there wasn't a CBA in place, we still won a Super Bowl, lol... There's no asterisk. I thought the point was to be competitive every year.

Again, I think of the Patriots and Colts. Winners year in and year out. Now the Ravens. Their offseasons seemed to fall in with what they usually do each offseason. The Pats 'go young' every couple of years... They trade relatively young guys (Branch, Seymour, Maroney, Moss) and get picks to build up their dynasty for years to come. When they see a Vet they need, they go get him (at different times Moss, Branch, Adalius Thomas, signed Torry Holt), they still make FA acquisitions. How many different players have played WR for the Colts over the last 5 years or so? The Ravens - build through solid drafts, sign key players at positions of need for fair market value...

I thought our strategy was to build through the draft? Hurney overall has been good at it, but the last 2 years, and maybe 3 have been questionable now. No one can anticipate injury, but trading up again to get Otah... Everette Brown, Armanti... You won't see the Patriots doing that. And again, if anyone needed a #2 WR in the offseason it was us. We never even attempted to go after anyone, other than Wallace Wright.

Sorry for the novel, but I'm just saying, when you put all these things together it's frustrating, and seems there's no method to the madness at times.

[Panthro]

They also signed Mankins to an extension...not just Brady