How much would have been saved if Gross signed last year?

[PanthersFanNY]

It sucks that we didn't extend him last year, probably would have saved us boatloads.

Last year I bet we could have gotten him for somewhere around 6 years, $42 million max.

How much do you think we could have saved had we signed him last year?

[Sloth]

His knock prior to this last season was that we weren't positive how he'd perform at LT for a season. Guy would get shuffled around all the time. They gave him a shot at LT for a complete season to establish his worth and he stepped up and had an all-pro season.

Now we know he can be a damn good LT and that he deserves every penny he's going to get.

[mountainpantherfan]

Hind sight is always 20/20. There was just as much of a chance we would have signed him to that deal that year and he ended up stinking up the place and then it would have appeared that we wasted money on him.

I don't mind the deal he got as I don't see it as over paying. He got what he deserved within the market. Last offseason, with the type of contract you mentioned I would have thought the team was overpaying. The team just missed out on an opportunity to get a steal of a contract. Which is better than over paying for some bust like Justin Hartwig.

[X-Clown]

I don't mind the deal he got as I don't see it as over paying. He got what he deserved within the market. Last offseason, with the type of contract you mentioned I would have thought the team was overpaying. The team just missed out on an opportunity to get a steal of a contract. Which is better than over paying for some bust like Justin Hartwig.

Exactly. The deal is relatively inexpensive given what he could have gotten on the market...plus it rewards him for the great season he had last year.

[Kurb]

His knock prior to this last season was that we weren't positive how he'd perform at LT for a season. Guy would get shuffled around all the time. They gave him a shot at LT for a complete season to establish his worth and he stepped up and had an all-pro season.

Now we know he can be a damn good LT and that he deserves every penny he's going to get.

Winner Winner

[PanthersFanNY]

I don't think we overpaid either, he deserves every cent. But we still could have saved money had we signed him last year, and that just kind of sucks.

[Mr. Scot]

Last season, Gross may have thought he was worth a contract like this, and he may have been (apparently) but you can forgive the team for not knowing that for sure prior to this season's performance.

[mantal]

How much would have been saved if Gross signed last year?

A year's worth of worry?...

[carpanfan96]

His knock prior to this last season was that we weren't positive how he'd perform at LT for a season. Guy would get shuffled around all the time. They gave him a shot at LT for a complete season to establish his worth and he stepped up and had an all-pro season.

Now we know he can be a damn good LT and that he deserves every penny he's going to get.

Exactly, last year he was asking for LT money and we had him playing RT, now he makes LT money playing LT. At most we would've saved maybe 2 million a season and that's iffy.

[pantherclaw]

He would have gotten a boat load last year too. I'm personally happy he turned in the season he did at LT before extending him.

[Frizzy350]

hmm i still dont think he deserves his payout... the highest of olinemen in history? i mean hes good guys, but no way in hell is he the best in the league right now especially with his false start issues.

[pantherclaw]

get over the false start stuff. Every tackle has false starts. some years will be better than none. And without a doubt, he was the best tackle available this year. He got the contract he got cause he's the best tackle this year. If you think he's overpaid now, would hate to see how sick you would be if he made it to the free market.

[carpanfan96]

hmm i still dont think he deserves his payout... the highest of olinemen in history? i mean hes good guys, but no way in hell is he the best in the league right now especially with his false start issues.

His first three year are the highest ever for an Olinemen. The last three years of the deal are very friendly to the panthers. He's still only the second highest paid OLinemen in overall contract worth next to Jake long.

[Badbak]

False starts show that an OL is trying! When you are playing on the Ol you have to try and take every advantage you can. You are going up against guys that can just go all out trying to get to the QB with no other responsibilities. You on the other hand have to protect your QB. If you fail on your job your QB and rest of your team suffers. If the DE fails a pass gets completed and you line up and try again. Every once in a while an OL jumps, could be that the QB pauses in his cadence because he is looking at the defense or getting a WR lined up. A defensive player could jump and you just can't keep from flinching. It is really hard to hold your stance, wind up like a spring, read the defense making sure you have your blocking assignment figured out while keeping up with what the QB is saying while the DL and LBs are dancing around. Its really hard! When an OL jumps nobody feels worse than he does, ever notice that when a guy jumps the other OLs never get on him? They slap him on the butt or back and tell him to shake it off, it will be OK.