Scouting out NFC South salary-cap room

[jtm]

JTM, did you mean DT? With Johnson, Hardy, and Brown I am not sure we will go looking for a DE, but we certainly need some help in the middle.

CB is another area I expect us to look at in FA. But that's about it.

Oops, good catch. Yes, I meant DT.

[jtm]

Things I believe are imparative as soon as the lockout is over:

1. Resign the core football players of our team:

A) DeAngelo Williams

B) Charles Johnson

C) James Anderson

D) Dante Rosario

2. Contract extensions or player trades for our bubble players:

A) Jon Beason (extend)

B) Ryan Kalil (extend)

C) Steve Smith (extend or trade)

D) Mackenzy Bernadeau (extend)

We cant have talented players just walking away from our team anymore; (see Julius Peppers) we must either extend or trade them in their last year on contract.

3. Sign the rookies (come on Rookie Cap!, no whammie, no whammie, stop)

4. Make some serious moves in FA

A) DT

B) CB

C) O-Line, G and T

D) WR depth (depending on smitty)

4. Get into training camp and let talent levels sort out our starters!

Anyone want to predict if this is gonna be possibly with our salary cap room? I do not know how much these things cost.

I liked everything you said, but not sure why we would extend Smitty's contract. Only rationale would be to free up cap space, but I doubt he or the Panthers are going to be willing to do that. On core players, I wouldn't put a back-up tight end in that category but I would like to see what he can do under a new regime. He doesn't cost us much and I expect we will resign Rosario.

[Ja Rhule]

Yeah some people are acting like we have 30-40 million to sign free agents and we will go out and pursue top name talent. When you add that the 30-40 million is a cap figure and doesn't include the signing bonuses which have to paid upfront at the time the contract is signed, it will be actually a lot more coming out of Richardson's pocket.

No one is saying Richardson won't be spending money. Just to sign the core group of guys will cost him 80-100 million in signing bonuses. That is hardly cheap. But what people are saying is that once he does that, there won't be a ton of cash left to throw around. We will be picking up free agents but they may not be the big name expensive name guys being thrown out for discussion. Just as likely it will be guys you haven't heard about who have been around the league and can be had for less money. When we needed a right tackle a few years ago we brought in four or five guys and found Vincent. He was solid but not spectacular and was cheap. If we make a big splash this year it will be one guy maybe 2 but not the flood some folks expect. If we pick a dozen guys in free agency most people will not be wowed by the majority of them. Much like they weren't when we picked up Brayton for example.

Funny thing is... We might have $30m left, all depends on Hurney. Hurney backloads most of his contracts. I believe Lucas contract was frontloaded and it backfired. After 2 seasons he start sucking total ass.

[MadHatter]

Yeah some people are acting like we have 30-40 million to sign free agents and we will go out and pursue top name talent. When you add that the 30-40 million is a cap figure and doesn't include the signing bonuses which have to paid upfront at the time the contract is signed, it will be actually a lot more coming out of Richardson's pocket.

No one is saying Richardson won't be spending money. Just to sign the core group of guys will cost him 80-100 million in signing bonuses. That is hardly cheap. But what people are saying is that once he does that, there won't be a ton of cash left to throw around. We will be picking up free agents but they may not be the big name expensive name guys being thrown out for discussion. Just as likely it will be guys you haven't heard about who have been around the league and can be had for less money. When we needed a right tackle a few years ago we brought in four or five guys and found Vincent. He was solid but not spectacular and was cheap. If we make a big splash this year it will be one guy maybe 2 but not the flood some folks expect. If we pick a dozen guys in free agency most people will not be wowed by the majority of them. Much like they weren't when we picked up Brayton for example.

I don't think anyone on here thinks that the Panthers are going ot go out and bring in a ton of FA's. Most (even the ones you appear to be argueing with) are saying the same thing.

We will sign our core FA's and go after a couple of players. In my opinion, we will make a push for a vet DT (like a Coefield)....sign a DB(like a Joseph type player...especially if they let Marshall go).....sign a mid tier LB (Rivera has said so a couple of times)....sign a WR (only if Smitty leaves)....and sign a vet QB to ride the pine and work with Cam.

Not HUGE money.

[Ja Rhule]

I don't think anyone on here thinks that the Panthers are going ot go out and bring in a ton of FA's. Most (even the ones you appear to be argueing with) are saying the same thing.

We will sign our core FA's and go after a couple of players. In my opinion, we will make a push for a vet DT (like a Coefield)....sign a DB(like a Joseph type player...especially if they let Marshall go).....sign a mid tier LB (Rivera has said so a couple of times)....sign a WR (only if Smitty leaves)....and sign a vet QB to ride the pine and work with Cam.

Not HUGE money.

This... After we sign core players, we gonna go after 3-4 good FA (not stars). Won't be surprised if we get Sidney Rice, Coefield, and a #2 corner.

[SorthNarolina]

WAIT A SECOND

Is that 73 million factoring all of the penalties of cutting all the vets? That had to add up to 10 million or something with the whole Delhome fiasco.

[Leeroy Jenkins PhD]

I liked everything you said, but not sure why we would extend Smitty's contract. Only rationale would be to free up cap space, but I doubt he or the Panthers are going to be willing to do that. On core players, I wouldn't put a back-up tight end in that category but I would like to see what he can do under a new regime. He doesn't cost us much and I expect we will resign Rosario.

The way I see it with Smitty, we are either in extend or trade mode. It does us no good long term to have him play out his contract and dissappear. We can not allow Smith to leave the way Peppers did.

We either lock him up for another 5 years, or we send him packing for some draft picks. I know, its a hard thing to think about, but long term, what is just one more year of Smith going to do for us?? Were not going to make a superbowl run this year.......

[Guild]

How can you join a blog online, and know very little about the sport or organization?

Maybe because one wants to learn about them?

[Peppers90 NC]

WAIT A SECOND

Is that 73 million factoring all of the penalties of cutting all the vets? That had to add up to 10 million or something with the whole Delhome fiasco.

I think they did that early enough last year to where it would have penalized last seasons uncapped year. Im not a hundred percent, but that shouldnt effect this season.

[Carolina Crazy V2]

This is nothing new. We have enough to sign Cofield and a vet QB, as well as our major free agents. And if Smith leaves, we sign a receiver.

I don't see any reason to react negatively to this. If anything, it's positive because it means that Richardson is actually spending money and in the new CBA, we may have to spend 90% of the cap room.

[Carolina Crazy V2]

I expect us to be at about 105 million after free agency.

[jtm]

The way I see it with Smitty, we are either in extend or trade mode. It does us no good long term to have him play out his contract and dissappear. We can not allow Smith to leave the way Peppers did.

We either lock him up for another 5 years, or we send him packing for some draft picks. I know, its a hard thing to think about, but long term, what is just one more year of Smith going to do for us?? Were not going to make a superbowl run this year.......

Good points but I can't imagine Smitty resigning with us and I can't see us trading him. I think we are in no man's land and with good reason. 99% of the athletes would be retiring two years from now when Smitty's contract expires. The fact that he will most likely still have fuel in the tank at age 34 is impressive. The Panthers and Smitty put that contract together a couple of years ago so Smitty could retire a Panther. The fact he might be able to have more fuel is a good problem to have.

I agree that we should trade Smitty if we can. Reality is we can probably only get a 3rd-4th round pick for him. For that, I will keep him and take my chances. We took a guy that I have never heard of in the 4th round last year.

[Snake]

Your a fool to think we will not sign any FAs. Your also a fool to think we will get into a bidding war.

[SorthNarolina]

Your a fool to think we will not sign any FAs. Your also a fool to think we will get into a bidding war.

I think we'll probably sign reliable old dudes from some of the coach's previous tenures. but not many big FAs Coefield is the only one I want.