Panthers 2012 Free Agents, Players Under Contract & Cap Space

[carpanfan96]

This is how I see things going.

Restructure/Extend

Chris Gamble, DB...............$9,950,000 ($8,400,000)

Jordan Gross, OT...............$9,500,000 ($2,000,000)

Steve Smith, WR................$9,450,000 ($1,700,000)

DeAngelo Williams, RB........$9,200,000 ($21,800,000)- Push money to the back end of the contract.

Cut

Travelle Wharton, OG.........$8,100,000 ($2,400,000)- may restructure by I am guessing cut

Thomas Davis, OLB.............$5,900,000 ($5,600,000)- resign with smaller contract

Armanti Edwards, WR..........$792,500 ($355,000)

Mike Goodson, RB...............$823,000 ($123,000)

Jason Baker, P...................$1,612,500 ($62,500)

These cuts will save the team 8,687,500 on the cap

Possible cut

Olinda Mare, K...................$3,200,000 ($3,000,000)

Ok, Thomas Davis doesn't have a salary cap for next season, he's got a bonus for being on the Roster that's 8 million dollars. If he gets that Bonus then the above cap numbers would be correct. Other wise, it's going to be almost a completely clear cap cut costing the team hardly any money.

Dwill isn't going to get restructured the season after he just signed a new deal, they'd have to add more salary and signing bonuses to his current deal, then extend it a few years. That would completely kill the team in 3 years cap wise when cutting your RB cost the team a 8 million cap hit.

Also wouldn't expect Mare to be cut after the deal he got.

Also if the team restructures Gamble, Gross and Smitty it could free up a lot of cap space. (see 2011 Dallas Cowboys saving 30 million with 3 restructures.)

[unicar15]

Theres gonna be a whole lotta restructuring going on.

Agreed and its going to need to start at the RB position. We need to have both of those running backs in order to run some of the spread but not at 9 million per year for one of them. That is insane.

[unicar15]

Ok, Thomas Davis doesn't have a salary cap for next season, he's got a bonus for being on the Roster that's 8 million dollars. If he gets that Bonus then the above cap numbers would be correct. Other wise, it's going to be almost a completely clear cap cut costing the team hardly any money.

Dwill isn't going to get restructured the season after he just signed a new deal, they'd have to add more salary and signing bonuses to his current deal, then extend it a few years. That would completely kill the team in 3 years cap wise when cutting your RB cost the team a 8 million cap hit.

Also wouldn't expect Mare to be cut after the deal he got.

Also if the team restructures Gamble, Gross and Smitty it could free up a lot of cap space. (see 2011 Dallas Cowboys saving 30 million with 3 restructures.)

Let me also say that no matter what happens with the players...Marty Hurney needs to be fired. There is no way that a team with THIS MUCH talent deficiency on one side of the ball should have zero room to make moves. You could point to any number of contracts as fireable so hopefully Richardson just pulls the plug becuase we need someone in here that does what is best for the team and not just "the players that he has drafted."

[tjstevens58]

DWILL AND JSTEW are a team and as such need to be retained. Both have plenty of tread left and I love "Double Trouble", or should it be "Triple-headed Monster"? What does everyone think? What is our backfield's new Nickname?

[Kevin Greene]

Bumped an old thread?

bant!!1!1!!!1!!1!!1

[mountainpantherfan]

Hurney has always (except for 2010) been the top of the cap and he's also known for front loading contracts. I'm not worried about the cap. If nothing else Hurney has always been better at negotiating contracts and managing the cap. If we need the cap space to sign a player(s) then Hurney will make it happen.

[Ruff]

This poo should be stickied the rest of the off-season.

[mountainpantherfan]

Let me also say that no matter what happens with the players...Marty Hurney needs to be fired. There is no way that a team with THIS MUCH talent deficiency on one side of the ball should have zero room to make moves. You could point to any number of contracts as fireable so hopefully Richardson just pulls the plug becuase we need someone in here that does what is best for the team and not just "the players that he has drafted."

I think you make a case, and I have in the past, to fire Hurney for poor player evaluations and coaching management. But he is one of the best in the league when it comes to managing the cap and player contracts. Yeah he sometimes overpays but he rarely ever puts the team in a bad situation as far as the cap goes.

[DaCityKats]

being a cap manager is only part of being a GM. drafting well is another part or role the GM needs to be good at. would you keep a DE just for being a good run stopper but has 0 sacks?

no you wouldnt ex. Brayton.

[Ruff]

being a cap manager is only part of being a GM. drafting well is another part or role the GM needs to be good at. would you keep a DE just for being a good run stopper but has 0 sacks?

no you wouldnt ex. Brayton.

I'm not really sure what this means. We didn't draft Tyler Brayton, he was a good player, but we wanted to go with youth. Tyler Brayton didn't fit that mold.

[mountainpantherfan]

being a cap manager is only part of being a GM. drafting well is another part or role the GM needs to be good at. would you keep a DE just for being a good run stopper but has 0 sacks?

no you wouldnt ex. Brayton.

Hurney has a good record when it comes to drafting, not great but better than average.

But my point was that there is a case for firing Hurney but cap management isn't one of them.

[rayzor]

two things to consider here.

1) we'll be able to borrow $1.5mil against the 2013 cap to go towards re-signing vets (link)

and

B) unused cap from this year rolls over into next year

per andrew brandt

The new CBA has, for the first time, provided teams a valuable benefit: the ability to carry over remaining Cap room into the following year.

In the past, teams would have to go through the charade of “dummy incentives” in order to bring forward Cap room into the next year. I would usually negotiate with our third-string quarterback in the final week of the season with a bonus of “$10 million for 7 touchdown passes.”

The $10 million would then count on the existing Cap and, when unearned, be credited to the next year’s Cap (although there was a scary moment one year where the player with the bonus, Craig Nall, ended up playing most of the final game due to having clinched our playoff spot!).

Teams no longer need to go through that charade. Thus, teams will have adjusted Caps of much more than the projected 2012 Cap number of around $125 million. A team like the Buccaneers, for example, with $25 million remaining in Cap room, may have an adjusted 2012 Cap of close to $150 million.

http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/Closing-the-books-on-2011.html

also this little thing...we don't know what the capo is going to be. there is no way of really projecting this thing accurately, not that we could before, but the rules have changed a bit.

Beginning in 2012, salary cap to be set “based on a combined share of ‘all revenue.’” Players will receive 55 percent of national media revenue, 45 percent of NFL Ventures revenue and 40 percent of local club revenue.

http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/22475988/30777004

until we know what those figures are, it's hard to really tell how much room we'll have. more than likely it will be well above what people are estimating.

another thing...there's some new tv contracts that ended up bring incredibly lucrative to the NFL, much more so than what has been. with the players due 55% of tv broadcast revenue this is going to be huge. it's not going to hit until 2014 which on the surface doesn't really impact things unless you think about how contracts can be backloaded to take advantage of the increased revenue.

essentially...it's not something i would really worry about.

we'll be able to get who we need.

[brownzville2]

Great info my friend!!

I think that we need to restructure D-Will, Thomas Davis and Jordan Gross contract that should give us about $5-$9 million, cut K olindo mare, Makenzey Bernadeau, and we could also trade Travelle Wharton and a 2nd round pick and 2013 third round pick to a team to get back into the 1st round and draft a DT or a DE. I say use our 1st pick on David Decastro, OG out of Stanford and then use another 1st round pick on DE Whitney Mercilus or DT Dontari Poe!!