Panthers release LB Onatolu

[Jackofalltrades]

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[vorbis]

wonder if he showed up for offseason workouts yesterday, and if he did, there was some issue that popped up. otherwise, yeah, roster move has to becoming. panthers have plenty of roster space, though.

[panthermonium]

So current LB's are Beason, Keeks, Davis, Blackburn, Senn, Williams, Hogue?

Blackburn is a more than competent backup, Senn and Williams a short time fill in. Hogue is a guy.

Hmmm.

[CatMan72]

Not sure if it's to clear 775k in cap space or just to clear dead weight?

Either way, this move makes sense.

[Floppin]

I went over to Spotrac and I didnt see in his contract any dead money, so I believe we gain the 700K. I could be wrong though....

You are right, there was no signing bonus, so it's a clean savings of his base salary

Well sorta. Remember, any time you release someone it bumps a low contract player into the top 51 who otherwise wouldn't have counted against the cap. The real savings are probably in the 200-300 range. Anyone we signed would presumably move that person back off the cap to be replaced by their new cap hit.

So it works like this, in theory - Supposing we were at exactly our cap and we released Onatolu providing a true savings of around 300k, but we could still sign someone with exactly the same cap hit as before because it would push the new cap hit back off of our cap total.

[ElkinPanthersFan]

Can't believe this man is GONE.. What a Highlight Video!

[rayzor]

Do we lose $775K in cap space or gain? 'Cap hit' could be read either way to me haha

gain.

[SmashNDash]

Oh man, he's going to show back up on Youtube and Twitter under a fake ID to hype himself back up again. He may even show up here hahaha.

[RockyTopVol]

What am I going to do with my Onatolu jersey, now?

[rayzor]

What am I going to do with my Onatolu jersey, now?

take it back to goodwill. that's what i'm doing anyway.

[carolina-chuck]

Saw it coming long ago. Sad he couldn't contribute on ST.

[carolina-chuck]

So current LB's are Beason, Keeks, Davis, Blackburn, Senn, Williams, Hogue?

Blackburn is a more than competent backup, Senn and Williams a short time fill in. Hogue is a guy.

Hmmm.

Hogue and Williams are probably gone after the cuts.

[Gallagher]

That's too bad. I remember watching his highlight videos when we signed him and getting stoked. Really, I guess it was too bad he got hurt so early, so we didn't really get to see what he was made of. With Keek, Beason, Davis and now Blackburn, our LB core is solid enough that we don't have to let guys with potential take up roster spots.

Here's hoping this move let's us pick up a nose tackle or offensive guard.

[rayzor]

Not sure if it's to clear 775k in cap space or just to clear dead weight?

Either way, this move makes sense.

well, workouts started this week, right? maybe that had something to do with it.

i do think that really the only reason it would be done now is if they have someone they are going to be picking up. we should find out in the next day if there's anything to that.