2014 cap space and resigning concerns and questions

[Frank Hollywood]

I wanted to take a look at our Cap situation for next year to see where we stand. I went to Spotrac and found next years cap to be at 119 million. This leaves us over 4 million in cap room assuming we have a similar cap to last year. It may go up slightly, which will leave us with 5 million. I think we will sign a veteran guard this year and end up carrying over about 12 million

 

Total cap space before resigning Free Agents or draft picks -17 million

-4 million for draft picks

=13 million. Now onto our Free Agents. Below are the notable free agents for next year. There were some others I didn't include as well but no one notable that should be resigned.

Derek Anderson, Byron Bell, Richie Brockel, Jeff Byers, Bruce Cambell, Jimmy Clausen

Colin Cole, James Dockery, Drayton Florence, Graham Gano, Ted Ginn Jr, Jordan Gross

Greg Hardy, Ben Hartstock, Domenik Hixon, Brandon Lafell, Mike Mitchell

DJ Moore, Captain Munnerlyn, Nakamura, Jordan Senn, Jason Williams

 

Out of these 22 players I believe they'll let  7 walk and won't bother to resign

Richie Brockel, Jeff Byers, James Dockery, Graham Gano, Ben Hartstock, Nakamura and Jimmy Clausen

Brockel and Hartstock are not the answer to our TE problem and may not even make the 2013 final roster. Byers will probably be cut to be replaced with a higher quality player in the draft. Dockery the same if he even makes the 2013 final roster. Clausen doesn't fit our scheme and I think we draft a kicker.

 

Out of the remaining 15 Free Agents I believe we will resign 8 with about the same cap hit as their 2013 cap hit.

Derek Anderson-555k, Bruce Cambell-630k , Colin Cole-555k, Domenik Hixon- 1.1 mil,

 Captain Munnerlyn-1.1mil, Jordan Senn-620k , Jason Williams-715k , DJ Moore-620k

 

Total to resign these players is 5.9 million which leaves us with 7.1 million to answer these questions....

 

Byron Bell- I doubt he resigns for his salary in 2013, which was 560k. Starting Right tackles in the NFL make more than that. I think there is a chance we resign him at 1 million on a 1 or 2 year deal. I don't think he is the future but we will probably draft our LT next year, not replace Bell and I doubt we can get cheaper help in FA that would be an upgrade to him.

 

Drayton Florence- If he does well will he resign for vet minimum?

 

Ted Ginn Jr-If he acts as a poor man's Mike Wallace this year helping to open up the field with his speed and does really well he is going to want more than the 1.1 million he earned this year and also ask for a multiple year deal. Is he worth it?

 

Jordan Gross- I don't know how that dummy year affects his cap for 2014 if he decides to play for us, assuming we want him. His cap hit was 5 million this year. If we draft a LT early next year we could pick up a veteran guard for less than half of Gross's price, but that's still another two million towards our cap. I think we let him go after 2013.

 

Mike Mitchell- He's going to shine this year and will not be available at his old price of  $625k

This is just my personal opinion but he's going to perform very, very well this year. What do we pay him?

 

Brandon Lafell- According to another Huddler, he was actually smack in the middle statistically last year. I think he picks up his game this year and is in the top half or number 2 WR's. His cap hit in 2013 is 1.5 mil. There is little  chance he resigns with us for that amount and is probably going to want double that. Anyone know the median number 2 receiver salary?

 

Greg Hardy- We could probably safely resign everyone else if we let the Kraken walk, but I don't see that as an option. To compare his 2014 salary with his 2013 salary of 1.4 million is a joke, considering our other DE, whom I believe Hardy is just about equal to, makes ten times that amount. I think a salary as low as six million in 2014 is doable, if that number escalates greatly after 2014. I think a number around 8-10 million a year is much more realistic.

 

On top of all these questions, we will still have Cam to sign in a future year, but fear not. The large cap jump is coming soon enough and will help along with the release of at least one, if not both running backs. If we can get through 2014 I think we will be ok for the future.

 

 

[PantherFeez]

I have a full blown spreadsheet of projections but won't touch it or really consider it until we have out 53 man roster set. One thing that you won't see in on either overthecap.com or spotrac.com is Gross's $5M+ dead money considered in the 2014 cap numbers. It's going to be tight next year that's for sure. Just by a numbers game Beas + Godfrey will restructure or be cut next year. Also, they are saying the large cap increase might be several years from happening if it happens at all. They are predicting a $2M-$3M increase in the cap next year much like the bump this year 

[rayzor]

good work.

 

there's going to be so much repairing of the cap going forward the next few years i would put off cam's new deal as long as i could. by the time it's time for his new deal, the new TV money will be coming in.

 

the focus needs to be on WR and OL. we have no WRs signed past this year but smith. so that's a given that it would be a priority. i think there is a desire to upgrade the WR corps even more and to bring in another top WR because we are on borrowed time with smith. lafell is a given to get a new deal. if ginn continues the way he has in camp, i see him getting a new deal as well. hixon? maybe. i could see him being the louis murphy of this year that moves on again next year.

 

i still see that right side of that OL being revamped and the search for gross' replacement start up.

 

hardy is also a big deal and i don't see alexander making hardy expendable. rivera said something to the effect that he's got a carrot dangling in front of him so they are probably going to wait until the season is over to handle that one.

 

hardy is probably going to be the biggest sign and i have this feeling that we'll end up handling the WR situation much the same way we did this year just because we'll have to be spending so much energy on that OL in the draft. time is definitely running out on gross and smith, tho. maybe OT and WR with the first couple picks? i don't know.

 

i think that fixing the cap will be an ongoing process, tho. hurney pushed back a whole lot of money that is going to take time to get ironed out and it's going to be a bugaboo for gettleman for the first few years of his tenure.

[Frank Hollywood]

I have a full blown spreadsheet of projections but won't touch it or really consider it until we have out 53 man roster set. One thing that you won't see in on either overthecap.com or spotrac.com is Gross's $5M+ dead money considered in the 2014 cap numbers. It's going to be tight next year that's for sure. Just by a numbers game Beas + Godfrey will restructure or be cut next year. Also, they are saying the large cap increase might be several years from happening if it happens at all. They are predicting a $2M-$3M increase in the cap next year much like the bump this year 

That sucks. Beason just took a paycut for 2013, we'll see how the year goes to see if he's willing to do it again.

 

Hopefully they can restructure Godfrey to make up the difference in the Gross contract.

 

Even a 2-3 million increase would help a ton with what we are working with. It seems like you can pretty much forget any big FA signings. 

 

It also looks like D Will and J Stew may both play through 2014 and possibly 2015 given the way their guaranteed money is set up but that should be interesting to watch.

[Dex]

The Kraken situation with Getts as our GM scares me.

[Frank Hollywood]

good work.

 

there's going to be so much repairing of the cap going forward the next few years i would put off cam's new deal as long as i could. by the time it's time for his new deal, the new TV money will be coming in.

 

the focus needs to be on WR and OL. we have no WRs signed past this year but smith. so that's a given that it would be a priority. i think there is a desire to upgrade the WR corps even more and to bring in another top WR because we are on borrowed time with smith. lafell is a given to get a new deal. if ginn continues the way he has in camp, i see him getting a new deal as well. hixon? maybe. i could see him being the louis murphy of this year that moves on again next year.

 

i still see that right side of that OL being revamped and the search for gross' replacement start up.

 

hardy is also a big deal and i don't see alexander making hardy expendable. rivera said something to the effect that he's got a carrot dangling in front of him so they are probably going to wait until the season is over to handle that one.

 

hardy is probably going to be the biggest sign and i have this feeling that we'll end up handling the WR situation much the same way we did this year just because we'll have to be spending so much energy on that OL in the draft. time is definitely running out on gross and smith, tho. maybe OT and WR with the first couple picks? i don't know.

 

i think that fixing the cap will be an ongoing process, tho. hurney pushed back a whole lot of money that is going to take time to get ironed out and it's going to be a bugaboo for gettleman for the first few years of his tenure.

That sounds like a great receiving corps if it works out that way.

Smith, Lafell, Ginn, Hixon, a round 1 or round 2 draft pick and someone else. 

 

I think the first three rounds of the draft need to be O-Line and WR. At least one of each.

 

As far as Hardy, I disagree somewhat. I think he has proven himself enough already and they should try to lowball him before he totally dominates this season. Offer him something like 5 years, 30 million or he may play here in 2013 and get double that somewhere else next year. If they can't reach a figure, hold off a while.

[Argus Plexus]

I feel sooooooooo BAD for Gett Dawg. Hurney sure didn't do him any favors on his way out.

[PantherFeez]

That sucks. Beason just took a paycut for 2013, we'll see how the year goes to see if he's willing to do it again.

 

Hopefully they can restructure Godfrey to make up the difference in the Gross contract.

 

Even a 2-3 million increase would help a ton with what we are working with. It seems like you can pretty much forget any big FA signings. 

 

It also looks like D Will and J Stew may both play through 2014 and possibly 2015 given the way their guaranteed money is set up but that should be interesting to watch.

Yeah JStew could be cut in either 16 or 17 (like i said I haven't revisited all my notes). But really Beas only took a pay cut for this year alone not affecting any future cuts and the last time I pounded out the projections with recouping needed FA's like LaFell it came down to this..

 

You either let Hardy walk to keep Beas, or you cut Beas to free up enough money to pay Hardy (no brainer)

[Frank Hollywood]

Yeah JStew could be cut in either 16 or 17 (like i said I haven't revisited all my notes). But really Beas only took a pay cut for this year alone not affecting any future cuts and the last time I pounded out the projections with recouping needed FA's like LaFell it came down to this..

 

You either let Hardy walk to keep Beas, or you cut Beas to free up enough money to pay Hardy (no brainer)

That's not cool. I doubt he would play for pennies either...

[CanadianCat]

Good write up.

 

Unfortunately we all know major faces to the franchise need to be let go in order to help us moving forward. We need to really enjoy this year because the next off-season might be a bit rough. 

 

It stands to reason that if our DT group plays to their expected potential that it makes one of the 2 DE positions less important.. thus we let Hardy walk and see what we get from Alexander.. 

[PantherFeez]

Good write up.

 

Unfortunately we all know major faces to the franchise need to be let go in order to help us moving forward. We need to really enjoy this year because the next off-season might be a bit rough. 

 

It stands to reason that if our DT group plays to their expected potential that it makes one of the 2 DE positions less important.. thus we let Hardy walk and see what we get from Alexander.. 

 

Sad but true

 

I want Hardy like everyone else but the Hurney contracts have us by the balls at the moment. Only thing that could really shake things up is if CJ aka Money Bags aka Big Money would take a pay cut as well. Dude's making $15M-$17M and if he truly wants to win he'll do a solid for the team. Everyone else has. 

[Frank Hollywood]

Sad but true

 

I want Hardy like everyone else but the Hurney contracts have us by the balls at the moment. Only thing that could really shake things up is if CJ aka Money Bags aka Big Money would take a pay cut as well. Dude's making $15M-$17M and if he truly wants to win he'll do a solid for the team. Everyone else has to some extent. 

That's the one guy I said from the beginning would not take a pay cut with us. I hope I'm wrong though.

[Manos]

If it comes down to it and Hardy has another good year you cut Beason in a heartbeat to keep Hardy. DE is more important to have than an OLB no matter who it is in the NFL today. As for the draft next year LT and WR have to be the top priority which is troublesome because I doubt you can solve both in the same offseason. Another problem with rolling over all 12 million then using it is you have no rollover going in 2015 but the same if not greater contract obligations meaning we are screwed again.

Ultimately I think the Panthers would be best served finding a serviceable G now(I think Moore is a solid option maybe 2 yrs 6 million) then extending Hardy this season using our remaining free cap room to eat a lot of his contract demands so going forward he is a more reasonable price.

[bleys]

The Kraken situation with Getts as our GM scares me.

 

I may be the only one, but based on what we know of Gettleman and Hardy's motivations straight from himself, I feel pretty good about this situation.

 

Like mentioned by someone else above, Hardy isn't going to be replaced by Alexander.  His value is incredible at this stage of his career simply based on his versatility and motor.  And that career is just taking off.

 

He has stated money isn't his primary motivation and a deal will get worked out.  Although I'm not so naive to believe he doesn't want a fair contract..  With that said, Gettleman also isn't going to hurt the franchise overall just to extend one player. 

 

 

I can see both sides being reasonable to make this happen.