An extra $16 million in cap space in 3 easy steps

[panthers55]

Even as a June 1st, your still talking about an 12 million cap hit in dead money in 2014 and 6 million in 2015. A regular cut and he saves the team barely any money and has a 16 million cap hit and no player to show for it.

CJ isn't going anywhere this season at least.

The fact that we can't unload him easily is why he will be here but that won't be the problem next year.  On the other hand one option could be to extend him for 2 more years to spread out his cap hit if we think he will still be playing when he is 32 and we really want him.  He won't want to extend for not much money besides what he got but he might do it if he thought we would dump him after this year and he couldn't get any big offers which are equal to what we are paying him.  How much Hardy gets paid here or elsewhere will actually determine what happens with Johnson in a year.  I just  can't see us having a cap hit of 17 million next year.  16 this year is outrageous for anyone not a quarterback.

We can thank Hurney and Richardson for the 2010 debacle and subsequent overpaying Williams and Johnson to keep them after a 2-14 season.