Panthers attempting to trade Steve Smith.

[stirs]

I will give you guys some things to think about.

 

1. Gman makes the infamous statement during Combine week.  Just to be hard on Smitty?  Really? Or letting the rest of the league know there might be a chance they can have him.

 

2. Not sure what he will bring in a trade, but Smith himself might have asked for this just to see if he could squeeze a couple more seasons out at big dollars.

He won't get em here.  He and Gman might have a deal where Steve can approve the trade as far as location.

 

3, The fact that the trade talk is being leaked might mean there truly is interest in him.  I personally think the Ravens would be a good fit.  They lost Boldin and Ray Lewis and just seemed to lose their swagger last season.

 

4. The reaction here is typical jr high, knee jerk stuff that had to come out.  We would see the same stuff next year this time when he had lost an add'l step and costs an add'l million or two.  The NFL is not a place where you have 20 yr careers unless you are a kicker.  Same people bitching about Smith leaving probably put up "double trouble ain't going nowhere" a few seasons back.  The foresight is not incredibly strong here.  Smith is firey and a trash talker, but that no longer makes his performance that of a pro bowler, in fact, he has traded his diminishing skill set for trash talk and occasional asshattery.  But he is our asshat, so we like it.

 

5.  Cam Newton could actually benefit from this move.  He can now claim the offense at a minimum and possibly the team, especially with Gross and Smitty being gone.  He had better anyway.

 

6.  One note, this thread would be about 7 pages less if the word "fug" was banned, proving emotion is high and common sense hard to find.

 

 

 

 

[Growl]

Saying he has "earned" the right to go out on his terms is tidiculous. He earned the millions that we paid him. That is all that a player earns.

Montana, Rice, Manning, etc did not leave their teams on their terms.

This is a multiple billion dollar industry and these are multimillion dollar corporations whether fans accept that it not.

Steve Young, Terrell Owens, Andrew Luck

[fjblair]

No bigger gamble than signing him long term.

 

I agree with you. I just think Hardy is a big gamble with the money he expects, either way.

[pantherphan96]

The fact that this is even being discussed while Jonathan stewart collects free millions from us is an tragedy.

If we're cutting players for no other reason that spite without any regard for the financial situation, then by all means cut that jolly dork rather than the one perimeter player we have.

 

If there was any benefit from cutting Stewart, he would be gone. All it would do would increase the amount of dead money in the cap, an area we lead the NFL in already. All we can do is keep Stewart and hope he returns to his 2008/2009 form or something near it so we can trade him midseason to a desperate team (*cough* Giants/Browns *cough*) for a draft pick and get rid of his cap number.

[tondi]

Do you know what was said between Gett and Smitty? Or even when the first conversations occurred?

Gett could very well have proposed a way for Smitty to stay and Smitty said fug you.

He has earned millions here abd is flat out no longer worth 23 million over the next 3 years.

 

That's why I said "IF".  I'm willing to wait for the details. 

[Seal (SmittyIsOurSavior)]

Stupid.

[Pox 08]

In Gman I trust.

 

89 will get like $7M from us + whatever he gets from another team,  if we cut him.     89 will get his. 

 

 

I love the guy,  but no more crap of holding onto veterans  for sentimental purposes.   Especially if the front office feels as if they can upgrade. I don't know if they feel this way....  which is why I said "IF". 

[TheNewStandard]

Gonna miss watching Smitty raise hell on Sundays

Now is as good a time as any to move forward and there's no other way to handle this. Trade or cut. Steve's ego is bruised and he's too much of a loose canon to keep in the locker room.

This is Cam, Luke, Kraken and CJ's team now. Takes nothing from mighty-mite and breaking up is never easy.

[MadHatter]

Steve Young, Terrell Owens, Andrew Luck

And no one knows who may be brought in...part of my point

[stirs]

I hate this.

 

 

 

Alright G-man. You want to wear the big boy pants and make big boy choices for a team? Let's see what kind of excellent talent you bring in to work with Cam in the future. Because it better be very good.

 

Have you SEEN his pants?  I would say he's already in big boy pants, really big boy.  Course they have a pair of chicken legs dangling from them, but still....

 

[Growl]

If there was any benefit from cutting Stewart, he would be gone. All it would do would increase the amount of dead money in the cap, an area we lead the NFL in already. All we can do is keep Stewart and hope he returns to his 2008/2009 form or something near it so we can trade him midseason to a desperate team (*cough* Giants/Browns *cough*) for a draft pick and get rid of his cap number.

It has been documented within this thread that outright cutting Smith would be financially detrimental to the team.

[Catalyst]

Anyone who thinks this is personal between Gettleman and Smith is an idiot. This is business, pure and simple. It hurts because Smith is such a legend on this team, but he has clearly lost a step and for the sake of the long-term future this move had to be made.

 

The business side of the NFL is often ugly.

[TheNewStandard]

One more thing...if the Panthers were going to utilize a speedy slot receiver, thy would have done it by now and GMan is obviously more keen on what we have without Smitty and what we might get than moving forward with Smitty's contract in tow.

[TN05]

Just read they might have removed the jersey because Steve wanted to change it to 'Smith Sr.'.