Uncapped Season: What it means…

By Sam J

What will happen in an uncapped year… in terms everyday Panthers fans will understand…

1. The “Final Eight” plan:

This plan you may have heard about will cause the final 8 playoff teams (the 1 and 2 seeds from each conference, and the winners of the 3-6, 4-5 seed games in each conference) to not be able to enter a normal free agency period in 2010.

The final four teams in the playoffs (the participants of the conference championship games) will not be allowed to sign any unrestricted free agents in 2010, except:

a. Those who became Unrestricted by being waived from another team.
b. Their own Unrestricted free agents from this past season
c. One Unrestricted free agent per Unrestricted free agent from their team this past season signed by another team. This stipulation also specifies that the “New Player’s” first year salary cannot be higher than the salary of the lost free agent’s first year salary.

The remaining four playoff teams (those who lost in the round before the conference championships) are also restricted to a, b, and c above, but have the opportunity to sign any Unrestricted free agent as follows:

d. (1) One player that will have a first year salary of $4,925,000 or more, and
(2) Any number of players who’s contract cannot have more than $3,275,000 in the first year and who’s additional years have no more than 30% of that first year’s salary. In addition, these contracts cannot be later renegotiated to increase the salaries of later years until one year after the signing date.

This plan is to prevent any of the elite teams (through advancement into the second round of the playoffs) from going on a spending spree and buying up all the upper tier free agents to add to their already strong rosters.

Also, it is important to note, any of the Final Eight teams cannot trade for any player that it wouldn’t be allowed to sign under the provisions above.

2. 4th and 5th year players will no longer be eligible for unrestricted free agency. That number moves to 6th year, and 4th and 5th year players will now become restricted free agents.

This gives the team the ability to tender potential unrestricted free agents, exercise the right of first refusal on those players, and receive compensation should they sign elsewhere.

Potentially, without a cap on expenses, teams could overspend and tender all of their restricted free agents (including those 4th and 5th year players who would have become unrestricted in a normal offseason) with the high tender, and dare a team to try and sign one (thus giving up 1st and 3rd round picks in the process).

3. An extra Transition tag…

Teams will not only have the use of a Franchise or Transition tag like in normal operating years, but they can use both the Franchise and Transition tags, as well as an extra Transition tag. This means a team can basically protect three of its unrestricted free agents.

In normal operating years, you can choose to use one or the other. In an uncapped year, you can use both plus another.

4. How low can you go?

The existence of a salary cap also comes with a salary floor. This is a minimum amount of money a team must spend.

Without a salary cap, there is no salary floor. As such, teams that would like to trim their spending way down can do so without consequence

How will all this impact the Panthers?

Obviously, we won’t be subjected to the rules of the “Final Eight” plan, which could prove to be a good thing. We can enter free agency as normal, but will have the added bonus of at least 4 less competitors, and in most cases 8, should there be anyone on the market whom we desire the talents of.

However, no cap means that those players who do enter Unrestricted Free Agency will likely command more money than previous years, even though most will be second or third tier talent.

Now then, as far as numbers 2 and 3 above…

Should the CBA not be agreed upon before the offseason begins, the following Panthers will be Unrestricted Free Agents:

Tyler Brayton, DE
A.J. Feeley, QB
Josh McCown, QB
Muhsin Muhammad, WR
Julius Peppers, DE
Hollis Thomas, DT
Keydrick Vincent, OG
Dante Wesley, CB

…and the following Panthers would fall under the exception of being 4th and 5th year players scheduled to become Unrestricted, but instead becoming Restricted Free Agents:

James Anderson, LB
Thomas Davis, LB
Jeff King, TE
Richard Marshall, CB

The following Panthers will become Restricted Free Agents, having only been in the league 3 years:

Louis Leonard, DT
Rhys Lloyd, PK
Matt Moore, QB
Quinton Teal, S
Tank Tyler, DT
C.J. Wilson, CB

We should be able to tag Peppers without any real consequence (as we can pay him as much as it costs for the uncapped year), other than if he chose to sit out of football (which I think he has shown he is not willing to do). In all actuality, an uncapped year benefits us on the Peppers front tremendously. Even if he were to simply be allowed to hit free agency, he won’t be able to sign with a playoff team from this year unless they bend over backwards and make the proper accommodations… We hold the majority of the cards yet again, and his only options will be to extend long term, sit out a year, or play for around $20 M next season, which is a bargain for us in an uncapped year with a player of his caliber (regardless of what many of you haters think!)…

Brayton, Muhammad, Thomas, Vincent, and Wesley could all likely be resigned relatively cheap if we want to have them back… I doubt Feeley or McCown come back, although it is entirely possible…

Anderson, Davis, King, and Marshall could all be tendered, and two of them could be Transition tagged if we wanted them bad enough… I could see Davis and Marshall both getting a tag, however, I fully expect that Davis will be resigned long-term before we would even need to consider tagging him… Worst case scenario is that we tender all of them and get some draft picks out of it if we lose them…

With us giving up future draft picks for Leonard and Tyler, you can rest assured that both will be tendered and likely back in the fold as Panthers in 2010… Lloyd is a luxury that we will probably want to bring back, and Teal and Wilson have shown a little potential and add decent depth…

Matt Moore… Well then… It appears we have either found our starter at QB for 2010… or a player we can at least give a high tender that will allow us 1st and 3rd round picks as compensation should another team make a play for him. Chances are, that won’t happen and we’ll retain him as a starter, but it will be interesting to see if we try and let that situation play out…

Number 4, at this point, doesn’t seem like it will be an issue with the Panthers. We’ll spend what we need to spend to stay competitive, and what the ownership/staff feel will put us over the edge as far as being a contender. If anything, it will probably help us if teams like Tampa choose to spend way less than most other teams, as an uncapped season will likely mean the 24 teams not falling under the “Final Eight” plan will be getting what they pay for…

I believe these are the main reasons the door was left open for Fox and company to return. They know our players. They know what our strengths and weaknesses are. This could very well be their final opportunity to prove that they aren’t stubborn enough not to adjust accordingly.

Notice I haven’t touched on the Delhomme dilemma or a number of other decisions that will have to be made this offseason due to performance issues. This post is intended to plainly identify the specific situations we may find ourselves in should 2010 in fact be played without a salary cap…