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My personal opinion is the non-guaranteed contract is the main reason for NFL success. MLB and NBA players are on cruise control after their big contracts and it shows in the product. NFL is each year you are fighting for your job. Same for the majority of the public.... You get lazy or try to coast after the 100+ million contract, your ass will be cut within 1-2 years. Then the next one will not even touch 100 million+. Besides a few NBA players like Kobe was coming for blood with a 300 million contract or 1 doll hair deal. Brandy Beal just reached a buyout where he was getting 110 million, many other cases..... I dare say his name for the hornets guy..... MLB sooo many times as well. If the NFL starts fully guaranteeing all contracts, Id have a new hobby to fill the hours of entertainment NFL gave me.

It would be wild if he is allowed to go back to college but is still a Bengal when he returns to the NFL

If there was a way to do cap compensation for elective retirement or injury forced retirement like Luke or Oher, I could see less argument for guaranteed.

XL, I wanna party with you, cowboy. If he starts catching the ball he could end up as my favorite Panther of all time. Never seen anyone who enjoys life more than him.

I loved the Waves and the Roosters. Sharks were fun on 50 cent night.

He is here for the young recievers not BY.

2 mil guaranteed a year isnt a big deal when the cap is 279 mil and probably 300 by the time the contract is up.

Oilers in town on a Saturday

14 B2B games.... 15 of the last 25 on the road. Ehhhh we will be resting by the end anyways.

And that's the issue. I'm socially fairly liberal, but I'm also fairly fiscally conservative. I could see giving them guaranteed contracts at smaller amounts, but guaranteeing a multi-million dollar contract for someone that has around half a probability of being in the NFL for four years and hamstringing teams' finances is not necessarily something I'm cheerleading. Admittedly all of this is systemic and possibly even structural at present, but the NFL FOs and NFLPA is going to have to go to the grindstone and figure this stuff out. There is a possibility that there will be some "pain" that we, as fans, are going to have to endure because of it, but hopefully it will be better for us on the other side. I'm skeptical though. There is greed on all sides--agents, players, owners--but the preponderance of the greed is on the owners, and I as a fan am not into them taking more out of my pockets than they already are.

I didn't like the initial deal either. I've called it a Charlotte Hornets deal several times, because that's what it was. Overpay for some seemingly washed former all star because we don't have anyone on the team, and a bunch of cap to spend. But look at it from this point forward. Adam Thielen's deal is already a sunk cost. This year he's an expiring contract that can provide value to the team. That value is still in line with that contract that seemed so bad initially. I'd consider that a win for this organization.

My reasoning was crystal clear and it has zero to do with Bryce

JT's hate boner for Adam Thielen really put me off tbh. I think he loves a great route runner, and AT is just not. He's a handsy guy that knows how to find the hole in the zone, etc. He also gets frustrated when not thrown to, even when not separated. I think because he knows he can catch anything.

if the guaranteed didn't impact the cap and thus tie our hands in to extent to roster build.....I would agree with you.

I think that’s certainly a big part of it. I feel like there’s another underlying issue too that we can all see if we are honest but that’s not something that needs to be in this thread.

I just don't align with this penchant to make him something he's not. I mean teams like the Texans weren't sitting around building their offense around a 35 year old WR. And they've won playoff games in back to back years after being one play away from the first overall pick. I think where Thielen is helpful is 3rd down and red zone situations due to his hands. Other than that in any critical game situation I prefer to see one of our other young offensive players emerge. They are here long term. We need to know what we have in them so we can continue to build accordingly. Especially with Legette who was very up and down last season. From there we also have two promising young TE's while Tremble is out. And we have a very solid backfield. Canales has plenty of options.

If he looks even slower this season, JT O'Sullivan is gonna be on DEMON TIME.

I would go. I moved back last year and wish we had a legit minor league baseball team or something. The summer league thing is alright.

That would be awesome. Since moving to the Wilmington area from Raleigh a few years ago, I have really missed going to the games. I would be an immediate season ticket holder of WLM got a team

For sure we could have a lengthy discussion about wealth inequality in this country and whether or not politicians corporate executives celebrities entertainers and athletes should realistically be paid what they are. I'm sure we would find ourselves in agreement on most of it. In a perfect world these issues wouldn't exist. Unfortunately we are a heavily flawed society and we look past a greay many things that ultimately make absolutely no logical sense on a daily basis just because it's what we've been told capitalism is supposed to be. But we'll shelve it for another time and another subforum.

AT is what he is. He's not a superstar. He's a solid veteran on an expiring deal. But going back to your original comment, I would not say he is completely inconsequential to this season. He could easily be the difference in winning 8 and 9 games and getting a wild card berth. Which would mean the entire roster getting playoff experience. Even if its just 1 game and getting hosed on the road. So I wouldn't say that he's completely irrelevant before it starts.

It's just comical that accurately describing the aging veterans of this roster for what they are despite them being nice people (Jerry Richardson just happy to be here vibes and hey while we're at it let's hire the kid who cuts my grass to be a WR) after years of complaints of Ron Rivera being overly loyal to his aging mediocre vets to a fault warrants such angry flailing while we have had the worst W/L stretch in franchise history. Not to worry though. These same folks will be screaming to burn the stadium at some point in the season. That's why I keep coming back here. The laughs.

Also with AT's toolkit, I really don't think he's going to fall off athletically. He has not been rated highly at separating to this point anyways. He's a hands guy. That tool ages very well. It's just a matter of staving off the injury bug. That's what will end up taking him out for good.

The only reason I don't like bringing Andy back is he's made of glass at this point. If your starter goes down, you're screwed anyways though. So really it's more of just having a veteran body on the roster that can play QB at a 3rd grade level. In reality that's 99% of 2nd string QBs in the NFL.