PNW_PantherMan

Now that you mention it, those orange slices in the church leagues were basically pay to play.

So if one of the parents wants to buy the theatre group or the band lunch they should get banned?

Yea the bonuses are typically the guaranteed portion of the contract and for cap accounting purposes are spread over the life of the deal. I think everything else is basically a game check that has to be earned by being on the roster etc.

Cap accounting and actual cash paid are not the same thing. The league could figure it out if they wanted to.

Yea its iffy. It would be difficult to implement without moving to a soft cap/luxury tax model like NBA and MLB. NHL pulled off guaranteed contracts with a hard cap, but I don't think that's realistic outside the NHL. I don't think a luxury tax model would be good for the product, even if its good for the players. Even though we would probably benefit from it because Tepper would be like the dude who owns the NY Mets now.

Exactly. It’s not about the number of dollars. It’s about cap allocation %. We got plenty of room for his salary and he’s gone after this season.

Oilers in town on a Saturday

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I would also add that I think it's more than money. AT has looked absolutely miserable out there at times, and there was a lot of speculation he would demand to be traded. Personally, I thought he was a lock to be moved last year. Maybe his hamstring is the only thing that prevents that from happening. The fact that he's not only willing to come back and play, but excited about it, really bodes well for Bryce. AT is a veteran and he knows the game. If he didn't have confidence in Bryce, I guarantee you he wouldn't be in a Panther uniform this year. I'll take that as a positive.

So wins are now a WR stat. The haters ball is in full swing.

It seems having amazing hands is still worth something in the NFL. PFF had his overall grade for last year as 28th overall, which I also think feels about right.

I hated the contract when we signed him, but by some miracle he has actually out performed it. Like I said. It was a Charlotte Hornets signing. Not one other team was paying AT what we did. It just happened to work out for us.

So what do you propose? Cut him and save 2mm? Package a draft pick to try and trade him? I don't even know what you're arguing tbh.

Only 2mm difference in cap hit and dead cap. This bed was made a while ago. Given our team composition, I'd argue it's really not a tough pill to swallow. We don't have any stars. This was a Charlotte Hornets deal from the get go. I'm just thankful he's been as productive as he has. Maybe he'll fall off a cliff this year. Or maybe one or more of the young WRs will break out in the season. But as of right now, he's our best WR because he consistently gets open and catches the ball.

Now everybody's gonna be like "Wait, why didn't I get a fully guaranteed contract??"

People have been announcing the death of Adam Thielen for 5 years now. He was done when we signed him, and last year his yards per game had him on pace for an even better season than 2023. He's still the best WR we have until proven otherwise.

I'm not surprised that he questioned retirement at points last year. The team looked hopeless early on and he suffered a pretty severe hamstring injury.

Yeah just be the Eagles. Pay your young QB a questionable extension earlier into his rookie deal and then sign the highest priced free agent RB. I think that's why I filtered them from my mental models of teams that work, because that's not a model you can repeat. But I guess neither is having Pat Mahomes.

Yeah okay I'll take the L on that. Not sure how I already memory wiped that they won LOL.

And until demonstrated otherwise, it remains a very effective way of building a playoff loser. I really wanted to see the Ravens win this year to accelerate the change. But nobody's actually won a Super Bowl with that team build in the modern era.