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Spending $13.1 million

Marguide

By Marguide,
in Carolina Panthers

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Marguide Newbie

Marguide

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As all of you know, we tagged Greg Hardy at a cost of $13.1 million in cap space. According to those closest to the team, there was never any intention of signing him long term nor any attempt to trade him. So consider him a 1 year rental.

 

Here's the question/exercise...what could we have done with that same amount of cap space if we chose not to tag Hardy?  A few examples follow. Please note this thread has nothing to do with his legal problems, we are only looking at the potential value of a great defensive end versus filling some holes in other areas with good players.

 

For example, here are 3 players we could have signed and stayed roughly the same in cap impact:

  • Golden Tate, WR, Cap hit of $3.1 million
  • Jason Veldheer, LT, Cap hit of $2.5 million
  •  Aquib Talib, CB, Cap hit of $7.9 million

 

Would we have been better off with these 3 or with Greg Hardy alone?

 

If you want to look at who was available, check this link: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/transactions/free-agents

 

For cap charges, follow this link: http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/ and just type in who you want to search for.

 

The point of all of this is to show that we had a number of viable options available to us. Guys like Branden Albert, DeSean Jackson, Eric Decker and Alterraun Verner. And by the way, our old buddy Mike Mitchell carries a $2.2 million cap hit this year.

 

It's your chance to play GM. Have at it.

 

 

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Marguide Newbie

Marguide

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You can't look at just the 2014 cap hit. Hardy was a rental specifically because he cost nothing after 2014. All of those players would command even more in future seasons.

 

Of course, but are they not all players worthy of a multi-year commitment? Why are we suddenly restricting ourselves to 1 or 2 year deals?

 

The key is signing the right people at the right price.

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AU-panther Mentor

AU-panther

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We are limited ourselves to 1 or 2 year deals because of future salary commitments. A GM not only has to look at the salary cap of the current year but also the affect of signing people on future years.

Here is some rough math using your 3 players and their current contracts for 2015.

Right now we have about 7 million and 12 roster spots to fill. This is based on the current cap of $133m. Most people expect it to go up so for the heck of it we will assume the cap goes to 140m. So now we have 14 million to fill 12 roster spots.

Lets assume we add the three players you stated, their cap cost for 2015 is 20 million. Of those three guys there is a good chance they would fill roster spots that might have otherwise been open. For example Cason is a free agent after this year and Talib would still be here.

At this point we are over the cap by 6 million and we still have 9 roster spots to fill. So lets see who we can cut so we can actually field a 53 man roster.

CJ - 10m

DWill - 2m

That gives us 12m so now we are under the cap by 6 million but we have 2 more roster spots to fill. So we have roughly 6 million for 11 spots.

Depending on where we draft, 7 draft picks will use about 6 million in cap space. At this point we are at the cap and we still have 4 roster spots open.

League minimums range from roughly 400k to 900k. If we fill those 4 spots with guys making 500k we are $2m over the cap. Remember this all of this assumes the cap goes up by $7m. If the cap goes up by less or stays the same we are in a lot worse shape.

Could we create more cap space? Of course. Cutting Kalil, TD, or Olsen would all provide decent savings, 4-7 million each depending on June 1st or not. Players such as Tolbert, DeCoud, or Harper could provide 1-2 million. After that there isn't much to cut. You have to remember each time you cut a player you have to replace them. If you cut a player making 1 million and replace them with a player making 500k you only freed up 500k of space.

To make matters worse Cam, Luke, TD, and Olsen are all free agents in 2016.

Could we have made it work this year? Yes

Would is severely limit us in the future? Yes

Would we have been better this year? I have my doubts. I'm not sure one tackle and a receiver would have made that much of a difference for our offense. On defense I think Hardy would help a lot more then Talib, but I can see arguments either way.

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fieryprophet Contributor

fieryprophet

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Of course, but are they not all players worthy of a multi-year commitment? Why are we suddenly restricting ourselves to 1 or 2 year deals?

The key is signing the right people at the right price.

I agree but we are avoiding multiyear deals specifically to create the cap space necessary to sign our QB and MLB to long term deals.

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Kevin Greene Newbie

Kevin Greene

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I agree but we are avoiding multiyear deals specifically to create the cap space necessary to sign our QB and MLB to long term deals.

 

 

If the Panthers have learned anything it's that players should be allowed to walk or traded early (OK, not a Franchise QB) rather than signing them to contracts that hinder filling out the rest of the roster.

I hope we sign both long term obviously but the money must be reasonable. 

We got into so much trouble with LB and RB contracts way out of whack to value on the roster and/or player replacement with Beason and Double Trouble. Won't even mention how musch cap space was allotted to 2 DEs this year.

Management inside BofA must be better.

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Marguide Newbie

Marguide

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I agree but we are avoiding multiyear deals specifically to create the cap space necessary to sign our QB and MLB to long term deals.

 

Cam's going to count about $15 million against the cap next year unless we do something this offseason. Luke's deal will come about the time TD will either be gone or cheap. And the cap is expected to rise significantly over the next 3 years.

 

But that is somewhat besides the point. The question is, would we have been a better team with a decent LT but no Hardy? Or a decent LT and WR but no Hardy?

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Marguide Newbie

Marguide

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This thread sucks. fug losing seasons. Hindsight is 50/50 er 20/20. fug this thread

 

Thanks for the brilliant contribution. I can tell you really put a lot of work into it.

 

And screw hindsight, I didn't like the Hardy situation as soon as I learned we had no plans to sign or trade him, long before his legal problem hit.

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