Panthers Passing on Greg Hardy - Here is why

[Jeremy Igo]

It is now being reported on NFL.com that the Panthers will not seek to sign Greg Hardy. 

 

There seems to be a lot of confusion and doubt as to why the Carolina Panthers will pass on trying to re-sign Greg Hardy. Casual observers tend to want to point to one reason or another, but as usual the decision is made up of more than one factor. 

 

Here is the reasoning, as I see it, in our favorite method of display... the pie chart. 

 

 

COST

Believe it or not, signing Greg Hardy to a deal that would allow him to play in 2015 was always doubtful. Dave Gettleman decided to franchise Hardy for a season, hoping it would be enough to keep the Panthers competitive another season while he groomed a possible replacement (see selecting Kony Ealy in round 2). Greg Hardy's salary was never in the books for 2015. With contract negotiations looming for Cam Newton and Luke Kuechly, a long term big money deal for Hardy was a pipe dream from the start, 

 

PAST BEHAVIOR 

The Panthers felt greatly embarrassed by the situation around Greg Hardy and his domestic abuse case. Facilitated by the media, the damage the entire avoidable situation cost the Panthers brand last year was obvious. Seeing the Panthers logo on the national news for a month in association with domestic abuse did damage. After the incident, his strange training camp press conference, interesting tweets, non participation of workouts, god awful rap video, among other questionable acts aren't exactly what the team would have liked to have seen from Hardy. These things put together show an employer that maybe a lesson was not learned. 

 

FUTURE DOUBT

This is the "fool me once" dilemma. I don't think anyone could say with a straight face they are positive Greg Hardy will have no more issues in his future. A common comment heard about this is a "behavior clause" in his contract would remedy the problem. The issue is, these clauses do not repair brand damage that is done, which in the long term can be much more costly to and organization. They also do not repair the embarrassment and distraction a team is forced to deal with in the media. 

 

COURT OUTCOME

The court outcome here is irrelevant. Mainly because this entire situation was avoidable. All that is required to stay out of the national spotlight for negative reasons is good judgement. 

 

 

Yes, people make mistakes. Should Hardy be given a second chance if found innocent? Sure, but not on the Panthers squad. That ship has sailed. 

[Floppin]

Insert [JRPiechart.jpg]

But seriously, this is a fair assessment

[d-dave]

Pretty much!  While people make mistakes, Hardy's have been at the worst times, and they have been completely avoidable...

 

I loved him when he played here, but the other side of the coin is that he's a dangerous investment.  No team is going to want to get pulled into a long contract where he could stand another chance of missing significant time on the field.

[SurvivalSloth]

It's a little easier to accept when you put it like that. I knew he was probably gone, but thought it was mostly for the criminal case and the Panthers trying to portray a certain image.

I just hate the fact that he's gonna walk and we're not getting anything in return for his production.

[Davidson Deac II]

I agree, although I would add in association with people of questionable character.  That might fall under your past behavior category though. 

[Davidson Deac II]

It's a little easier to accept when you put it like that. I knew he was probably gone, but thought it was mostly for the criminal case and the Panthers trying to portray a certain image.

I just hate the fact that he's gonna walk and we're not getting anything in return for his production.

 

 

Well, we do get at least one thing in return.  We get a significant amount of cap space freed up, and that is not a small thing. 

[RelaxImaPro]

I know it's not gonna happen, but the league really should give us a comp pick or something for the way they handled the situation last season.  13+ million of our cap was wasted because the NFL was under fire from the media due to their handling of the Ray Rice situation.  The man hasn't even had his jury trial and the league takes action.

 

The whole thing was just complete BS.

[Panthers Fanatic]

It seems to me he was always a 2014 rental only. Seeing as how we paid him millions and only got a return on investment in week 1, made this decision easy for DG. I wish him well in life and he hope he's in the AFC next year!

[teeray]

tweets, rapping, and interview are causes for concern????  Lord help us lol this franchise is determined to be mired in mediocrity.

 

As far as if you think he should have acted differently because of his situation, if this guy TRULY believes he didn't do anything wrong and was innocent why shouldn't he live his life?  Why does he need to change because someone else falsely accuses him of a crime?

 

But I never felt they were going to commit to Hardy long term, especially with Cam and Luke extensions on the horizon

 

 

 

 

[CatMan72]

Unstand this logic, but we need to think really carefully about letting one of the only two players in franchise history with a 15 sack season walk... there are only so many people on the planet capable of that.

[Ricky Spanish]

I'm more concerned that 2/3 of his sacks in 2013 came in only 3 games and he was a complete non factor in about 7 others.

 

Then again I could just be trying to justify the idea of not having him on the squad next year...

 

Who knows. 

[tondi]

I think the original plan was to sign him for one year and see if he could reproduce another season at the same high level. If so, we would have made a serious attempt to sign him long term and would then either cut CJ or play some serious hardball with him to get his cap number way down. Of course GHs affinity for coke whores derailed that possible scenario so now he will leave and we will just stand pat with CJ.

[blackcat]

Unstand this logic, but we need to think really carefully about letting one of the only two players in franchise history with a 15 sack season walk... there are only so many people on the planet capable of that.

 

And as we've seen time and again, he's also very capable at putting himself in risky situations that put his future at risk.

[SCP]

This is why his court case is of no interest to me. As a Panther, he was our asshole. If he's going to another team, no reason to even pay attention because he is somebody else's asshole now.