Realistically fixing the Panthers next year.

[LinvilleGorge]

2 hours ago, SJTG4 said:

um have you seen him play? little to no yards after the catch he's so slow 

If you think Greg Olsen is slow for a TE then you have absolutely no idea what you're watching.

[ncfan]

Cut: Tolbert, Dickson, soliai, Stewart (unless he can do a major restructure)

Sign:  Kalil, Alex Okafor, Captain Munnerlyn, CJ (cheap deal to retire here)

Lock up KK, Turner, Star, Norwell.

Wildcard: Desean Jackson

 

Draft:

1st: Jamal Adams

2nd: Foreman

3rd: Leggett

3rd Comp: Chidobee Awuzle

4th: bpa of DE/OT

5th: bpa of DE/OT

6th: bpa

7th: Mack Hollins

[LinvilleGorge]

Stewart isn't getting restructured. We're not pushing guaranteed money down the road for a 30 year old injury prone RB. At least I hope we're not. That'd be incredibly dumb.

Stew either plays next year under the current contract or he's gonna get cut. We'd save $4.75M in cap space by cutting him. It's very possible he gets the ax. Wouldn't shock me if we tried to pull off a cut and re-sign deal like we did with CJ, but what would Stew's market value be? Surely a 30 year old injury prone RB wouldn't fetch huge offers, but would his market value be significantly less than $4.75M? Enough of a savings to risk losing him? I don't know about that. I could definitely see a contender that needs a RB offering him decent money. Teams like the Giants, Broncos, Lions, Chargers, and Ravens come to mind immediately.

[grimesgoat]

17 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Stewart isn't getting restructured. We're not pushing guaranteed money down the road for a 30 year old injury prone RB. At least I hope we're not. That'd be incredibly dumb.

Stew either plays next year under the current contract or he's gonna get cut. We'd save $4.75M in cap space by cutting him. It's very possible he gets the ax. Wouldn't shock me if we tried to pull off a cut and re-sign deal like we did with CJ, but what would Stew's market value be? Surely a 30 year old injury prone RB wouldn't fetch huge offers, but would his market value be significantly less than $4.75M? Enough of a savings to risk losing him? I don't know about that. I could definitely see a contender that needs a RB offering him decent money. Teams like the Giants, Broncos, Lions, Chargers, and Ravens come to mind immediately.

If stew isn't the workhorse, I believe he could play 3 more years. He could fill a vital role as backup/spot starter as he ages. 

I'm no capologist, but a re-structure could look like this.

Stew has 2 years left on his contract.  He is set to make 5.5 mil. in salary next year with a cap hit of 8.25 mil.  In 2018 he makes 1 mil with a cap hit of 2.5 mil.

Convert 4.5 mil of his 2017 salary to bonus and add a dummy year (2019) with a salary of .5 mil or so, spreading the "bonus" over 3 years.

He gets the same amount of money, but now his cap hits are 5.25, 4.0, and 2.0 for 2017-2019.

We reduce the cap hit, we hang on to a reliable backup, stewie retires as a panther, and we avoid dead money.  Win, Win, Win, Win.

[LinvilleGorge]

6 minutes ago, grimesgoat said:

Convert 4.5 mil of his 2017 salary to bonus and add a dummy year (2019) with a salary of .5 mil or so, spreading the "bonus" over 3 years.

This is the exact type of thing I was referring to as being dumb. Why in the world would you want to make an additional $4.5M of his money guaranteed? He's 30 and injury prone. Everyone knows what happens to 99% of RBs when they hit 30. Also, why would Stew agree to this anyway? If we're not going to cut him, he's getting that money this year anyway. Why would he agree to additional years with minimal new money? 

[grimesgoat]

3 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

This is the exact type of thing I was referring to as being dumb. Why in the world would you want to make an additional $4.5M of his money guaranteed? He's 30 and injury prone. Everyone knows what happens to 99% of RBs when they hit 30. Also, why would Stew agree to this anyway? If we're not going to cut him, he's getting that money this year anyway. Why would he agree to additional years with minimal new money? 

He would agree because if he doesn't he will be cut.  He will lose the 5.5 mil. and will have to go find a new home after living in Charlotte for 9 years.

I'm talking about converting salary to bonus in order to spread the hit.  If you are ready to cut ties with Stew and you do not believe he has anything in the tank, you don't do it.  If you think he can still contribute you roll the dice.  He had about 75 yards per game last year and will probably end up around 65 per game this year with a busted O-Line.  The dude is a nightmare to tackle.  I may be dumb, but I'd love to find a reasonable way to have him around for a while longer. 

[LinvilleGorge]

If you want to keep him around, keep him around. Take that $8.25M hit. He's still under contract at a very reasonable rate in 2018. We're not in a cap crunch. There's no reason to push guaranteed money down the road on an aging, injury prone player.

[shaqattaq]

16 hours ago, The Lobo said:

A safety and d end to me are must needs this offseason.

deja vu

[LinvilleGorge]

1 minute ago, shaqattaq said:

deja vu

This is the really frustrating thing. It seems like year after year we have the same glaring needs.

[shaqattaq]

16 hours ago, iamhubby1 said:

OK, I want to play. Because, IMO, fixing this team is as easy as one, two, three.

 

Get a legit Vet SS, and DE. Fix LT, and we can go to war.

 

A legit SS does two things. 1. He can help settle that secondary down. 2. He can make Coleman great again.

 

A legit DE to pair with Addison, teamed with our interior, could make for a formidable pass rush.

 

We should be able to fill those two holes with quality vets with relative ease. It is that pesky LT position where the floor drops out of any plan. Finding a LT capable of moving Remmers back to depth would not be cheap in FA, or even in a trade. Drafting one would be best case, but man, you really need to get lucky to actually draft a franchise LT at 9ish.

 

Fill those three spots before the draft, and go get you some talent. Like I said, easy peasy.

I agree. These 3 positionsare must haves! Drafting a RB to groom, Awesome! Same with a good TE. Another CB to train/push Worley would also be a nice addition, but we must have LT, SS, and DE. Unfortunately, we said the exact same thing last year at this time.

[*FreeFua*]

Drafting KD Cannon would be a nice start

[CRA]

1 hour ago, LinvilleGorge said:

This is the really frustrating thing. It seems like year after year we have the same glaring needs.

OT, DE, S were the two glaring ones we all moaned about last year......and then Gettlemen created a DB issue.  We basically did nothing this past offseason but get worse.

[LinvilleGorge]

7 minutes ago, CRA said:

OT, DE, S were the two glaring ones we all moaned about last year......and then Gettlemen created a DB issue.  We basically did nothing this past offseason but get worse.

OT has been a glaring need Cam's entire career. Yet, here we are still getting by with journeyman free agents.

[CPantherKing]

Well if you are going to 'realistically' improve the Panthers to a contender again, then you have to start by improving the secondary. The secondary is the weakest part of the Panthers now, and a wait and see approach over the next couple seasons will not be the solution.

As long as the physical play of the secondary, the ability of the CBs to create takeaways, and their ability to stop first down runs outside the tackles does not improve, the Panthers will be at the bottom of the NFC South with Ryan, Winston, and Brees as the division QBs. That should be apparent to anyone.

Move Coleman to FS. Find a physical presence at SS with the ability to create takeaways and play inside the box. Find a #1 CB that QBs will be afraid to throw at with the game on the line. Hope Bradberry does not fold as the #1 target of the secondary since Worley will not be taking the bulls-eye off Bradberry's back.

That is the biggest need to improve if the Panthers want to be a contender.

OT and 3rd down WR would be the #2 and #3 needs.

DE would be the #4 need.

After that it is depth to develop with a focus on future starters, which has been a less than acceptable product by the front office over the past few seasons.