The "no money" myth

[AU-panther]

A few days ago I posted a rather lengthy (probably too long) post concerning where I thought we stood as far as cap space this year and how we could afford an expensive free agent this year.  A lot of it centered around the idea that most contracts are back loaded which would lessen the cap hit this year.

I forgot to mention the other option that we have which is restricting some of our current contracts.  You could easily convert this years salary for Cam, Short, and/or Luke and free up another $20m million if you needed the space.  Of course that would increase their cap hits in future years but that brings me to my next point, this idea of we don't need to mortgage our future.

According to overthecap.com we have around $69m in cap space next year, that doesn't even include releasing anyone like Matt, Shepard, or Captain.  That number could easily be $75.  That number is only for 24 players but that includes most of our core, guys like Cam, Short, Turner, and Luke to name a few.

The questions becomes how much will those extra 29 roster spots cost us?  Lets say we fill 12 of the spots with the rookies from this year and next, that's maybe $10m.  Another 10 spots will probably be UDFA and league min type of guys (another $5m), lets spend $1m on each of the last 7 guys (another $7m).  That puts us at $22m total.  I'll round up to $30m to be safe.

As you can see we should have around $40m in cap space next year, not counting rolling over any money from this year.  As you can see we can easily afford the second year of any back loaded contract we do this year.

I'm not saying we should, or will, spend money this year, but if we don't it won't be because we can't.

I was quick to defend the front office for not spending in the past but the fact is that now our cap is in good shape.   Any decisions now should be based on what we feel a player is or isn't worth.  Not the fact the numbers won't work.

[chknwing]

free agency is already here, if carolina thought they needed to do that to free up cap space it would have been done already.

[mc52beast]

That’s a lot of money for Hurney to blow, assuming he survives any cuts by new ownership 

[Harbingers]

Just now, mc52beast said:

That’s a lot of money for Hurney to blow, assuming he survives any cuts by new ownership 

He’ll do his damage before then.

[Peppers90 NC]

I know its not popular anymore, but there are some guys we should probably keep next year that are on the team and contracts expire after this season ie Funchess, D Williams, maybe even a guy like Olsen, Shaq, Love

[RumHam]

Everyone here is cheap and they relate it to spending their money. The idea of continuously building through the draft isn't the answer. Let those guys develop while you have someone to show them the ropes. Our receivers are babies. We're fairly young but the problem is our two best players are quickly approaching 30. If we continue to not spend on impact players and hope we hit a home run in the draft (which we've done what like twice and not once at receiver?), you'll spend years convincing yourself someone is good (like you have with Worley and Bradberry). There needs to be someone that not only knows what they're doing, but is good at it. Kurt Coleman knew what he was doing, but wasn't particularly good at it. Same with Torey Smith, who may or may not pan out but it's an improvement. These next two years are our last chances because Cam and Luke are one hit away from never being the same or just flat out being done. 

[t96]

53 minutes ago, chknwing said:

free agency is already here, if carolina thought they needed to do that to free up cap space it would have been done already.

The bidding process plays a large part in what we’ll do. There’s no reason to make moves now if they aren’t necessary. We have a fair amount right now to work with and if necessary we can work some contracts before the draft or during the FA period. 

[TylerDurden]

58 minutes ago, chknwing said:

free agency is already here, if carolina thought they needed to do that to free up cap space it would have been done already.

Considering the Worley/Smith deal had been done for 3 days before it was reported, do you trust that it hasn't?

[Captain Morgan]

[TylerDurden]

Excellent post AU.  I've been saying it incessantly, but there's always ways to create more cap without "mortgaging the future."  Idk why so many huddlers get so defensive over spending money that's not theirs.

As you said, restructuring is understated around here...  Those top perennial contending teams do it every year and are always on the edge of the cap...  but they are always right there at the end too.  I think maybe JR had a lot to do with the frugality and poor investments of the past that have resulted in so much inconsistency...  but today is a new day.

[Ricky Spanish]

3 minutes ago, Proudiddy said:

Excellent post AU.  I've been saying it incessantly, but there's always ways to create more cap without "mortgaging the future."  Idk why so many huddlers get so defensive over spending money that's not theirs.

As you said, restructuring is understated around here...  Those top perennial contending teams do it every year and are always on the edge of the cap...  but they are always right there at the end too.  I think maybe JR had a lot to do with the frugality and poor investments of the past that has resulted in so much inconsistency...  but today is a new day.

I can understand frugality in years past because we were still dealing with horrible contracts up until last year. Right now we're only dealing with one bad one (M. Kalil), and it's really not that bad in the grand scheme of things. We restructured guys many times under Gettleman. Gross, Kalil, Stewart, Beason, Godfrey, Davis, and a few others. It's how we survived through all of Hurney's original horrible moves. But the frugality put us in a position where we can now spend and acquire actual talent if need be without hurting us too much in the future. 

But honestly, the reason so many of us fear spending money that isn't ours is because the last time the guy in charge of spending money was in charge of spending money, the franchise went down the crapper. So it's not so much that I'm against spending money for the team, I'm just against Hurney spending money for the team.

[Mr. Scot]

1 minute ago, Cracka McNasty said:

I can understand frugality in years past because we were still dealing with horrible contracts up until last year. Right now we're only dealing with one bad one (M. Kalil), and it's really not that bad in the grand scheme of things. We restructured guys many times under Gettleman. Gross, Kalil, Stewart, Beason, Godfrey, Davis, and a few others. It's how we survived through all of Hurney's original horrible moves. But the frugality put us in a position where we can now spend and acquire actual talent if need be without hurting us too much in the future. 

But honestly, the reason so many of us fear spending money that isn't ours is because the last time the guy in charge of spending money was in charge of spending money, the franchise went down the crapper. So it's not so much that I'm against spending money for the team, I'm just against Hurney spending money for the team.

Bingo.

I'm not against vampire novels, but if Stephanie Meyer is the one writing it, I'm not expecting much.

As mentioned before, it's not so much the method as it is that Hurney has a well established tendency to make the wrong choices.

[CarolinaNCSU]

The cap is something I've always been leery of, but I'm getting to the same point.  Manipulate the hell out of it, like, sigh, New Orleans.  For years they were supposedly in cap hell, but continued to re-sign all important members of their team it seems.

Oh...and with 30 million in space seemingly will re-sign Drew Brees, looks like Jimmy Graham is going back to NO, and they're also being linked to Malcolm Butler again. 

[frash.exe]

restructuring contracts? a lot of the time this means adding bonus money that gets applied to future cap hits, which was all hurney really did to create cap room bc a lot of the years we didn’t have the cushion to even sign our draft picks (though this was mostly before the compensation was structured and a no.1 overall pick could get a 78 million dollar contract.)

if it’s not that then it's asking players to take a pay cut, which is something players are generally very against doing for obvious reasons.