Can Someone Please Explain to Me Why The Carolina Panthers Always Have Minimal Cap Space to Work With for Free Agency?

[Hoenheim]

I've been a fan since the 2010 season, but I've only more recently started tracking things like the draft and free agency for the past few years. Something that has been a constant source of befuddlement / frustration for me, is to see teams with 70 M + cap space every season and we are consistently one of the bottom dwellers in terms of cap space.

Why is that? Who are we over paying? We are cap strapped but we have no dominant players in the trenches, our best WRs are on their rookie deals, our RB is on his rookie deal. Our starting CBs are on their rookie deals. Somethings just not adding up here . How could we fix it so we have at least a decent ammount of space (maybe 40-60M) a year? 
 

Just quickly perusing our roster, nobody outside of Cam or Luke should have a mega deal. That is two damn players. All the other players we have that are really important contributors are young and not even expensive. Is all our money being tied up into players getting older like KK , Mario, Poe? If so then why? They didn't do diddly squat last year besides Mario who had an okay-ish performance. 

Keep in mind Cam's deal doesn't go for much longer either (I think its through 2020?).

[Sgt Schultz]

This might explain where the money is tied up:

https://overthecap.com/salary-cap/carolina-panthers/

[Hoenheim]

1 minute ago, Sgt Schultz said:

This might explain where the money is tied up:

https://overthecap.com/salary-cap/carolina-panthers/

Well, my question is a little more broad in the sense that, I've noticed that this has been a trend over multiple years of us not having much cap space.

[TheSpecialJuan]

Marty Horney 

[ForJimmy]

Hurney and the salary cap don’t always see eye to eye...

[Hoenheim]

Torrey Smith and Captain Munnerlyn are taking 10 million dollars of cap space together. That is just so stupid 

[Hoenheim]

And why the fug is Shaq making 9 million this season? 

[t96]

5 minutes ago, Hoenheim said:

And why the fug is Shaq making 9 million this season? 

That's not guaranteed, we could cut him and get all that back. More likely is an extension that brings that # down considerably.

[Hoenheim]

1 minute ago, t96 said:

That's not guaranteed, we could cut him and get all that back. More likely is an extension that brings that # down considerably.

if we cut Shaq then what else do we have at LB besides Luke? 

[t96]

1 minute ago, Hoenheim said:

if we cut Shaq then what else do we have at LB besides Luke? 

Which is why we picked up the 5th year option for $9M...

[Toomers]

2 minutes ago, Hoenheim said:

if we cut Shaq then what else do we have at LB besides Luke? 

If we pay Shaq 9M who else do we have at LB besides Luke? 

  I can upgrade another position that is needed more and replace Shaq for much less. 

 Giving him 9.2M for this year just goes back to the basic misunderstanding of value this team has on a consistent basis. 

[usmcpanthers]

Matt Kalil contract too.....

[Basbear]

What I don't understand is there are about 30 players on the roster worthy of 53. Around 15 million in cap space, you could easily cut a few(Smith, cap, Kalil, etc) and get to around 30 million. Now there's only 25 players plus 30 million and you need about 7 million to sign 7 rookies. That leaves 20 players for 20 million in space........ Panthers depth will be AAF level. Better hope no starter get hurt with this barebone depth. 

[JARROD]

Yeh,.. I was barking for months about the fact the Colts have 120 million and we have (at the time) 25 million. 

Huge disparity.