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

[RumHam]

16 minutes ago, t96 said:

Your point? Pats got destroyed by some sh*tty teams this year. One game does not make a season and we were 6-3 after that. We proceeded to lose our next 5 games by a total of 20 points... A 100% Cam changes that tremendously.

preeeeeeeeeeetty sure we were 1-7... and a lot of that was on rivera. Obviously cam's shoulder was an issue, but it was an issue going into the season and the way Rivera hides injuries to try and save his ass, it couldn't be hid after that and everyone knew we couldn't throw deep and had a high school offense. The defense was garbage, no pressure, no secondary.

[Unbreakable Split Glass]

Yeah, I have never figure this problem out. We are always cap strapped every off season. Cant ever bring in 1-2 top tier players in.  

Even in 2011, after being the worst team in the league of the 2010 season. I don’t remember having very much money. 

[mc52beast]

I think the last time we had any decent cap space was when Bill Polian was GM

[Lumps]

14 hours ago, Car123 said:

Source?

Was Munnerlyn a JR signing too?

 

12 hours ago, Khaki Lackey said:

Yeah , the Kalil contract was Gettleman’s worst mistake by far. If I’m not mistaken though, we could have moved on from him after last season with minimal damage, but Hurney restructured it. Right?

Exaclty. The Kalil move was not Gettle’s style, it stuck out from all his moves like a giant sore thumb. Combine that with watching JR meddle for the past 15 years is the source, track record. A meddling owner is much more effective doing it behind the scenes (which was JRs style) so no, JR will and has never come out and told us all how much he was meddling. But fairly obvious through observation.

[t96]

40 minutes ago, RumHam said:

preeeeeeeeeeetty sure we were 1-7... and a lot of that was on rivera. Obviously cam's shoulder was an issue, but it was an issue going into the season and the way Rivera hides injuries to try and save his ass, it couldn't be hid after that and everyone knew we couldn't throw deep and had a high school offense. The defense was garbage, no pressure, no secondary.

After the Steelers loss, our record stood at 6-3.

[Mr. Scot]

1 hour ago, t96 said:

Your point? Pats got destroyed by some sh*tty teams this year. One game does not make a season and we were 6-3 after that. We proceeded to lose our next 5 games by a total of 20 points... A 100% Cam changes that tremendously.

Point being that we weren't really as good as we thought we were.

That early season success was a house of cards.

[DeeJay]

I can see tons of people getting cut this team will be 10x different in 2019

[tiger7_88]

Because Hurney is a moron, then Carolina bring's in a real professional GM to get us out of that deep hole, then Carolina fires that professional and re-hires Hurney and gives him back his shovel.

[Waldo]

Study John Fox's time here and then study Rivera's. Our best times came when the owner hired outside of the norm and even that imploded because it wasn't the norm. Our MO is earily similar with the exception of what the dynamic duo did last year as professional camouflage to use with the new owner. Pay older people too much, sit young guys behind roster duds for too long, make lots of excuses and run on hope fuel with a dash outdated philosophies to give it the sheen of competence.

[shulasmyhero]

Don't kid yourself.  Restructuring Kalil's contract was a blunder by Hurney.  They converted an option bonus to a signing bonus. 

A move that resulted in zero cap savings and increased the dead money for 2019,  The  only "logical" explanation for the move at the time was that Hurney was trying to make Matt feel secure in his role here.

[t96]

2 hours ago, Mr. Scot said:

Point being that we weren't really as good as we thought we were.

That early season success was a house of cards.

Just think logically here... If Cam is 100% healthy after the Steelers game, what is our record? Here were the final scores of every game after:

@ Lions 19-20 L

Seahawks 27-30 L

@ Bucs 17-24 L

@ Browns 20-26 L

Saints 9-12 L

Falcons 10-24 L

@ Saints 33-14 W

 

There is zero doubt in my mind that with a healthy Cam we win at least 4 of those games and probably even 5, resulting in 10 or 11 wins and a playoff spot. Our defense had stepped up big by then and our only real problem was the health of our QB and inability to throw deep resulting in defenses being able to focus in on the run and short passing game and stop our offense with ease.

Basing all the losses after the Steelers game as being “exposed” is ridiculous, when the team relies so heavily on a Cam and he was 50% healthy at best. And the Steelers game was a prime time game in Pittsburgh on a Thursday night. Not exactly normal circumstances. 

No we weren’t as good as the 6-2 record suggested (I.e. on pace for 12-4) but we also weren’t nearly as bad as our final record suggested. 

[Cpt slay a ho]

Both gms during the last decade and a half have failed to invest money in the best products for the team. Too much money spent on players who don’t live up to contracts or just fall off the face of the earth 

[Toomers]

38 minutes ago, shulasmyhero said:

Don't kid yourself.  Restructuring Kalil's contract was a blunder by Hurney.  They converted an option bonus to a signing bonus. 

A move that resulted in zero cap savings and increased the dead money for 2019,  The  only "logical" explanation for the move at the time was that Hurney was trying to make Matt feel secure in his role here.

  They had no choice. It was either 7.5M More coming off the top last year, and would already be gone or spread it out like he did. So it saved 7.5M last year. The only “option” in that bonus was how it went against the cap. He was getting it no matter what.

  If it’s a “don’t kid yourself” certainty, tell us what options he had. What should he have done? This should be easy. Please be as specific as possible. 

[jtm]

The cap is a joke and is a shell game. I quit worrying about the cap and trying to figure it out years ago.  Teams can simply cut a player or restructure a deal to free up money if they want a player.  Historically, teams that spend big in free agency are not good teams.