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Darnold Contract

t96

By t96,
in Carolina Panthers

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t96 Grand Master

t96

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I've seen some confusion about this in various threads here. With the new 5th year option rules making that 5th year 100% guaranteed (used to be guaranteed for injury only), many think we're stuck with that no matter what (i.e. we trade for Watson, we have to carry both of them and the big cap hits). This is NOT true.

 

We can't save a dime by releasing Darnold, but if we trade him after this season we are on the hook for absolutely nothing. No dead cap at all. Yes with that cap hit and the way he's playing, he's a liability, so we may have to attach a mid round pick to him to get a bad team flush with cap space to take him on, but we can absolutely get out of the deal after this year by trading him. Worth clarifying, and note I'm not trying to defend the trade or picking up the 5th option -- in hindsight both were clearly just flat out bad moves. But that 5th year option just isn't quite as crippling as many think.

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Madwolf Rising Star

Madwolf

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The problem is finding a buyer at any price. Who wants to take the risk we just took and failed with?

The most interesting part of the Darnold contact is we did for Darnold what we were unwilling to do for Cam.

I was not an advocate of resigning Cam to a long term contract for the same reasons we shouldn't have extended Darnold on a 5th year option. This year should have been a "prove it" deal, just like Cam's final year of his contract.

But the Panthers compromised on their values instead of sticking to their guns and they cost themselves another big bit of dead money if they can't move Darnold on top of losing the draft picks.

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cranky Enthusiast

cranky

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1 minute ago, t96 said:

It wouldn't be a risk for the other team, they'd just be buying a draft pick from us. 

Thanks for the clarification. So basically, if we can find a trade partner, he would basically wind up costing a 2nd, 4th, 6th and an additional midround draft spot in addition to his current pay for this years' performance. It's better than 18M but still -

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t96 Grand Master

t96

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1 minute ago, Jared Patterson said:

Would a team be wiling to give up a 7 for Darnold tho to take on that contract?

If we attached a 4th or 3rd for sure. Would be buying a mid round pick just for $18M in cap space 1 year. For a team not close to competing with plenty of cap space that is a massive win for them. We saw it with Brock Osweiler, it took a 2nd attached to him to get rid of his contract but his contract had guaranteed money for like 3-4 years, Darnold is just 1 year and cheaper.

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t96 Grand Master

t96

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Just now, cranky said:

Thanks for the clarification. So basically, if we can find a trade partner, he would basically wind up costing a 2nd, 4th, 6th and an additional midround draft spot in addition to his current pay for this years' performance. It's better than 18M but still -

Yes but everything already spent is just a sunk cost at this point. It was a bad deal, we already know that. IF we were to trade for Watson and take on his cap hit, then it'll be worth that additional pick to get rid of Darnold so we have cap space to keep guys like Donte, Reddick, DJ, Burns, Gilmore, etc.

 

It sucks but it's the situation we're in and we can only look at moves to make now, can't change what we already gave up and can't undo the 5th year option...

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Toomers Mentor

Toomers

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1 minute ago, t96 said:

I've seen some confusion about this in various threads here. With the new 5th year option rules making that 5th year 100% guaranteed (used to be guaranteed for injury only), many think we're stuck with that no matter what (i.e. we trade for Watson, we have to carry both of them and the big cap hits). This is NOT true.

 

We can't save a dime by releasing Darnold, but if we trade him after this season we are on the hook for absolutely nothing. No dead cap at all. Yes with that cap hit and the way he's playing, he's a liability, so we may have to attach a mid round pick to him to get a bad team flush with cap space to take him on, but we can absolutely get out of the deal after this year by trading him. Worth clarifying, and note I'm not trying to defend the trade or picking up the 5th option -- in hindsight both were clearly just flat out bad moves. But that 5th year option just isn't quite as crippling as many think.

It’s no different than Teddy’s 20M guaranteed last year. What draft pick is going to make a team want to pay a huge bust 18.5M to be a backup. They had to pay 17M of 20M just to make TB go away. Best case, is they only pay 15M of something that had no logical reason to ever happen. Especially when it just happened the year before and burned them. And that would take some improvements to give him the same value as Teddy had. Which is sad. 

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Madwolf Rising Star

Madwolf

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1 minute ago, joemac said:

Who the hell is going to trade for him, and then pay him 18 million dollars next season?!?!  Bill O'Brien isnt a GM anywhere anymore unfortunately...

I mean it's not out of the question, but the Panthers will most assuredly have to give up draft picks in the deal. A team that's not competing and has a low cap hit might be willing to take Darnold for a year if they get a 3rd rounder out of it.

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Toomers Mentor

Toomers

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7 minutes ago, t96 said:

If we attached a 4th or 3rd for sure. Would be buying a mid round pick just for $18M in cap space 1 year. For a team not close to competing with plenty of cap space that is a massive win for them. We saw it with Brock Osweiler, it took a 2nd attached to him to get rid of his contract but his contract had guaranteed money for like 3-4 years, Darnold is just 1 year and cheaper.

  Osweiler had a 16M guaranteed base salary for that year to whatever team traded for him. Much like Darnold. And that took a 2nd. What would this cost? A 2nd and a 3rd that they don’t even have anyhow. 

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