Looking ahead to this offseason *Warning* Not for the Weak Stomach

[Aussie Tank]

Jackson is as good as gone in my eyes 

[Cdparr7]

3 hours ago, pantherj said:

We're going to be bad for the next couple of seasons assuming we fail to acquire Watson.

What's wrong? Phase one of our rebuild has failed. The first part of our rebuild was to create a top quality defense. We now have the core of our defense in place, and yet our defense can be completely run over and dominated. That means that the defensive rebuild has failed, and next season we'll still have the same core, and that means the defense will still be below average. You can't gut core without completely restating a multi-season rebuild, and if the core can't even stop the run, let alone the pass, then it's essentially over. We're toast.

What to do? We can't replace the core of the defense unless we totally reboot and let the current core walk or cut them. That won't happen. That means we have to replace non-core players with other non-core players on defense and hope somehow that works. We don't have the draft picks to add more core players to the defense in this draft, and spending our sole 1st round pick on the defense would be insane. Tinkering and the return of Horn have to produce a better defense, but we can't stop the run, and Horn won't change that.

Our offense is better than a few of the worst teams in the NFL, but that's about it. Spending our 1st round pick on a LT will not fix our offense. The core of the offense is already in place. We can add a potential core player on the o-line with the draft, but that won't be anywhere near enough to make the offense even average. Drafting a QB is a possibility, but that means more losing seasons as he learns how to play. Even then, he could be a bust.

This is unfixable and I warned of this happening. We NEVER should have started bringing in journeymen  veteran QBs. All they do is keep your team out of the top of the NFL draft, and thus you miss out on the top QB prospects. This is how you end up in QB limo, a state where you are not bad enough to draft the top QBs, but not good enough to make the playoffs. This is the last thing you want to happen because there is no end in sight. QB limbo can be maintained for multiple seasons and you end up with zero to show for it. Nothing. No star QB, no trophies, no great memories, nothing. You'll have trouble even remembering the last 3 seasons, or the next 3 seasons. Limbo. Pointless.

It doesn't help matters that our coaches are below average. That's bad, but a great QB can make them look good. Now it's over until with get new coaches, or a great QB.

 

Watson isn’t going to help anything if we can afford to put an OL in front of him. I like the idea of putting Cam on a 2 yr deal and drafting Kenny Pickett. Smooth transition and still have money to put a OL out there

[Cdparr7]

Was looking at the betting odds of Rhule taking the ND job, what’s this about tension with the front office?

[Catsfan69]

3 hours ago, Cdparr7 said:

Watson isn’t going to help anything if we can afford to put an OL in front of him. I like the idea of putting Cam on a 2 yr deal and drafting Kenny Pickett. Smooth transition and still have money to put a OL out there

Pickett sucks tho

[Catsfan69]

3 hours ago, Cdparr7 said:

Was looking at the betting odds of Rhule taking the ND job, what’s this about tension with the front office?

Isn't Igo an insider media member?

We need answers.

[Khyber53]

14 hours ago, Mr. Scot said:

FYI on Suleiman: there's been some speculation he might get a GM job this offseason.

Perhaps he should have ours. I've been trying to say it for a while, but Fitterer has made a mess of our drafting and cap situation by the massive amount of activity he did to start this season.

He basically wrote check after check without ever balancing his checkbook. Now, we're going to have a lot of problems putting the team together next season and addressing any improvements, much less just holding place.

He screwed us majorly. Once the enormity of his willy nilly spending spree kicks in, we're going to be looking back on this and saying he's the worst GM we've ever had.

(And let's not even touch on his hit to miss ratio in draft and FA. Whew-eeee.)

[electro's horse]

It’s premature to talk about cap space at this point. 

[BrianS]

13 hours ago, Cdparr7 said:

You also got to remember that if we cut Elf and Erving that frees up some money. Also offloading McCaffrey or Anderson would give us more money if we can find somebody to take the contract. May have to take less in the trade though.

The cap increase is expected to sky rocket from the new TV deal and the recoup from the covid market last year. Good chance we have somewhere around 55 million or so and if we are lucky a couple extra picks from cutting dead weight.

There is so much wrong here.  Where to begin.

Cutting Elflein / Irving.  Could we save a little money?  Yes, but no.  Your total savings by cutting those two next year is 5 million.  With that five million, you have to bring in not two but FOUR players.  One replacement, plus a backup for each.  It doesn't add up.  The smart play is to keep them as backups and simply go out and get better players.

Offloading McCaffrey / Anderson.  Who will take them?  At very best, we get nothing in return.  CMC is now being looked at as an injury prone player.  Maybe he's just incredibly unlucky and goes Thomas Davis on us.  I hope so.  But from the outside, no one will give us anything resembling value for him.  RA has grossly underperformed.  Reasons are irrelevant for a WR.  He hasn't performed.  No one is gonna pay him and give us anything in return.  And in the unlikely event we do offload them we're STILL on the hook for unpaid signing bonus for each (13 million, CMC . . . 8 million RA).

The increase in cap won't only affect us.  Every team gets it.  Thus, it isn't an advantage to any team.  It's going to drive FA costs way up.  Players like Elflein and Irving will probably get MORE than what we paid in the new landscape.  You might even make that argument for RA.

There is no simple answer.

[frankw]

As the Saints have shown the cap is plenty manageable but the problem for the Panthers is they are cuffed to three very iffy salaries in CMC Darnold and Anderson. I think with the right offensive design and calls Robby will be useful again but all options need to be on the table for getting the first two off our backs. We need to build this oline and that will take wheeling and dealing if we are expecting prayers from the draft it will be years before our oline is where it needs to be. Fix C and fix LT and we can work around the rest for the time being. But we also need a real young qb in here not some other teams failure or a cast-off from the XFL but our own guy.

[mrcompletely11]

1 hour ago, BrianS said:

There is so much wrong here.  Where to begin.

Cutting Elflein / Irving.  Could we save a little money?  Yes, but no.  Your total savings by cutting those two next year is 5 million.  With that five million, you have to bring in not two but FOUR players.  One replacement, plus a backup for each.  It doesn't add up.  The smart play is to keep them as backups and simply go out and get better players.

Offloading McCaffrey / Anderson.  Who will take them?  At very best, we get nothing in return.  CMC is now being looked at as an injury prone player.  Maybe he's just incredibly unlucky and goes Thomas Davis on us.  I hope so.  But from the outside, no one will give us anything resembling value for him.  RA has grossly underperformed.  Reasons are irrelevant for a WR.  He hasn't performed.  No one is gonna pay him and give us anything in return.  And in the unlikely event we do offload them we're STILL on the hook for unpaid signing bonus for each (13 million, CMC . . . 8 million RA).

The increase in cap won't only affect us.  Every team gets it.  Thus, it isn't an advantage to any team.  It's going to drive FA costs way up.  Players like Elflein and Irving will probably get MORE than what we paid in the new landscape.  You might even make that argument for RA.

There is no simple answer.

Its a moot point anyway because @TDGone says the panthers wouldnt trade Cmac even for a first round pick.  So theres that

[Mr. Scot]

3 hours ago, Khyber53 said:

Perhaps he should have ours. I've been trying to say it for a while, but Fitterer has made a mess of our drafting and cap situation by the massive amount of activity he did to start this season.

He basically wrote check after check without ever balancing his checkbook. Now, we're going to have a lot of problems putting the team together next season and addressing any improvements, much less just holding place.

He screwed us majorly. Once the enormity of his willy nilly spending spree kicks in, we're going to be looking back on this and saying he's the worst GM we've ever had.

(And let's not even touch on his hit to miss ratio in draft and FA. Whew-eeee.)

He's not a talent evaluator.

When I look at out r front office right now, I see a GM with a load of college scouting experience (Fitterer) and an Assistant GM who's been successful in pro scouting. That's a combo I really want to see in action.

Funny thing is it's also what Tepper promised we'd have when he was gonna hire an Assistant GM type to pair with Marty. That turned out to be bullsh-t, but hey...