Look for big moves this offseason in free agency. Samir will be dishing out a lot of voided year contracts... and thats fine.

[thunderraiden]

Life sucks, yea but lets look at some financials to get an idea of how this off-season is about to go. In 2021 the Panthers operated with $51.6 Million dollars in dead cap and managed to finish the year with $13,653,336 Million in cap space as of today in 2021 of which it will all rollover to 2022.

In 2022, the Panthers currently have have $27.4 Million in Cap space but they also don't have a full roster either for 2022 which realistically means they have $15.5 Million if they were to get to the minimum number of players on minimum contracts. 

They also will roll over that $13.7 million from 2021 into 2022 to give them $41 Million in cap space before filling up their roster, which at best will leave us with $29.2 Million in Cap space. Now, here is where things get interesting, in 2023 and 2024 the Panthers have $110 Million in Cap Space and $198 Million in Cap Space respectively. Samir is one of the best when it comes to using void years in contracts, I think we could realistically be looking at a very action packed off-season due to those void years and the amount of space we will allocate to players this year and spread the cap hit out to future years. While we will have 40 million it will likely feel like 90 million with the moves we will be making. 

Players still have to want to play for us tho.

Dead money in 2022 is not horrific, but not great. After Haasan and Paradis' contracts void at the start of the league year we will be at $19,300,000 in Dead cap in 2022 and currently scheduled to have none in 2023, the Panthers WILL void the hell out of contracts and we will be fine, especially when you look at the Saints and their situation they are in, they are effectively $74 MILLION DOLLARS OVER the salary cap for 2022 and they will be just fine.

Source: https://overthecap.com/salary-cap-space/

Edited January 10, 2022 by thunderraiden

[thunderraiden]

Some contracts that we can work on to bring this years cap number down further:

Shaq Thomas can be cut for 5.8 Million in cap relief, or restructured  (more likely) to also save us 6 million this year.

McCaffery can be restructured to give us another 8 million in additional space.

AJ Bouye can be cut to give us another 3.5 Million in space

Pat Eflien can be restructured or cut for 2.4 million in space.

Cam Irving can be cut to give us another 2 million in space as well.

Last, but certainly least likely, Morgan Fox would create an additional 3 million in space. He was one of our most consistent players this year and did work so if anything look for a restructure if anything there.

 

All in all, that is an additional 21 million in cap space that we can create if needed. That's not even mentioning Darnolds contract if we are able to pay some... err, most of his guarantee and ship him or if its possible to give him voided years on an extension as well (I don't know how preferable or possible that possibility even is). 

Something to keep in mind is that the NFL salary cap is jumping really really high in 2023 and teams know.

[LinvilleGorge]

We absolutely cannot restructure CMC. Restructuring aging and/or injury prone players is a big part of what got Hurney in such cap hell.

[Ja Rhule]

We can also convert Moton salary to bonus and create additional $10M+ in cap.  Possibilities are endless.

[TheCasillas]

I did a pretty detailed write up about Samir and how he has set us up for success over the coming years. He is a salary cap king. We are going to have so much wiggle room. The 29.6 million you see now is just the tip of the iceberg.

[TheCasillas]

1 minute ago, LinvilleGorge said:

We absolutely cannot restructure CMC. Restructuring aging and/or injury prone players is a big part of what got Hurney in such cap hell.

Yes we can through modern salary cap tactics. We can restructure, pull the bonus forward and void the last 2 years of his deal. The thing is with CMC, we have an out in his contract next year without penatly. 

It will be interesting to see how this all unfolds this offseason though.

[Toomers]

4 minutes ago, thunderraiden said:

Some contracts that we can work on to bring this years cap number down further:

Shaq Thomas can be cut for 5.8 Million in cap relief, or restructured  (more likely) to also save us 6 million this year.

McCaffery can be restructured to give us another 8 million in additional space.

AJ Bouye can be cut to give us another 3.5 Million in space

Pat Eflien can be restructured or cut for 2.4 million in space.

Cam Irving can be cut to give us another 2 million in space as well.

Last, but certainly least likely, Morgan Fox would create an additional 3 million in space. He was one of our most consistent players this year and did work so if anything look for a restructure if anything there.

 

All in all, that is an additional 21 million in cap space that we can create if needed. That's not even mentioning Darnolds contract if we are able to pay some... err, most of his guarantee and ship him or if its possible to give him voided years on an extension as well (I don't know how preferable or possible that possibility even is). 

Something to keep in mind is that the NFL salary cap is jumping really really high in 2023 and teams know.

   You don’t really understand void years do you? And where is this 13.7M coming from? Which makes every number irrelevant. 

[thunderraiden]

2 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

We absolutely cannot restructure CMC. Restructuring aging and/or injury prone players is a big part of what got Hurney in such cap hell.

If we were balancing your or mine checkbook sure, but the NFL doesn't work that way anymore, its monopoly money now. 

[CRA]

I worry about the deals Rhule/Fitt will make. 

we are living through the “it can always be worse” window following 2 strong back to back runs by Fox and Rivera. 

Think Sam and Robby’s deal are the canary in the coal mine.  

[Ja Rhule]

1 minute ago, TheCasillas said:

I did a pretty detailed write up about Samir and how he has set us up for success over the coming years. He is a salary cap king. We are going to have so much wiggle room. The 29.6 million you see now is just the tip of the iceberg.

 

[LinvilleGorge]

Just now, TheCasillas said:

Yes we can through modern salary cap tactics. We can restructure, pull the bonus forward and void the last 2 years of his deal. The thing is with CMC, we have an out in his contract next year without penatly. 

It will be interesting to see how this all unfolds this offseason though.

You gotta hold the line with CMC. Roll the dice he stays healthy. If he doesn't, move on. If he does, yay.

[thunderraiden]

Just now, Toomers said:

   You don’t really understand void years do you? And where is this 13.7M coming from? Which makes every number irrelevant. 

Its pretty clear you have no idea how void years work. I wouldn't open my mouth if i were you and remove all doubt you're an idiot.

[TheCasillas]

Just now, CRA said:

I worry about the deals Rhule/Fitt will make. 

we are living through the “it can always be worse” window following 2 strong back to back runs by Fox and Rivera. 

Think Sam and Robby’s deal are the canary in the coal mine.  

they dont make the deals, Samir does. That's why tepper hired him during MH's final years. He pulled MH away from money management. Also,  RA's contract is just a one year extension. He can be cut this offseason and we barely lose any money.

[LinvilleGorge]

2 minutes ago, thunderraiden said:

If we were balancing your or mine checkbook sure, but the NFL doesn't work that way anymore, its monopoly money now. 

But just like in Monopoly, you can still go broke. Lots of dead future money tied up in aging and/or injury prone players was Hurney's favorite way to accomplish it.