Judging from Fitt's Comments, Reddick isn't coming back.

[SizzleBuzz]

1 hour ago, Ted Ginn Jr.'s Hands said:

especially when you pay 3rd string TE's $6 mil a year.

Bailey had Fitterer on earlier and is reporting there was a "robust market" for Evil Knievel...

[pantherclaw]

1 hour ago, Proudiddy said:

No, I heard all of it, but the "keeping the dialogue open" comment was just a throwaway.  The takeaway was they were letting him test the market first and basically if he got a great offer we weren't going to touch it.  Sounds like we have a set number we would bring him back at, and if he gets better than that on the market then we won't attempt to match.  

Say what ya want, literally nothing has changed from the moment he was attained last year. Was a 1 year lease for a player that doesn't fit very many defenses.  He predictably had another good year, and is going to test the market, to see his value. This doesn't always mean he's gone.  

[Evil Hurney]

4 minutes ago, stbugs said:

Who cares? You don’t pay him on the hope he can do great. You pay him the $1.5M a year he’s worth. If Arnold was worth $3M a year, that’s all Thomas was worth.

Thomas is likely getting paid closer to $3-4M a year. His guaranteed amount was reported to be $8M (or $2.7M on average over 3 years).

[hepcat]

Reddick's on Twitter saying he didn't struggle against the run. 

I went back and watched a few highlights against teams that ran all over the defense. 

Just on my quick glances, Brian Burns is f*cking TERRIBLE against the run. But that's just my dumbass assessment. I saw his ass on the ground more than any other player on the defense. 

Washington specifically ran towards Brian Burns/Marquis Haynes's side. 

Cowboys just demolished the entire Panthers D-Line

Patriots schemed the defense into hell

Bucs bodied up every Panthers player and put them on the ground

It's just a tiny defense that can't win 1 on 1 matchups

 

[frankw]

It happens. He's a good player but this team has so many needs and some of the pieces we already have in place aren't guaranteed anything either. There are glaring distractions with this team though. To see players on social media going after anyone with a hint of criticism isn't a good sign for a franchise in the cellar of the division and one of the worst teams in the conference.

Edited March 2, 2022 by frankw

[rmoneyg35]

There is a reason why he only was able to make a million a year after a 12 sack season. Yeah he gets sacks but he isn’t good at much else. He’s small too and isn’t an ideal DE. He’s basically a one trick pony.

[LinvilleGorge]

Letting Reddick walk is the right move IMO. Unless you're transitioning to a legit 3-4 D, he and Burns are redundant and are too much of a liability against the run when on the field together in the base D and not as an obvious passing situation NASCAR type package.

[onmyown]

when you waste cap and throw money  at cam to appease fans, Anderson, Thomas, Erving, Elflein, Teddy B, Paradis, and sam Darnold along with paying your LB and RB almost 40m, …it will be a struggle to keep your 5 win team together

[t96]

Reddick is a very solid player but not worth what some team will pay him based on back to back double digit sack seasons. Right call as much as it stinks to see him go. But while this is a good move as others have said the Ian Thomas deal is a massive joke and inconsistent with Fitts' reasoning with Reddick so I ultimately just don't know what to say about this front office

[Toomers]

3 minutes ago, onmyown said:

when you waste cap and throw money  at cam to appease fans, Anderson, Thomas, Erving, Elflein, Teddy B, Paradis, and sam Darnold along with paying your LB and RB almost 40m, …it will be a struggle to keep your 5 win team together

Keep going. 
 

 Boston-1 yr/9.5M

Weatherly-1 yr/8M

KK- a couple games/13M

Okung-6 games/13M

 These, and all the moves you listed, were defended non-stop by the same people wondering why the Panthers can’t sign any players worth a damn. 

[CPF4LIFE]

Don't really have a problem with it. I want to see what YGM can do with more reps. 

[Proudiddy]

I'm not saying it isn't the right move to let him walk if his number is too high.  He does deserve to test the market and see what he can get, because although he is really great at what he does, he is very limited at a lot of other things...  thus, overpaying just isn't worth it.  I just like him as a player and it sucks that we can't retain him.

But, I agree, unless we're running a 3-4, it makes very little sense to retain him with Burns being younger and in all of our future plans.  We saw teams demolish us last year when both of them were in by just running the ball all over us and I'd much rather teams pass on us because at least you have a chance to get a pick or something...  getting ran into oblivion just sucks.

[Billy Love]

The important thing is we got Ian Thomas on lockdown. 

[Jay Roosevelt]

I'm fine with letting both Reddick and Gilmore walk. It's time to put some money/picks into the OL.