Joe Person: Panthers will let Cade Mays test the free agent market

[PanthersNCSU]

If Mays has a market, which it seems he will, he's gone. 

I think we bring back Nijman for too much money to be cautious at LT, Corbett comes back cheap since he's already said he wants to live in CLT, and Christensen eventually gets re-signed with the hopes he can be depth at some point. 

Draft an OT, draft a C. The OL might be rough for stretches next year, but time to get some youth there to prepare for Bryce in 2027 or the next QB.

I still think we compete for the division in 2026 and can go back to the playoffs unlike the oddsmakers in Vegas, but the *real* year is 2027 IMO. Either Bryce has proven it and he's the QB looking at his 2nd contract, or we have the ready-made team for the next rookie QB or Vet we trade for. 

[CanadianCat]

I mean.. man it really sucks Icky got hurt.. completely changed our offseason plans..

That said, letting Mays test the market is not bad. It allows us to geta  comp pick for him if there is a strong market or allows us to try to bring him back at an affordable rate. 

[frankw]

The Icky injury certainly complicates things. But Morgan backed himself into this corner with Center. I feel he might be getting a little complacent and forgetful of how horrific the position was just a few years ago.

[strato]

39 minutes ago, CanadianCat said:

I mean.. man it really sucks Icky got hurt.. completely changed our offseason plans..

That said, letting Mays test the market is not bad. It allows us to geta  comp pick for him if there is a strong market or allows us to try to bring him back at an affordable rate. 

It sure does. I can only find two little almost silver linings. And from his perspective they aren’t silver linings. 
He could have waited until camp to blow the tendon, or the first week or two of the year. At least we have a chance to adapt with the timing of it.

The extension that was planned for won’t happen and we can repurpose that money. Where if the injury happened in camp or in season, that was already signed and we are mega fuged. 
 

But it sure does throw a monkey wrench into whatever they had planned. 

[rebelrouser]

1 minute ago, strato said:

It sure does. I can only find two little almost silver linings. And from his perspective they aren’t silver linings. 
He could have waited until camp to blow the tendon, or the first week or two of the year. At least we have a chance to adapt with the timing of it.

The extension that was planned for won’t happen and we can repurpose that money. Where if the injury happened in camp or in season, that was already signed and we are mega fuged. 
 

But it sure does throw a monkey wrench into whatever they had planned. 

...and here i was being negative lol.  You are right though. It could be much worse.  

[strato]

29 minutes ago, rebelrouser said:

...and here i was being negative lol.  You are right though. It could be much worse.  

I mean, it is pretty bad for Icky and we may still not be able to fix it.
But yeah we could have the same problems with worse timing and it would be a lot harder on us.  
 

Another thing it does, if we had extended him that 15 or 16 million dollar cap hit from his 5th year option would then be in play to be reduced and now it can’t be. Even though I saw someone suggest they extend him anyway, that would be very irresponsible unless he somehow comes back and plays well this season. 
 

It looks like we will have to deal with his big money hit this year, but yeah we have $ flexibility on another signing that we didn’t have before.  
 

[TheSpecialJuan]

8 hours ago, therealmjl said:

Dumb

Smart 

[LinvilleGorge]

We may not have a choice. I'm sure contract discussions were had and I'd rather lose him than pay him like a high level starting center. He's a good player to have on your roster but he's in that good backup/marginal starter category that usually gets overpaid in free agency as teams clamor to fill gaps.