Please Hurney, if you sign one guy, sign Brandon Carr.

[KillerKat]

We're over the cap right now so restructuring/cutting probably just gets us breaking even. I'd rather just make sure we are in a healthy cap situation. The team has stated over and over again that they don't want to sign big name guys.

Rightt. We're gonna rely on Ron "never was that good" Edwards (also old) and 1 or 2 rookies (with Martin starting if it's just 1) in the backfield and a player who is coming from 3 ACL tears (also 3 years removed from football) to suddenly pull our D out of the bottom rankings of the league.

[Donald LaFell]

Rightt. We're gonna rely on Ron "never was that good" Edwards (also old) and 1 or 2 rookies (with Martin starting if it's just 1) in the backfield and a player who is coming from 3 ACL tears (also 3 years removed from football) to suddenly pull our D out of the bottom rankings of the league.

Why would we sign edwards only to not have him start? Why draft mcclain to not use him?

they want to build through the draft. the whole point of that means when they spend money in fa its low risk sense they know what they are getting.

I doubt they depend on davis. But mostly everybody else I think they will be depended on. Even martin I think will get a chance to redeem himself.

[Panfan35]

Oh please god.......

If we pull this off we could have the top defense

1st pick DL

2nd pick S or DE

4th pick Olb

[CatMan72]

I'd love it, but I don't think we can afford him.

[megadeth078]

Half the people blowing their load over Brandon Carr had to google his name first because they had no idea who he was. You guys just love getting excited over anything do you? "who's this guy? someone said he's good? Sign him now, plz hurney! We need him more than you can imagine! u don't care about this team omg"

To the other half, since when does Hurney sign people whose name you actually recognize? We're going to build through the draft even if our defense ends up being sh*t next season. Coming out with a bad defense next season because we kept our wallet tight is just an unfortunate consequence to Hurney. Don't get your hopes up.

[Ivan The Awesome]

Half the people blowing their load over Brandon Carr had to google his name first because they had no idea who he was. You guys just love getting excited over anything do you? "who's this guy? someone said he's good? Sign him now, plz hurney! We need him more than you can imagine! u don't care about this team omg"

To the other half, since when does Hurney sign people who's name you actually recognize? We're going to build through the draft even if our defense ends up being sh*t next season. Coming out with a bad defense next season because we kept our wallet tight is just an unfortunate consequence to Hurney. Don't get your hopes up.

Jesus, you are an angry little guy.

We've signed big named people before. Did it work out, eh, not completely but we have done it before. Second, so what if half of the people don't know who the person of topic is? Are you the all knowing? Do you know every single guy out there in free agency? I doubt it.

Hurney is a wiz when it comes to structuring and negotiating contracts. I'm not worried about that at all. When it's all said and done we will probably have enough cash for one free agent or two.

Who said we aren't building through the draft? Our first pick would address more than likely a need. Carr is only 26.. He's young. I'm not talking about Asante Samuel, I'm talking about a young guy that is very skilled at his position.

[megadeth078]

I didn't make fun of them for being ignorant, I ridiculed how fickle they are when they support a random player they never heard about simply because someone makes a thread saying they're good and we should sign them.

This stuff happens every season, there's always some player that people agree that we HAVE to sign to save our franchise, someone replies with "we have no money", someone else then replies with "well we can always restructure, cut...etc", then someone replies with "omg that's so true, hurney make it happen!", then we wait....Hurney moves stuff around so that we finally have a couple dollars to spend, we're finally going to make our little dent in free agency, and he spends it on extending a Charles Godfrey. Oh, and of course "championship."

Am I the only one here that's been a fan for longer than one season? This stuff happens every year. You guys need to quit getting your hopes up, stop pretending that Hurney plays this stuff out like he's playing Madden, and just wait patiently for the draft when something will actually happen.

[Ivan The Awesome]

I didn't make fun of them for being ignorant, I ridiculed how fickle they are when they support a random player they never heard about simply because someone makes a thread saying they're good and we should sign them.

This stuff happens every season, there's always some player that people agree that we HAVE to sign to save our franchise, someone replies with "we have no money", someone else then replies with "well we can always restructure, cut...etc", then someone replies with "omg that's so true, hurney make it happen!", then we wait....Hurney moves stuff around so that we finally have a couple dollars to spend, we're finally going to make our little dent in free agency, and he spends it on extending a Charles Godfrey. Oh, and of course "championship."

Am I the only one here that's been a fan for longer than one season? This sh*t happens every year. You guys need to quit getting your hopes up, stop pretending that Hurney plays this stuff out like he's playing Madden, and just wait patiently for the draft when something will actually happen.

Apparently we can't have these type of scenarios gentlemen. I should just lay the madden down and post responsibly.. Oh wait, I don't even OWN madden. Brandon Carr isn't a well known Corner by average fans standards. Seriously, if you ask the average panther fan who he would want playing for us, Asante Samuel or Brandon Carr. I bet you that at least 85% of the time they will say Asante.

It's a possibility whether you like it or not. If it doesn't happen guess what? The world will move on and so will we, like we do every year.

By the way, who would have said we would have gotten Greg Olsen for a third? Marty Hurney made it happen. I'm sure this is in the same realm of possibility for the man.

[hepcat]

I agree that corner is an area of need this offseason. I hope they address it in the draft. Carr would be too expensive though. The team will likely cut Thomas Davis and Jimmy Clausen and make a few other moves to save money. Jordan Gross could restructure his contract, maybe give Steve Smith an extension to save a few $$. But even then, Brandon Carr is still too expensive.

[Dpantherman]

Guys we do this every single year. We just don't operate in free agency like this.

[JawnyBlaze]

Agree with OP. It's well within the realm of possibility for Hurney to move around enough money with restructures and whathaveyou to free up enough money to make one good FA signing. And this one would be awesome. I read an article today (I think at an inferior site) about how we should follow the Texan's formula for fixing a defense. They signed Joseph and Manning, we should sign Carr (and Griffin or Landry if possible).

To the "we don't sign big name FAs" crowd, we have signed plenty of recognizable FAs. Going from most recent back, DJ Hackett was a recognizable, good potential FA signing (that busted). Landon Johnson was also recognizable, very productive during his first 4 years. Keyshawn Johnson was a huge name. Ken Lucas and Justin Hartwig were recognizable. Stephen Davis was a big name. I'm sure I've forgotten a few. Brandon Carr is only a bigger name than half those guys were at the time.

In the past 2 or 3 years we've been pretty quiet in FA, but the past 2 or 3 years have been an anomaly, not the rule. It was a turbulent time in the NFL and for the Panthers. In 08, we didn't think we needed to. In 09, we didn't think we needed to. In 10, it was in preparation for the CBA negotiations. In 11, we spent our money on our own guys and picked up a couple mid range pieces. In 12, we don't have much money but we'll see. I wouldn't be surprised either way, FA signing or no. Carr isn't a huge name anyway, not like Joseph was last year.

[CPF4LIFE]

Im rooting for any teams picking ahead of us to grab FA agent corners and receivers cuz hopefully it will better the chances of Claiborne or Blackmon dropping to us.

[Herbert The Love Bug]

can't wait to see brandon hogan and whatever cb we draft.

and, tampa will draft trent richardson. I'll put $1,000 on that.

[JawnyBlaze]

Im rooting for any teams picking ahead of us to grab FA agent corners and receivers cuz hopefully it will better the chances of Claiborne or Blackmon dropping to us.

While that's a good point, and I'd love to get Claiborne (assuming we don't sign Carr), if we could sign Carr (an actual proven NFL CB who is still young) and draft Brockers (or if he's not your preference, whatever other defensive position will most benefit our team) would be much greater than just drafting Claiborne. If I had to choose between Garay (or whatever DT FA would be most desirable) + Claiborne or Carr + Brockers, I'm going with Carr + Brockers (if for no other reason, the youth factor).