Smith Perspective: A Voth-man prophecy

[jtm]

Really though, this whole thing could have been done with a little more class. That's what bothers most people.

There is no way that a sutuation like this can be handled in a way that no one has their feelings hurt.

Smith was asked to take a pay cut and wouldn't do it, therefore he was cut. Make no mistake, no team will sign Smith for close to what the Panthers are paying him. Why should the Panthers overpay ... because of Smiths legacy? I'm glad the Panthers are no longer handcuffing thus team by paying for past performance.

[TheRed]

In the interest of level headed, intelligent football conversation I'd like to ask you a question, as I respect everyone's opinions but would like to weed out those that are being emotional from the nut jobs. This is not necessarily to you specifically Red, but to AceBoogie and anyone else here that thinks Gettleman is some sort of New York bully throwing his weight around. So here goes.

If you were Gettleman, how EXACTLY would you have handled this "situation"?

When giving your answer please give it some logical thought and take into consideration the following factors:

1. Being asked on the spot about Steve Smith's 2014 status with the team, without notice, and without having been given a chance to notify Smith.

2. Having a sit down with Steve Smith, laying out the situation at hand, and explaining to him he must take a pay cut for the team to be successful in 2014 and beyond.

3. Steve Smith refusing to take a pay cut.

4. Having Steve Smith going on the radio adding fuel to an already combustible situation.

5. Being a GM, you need to do what you feel is best for the long term success of the team.

When you reply please give thoughtful answers and explain why you approached it the way you did. Feel free to elaborate, I will not give a childish TL;DR back at you. I will have a rebuttal on if I agree with your strategy and if I don't, I'll explain why. I'll tell you in what is only my opinion, what I think would happen both with the media and fanbase based off the decisions you've made and we'll go from there in a civil debate.

Because I'd genuinely like to know how people feel that want to burn Gettleman at the stake, and why specifically they feel that way.

Let's debate.

 

I am not, and have not called for Gettleman's head. Upset a bit? Sure. Think it could have been handled better? Yes.

 

Let's please not label everyone who does not agree with every single thing that our GM does, as AceBoogie.

[Fox007]

The best option for this thing with Steve Smith should have been to rework his deal. From what it sounds like, we are hellbent on moving on from him no matter what. I don't think this really compares to Delhomme, Steve Smith could still be very productive, even at 35.

 

 

Define "very productive"

 

 

As Monsta pointed out Lafells "production" was better or on par with Smitty's on less targets and catches.

 

And we all know how the Huddle geniuses feel about Lafell.

[TheRed]

Gettleman could have offered a different response to the media. Hell he could have said no comment.

 

The worst thing that he did was say nothing after opening a can of worms.

[t96]

I'm not pissed that Steve Smith is getting cut, it's just how it all went down.  Gettleman could have just said "Steve has had a great career here in Carolina but the time has come to move on." and we would have been upset but at least he was a man and came out and said it.  Now he's just dangling him for trade bait and Steve had to hear his time in Carolina was probably up through social media.  The best player in Panthers history deserves better than that yankee garbage.

 

This.

[TheRed]

But isn't that the case for every player in the NFL that gets cut or released? It happens on every team, every year. Contracts don't mean much in the NFL, guaranteed money does.

 

*Edit* - JOAT beat me to it.

 

Again, this is why players holdout, because teams don't want to honor the end of the contract.

 

It's not just about the contract. I don't want to get stuck on that, it's about how this played out through the media.

[KissMyConverse]

I don't disagree with cutting or trading Smith, it's just the way it all went down.  Smith had to hear his time in Carolina might be up through social media.  Gettleman vaguely mentions in the past tense that Smith has had a great career at his only press conference.  He could have been clear with his intentions "We're considering parting ways with Steve Smith but we haven't made a final decision yet.  I plan to speak with Steve about it directly" would have been excellent.  At the very least "I have not yet spoken to Steve and I have no comment on the situation" would have sufficed.  Gettleman treated Smith like he was just another joe on the team which he is definitely not.  Cutting/trading him is one thing but not even showing him the respect of telling him directly he might be cut is pretty low.

Personally I think Getts got caught up in a Catch 22. He was asked a question about Steve Smith's future when he wasn't prepared for it.

Should he have been?

That's debatable. He is under contract for two more years, he is the only WR really we have under contract, and he is Steve Smith! Who would have thought the reporter would have asked about his future? Maybe he should have thought "Hey Gross retired, so obviously the question will be can you imagine this team without Smith?" But he wasn't prepared for it. And well he flubbed the answer.

Getts isn't the type that wants to blow smoke up your rear so he answered honestly instead of deflecting the question or flat out lying. NOW that is the skill he has to learn. The GM stuff he is prepared for, the PR stuff he is learning.

So honestly I don't fault him for this. I also don't fault him for not rushing to explain things to Smith. I watched this press conference, its on Panthers.com. I remember the question and really didn't think anything of it. Thought his reaction was weird but I also thought he was reacting to an absurd question. Oops I was wrong. But I also didn't know I was wrong for 4 days after the press conference that was done on Thursday. No one made a big deal out of it till Monday (May have been Sunday, don't remember, point is it was a few days).

But this is where he screwed up. As soon as they made a deal out of it he should have picked up the phone and let Smith know, instead he waited till Steve reached out a week later to address it.  And that is what we all should be mad about. He didn't react right away. But I don't think he meant for it to leak and after he slipped up it wasn't caught right away so I guess he thought no harm no foul.

[TheRed]

Define "very productive"

 

 

As Monsta pointed out Lafells "production" was better or on par with Smitty's on less targets and catches.

 

And we all know how the Huddle geniuses feel about Lafell.

 

Eh, comparing him to Lafell by simply looking at numbers is not enough. You have to look deeper.

 

How many crucial drops did Lafell have when we needed him to make a play? Steve Smith is a part of the reason we went 12-4.

[t96]

Define "very productive"

 

 

As Monsta pointed out Lafells "production" was better or on par with Smitty's on less targets and catches.

 

And we all know how the Huddle geniuses feel about Lafell.

 

All defenses were focusing on as a receiving threat was Smith and Olsen (to a lesser degree). LaFell benefited from that greatly and when Smitty went down, and LaFell was relied on as the #1 threat what happened? He didn't do squat.

[jtm]

This.

How do we know Smith heard via social media?

[MadHatter]

Gettleman could have offered a different response to the media. Hell he could have said no comment.

The worst thing that he did was say nothing after opening a can of worms.

The media and everyone else would have construed a "no comment" response the exact way they did his actual response.

It was a loaded question and Gett was in a no win situation.

[t96]

How do we know Smith heard via social media?

 

When he was asked about it when this came up after the combine, he clearly stated something along the lines of only first hearing through it through the media. (may not have been 'social media' but that's completely beside the point) The point is that G-man has shown absolutely no respect whatsoever to Smitty. He could've decided to cut him while still giving him some respect, but like said in the post I quoted, now he's just dangling him as trade bait before possibly cutting him.

[TheRed]

The media and everyone else would have construed a "no comment" response the exact way they did his actual response.

It was a loaded question and Gett was in a no win situation.

 

No comment would have given him time to speak with Steve Smith.

 

Instead of saying what he did, and Steve Smith getting blindsided by the media, and having to respond.

[Johnny Rockets]

How do we know Smith heard via social media?

 

Steve said it when he called into Keith Larson's show while on vacation in Utah a couple weeks ago.