Hat tip to Panthers FTW for being the first to post this on CSR via fanshot

John Clayton has been crunching the numbers and says the Panthers have some work to do just to get under the projected team salary cap:

Four teams still have to get under the salary cap by March 13. They are the Pittsburgh Steelers, who have redone three contracts to be $11.7 million over, the Oakland Raiders($11 million over), the Carolina Panthers ($9.6 million over) and the New York Giants ($7.3 million over).

Please note he does say the final numbers will not be released for another week but they are imminent. $9.6M over! Wow...now look at how much two of our division rivals have available:

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, thanks to $23.519 million of carryover cap money, have the second-most cap space with $60.496 million...The 2011 playoff teams in good shape are the Denver Broncos ($50.735 million of cap room), San Francisco 49ers ($39.33 million), Atlanta Falcons($30.6 million) and New England Patriots ($20 million).

Plenty of money out there for Peyton Manning obviously for the Redksins, Broncos or Seahawks. Sorry to be a bummer but we should not expect any big signings this offseason and instead look towards the draft and lower level special teamers. I expect a number of cuts and a couple surprises when the new league year starts, So how might be out the door?

We know Dan Conner is certainly gone. Clausen right behind him. Shockey too but there is still a chance he stays though slight. More likely though is some re-structured or new deals for guys like Travelle Wharton, Thomas Davis, Jonathan Stewart and Jeff Otah. Even that might not get us to a $9.6M reduction. GM Marty Hurney has to work his magic.