Panthers Are $9.6M Over the Salary Cap

Now we get to trim the fat, tighten the belts and build the team through youth.

Great teams are built not bought anyways.

im starting to think Shock is done and Barnridge finally gets his shot as Panthers TE. I think he could thrive in the offense.

1.4M signing bonus, 8.25M roster bonus, 2.25M salary.

He will not see the 8.25M roster bonus for sure.
If they cut Davis before the deadline, it puts them under the cap. It’s almost a certainty that they cut him and then possibly resign him.

I don’t see a way that Clausen and Goodson stay on the team, that saves another 1 million.

Likewise, I can’t see Baker staying on the roster for 1.5M

Wharton will probably be restructured or cut, as he costs 5.7M
Hangarter is due 2.8M and then he’s a FA, so he could be extended as well.

Smith is due 7.75M and has stated that he wants to play for 3 -4 more years, so an extension is possible for him as well.

There are a few other players on the margins, such as Armanti Edwards for 490k.

In reality, after Thomas is cut, Carolina is right at the cap number. The only question is how much money are they going to free up for signing FA and their draftees.

Hurney will get us under the cap no problem.

at lest when he’s cut that will settle the Cam number thing once and for all.

That still leaves us with virtually no cap space to sign our own draft picks, let alone any solid FA’s.

I’m thinking the Falcons are gonna make a big run at Mario Williams…

i wouldn’t be surprised if either them or the bucs tried to vulture us on anybody we have a legitimate shot at – especially shockey. he already said he’s willing to come back at a discount, though (think it was joe person who broke it, but can’t remember). in my mind, if we go o-tackle in the first otah is probably gone, and it will be kris jenkins all over again. he’ll get healthy and beast somewhere else. td will most likely come back on a pay-for-play basis… clausen, armanti and butler are good candidates to go, there’s about $3 mil. i think travelle wharton is just about the most interesting quandary. i’d dump him and go with schwarz, hangartner, bell and williams on the inside, myself. he was playing tackle when he got that contract. smitty would prob be open to deferring his payday in favor of the team. i honestly have no idea about gamble, so… we’ll know pretty soon, anyway, how this shakes out. i’m still convinced there’s a plan in place and we’ll make AT LEAST one mid-level move on a defender.

save up to 10 mil there. 1.5 for cutting Baker, over 1 mil for cutting Hartsock. Clausen around 1 mil, Hangartner could save us around 2 mil by cutting. Restructure Wharton to save a mil or 2. several other backup players making just under a mil will likely be cut. I could see us going in 10 mil under, thats not including rookie signings or resigning our own FAs.

Thomas Davis: Scheduled to make $10.25 million total. Estimated re-structure for $3.5 million in 2012
- Saves $7.75 million

Jimmy Clausen: Cut
- Saves $993,000

Steve Smith: Scheduled to make $7.75 million. Estimated re-structure at $4.5 million, backloaded high guaranteed money deal
- Saves $3 million

Three realistic moves that save $11.68 million

i am ABSOLUTELY convinced locking up Jonathan Stewart should be the first, second and third most important things during this offseason. also, that would push some cash out. please don’t let us lose our bruiser:(

Davis will be cut and resigned in all likelihood, Wharton will need to either restructure or be cut (I really hope he restructures), Baker will be cut, Mare will be cut, Clausen cut. That should do it (I’m guessing). If not he’s gonna have to get really creative. I just hope we free up enough space to bring back Shockey.

I read on the Charlotte Observers site that we were looking at 123 million due with a cap number of 121 million to 125 million. I am confused

We have to go under it far enough to allow money to sign draft picks any free agent on this team already we want to keep and have money for during the season in case we have to sign a player for need at a position due to injuries or what not. The hard truth of the matter is Wharton, Clausen, Goodson, Davis, Shockey, Conner, Baker, Mare, Thomas Williams, Legadu, and some other fill in players will not be back or have contracts restructured. This is the nature of the business. The only players that will work out new deals this offseason are Smitty and I believe Ron Edwards will rework his also since he did not do anything for us last season. Marty might lower his contract and rework it with incentive clauses. I know some of the players I have listed are fan favorites and Davis was also one of mine. But for the Panthers to move forward towards the future we have to move ahead with new guys for a brighter future then tie up any money on hoping for the best with some of these guys.

The only way it makes sense for us to be so cap strapped after having something like… what was it? $50 million? $70 million? is if we front-loaded a lot of contracts to resign people. D.Will had a huge signing bonus, so did many of the others.

If that only applies to the cap this year, we could be doing just fine for next year’s cap.

James posted above 3 moves that will get us easyily under the cap, and Hurney knows how to rub his fingers together and squeak out some cap space. I do see Shocky as being the only resigning as it is, and them relying on the draft this year. One year or another they are going to have to back off a bit to try on open up some breathing room but I do not think were at that point yet. Also this is all specualted on the estiamated cap space, so it could be more room or less depending on the reality of it.

Isn’t he coming to the end of his contract? Couldn’t we re-sign him to a three or four year deal and possibly save some cap space?

Some1 posted a link for an interview with him a month or so ago. He said his son is starting high school this year, and where ever he plays he will be there till at least his son finishes school so as to not move him around. I think he works out a new deal this year to play around that schedule.