We've once again reached the slowest part of the off season where minicamp is over and training camp has yet to begin. At this time of the year there are few pieces of NFL news to read or discuss and football fans start growing antsy for anything football. As a result most media outlets have resorted to making all sorts of absurd list or teams made completely of quarterbacks, crazy stuff. Instead of wasting our time on pointless lists, we should at least waste our time on something a little more concrete. Lets talk about one of the more complicated subjects of the NFL off season; The Salary Cap.
Panthers General Manager Dave Gettleman is entering his third season managing the team and the fan base is finally getting a feel for how Dave wants to run a franchise. Along with winning in the trenches, Dave fundamentally believes in big and physical players regardless of position. Dave is focused on resigning the team's core contributors and maintaining a certain atmosphere. The Panthers GM has consistently preached about value, character and guys that fit the on and off the field system. If you are dreaming of the days when the Panthers start signing big name free agents or bringing in controversial players, keep dreaming because those days aren't coming any time soon. With that being said, here are five thoughts I have about the state of the Panthers Salary Cap.
#1 - Dave Gettleman is Doing a Great Job Managing the Salary Cap...
This is the best financial situation the Panthers have been in since at least 2008, probably longer. In fact, this season the Panthers will eat 12 million in dead money from Marty Hurney contracts, finally take an extra large 20 million dollar cap hit from Charles Johnson which has been long over do, field the deepest roster in recent memory, and roll ten million in additional cap space into 2016.
#2 - Cam Newton's New Contract Was a Good Deal...
21 million per season seems a little high but it's the going rate for quarterbacks these days. After signing his new contract Cam is currently the 3rd highest paid QB based on average salary per year and there are literally five more QBs within 1.5 million per season. Just next season Eli Manning, Philip Rivers, Russell Wilson and Andrew Luck are all going to sign new contracts as well and all four should have higher annual salaries. Cam Newton will be 7th in average salary in just the second year of his contract, which is not a bad deal. Three years from now Cam will be 29 years old with three years still on his contract, he will be a top five QB in his prime yet won't be close to a top ten QB in terms of salary.
#3 - It's Time to Finally Pay 'Big Money'....
Is Charles Johnson over paid? Yes. Is Charles Johnson the most overpaid player in the league? No way, he's not even the most overpaid player at his position. Beyond the fact the Charles Johnson is an upstanding, quiet guy who never gets in trouble, he is also a team leader that is constantly one of the hardest workers in practice and sets the tempo for the entire defensive line. A player of Charles Johnson's caliber can not be measured in a single statistic, but since most fans only care about sacks that is all I will talk about. Over the past four season Charles Johnson has averaged 10.25 sacks per year and only counted an average of 10.25 million per season against the cap. In the same time frame Mario Williams has averaged 10.75 sacks and 14.25 million while Chris long averaged 8.5 sacks and 12.25 million per season. Charles is just as, if not more productive than those two and comes at a bargain. The Most Overpaid Defensive End of 2014 Award goes to former Bucs defensive end Michael Johnson, who earned a cool 16 million dollars last season for a total of 4 sacks. Or some guy named Greg, don't get me started.
The problem lies in the fact the Johnson has restructured his contract every season. Four years into the contract and the Panthers have yet to take a cap hit equal to the contract's average salary. Each season a portion of Johnson's base salary has been converted into bonus and pushed off to the following year in order to save cap space. Eventually you have to pay the piper and now is as good of time as any to handle that bill. With the 20 million dollar cap figure the Panthers still have roughly 14 million in cap space and have no more major moves left to make this season, so the team can finally absorb the large hit from Big Money's contract without any major consequences. There really is no motivation to try and resign or restructure the contract, it's time to just let it play out. As I mentioned earlier, Dave is doing a great job managing the cap.
#4 - The 2016 Salary Cap Situation Looks "Okay"....
As the team becomes more successful the Salary Cap is going to be more difficult to manage because young players will demand more money when their rookie contract is up. If all factors stay consistent the Panthers will have more than 30 million dollars in cap space in 2016, which sounds like more than enough room to work, but it is not. Dave Gettleman will have many tough decisions to make next off season as the Panthers have 20+ players set to hit free agency. These players include including Josh Norman, Mike Tolbert, Derek Anderson, Brad Nortman, Frank Alexander, Melvin White, Stephen Hill, Brandon Williams and many other recognizable names. Don't forget an extension for both Luke and Short are also a must in 2016. From here on out the Panthers will rarely sign any big name free agents, it is going to start being a yearly game of "who do we keep, and who do we let walk?". That is just what happens with you draft well and have a salary cap.
#5 - The Salary Cap is Not Easy to Understand....
For the most part NFL teams get one pie to divide among it's players, but there are a lot of little rules that make cap management much more complicated. I'm going to continue this small series "Let's Talk Salary Cap" over the next couple weeks and I'd like to make the 3rd edition a Q and A article. If you have any questions regarding the Salary Cap, please post them below or email me at mitchell.lee.apple@gmail.com and your question could be in the "Let's Talk Salary Cap - Q & A" piece.