Quote :

"Tolbert resigns for 2 yr deal"

2 years, $4MM

[Edited on March 9, 2016 at 1:37 PM. Reason : .]

3/9/2016 1:37:17 PM

De still makes the most sense in the first round. Gotta think about the contract.

Plus we can still draft cb, s, g talent in the later rounds. After late 1st/early 2nd the de are almost always long term projects

Well i was close on Tolbert with my 2/$3 prediction. AND ultimately right about cj coming back although had him as a restructure. But yeah I ate that prediction on him i thought he'd get a lot more money than that

3/9/2016 3:10:25 PM

Quote :

" After late 1st/early 2nd the de are almost always long term projects"

"almost always" is a bit of a stretch. CJ/Hardy weren't top of the draft, after all.

In any case, errybody seems pretty high on the amount of depth in this draft on the defensive line. I wouldn't be surprised if ol' double dippin' Gettleman wasn't at it again this year.

3/9/2016 4:34:43 PM

Nortman gone. DAMN

big loss imo

3/9/2016 4:58:48 PM

^^ yeah and johnson didnt play year 1. And hardy barely did.

We need a guy who can contribute imo. Johnson is a long shot to stay healthy and our depth is weak as hell.

De is a major need

3/9/2016 5:46:50 PM

Yeah I expect DE in the first two rounds. We don't need a day-one starter, I think we just need a guy to rotate early with Charles Johnson and bring a solid pass-rush.

Yeah, Johnson, Hardy, and Ealy all took a little time to become starters at DE. But there are also plenty of first round DEs that were busts, just have to hope we can find one that is a good fit for us.

I go into the draft looking for us to draft DE, CB, SS, and OT.

We'll probably draft completely different and end up with a better draft knowing Gettlemagic.

3/10/2016 8:44:23 AM

Yeah, unless a stud corner or strong safety falls to 31, definitely looks like defensive line. Who knows though, maybe we pick Derrick Henry!

3/10/2016 9:59:37 AM

So we just signed Gino Gradkowski (OG/C) to a 3-year deal.

Not sure how I feel about it, he got cut by Denver and Baltimore and their fans were less than flattering about him. Sounds like he was pretty bad for them. Hopefully Gettlemagic strikes again.

3/10/2016 1:55:11 PM

It's just interior line depth and competition for camp. Poor man's Geoff Hangartner.

3/10/2016 4:16:21 PM

Yeah with silatolu cut i thought we'd draft one but this makes sense because he can play center too.

Man these mediocre free agents are going for crazy amounts of money. Glad we didn't have too many key cogs not under deals this year.

I would say locking up kawann makes a lot of sense this year for long term savings but it's tough not to just go for the super bowl this year especially with denver losing a lot of pieces

3/10/2016 8:03:34 PM

Have to figure we will pick up Star's 5th year option. It's the average of the 3rd-25th highest paid DTs so it will likely be less than what'd he'd get as a free agent. Sign Short long term or franchise him and have them both for 2017, then likely lose one of them (Star) and draft their replacement.

[Edited on March 10, 2016 at 9:26 PM. Reason : 6.5 mil for Stars option]

3/10/2016 9:21:07 PM

Agreed stars 5th year option is pretty much a guarantee right now. He'd probably command 10m or close, he's severely underrated by the media and panther fans...

You might be right about just franchising short being a better option, but don't they get lumped in with de too on that calculation??

Hmm.. not sure.. I feel lIke locking hI'm up is the better option to keep our window open longer with surrounding talent.

Cams deal is looking like a steal now, thank god he didn't become a fa this year instead he'd get 30m/yr

3/10/2016 9:57:31 PM

Pretty sure DL and OL all get lumped in together for franchise tags for their lines. So OG's count OT's in their franchise totals, and DT's get DE's.

Though the highest paid DT's get paid quite a bit of money. I can't even imagine what the Donald contract is going to look like, ouch.

3/11/2016 7:50:05 AM

So we have him this year and next for 1 and ~17.. or 2/$18

Assume the next 3- 4 years would be 17 per that's 51-68

Or 5/$69 or 6/86

So if i were him I'd ask for 6/$80 now with about half guaranteed. Takes the risk off the table.

It gives us long term savings but would cost us a little this year and save us a little next year.

We could dump him in the last year of the deal if it he ages poorly

3/11/2016 10:56:03 AM

Hey face, mind scooting over to the NC State bball/football related threads and dropping some knowledge there too?

3/11/2016 11:48:47 AM

I don't really watch the kiddos anymore I'm 33. Just doesn't interest me much and our teams suck too bad.

Eric weddle is starting to seem like a possibility. Prices have got to be dropping on guys now that jax, raiders made big moves. Most other teams are toeing line pretty tight now.

We are really fortunate not to be involved in this spending frenzy, most of these early signings are going to bite teams badly in upcoming years.

One of these years when the cap doesn't increase I'm not sure what the hell most teams will do. The dolphins are just insane... they have some real lean years ahead and they aren't even gonna be that good now to make up for it

[Edited on March 11, 2016 at 1:59 PM. Reason : A]

3/11/2016 1:58:49 PM

Weddle said he's been in contact heavily with 4 teams, and the Panthers weren't one of them.

I still don't see us signing any big name players, focusing more on bargains and role-players.

Still wish we would call Anquan Boldin.

3/14/2016 8:47:57 AM

Boldin doesn't play special teams, with kb back that's probably gonna be a requirement for that spot.

I get the feeling he'd like a younger guy in case kb reinjures himself.

The fa market has slowed down a lot. Any news on coples? I wouldnt mind him quite as much now that the de prices are lower than I thought they'd be.

I wonder if we're considering going with tre Boston and a draft pick? Id prefer a veteran and use the picks on cb and de.

3/14/2016 10:16:13 AM

Quote :

"Weddle said he's been in contact heavily with 4 teams, and the Panthers weren't one of them."

he hasn't said jack shit about who he's talking to. it's all blind speculation.

3/14/2016 11:52:57 AM

I'd heard the 4 teams comment but it didn't say who they were at the time in that article

OK nevermind we never had a shot at him. Leave it to the idiot ravens to give him 4 yrs 26-29m. With 9m in year 1!

Just an absurd deal for a 31 year old safety i was thinking somewhere in the 3/18 range with half guaranteed.

There are a lot of really, really bad deals being signed this year by teams that were already not in great cap situations. I just don't get it... it's like the gms know they're in win now mode or get fired so they're making terrible deals.

Absurd that teams let general managers handicap the franchise in the long run to save their ass in terms short run. At what point do you say hey show some improvement and don't cripple us rather than fuck it let's sign anyone at any cost to try to win 9 games this year

[Edited on March 14, 2016 at 2:33 PM. Reason : A]

3/14/2016 2:32:41 PM

^Yeah analysts have been talking about this ad nauseam the last week or so.

You have a couple of things working together to cause these awful contracts.

1. GM's/Coaches that are worried about their job so they're focused on winning NOW, assuming they will figure out the future later. See: Brock Osweiler.
2. Certain teams have a ton of money to spend and need to spend more to get players to go to losing teams. See: Malik Jackson.

The Ravens definitely got bid up by the Raiders for Weddle, when they said 4 teams were talking to Weddle, I knew we weren't involved. We just aren't going to get into a bidding war for these players, and when one of those teams was assured to be Oakland, knew we weren't wasting our time.

Weird that rumors swirled this morning we were talking with BJ Raji, and then news coming out now that he's retiring. If we could have gotten the right deal, I'd have liked him at DT for us.

3/14/2016 3:08:55 PM

Could always get another Jared Allenesque mid-season veteran as well who wants to play for a contender.

3/14/2016 4:01:37 PM

Signed soliai. Solid run stuffing DT. I think the panthers were interested in weddle, and probably had a decent chance at signing him but that ravens offer was huge.

3/14/2016 8:56:39 PM

This signing concerns me a little... he's a lot like star in that he adds beef and takes up blockers...

Seems like a lot of money for us to spend on a 3rd dt especially with the deep draft class.


My concern is possible health issues with star and we think this guy might get some serious playing time this year.

Nothing definitive but seems odd we aren't allocating this money in the secondary or at de... of all the positions we could get by just fine on a cheap serviceable backup. I don't think Gettleman reaches at $4m/yr if he didn't think we need security

3/14/2016 10:14:31 PM

Gettleman seems to invest in the DL first and foremost. Soliai will be an upgrade over the other backup DTs and insurance if/when Star gets hurt. (Love the guy, but he'll undoubtedly miss a few games minimum).

Soliai never lived up to his huge contract in Atlanta, and I heard he was an awful fit for their system, but he can still clog the middle with the best of them. I'm sure Luke is a fan of this signing.

3/14/2016 10:47:42 PM

Dwan Edwards retired. He's his replacement. Seems simple.

3/14/2016 10:57:47 PM

Yeah but we have jack shit at DE and the secondary and we gave 4m to a guy who doesn't start? At our best position? And he's 32...

Something doesn't add up here.

We run a 4-3 just like atlanta.... he's more of a 3-4 guy...

I think there's bad health news about star. He's a big dude, he gets tough assignments, and he's had injuries...

You replace dwan Edwards for $1m. Not $4. We're tight on cap space and we still have several holes

[Edited on March 14, 2016 at 11:00 PM. Reason : A]

3/14/2016 10:59:52 PM

Interior pass rush is arguably as important as edge rushing. Not really, but it's damn important, especially when your butterstick is your mike linebacker. Maybe Star does have health concerns, but you obviously can't expect both Star and KK to play 60 snaps a game. And Short can slide outside a little in certain situations. It's not a homerun signing, but it's nothing to fret over in March.

3/14/2016 11:04:50 PM

Short is too valuable as a dt. Color me concerned with this signing. It makes no sense.

What other teams are spending 4 million at dt for a backup?!?! This just isn't a gettleman move, I'm worried about star

(Intentionally, I don't mean a guy who got benched)

3/15/2016 12:51:52 AM

I think it's clearly protecting ourselves in case we can't get Short and Star signed.

Never really felt like we'd be able to afford to keep everyone, and I really expect we'll let Star leave and invest a sizable contract in Short. I just don't see how we can afford to have 2 DT's with top 12-15 DT contracts given our other positions.

3/15/2016 8:51:01 AM

Quote :

"Interior pass rush is arguably as important as edge rushing. "

that really has nothing to do with soliai. dude has 5.5 sacks in 9 years.

he's going to be star's backup and play on early down/short yardage/goal line plays. he'll help keep star/short/future rookie DT fresh for pass rushing situations.

3/15/2016 11:19:39 AM

Star and short are both already signed though... and star has a 5th year option and short would be franchised next year... just makes no sense

3/15/2016 1:23:37 PM

And the panthers are trying to win super bowls the next two years. Signing him helps with that.

3/15/2016 5:14:54 PM

Sack numbers for a DT are pretty meaningless when your job is to collapse the pocket. Partially why Short is such a great player, since he does both.

3/15/2016 5:32:07 PM

All i can say is yuck.

Disappointing offseason for us so far. We haven't addressed our void at DE, CB, or S and we are about out of space.

This last deal has a ton of downside potential and it doesn't inspire confidence that Star is in great health.

I guess our main weakness was red zone defense so maybe this gives us beef down there though. I'm not sure those guys can play together in all but the most condensed fields though...

3/15/2016 8:28:48 PM

You seemed pretty pleased with things earlier on this same page. Does $4MM for a lineman, or not throwing money at big name players, really ruin the off-season? This is what Gettleman does. And it's worked pretty well.

3/15/2016 9:33:14 PM

I mean I'm happy we aren't way overpaying for mediocre free agents.. but I'd like the money we have available going to a pass rush which was our weak spot last year.

But if CJ gets hurt again which i think is definitely a good possibility... we have almost nothing at DE.

I mean kony played well in the super bowl but people forget he was merely adequate during the regular season... 32 tackles and 5 sacks... and our de didnt really generate a lot of pressure despite star regularly commanding doubles and short getting great interior pressure. Ealy played 60% of our snaps last year so he's not really a new emerging presence...

Denver line was bad, he took advantage of that. And he's an adequate starter but certainly not a premiere pass rusher..

I don't know i just think a guy like Mario who signed a very reasonable 2/$17 deal would have made a lot of sense over a backup dt... I'm not saying it's an awful signing but I don't get the logic unless star has health issues.

It's pretty clear we are drafting a de. Hopefully we hit on coples or whatever veteran we sign too.

I wi should they'd hurry up and identify a #2 corner... I like bene in the slot. But if they feel he can go outside it's definitely easier to replace the slot in the mid rounds. Just can't roll as thin at corner McClain was a disaster especially late in games on obvious throwing downs.

I like that we have virtually no needs offensively. I say just load up on defensive guys in the draft and hope a few pan out and we develop the depth we were missing last year

Sky isn't falling or anything we are returning virtually everything from a 17-2 team plus adding kb. I just think we have glaring needs at cb, s, and de and I'd like every dollar and pick going there from here on out

[Edited on March 16, 2016 at 12:11 AM. Reason : A]

3/16/2016 12:10:04 AM

I don't really think we have any holes for next year. But the places you think we have holes, we might really have holes in 1-2 years so it'd be good to have the guys in place with experience (CJ's replacement, Norman's replacement, TD's replacement, Olsen's replacement?) There's really only one spot (QB) that I'd say we couldn't just use BPA

3/16/2016 7:16:17 AM

We have td replacement already it's Shaq thompson. And we have 3 tight ends that we like so we aren't taking a te.

We will take a DE obviously because we are missing a rotation player who will likely play half our snaps ( or more once CJ gets hurt again).

We also need a starting Cb or a nickel if we move bene to the outside.

We also need another RB imo. One who can catch passes. Stewart unlikely to make it through the year and our other guys kinda suck.

3/16/2016 8:01:44 AM

I read somewhere that our staff actually thought Bene played better outside than in the slot last year, and I believe his stats support that, so I'm guessing we'll be looking for a nickel corner either in this year's draft or in FA.

I still think we're talking to Peanut to see if he has any interest in playing one more year, he was still productive this season.

Still think our top 3 draft needs are DE, CB, and SS. I think we're going to focus on those spots early and probably pick up a veteran at each position for cheap on 1-year deals.

No reason to take a guy like Mario Williams when you have CJ coming back for cheap and you're banking on taking a 1st round DE. This is a great draft for DE to be a need.

[Edited on March 16, 2016 at 8:51 AM. Reason : .]

3/16/2016 8:51:10 AM

Picked up stars option as expected. Makes me feel slightly better but it still seems like an awful lot invested at dt. I would have rather seen that money go to a 3rd down pass rushing dt than another run stuffer.

Ultimately I think it must have been done to sure up our goal line defense and maybe limit star having to play through injury quite as much. Trying to preserve his body a little more

3/22/2016 6:11:18 PM

well, if they sign 9 more guys as big as star and soliai, they can just play every down and completely block the entire field.

3/22/2016 6:47:15 PM

Signed Brandon Boykin to a one-year deal, love it

3/28/2016 12:25:58 PM

brilliant!

3/28/2016 12:39:05 PM

Subtly huge upgrade on D. We just need to lock up a safety...

3/28/2016 9:32:18 PM

So not that this means anything in March, but Norman reportedly wants $16MM/year in a longterm contract. We could tag him next year and he'd be averaging about $15.5MM over the next 2 seasons ($14MM, then $17MM) and then he'd be 31. It'll be interesting to see how close the team and he are on a deal come July.

3/28/2016 10:26:28 PM

I'm pretty sure we aren't gonna ever sign norman. It's a bad deal and it would really jam us up.

We are in position to have a team that can contend for multiple seasons.


#1 it makes WAY more sense to make him play for 1/$14 than a long term deal worth $16m/yr.

His price really can't go up thwt much but his production could certainly fall off from last year. Not to mention injury possibilities.


I'd rather re evaluate next season and franchise him if we don't have any better options.

Signing josh this offseason just doesn't make a lot of sense for us. He's not going to hold out because he's never made money before

3/28/2016 11:26:48 PM

We'd probably lock him up for 4 or 5 years at $12-13MM but I agree it's more likely we give him a de facto 2/$15.5 by tagging him back to back years. Nobody is gonna think about paying a 31 year old corner $16MM a year. Although, if the cap keeps increasing, that might be a bargain.

3/28/2016 11:40:35 PM

I don't think he'd take 12-13. I think he wants to be the highest paid corner in the game. And he will get it if he hits the open market healthy and with similar production next year. I think we tag him again tho.

If i was him I'd take 5/65. It's just not worth the risk and that's a lot of money. I'd want much more guaranteed though if i settled for less money.

3/29/2016 12:05:18 AM

Wouldn't the back-to-back franchise tag likely be more guaranteed money for JNo? 2x$15.5mm, so $31mm guaranteed versus a long term deal at 4/~$65 with what $28mm guaranteed and also a restructure and/or cut near the back half? I get the ego factor but it seems like money-wise for him, the franchise tag is better because he could go sign a new deal after, no?

3/29/2016 8:42:06 AM