Anyone think there will be a Panthers Pro Bowler this year?

[manbearchef]

I was just thinking about the Pro Bowl, and I'm not sure if we even have a player on the roster with a legit shot. Our only players with a popularity advantage are Smitty and Cam (Cam obviously isn't going).

Smitty is the best shot, but he's statistically only around 7th in the NFC among WR, and he still has no TDs.
Olsen might be a long-shot, but he's statistically the 5th or so TE.
None of our OL, HBs, or secondary players have a chance.
On defense, Johnson isn't likely, but if he could string together a couple of muli-sack games he's have a chance.

Probably the most deserving player won't even be considered. Kuchly has been an absolute monster since moving to MLB. In three games at MLB he has 36 tackles (22 solo) and a pick. I doubt he has enough coverage to be selected though.

I'm getting the vibe that we might not have anyone representing us. Thoughts?

[N.E.PanthersFan]

Umm, hello, Deangelo Williams and Armanti Edwards??

Don't they try to get someone from every team represented like in MLB? Remember, too, that fans' votes aren't the only ones that count; players and coaches also vote. The season is nowhere near over, but I would suspect if anyone makes it, it would be Smith.

[N.E.PanthersFan]

In other news, what kind of package do you think we would get for Matt Barkley?

[manbearchef]

In other news, what kind of package do you think we would get for Matt Barkley?

If we finished last, and Barkley is more coveted than Smith, I'd bet that between the Chiefs, Browns, and Jags we could definitely get something. Honestly, I'd rather get a quality player and a 1st and another pick than just picks. Imagine if the Chiefs were offering Bowe, their pick (2nd-4th overall), and their 2nd rounder. I can't think of another team that'd be wanting to trade, unless the Jets/Bills/someone like that want to throw tons of picks our direction.

[N.E.PanthersFan]

Most likely the Chiefs, honestly. The Browns and Jags drafted QBs in the last two years. Barkley could come right in and make an impact immediately in KC with Bowe, Baldwin, Breaston, Moeaki, Charles, and Hillis.

I'd strongly consider taking Bowe off their hands in a trade at this point, but I don't think they'd be willing to do it. I'll be okay with picks if Gettis shows us something in the tail half of the year. LaFell's been too inconsistent for me to see him as a solution at WR2. He's good and he impresses at times, but other times, he's nowhere to be found.

I hope we're not in that position come draft time, but if we are, I think this team truly goes worst to first and not just in the NFC South.

[manbearchef]

Most likely the Chiefs, honestly. The Browns and Jags drafted QBs in the last two years. Barkley could come right in and make an impact immediately in KC with Bowe, Baldwin, Breaston, Moeaki, Charles, and Hillis.

I'd strongly consider taking Bowe off their hands in a trade at this point, but I don't think they'd be willing to do it. I'll be okay with picks if Gettis shows us something in the tail half of the year. LaFell's been too inconsistent for me to see him as a solution at WR2. He's good and he impresses at times, but other times, he's nowhere to be found.

I hope we're not in that position come draft time, but if we are, I think this team truly goes worst to first and not just in the NFC South.

I've been reading that there could potentially be offers for a 3rd rounder. If we decide that Bowe is a player we want, most people are saying KC wants a 3rd rounder for him. Given those circumstances, I'd bet we could pull off a 3-way trade. For example, Green Bay trades their 3rd to KC for Bowe, then trades Bowe to us for D-Will.

Based on D-Will's twitter posts, it almost seems like he wants to be traded to a winner. He hasn't said anything negative about Carolina or anything, he just seems anxious for the Tuesday deadline. I'd really like to see him get traded on good terms, just because if we don't he'll be cut in the off-season. There's no way the team can afford to keep him without suffering due to lack of cap space.

[NCBoSoxfan21]

Bowe wouldn't stay here if traded, that's a waste imo.

[manbearchef]

Bowe wouldn't stay here if traded, that's a waste imo.

I don't know if that's true. I think Bowe has more issues with the management than anything. While we've finished with bad records for three years (I'm including this one) we've been very close in a ton of games. I don't think we're quite on the level of the Browns in terms of a dead franchise (not in terms of fans, but in terms of wins/performance). At least he'd be leaving a team with one of the worst QBs on it. But honestly, if we can unload Williams' contract on someone we'll be better off, regardless of Bowe being in the equation.

[NCBoSoxfan21]

Well not to mention Bowe is a FA and we aren't contending, trading a 3rd for him is stupid, when we can just attempt to sign him like we'd have to if we traded a 3rd anyways.

[N.E.PanthersFan]

I thought the remainder of Williams' contract is guaranteed. I think we have to trade him to unload it; I don't think we can reduce the cap hit by releasing him. Though I could be wrong.

I don't think Williams wants out, I think he's just frustrated for the same reasons we're frustrated -- they're not using him (or Stewart) correctly.

[manbearchef]

I'd love to be able to get him to take a hit to his pay-check and stay here, but in the same sense, I wouldn't lose any respect for him if he didn't. I think he'd take a pay-cut and stay if he were being recognized in the offense and given proper opportunities. He'd have to take a huge pay-cut in order for anything to even matter anyway, so I don't see anything happening. The sad thing is there are only a few players who we could single out to cut the cap back. Beason, Gamble, Williams, Gross, Smith, and Johnson.

Of those, the only ones I could potentially see adjusting are Beason and Gamble due to the fact that Beason has been injured the first two seasons of his contract and Gamble has been injured one season and played like crap for one (2009). I'm somewhat worried that a new GM might try to cut/trade Smith or Gross if we draft a LT high. Johnson is certainly overpaid, but I don't know how badly he affects our cap and we certainly can't afford to not have him. I'd love to see him take a pay-cut, but I somehow doubt he would considering he realizes he's our only consistent DL on the team.

Hopefully we aren't in as bad of shape as everyone is saying, but if we are, I'm reluctant to find out which of our few good players won't be playing here next season.

[N.E.PanthersFan]

The salary cap is generally an imaginary number anyway. Most GMs have no trouble navigating around it as necessary. The organization's loyalty to its core players comes down from JR. I know he's getting impatient and wants to see a winning team, but I think he also knows that we're less likely to have a winning team if we lose our top players. Again, I think part of the decision as to who the next GM will be is going to come down to their philosophy on retaining talent and I think JR's going to have a lot of say in personnel decisions until he fully trusts the new GM. Something's got to give, absolutely, but I don't think we're going to see many cuts -- Hurney wouldn't have signed the contracts if he had to cut them two years later.

[NCBoSoxfan21]

The rest of Williams contracts is not guaranteed. Not in the least bit. He's only in the first year of a 43M dollar deal. Of which 25 is guaranteed. He got 8 of that already with 4 years remaining.

I want to see him gone. Pay the money this year and have someone take on most of the rest against the cap (most) and use it somewhere of need. D-line, o-line, etc.

There are some pretty legit LT options available this offseason (Jake Long, Ryan Clady, Sebastian Vollmer to name a few) and I would much rather dump Williams, shift Gross to RT and Bell to RG and then sign one of them. Plus Brent Grimes, Dominque Rodger Cromartie, Derek Cox, Jerraud Powers, Talib etc are available at CB. Not to mention the WR options. The money is much better used elsewhere.

[manbearchef]

The rest of Williams contracts is not guaranteed. Not in the least bit. He's only in the first year of a 43M dollar deal. Of which 25 is guaranteed. He got 8 of that already with 4 years remaining.

I want to see him gone. Pay the money this year and have someone take on most of the rest against the cap (most) and use it somewhere of need. D-line, o-line, etc.

There are some pretty legit LT options available this offseason (Jake Long, Ryan Clady, Sebastian Vollmer to name a few) and I would much rather dump Williams, shift Gross to RT and Bell to RG and then sign one of them. Plus Brent Grimes, Dominque Rodger Cromartie, Derek Cox, Jerraud Powers, Talib etc are available at CB. Not to mention the WR options. The money is much better used elsewhere.

I think this is technically Williams second year of his contract. He signed the contract right after the lockout. so he's probably got most of his guaranteed money if it was front-loaded. I'm still holding out hope that we trade him tonight or tomorrow.

That being said, I don't think Williams salary would put much of a dent into the salary it would demand to pull any of those LT's away from their teams. I think our best chance at OT is to draft one with our high pick. Williams salary could, however, probably purchase a CB or WR, though I don't know who I would want us to give it to. Rodgers-Cromartie might be a bargain in FA, but I think Grimes is high-contract/high-risk of bust player.

I don't want to see a bunch of cuts, but if we do, I think it'll be Williams, Beason, and Gamble (assuming Norman continues to develop). Those three players' huge salaries being cut would allow us to find a start-able OLB (though with TD and Anderson it's not a necessity), high-end CB in FA, and spend a lot on a big-time FA. I think this would be a mistake, but if we have a GM with that mindset it could fold out that way.

From what I've read, we'll be able to roll-over around $5M from last season to the new fiscal year. I imagine a lot of that will be spent on players' contracts that we already have though.

The good news for our salary is that we don't have any starters becoming FAs after this season.

[manbearchef]

I'm using this for reference, so if anyone notices an error or whatnot, feel free to point it out.

http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/carolina-panthers/cap-hit/

Based on what I'm seeing, if we cut Williams at the end of the season, we'll save 4.75M + 5.75M + 6.75M through 2013-2015 seasons.

Beason and Gamble's salaries aren't listed.

Cutting Gross would save us 8.7M and 6.7M for 2013-2014, and then he's a FA. Surely by then I hope we'll have his replacement ready at LT, then we could resign him at RT price or get a new player.

We have Stewart on a pretty cheap deal which is base salary of 1M + 1.5M + 4.25M + 5M + 5.5M from 2013-2017, which will probably be around the time he's on the decline. But given Stewart's cheap contract that is newer and cheaper than Williams, maybe Williams would consider taking a cut.

Now, two players that could potentially spell trouble for our cap over the next few years are Godfrey and Johnson.

Godfrey's base salary from 2013-2016 is 1.6M+5M+5M+5.5M (his guaranteed money is an extra 12M). I'm not so sure that Godfrey will be worth 5M per year when his contract gets there, so I wouldn't be surprised to see him cut in a couple of years. \

The big problem is Big Money. He's got $32M guaranteed (split out over 6M per year, except 2016). His base salary from 2013-2017 is 6.75M+8.75M+9.75M+10.75M. Everyone knows CJ is a huge part of our team and is pretty beasty for us on the DL, but I don't know that he'll ever see any of that money after 2014. He's a great player for $4M (his base salary this season), but I don't know if his play currently is worth some of those figures.