jimmy clausen?

[ninjabelly]

wasnt he like the 3rd qb taken 2 years ago? anyone know how/if he improved?

[JustAwesome]

He was the third string QB (behind Newton and Anderson) last year. Kind of hard to gauge his improvement in that role. I think he needs to be sent somewhere as a backup QB.

[ninjabelly]

how about to seattle? 7th round pick for clausen?

[JustAwesome]

Even though he hasn't lived up to expectations yet, I still think Clausen is worth more than a seventh round draft pick.

[ninjabelly]

i cant see teams giving more than a 5th, and im only suggesting SEA so he can start this season whi9le they tank, then next season back up barkely.

[JustAwesome]

I was thinking a 5th or 6th round pick would be sufficient.

[ohara]

I would think Carolina would take an early 5th for him, but would hope for a late 4th.

[JustAwesome]

Newton has secured the starting QB spot. I think the Panthers would be better off with a veteran guy behind him.

[Icness]

I think this is going to be one of those cases where they keep Clausen around because he's cheap and he knows the system, but if anything would happen to Newton they would go out and get someone better to fill in. They just don't want to pay for that ahead of time.

CAR has some ugly contract hits the next couple of years:
Travelle Wharton $9.5M cap hit in 2013 even though the slaary is barely half that, they loaded the bonus to that year.
Steve Smith $9M cap hit in 2012, salary is just $7.75
and they apparently structured Jordan Gross's deal to hit hard next year. His salary was $6M in 11, goes up to $8.5M in 12, then $8M in 13 and $6.5M in 14. If they amortize the bonus equally every year that means his cap hit in 12 is around $9.75M.

What that means for Clausen: he's cheap, with a combined cap hit of $1.08M over the next two seasons and he won't hit the poison escalators in his deal. The Panthers need that, and it's not like they're going to compete sans Newton. He's perfect where he's at.