Offseason Goals

[ohara]

What I want to know is why Panthers management gave him that trade veto in the first place. He's just not worth that.

I wasn't sure if it was technically a trade veto they gave him, or perhaps it was that he is going into the last season of his Contract and told Detroit he was not going to resign with them under any circumstances. I dont think he's worth the draft pick they were going to give if he was going to be there only 1 year. Maybe I read it wrong and it was a true "veto" right the Panthers gave him. If it was, I agree with you that they really gave something to him for which he was not worth.

[2LeTTeRS]

What do you guys think of Jeff Garcia or Byron Leftwhich? Neither are franchise QBs but both could help out and have proven themselves in high pressure situations, and could come relatively cheap.

[ohara]

http://football.realgm.com/src_wiretap_ ... on_taylor/

If we are going to end up trading Peppers, I'd think about Taylor as a stop gap for a year. He's still got something left I think.

[ohara]

What do you guys think of Jeff Garcia or Byron Leftwhich? Neither are franchise QBs but both could help out and have proven themselves in high pressure situations, and could come relatively cheap.

I'd rather try and get Cutler from Denver by sending them Peppers. But we cannot do anything until Peppers signs the Franchise Tag we laid on him. I like Jake more than Garcia or Leftwich, but that doesn't say much. Not a fan of Jake. But if we send Jake elsewhere and did not bring in a quality QB via the trade, I'd take Garcia over Leftwich.

[ohara]

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/foot ... iots_mold/

Hello! I would have happily done this a few days ago if we could have gotten Cassell in the deal. But you got greedy and sent him to KC in another deal. Not sure what NE has to offer at this time which would make me say yes. Have to examine the situation.

OK. NE has #23 in the 1st and #48 and #55 in the second. IF they pay a 1st and (2) 2nds, that is a high enough price that I'd take it. Yep.

[ohara]

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/nflnation/0- ... lina-.html

If Peppers is traded, I'd be OK with Holliday for a 1 yr stop gap. But I think Jason Taylor would prove better and I'd want him before Holliday. But if Peppers is traded, we could grab them both. Two aging DE's but if they both played we might be OK for a year.

[ohara]

http://blogs.charlotte.com/panthers/200 ... homme.html


OMG! Extending out Jake was not on my list of things to do! Fox and Hurney are cutting their own throats by doing this. Jake will not lead them to the promised land, and tying themselves to him only hurts them and the team. This is a mistake.

[Rooster]

The team could significantly reduce his 2009 cap number – perhaps by as much as 50 percent – with a multi-year extension.

I assume this is the rationale. It could basically just be splitting his next season's salary over two seasons. Besides, the talks are apparently inconclusive so far.

[ohara]

I understand how it could help Cap wise, but all the good FA's are gone. Wont help with getting anyone new to help. Only thing it could do is free up more $ if they want to offer Peppers a monster deal to see if he'll stay. That might be it. I could except that.

Wish Peppers would sign the Tender so we can either know we are keeping him or trade him before the Draft. If he fails to sign before the Draft, and then I would tell his Agent to forget any trade talks this year and we are going to Franchise his butt next year as well.

[ohara]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4092544

Well, for better or worse, Jake is here for 5 more years. Fox and Hurney are putting their necks on the line for him. If he has a bad year and regresses, it should cost Fox and Hurney their jobs. I hope I'm wrong, but I am no fan at all of Jake's game. He's got heart, but bad judgment.

[Rooster]

He'll be ancient by the time that deal ends.

[spaceman_E]

Ok here is my offseason blueprint for the Panthers:

1. Franchise Peppers. Trade him.
He has said he will not re-sign long term with us. We lost all of our defensive coaches and I imagine tried to give him some say in the replacement. Still no word on him wanting back into the fold so he is gone. He wants to go to a creative defense that plays the 3-4. We can't trade him in division and I think unless we get a significantly better deal, we aren't going to deal him to an NFC team either.
This never went down. It seems Hurfox is going to try and force him to play another season which looks likely since Pep has never actually said he would sit out the year. Still a chance he gets dealt for picks next season though.

2. Sign Jordan Gross.
Pretty straightforward. He is a franchise tackle just a notch below the truly elite but he had a great season and will get a big time deal in the 60million range. But before we do that we need some cap space....
As expected, this went pretty smooth.

3. Cut Ken Lucas and D.J. Hackett
Lucas is 30 years old, has a big cap figure and coming off a poor second half to the season. Hackett's injury woes continued with us and he's only got 1 year left anyways. Richard Marshall can pick up the slack as the no.2 corner but we will have to add another young DB in the draft. At WR, Moose will return and start again with Jarrett and Ryne Robinson in the mix for the no.3 spot. I expect a cheap FA to also be brought into that competition. Landon Johnson is another candidate to be cut.
Again, easy calls here. Lost Lucas and replaced him with Martin in the draft. Goodson will likely take the PR/KR position and get some time in the slot as well. No significant FA's but that's because we've been hamstrung by Pep's cap hold. Any FA signings now look to be the cheap vet post June 1 cuts type.

4. Make a decision on our QB spot.
This one is a bit vague and that's because we have several options. It sure seems like Jake is going to be back for at least 1 more year. If this happens, we definitely need to re-structure as he is due to count $11mil against the cap. If we can extend him a year or 2 we can get that down to around 6-8 hopefully. The only real QB I see out there we could bring in is Derek Anderson. I think he would be a slight upgrade and is cheaper, younger, and could be had relatively cheap(2nd or 3rd rounder I imagine). Cassell will be too costly a price and I'm not convinced he's not a product of Belicheck. We could potentially cut Jake and trade for Anderson but Fox just seems too much of a loyalty guy and will give Jake 1 more season. Expect to see a QB drafted in the first 4 rounds though.
Ok so they went with the obvious and decided to keep Jake around for at least 1 more season. We extended him so we could sign our draft picks and with no other QB brought in, I expect to see Jake for 2 more seasons. I'd still take a flyer on Brady Quinn though, especially if we get some extra picks next year for Peppers.

5. Draft well and play it smart in Free Agency.
I thought we did a really good job of this last year as Stewart, Otah, Godfrey, Brayton all turned out pretty well. At the same time, Hackett never made an impact and Landon Johnson couldn't beat out Diggs at the SAM. This year our focus, after taking care of our own guys, needs to be on depth for the DL. Other things we need to look at are QB, no.3 CB, TE, no.3 WR. We will need a starter to replace Pep, someone who can really make an impact, and it wouldn't hurt if we had a DT who could make Damione Lewis a backup again.

In the draft, assuming we make that Pep deal, we need to go best DL in the 1st round. If one of the top QB's slip to our pick that could also be an option. In the 2nd round I would look for CB, QB, DL, TE in that order. Take the best value. With our 2 3rd rounders this is where we draft the best at whichever of those positions we haven't filled yet.

In Free Agency it would be nice to find a replacement for Peppers or a stud DT. Bert Berry and Jovan Haye are the best DE's on the market, not too impressive. Terrell Suggs as a full time DE could work. Haynesworth is a great player but not someone I want on my team. I would look into Owen Daniels at TE. I don't think Tony Gonzalez would be a great fit as he isn't really known for his blocking. Other than Suggs and Daniels, I don't see us finding a starter in FA, just depth.
No QB or FA's but we filled most of these needs in the draft. CB, FB, KR/WR/RB, DL depth and some backups on the OL

Well, that's about it. Let's discuss.

Looks like they followed my script pretty well lol. Boring offseason but we return 21 starters and drafted pretty solid. Good chance to be the class of the division once more.