CBA

I would have kept Lewis and Diggs. I am good with the rest of the moves though. I really think we can be good next year with what we have. Johnson, Leonard, Tyler (or Ed Johnson) and Brown is not horrible for a DL. Depth is not great at DE but we still have the draft to go through and probably will sign a free agent DE at some point.

We need another WR or two. The OL and running game should still be very solid. Moore has lots of potential. Smith is still here so the offense can be very good potentially.

 

Fox hasn't been resigned because there may be a lockout in 2011. Richardson doesn't want to pay anyone money in a year he's not making money. Coaching staff still under contract has to be paid in a strike/lockout year.

 

Jake was released to free up future money without cap impact. The team cleared up what would around 30 million in what would be a capped year with no penalties. Furthermore all the players cut were older and would've been a LOT older after sitting a year. If you'll notice any older vets we sign this offseason will be short term. a year or 2 max. They'll shoot for a year, but they may have their hands forced in a few cases.

 

There's a lot of talk about freeing up future cap money without cap impact, and that is true. But the players have said that if there is ever a league without a cap that it would be hard to go back to the cap.

How is the league planning on forcing a 30% pay cut, a salary cap and possible HGH testing into the new collective bargaining agreement?

This is going to get really ugly.

 

That was Upshaw. I wonder how many players are on board now that they have to wait 6 years for UFA.

 

Pretty sure I just read that statement a month or two ago. Not sure who stated it but someone is still spouting that memo.

 

Last season I was offered tickets lower level covered. I think the cost was $120.00 each. Parking $20.00, water $5.00 a bottle, beer $7.50. 3 people close to $400.00 for 4 hours of entertainment. Unemployment near 10%, corporate budgets cut, pay frozen or cut. Exactly when do both parties involved realized they are pricing themselves out of a job? Current economic situation will take several years to balance itself out. What I'm saying is when a guys struggling to feed his family, or keep a roof over their head it's hard to have much sympathy for an arrogant ass crying because he was short changed $1.5 million or an owner who charges $5.00 for a bottle of water. These guys have no clue as to what the people that actually pay their salaries have to do and put up with just so they can go out on Sunday and either play a game or let their team play a game.

 

I'd have kept Diggs and Lewis, too. Lewis, especially, fits well. But for both, we have fresher legs and bigtime competition - looking back on 2009's fantastic defensive run (when we could stop the run), a lot of those fantastic contributions were from young kids. Martin's huge time as a starter. Godfrey picking it up after. Connor's 11 tackles against NE. Anderson's bigtime step-up late.

Plus, guys like Leonard and Tyler really responded. I worry about depth at both spots - now we have four good linebackers, instead of six(!) but you don't always see six, seven good linebackers on a team, even a 3-4.

Which is the other part - good, fast, cheap special teams, which having a bunch of vets at LB wasn't going to add.

My biggest worry right now is that there's no vet presence on the DL at all - the Ed Johnson and whatever vet we get for left end, those will be "the vets", the youngest we've ever been at DE or DT. We don't need an all-30 year old starting line like we apparently had last year, but I do wish one of the holdovers was there.

Damn sure of that for WR too. I know the Jarrett/Moose thing at flanker isn't the ideal, but for what we need, I think that works. Add a young pick and you have both the one leader left on O, and the youth to fight out some roles.

 

I am cautiously optimistic that we are going to be good next year. I think we have enough talent on the roster as it stands to be good. We need some depth in various places but other than WR I do not see an area where we project a weak starter.

Lewis played well for us over the years and seemed to be a leader. I would have kept him but hopefully the young guys will get it done.

 

Didn't we save another $10 million in bonus money? Even if it's not all cap money, it is "real" money...

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/03/05/1290297/jake-delhomme-released-from-panthers.html

I'd say we could get a pretty good backup QB for less than $10 million.