Charles Johnson?

According to ESPN the magazine, the Panthers had 4 of the top 50 highest paid athletes in the world -- more than any team in any sport.

Johnson, Kalil, Beason and Williams were the four.

 

That number will drop substantially this year - bonuses.

The cap effect wont, though.

 

Yeah, that's because the salaries were signed last season and they got all that up-front money.

 

As long as those guys continue to play at a high level it will not be so bad. What looks like an awful, over-paid contract today will look less like that in a few years. NFL salaries constantly grow.

I do still think Williams was a luxury would could have gotten by without. Stewart is more than capable.

 

if the panthers had had one of the top three picks, they would have drafted trent richardson

 

They must have felt like Stewart would be tough to re-sign. Only thing that I can see favoring keeping DW. The price they paid was over the top. However I do agree that the cap will go up and the Beason, Kalil and possibly the Johnson deals won't look as out of line.

 

Also sucks that they overpaid right before Cam took over the offense. Maybe Hurney had no idea what Chudzinski would run, but DeAngelo had only two carries inside the opponent's five yard line last season. Two. Throw in that he's been marginalized as a receiver and it really makes no sense whatsoever to have paid that much. The GM and the coaching staff need to be on the same page.

 

Having DW and Stewart made some sense when we were running Fox's ball control offense. You could wear out one back doing that. Our new offense that is more open and features a QB who can run it really does not need two starting caliber running backs. Maybe it does go back to the GM and coach not being on the same page as Colin says. Maybe they did not expect Cam to be very good very quickly so they planned to run the ball all the time.

I would also question the wisdom of letting our franchise QB run the ball so much in short yardage and goal line. There is no reason to risk getting him hurt when we are loaded at running back.