Free Agency!

I am not sure how important it is to bring any of them back. Marshall could take Gamble's place and we would not lose much. Wharton could take Gross's spot and would be fine. Pepper would be hard to replace but he will also be the most expensive of the three. He needs to have a good second half of the season to sell me on making him the highest paid player in football.

As far as going after free agents that are not on our roste right now I think we need some help with the pass rush. I am still not sold on Charles Godfrey but we should know more by the end of the year. The OL is pretty solid when healthy.

 

ya the o line is solid when healthy but that is when gross is playing. and peppers has to be here in carolina. i understand the gamble point! richard marshall could blow up but i would rather have gamble and marshall then lucas and gamble or lucas and marshall! as far as godfrey is concerned i think he is doing fine considering that he is just a rookie... he will learn he just needs time

 

I'd just like to get to the bye week this year before we even crack the seal on next year

 

You ever try using a comma, period or a question mark?

 

nah haha just make my points!

 

He could start, but I don't see him equaling what Gamble's been giving us.

I do believe that Gross is a better lineman than Wharton, but I've yet to see Wharton excel at guard.

Fiscally it'd be more responsible to let these two go, and I'd agree generally. We'd need a nickelback and two guards (one starter, and one very good depth rookie).

Then we're back where we were, without improving. If we Artrell Hawkins the nickel spot, we screw ourselves. If we get a rookie, at best that's a top 75 player and that player will be essentially required to start after that rookie year (the other two CB are FA a year later).
We can get a starting guard cheaper than a starting tackle, in theory, but at the high end it doesn't matter. Our attempt at pushing three cheap former starters together hasn't really borne fruit - we got one slightly below average starter who can run block well and no depth.

So, I'd prefer to not let them go. They'll be expensive, but the contracts will be relatively cheap (other than Gamble's, who has been a fucking bargain) compared to what they've been getting.

It'd be much easier to say all this was easy if we had a first round pick. We have no trade value on the team that wouldn't severely hinder our young talent level, which makes us unlikely to have one. I'm OK with that, and while I'd rather have not given up the pick, I like what we did with it despite it being 180 from what I would've done. So no real worries there, but it still bears stating that it's not as if we can get a starter out of the draft so easily.

As I said above, I'd like a bit better guard somewhere, if it means Vincent gets challenged, I'm great with that. I'd like a young DT in the draft, even though I'm OK with our DT play right now.

 

We could always tag one of them if we wanted to. I would be tempted to do that with Peppers. That would give us another year to make sure he is worth breaking the bank. Gross I would just as soon keep but I do not see it as vital. He is a solid lineman and we have had so many crappy OLs over the years I am scared to let him go. On the other hand though he is not really much better at LT than Wharton is.

I do not see as much in Gamble as you do. I agree he has been solid and a bargain from a cap perspective but not really dominant. Gamble has always come across as soft to me. Maybe that is not fair but it is the impression I have. Marshall seems more aggressive. Finding a nickel should not be that hard. A mid level free agent would probably be plenty.

 

I think Peppers costs something like $17 mil if we tag him.

Maybe that's part of the problem. You're basing it on "always" instead of how he's played the last two years. People have always said "why isn't Marshall starting", and they want him to replace Lucas. To that point, I defended Lucas and said he was our best corner, and that Gamble should be the one to be pushed. But the last year and a half Gamble has really stepped up - I believe him to be our best corner now. Corner play makes our defense now, with our lack of rush.

 

Like I said maybe calling Gamble soft is unfair to him. Soft is better than toast... I agree that our corners are very important with our lack of pass rush. It just seems like our corners are always playing way off and make few big plays. I guess that is scheme more than lack of talent though.

What would Pepper's likely signing bonus be in a new deal? $17 million is not much more than what he is making this year.

 

His signing bonus would be $35-40 million over seven years. His annual value overall, and this is just a guess, would probably be around $13.5-14 million as of now. This is probably what another team would be eager to give him.

You've gotta make a decision on Gamble first, IMO. I don't see spending remarkably big money on him, but we will inevitably have to re-sign at least two of them. I'd like a good extension for Lucas, but he was expensive four years ago. I don't know that's going to magically get cheaper.


Of course, we do have Godfrey to move to CB in an emergency. Emergencies are things like "wow, I've never seen three corners get hurt in one game." Emergencies aren't "wow we only have an entire offseason to find one or two corners."