Stewart extended 36.5 million over 5 years

that's looking even better. I mean, I knew it was going to hurt, and it will, but this doesn't raise things considerably - if the bonus is lower than the $22 mil quoted, that's at least a little better.

 

The $22 million comes from part of the salaries being guaranteed, which is the same thing they did with DW. As I stated earlier, the deal can be up to $42.5 million over five years with incentives. It's a pretty fucking awful deal.

 

I'm fine with them guaranteeing salaries they're going to pay early on anyway. I'd rather it that than being a $10 million second year bonus. Over time, if it's going to require cutting, it's going to be more palatable. If that shade of gray is possible.

 

It's a pretty fucking awful deal.

 

Remember that Stewart was under contract this season, so next season is when the extension starts; thus the $9 million option bonus is due at the start of the second year of that extension. Considering that they'd take a cap hit of at least $6 million by cutting him before that option bonus, I really don't see that happening.

Here are the guaranteed totals in recent RB contracts:
Adrian Peterson - $36 million
Chris Johnson - $30 million
Ray Rice - $24 million
Jonathan Stewart - $22.5 million
DeAngelo Williams - $21 million
LeSean McCoy - $20.765 million
Arian Foster - $20.75 million
Matt Forte - $18 million
Marshawn Lynch - $17 million
Frank Gore - $13.5 million
Jamaal Charles - $10 million
Ahmad Bradshaw - $9 million
Darren Sproles - $6 million
BenJarvus Green-Ellis - $4 million
Fred Jackson - $3 million
Reggie Bush - $2.5 million
Willis McGahee - $2 million

So what's wrong with this picture? The Panthers have the most expensive backfield in the game by far. Even individually, DW and Stewart both got more guaranteed than any running backs in the game except Peterson, Chris Johnson, and Ray Rice. There's no defending that. It's not palatable, it's not acceptable, and it's not anything except frustrating. Spending that much at running back on a team seemingly built around Cam as a passer is bad enough, but when you consider that it means continuing to go cheap on defense, it's inexcusable.

 

The only possible justification - good or bad - is that being a small market team could make it tough to keep free agents and quality players. Additionally - we're not winners. We're trying to coach up our young guys, and we've demonstrated a willingness to overpay quality homegrown players. In doing so, this could motivate younger quality players to step up their game in hopes of STAYING with the team who drafted them.

Again - that's all I can figure. More of a team philosophy than a decision on an individual.

And I'm pretty sure I'm right about this.

Also - just for the sake of the fact that I currently fucking hate our defense, Rivera, and McDermott, is there a quality DT who we could've landed for $22.5 million guaranteed?

 

That doesn't really apply to the NFL the way it does to the NBA and certainly not to the cap-less MLB. But even if you wanted to play up the continuity angle (which evidently is Hurney's guiding principle), that still would only explain overpaying one of the two running backs. Grossly overpaying both of them is comical stupidity, which of course makes it classic Hurney.

Not this off-season. Jason Jones is a decent pass rushing DT who signed a 1 year, $4.5 mil deal but he's just as awful against the run as ours. Wp28 suggested Garay (two years, 6.6 million) and several of us agreed, but while he would have been an upgrade it wouldn't have been a huge one. What pisses me off is the off-season prior when Brandon Mebane was an unrestricted free agent who re-signed with Seattle for $25 million ($9 guaranteed) over five years. There's not much at DT on the horizon for 2013 either. Good, young ones just don't hit the market very often.

 

Allright - since DT was our biggest need ( at least in my opinion ), and we weren't going to sign a free agent CB ( at least a big $$ one ), what's the harm, from a roster building perspective, of shelling out stupid money over the past 2 years to RB's?

I'm not saying there isn't harm, just wondering what it specifically is. We weren't, like it or not, going after a player this year with our $8 million. So - we just gave that away. What are the cap ramifications over the next 3 years, when Cammy cam cam gets the green?

Including cutting DW.

Fun story about Stewart. I was at Uptown Cabaret a few months back blowing a dead friend's final $1600 per his dying wish on strippers. My wife was with me. I had my wife and a stripper on my lap and they were giggling and grabbing eachother's boobs. We had a VIP table (because why the fuck not it's a dying wish) and up walks Stewart. I looked away from the boob party, stuck out a fist, and said 'j stew!' and we did the fist bump thing. Only thing I'd really seen of him before that was his twitter jesus talk. He looked a little apprehensive when he realized he had no fucking idea who I was.

So - I bet a bunch of sluts just got some extra coke money.