The official "Could be a Panther in 09" thread

On Lewis, I'd say that we'd wait until we needed to do something to cut him, but the roster bonus likely being around the start of the fiscal year means we probably wouldn't do that. For that money, that could be the difference between having money and not having money. That suggests giving Gross a contract (my initial guess of 5 years, $45 million, two part $18 mil bonus would cost just short of $3.5 million in year one), franchising Peppers, signing our RFAs ($2.5 million), cutting Lucas/Johnson/Hackett (which unfortunately is only around $5 mil) and having money for one mid to high level FA, or having to restructure/extend Jake, Kemo, or others to have any flexibility.

Which, if we could get away without doing that, would obviously be beneficial.

It looks like Lewis' contract was setup to give him a one year audition as a starter. I initially guessed that Lewis wasn't that expensive, and that it would be cheap to keep him. I figured Kemoeatu would be expensive to cut given the lack of a June exemption. So that made me lament our choices and expect we'd probably have to settle on "upgrades" of backups. But clearing Lewis gives us a legit shot at one player of worth on the DL before a Peppers trade, and after a Peppers trade I'd already expect the top DL to be gone.

 

I can't figure out why people keep expecting Gross to sign for that little. He was just named All-Pro and the market overvalues LTs almost as much as quarterbacks. If he was willing to sign for less than $50 million I imagine that deal would be done already, but he's probably asking for $65-80 million.

 

the biggest contract I'm aware of is Jake Long's, which was 5 years $55 mil. I could be off by a mil a year and possibly up to $5 mil total on contract but I don't expect him to best Long's value.

 

Disagree.

 

I'm gonna choke on myself if he gets $12 million a year.

 

That's depressing.

 

No way Gross is worth $12 million per year. Let him go and move on before you do that.

 

Why wouldn't he? Long was coming out of college, while Gross was just named All-Pro. Plus Long could only negotiate with one team, whereas Gross can negotiate with anyone. With as much cap space as most teams have right now, he's going to obliterate Long's deal. As I've said before, I imagine that Gross' agent is putting pressure on the Panthers to sign such a deal precisely because they want to get something done in time to franchise Peppers.

 

I don't know what it means if anything but nfl network coverage of the Pro Bowl had Portis going around jokingly interviewing NFC players. Gross walks by and Portis says something about Gross wanting to make more than Jake Long.

 

my own blind hope? I dunno. I don't have much other backing for my numbers. I did use them for the basis of the contract but also assumed it would be lower. I haven't seen anyone else take a guess (that I know of) so I can't say it had to do with anything else.

is there a history of teams or players basing veteran contracts on college ones? Long got so much because he was a #1 overall, not because of the market, where most vet contracts are market dictated to a point.

I don't know that we need him $11 million per year's worth.