One Piece of The Draft Puzzle: Expiring Contracts
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Some people see "the Draft" as a weekend
event. In reality, "the Draft"
is a 365 day process of intensive evaluation.
This process has many moving parts that all fit together to form a large
puzzle-like picture. Preparations for
the 2015 draft are happening as we speak. You can bet Gettleman is breaking the
pieces down, whether it is roster composition, contracts, or evaluating free
agency options.
One piece of the puzzle is scouting the prospects who will
be playing on Saturdays this fall, and we’ll do plenty of that here at #C3 in
the coming months. But another, more
understated piece of the draft puzzle deals with knowing your own team. GM David Gettleman has talked about this a
few times and has stated how important it is to know your squad. I’ve started looking at
our squad, well at least one part of our squad. When it comes to knowing your own team there are different pieces to that puzzle as well. Some of those pieces are how your players perform in 2014, injuries, aging, locker room fit (see Steve Smith) and contract status.
our squad, well at least one part of our squad. When it comes to knowing your own team there are different pieces to that puzzle as well. Some of those pieces are how your players perform in 2014, injuries, aging, locker room fit (see Steve Smith) and contract status.
When preparing for the 2015 draft, you have to start by know
which contracts will be up after next season.
The Panthers have 17 contracts of note that expire after the upcoming
season. Evaluating depth at these
positions and then deciding where your priorities in the 2015 draft are going
to be is surely on Gettleman's mind. The
contracts of note are: Greg Hardy, Dwan
Edwards, Colin Cole, Mario Addison, Byron Bell, Nate Chandler (R), Gary
Williams, Chris Scott, Jason Avant, Kealoha Pilares, Chase Blackburn, Antoine
Cason, James Dockery, Josh Thomas, Colin Jones, Ed Dickson and Joe Webb. To break that down, that is four D-Linemen,
four O-Lineman, four D-Backs, two WRs, one TE, one LB and one QB. Thankfully only the Kraken could be
considered a “core” player, but this number of FAs will considerably impact our
depth going forward. Also, if any of
these players have breakout seasons it can impact our cap-situation as
well. So these will be positions that I
will be taking an extra close look at in the upcoming Scouting-Season.
Follow me on Twitter at @PanthersDrafter for ongoing discussions and updates on
these positions. Also look for an
ongoing series focusing on how each move, each game, and each injury will
impact our future draft needs.