NC Daily Links and Banter 7/17: Offer sheets in the NFL?
Good morning, it’s July 17th
The NFL’s deadline for contract discussions with franchise tagged players was Monday and all but one player (Jadeveon Clowney). As I read through my colleague’s write-up about why the Panthers should be interested, I was thinking about how interesting it would be if the NFL had offer sheets similar to the NHL.
What if immediately after Clowney didn’t sign with the Texans, other teams could negotiate an offer sheet with the defensive end (or linebacker if you are part of the Texans’ front office)? The Texans would have the right to match any offer but teams like the Colts who have extra cap space would potentially be able to poach one of their division rival’s top defenders.
Unlike the NHL, the offer sheets would only apply to franchise tagged players, not RFAs. And teams would only be able to offer after the deadline for contract talks had expired.
The Panthers would be joined by a host of teams interested and would add an extra layer of intrigue to this portion of the offseason. Adding the offer sheet would also incentivize teams to get a deal done earlier, while helping to alleviate players’ hatred of the franchise tag. It’s an interesting thought and one we’ll explore in more detail at some point.
Daily Links
Carolina Panthers Position Preview: Wide Receivers
The wide receiver position has been a serious issue for the Panthers’ front office, as the inability to find talent has been used an example of why Cam Newton has at times failed to reach him full potential. From Kelvin Benjamin to Devin Funchess, the position has been a revolving door.
2019 has the potential to be a breakthrough season for Panthers receivers, as DJ Moore and Curtis Samuel have all the potential to be Pro-Bowl players. Add in running back Christian McCaffrey who is probably the team’s best receiver.
Five teams whose free agency moves stood out from a roster building standpoint— for good and bad
The Hornets are in a miserable situation, with too little talent to compete for a playoff spot and (potentially) too much talent to qualify for a top five pick. They have no cap space, limited assets and refused to pay their star player in the offseason.
The team easily lost the 2019 offseason but as the article states, the team has massive amounts of cap space coming off the books in the near future:
"All of Bismack Biyombo, Marvin Williams, and Michael Kidd Gilchrist’s deals run out following this season. They’ll have something resembling max cap space next summer if they decide to just let those deals expire. Then the next summer, $42 million more runs out in the face of Cody Zeller and Nicolas Batum."
But that gets to the heart of the point; do we have faith that the current front office is the group we want managing that cap space in the near future? The same front office that got the Hornets into this cap h*ll and lost the best player in franchise history?
ACC’s bowl tie-ins improve beginning in 2020
The ACC adds the San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl (San Diego, California), a bowl game in Boston, Massachusetts at historic Fenway Park and each season the ACC will also send one team to either the Gasparilla Bowl (Tampa), the Birmingham Bowl, or the First Responder Bowl (Dallas).
Mixing up the bowl games is a fun way for ACC fans to get to places they haven’t been before. The real winner is every fan that now doesn’t have to watch their team in Detroit.