Carolina Panthers cap space, positional spending update going into 2024 NFL season

There is no connection at all between success at the professional sportsman and success as a personnel manager. Well, if you are still in doubt, simply consult the basketball legend, Michael Jordan on that. Case in point: Our Carolina Panthers’ general manager Dan Morgan played in the Pro Bowl for this team 20 years ago. Now he faces a radically different challenge: attempting to contend while dealing with the salary cap issue in the contemporary NFL.

Nevertheless, it must be mentioned that he took charge of this position at the beginning of the current year, and the squad he had to work with was, undoubtedly, one of the worst in the entire Europe. Morgan was allowed 30 seasons to attempt to remake the cartel in his own image, so to speak. However, he went on a spending spree in the initial stages of free agency and there is not much capital to build this team anymore, clearly at least not this year.

As of the 2024 NFL season, Carolina has less than $6m in cap space the first thing that comes to mind. 19 million left to spend, which numbers are obtained from Over the Cap for reference.

For this reason, where did all that money go?

It was spent on the OL unit, which at the moment is considered by far the costliest in the NFL, occupying approximately $71. 9 million. In isolation, there is nothing wrong with high numbers on the former picture – after all, the actual Super Bowl champion, Kansas City Chiefs, ranks only behind the Panthers in this regard, shelling out $70. 64 million up front.

The tenor counts and the specifics as to how Morgan went on a shopping spree in March are not correct. The two most questionable expenses were two boatloads of money at the guards positions that include right guard Robert Hunt signed for five years, $100 million and left guard Damien Lewis for another four years and $53 million. Well, Hunt is a good lineman, but one can argue that no guard is worth that much, and the Lewis contract given the fact that he was plain average in his performance for Seattle the past few years is ridiculous.

There were however some positive decisions, and lets take a look at a some of them. New signing Dane Jackson should be a good fit for the corner position, while the trade to obtain Diontae Johnson was as big a move to address the position as any but has received less appreciation. It is stated that Bryce Young immediately hit if off with the ex-Pittsburgh wideout. Morgan also needs to be praised for a mostly-strong 2024 NFL draft class, although, he selected a running back in the wrong round.

Before doing so, let us analyze in which area of the team Carolina spends the most and the least of its money, and thus try to paint a picture of how their roster is built and what tasks they set themselves.

QB: $16,361,486 (ranks 19th)

RB: $16,081,337 (ranks 3rd)

WR: $32,692,974 (ranks 15th)

TE: $10,606,942 (ranks 20th)

OL: $71,914,619 (ranks 1st)

iDL: $24,185,772 (ranks 15th)

EDGE: $19,196,363 (ranks 24th)

LB: $13,481,347 (ranks 23rd)

S: $17,852,384 (ranks 11th)

CB: $16,604,330 (ranks 25th)

Two players – Taylor Moton a tackle and Ickey Ekonwu a defensive end are forecasted to be worth the price-tag but the Panthers should have learned from their mistake of using those Hunt/Lewis dollars at cornerback and edge which is far more vital in today’s football. It also would not have also maligned the management to sign another potent wide receiver.

Well, that is life I Guess I must have learned something new.