Since its official, heres Bill Barnwell from Grantland: As Carolina shops for a left tackle to replace the retired Jordan Gross, it might very well need to find a no. 1 receiver at the same time. It appears the Panthers are cutting ties with their longtime star wideout, with Smith’s agent publicly suggesting yesterday that Smith would never play for the Panthers again. Carolina is theoretically looking for a trade partner right now, but nobody is going to be interested in paying a 34-year-old wideout $7 million. The Panthers will eventually cut Smith and almost surely designate him as a post–June 1 release, but even if they do, they’ll only save $1 million on this year’s cap while incurring an additional $4 million on dead money on their cap in 2015. (They would actually lose $2 million in cap space by cutting Smith without such a designation.) That move is expected to happen Thursday. Three AFC teams stand out as likely landing points for Smith; the Broncos and Patriots can’t sign every veteran who hits the market, but they’re both in the market for a secondary wide receiver. There seems to be more smoke linking Smith to the Ravens, who have a famously high tolerance for crazy and are in desperate need of a playmaker across from Torrey Smith. Carolina, meanwhile, continues to lose key contributors for whom it cannot afford replacements. I still think it ends up going after Hakeem Nicks on a short-term deal, but its long-term replacement for Smith might very well be coming in May’s draft.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 16:12:43 +0000
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