The Carolina Panthers were the worst team in the league last year. Owner Jerry Richardson is planning to open up his wallet to make sure they’re not the worst team in the league this year.
“First we want to be very aggressive and [G.M.] Marty Hurney and his team have a plan and when we get the green light we will be going wide open,” Richardson said, per Steve Reed of CarolinaGrowl.com.
The Panthers are well under the salary cap, but they also have a lot of their own free agents that Richardson says they plan to lock up first.
“We’re going to concentrate on our own first,” Richardson said. “[But] we’re going to be aggressive. We are prepared to do what it takes to put the best team together as quickly as we can.”
Carolina will also have to work out a deal with No. 1 overall pick Cam Newton, but the Panthers are lucky that they had the first pick in the draft the year that the rookie salary structure is changing. Richardson is happy about that.
“We want to pay the money to the proven veteran players,” Richardson said. “The rookies, 50 percent of them, don’t make it.”
For the sake of the Panthers, Newton had better be in the other 50 percent. And Richardson’s spending had better put a good team around Newton.