The paycut that Torrey Smith accepted back in May wasn’t enough to save his job in Carolina. Per Adam Schefter of ESPN.com, the Panthers have released the veteran wideout (Twitter link).
Smith missed five games due to a knee injury in 2018 — his first and only season in Charlotte — and he appeared in 11 games in total (six starts). He was targeted just 31 times on the year, hauling in 17 of those targets for 190 yards and two touchdowns. Smith has never been a volume receiver, but he hasn’t posted more than 40 catches since 2014.
The former home run hitter, now 30, has lost a step or two over the past couple of years, and given that he never had great hands or route-running ability, losing top-end speed is especially problematic. He was squeezed out of the Panthers’ plans, but he should get another chance as a depth WR and occasional deep threat elsewhere.
He does have two Super Bowl rings, one from his 2012 season in Baltimore and another from his 2017 campaign in Philadelphia.
the players asso. should really push for mor protections for players that accept pay cuts. rude of a team to make a player accept a lower salery only to get rid of them anyway.
Or the player could refuse to accept the pay cut in the first place if they aren’t happy with it. The easiest way to fix would be fully guaranteed contracts, but that’ll never happen.
Fully guaranteed contracts is a double edged sword. Teams won’t have the same amount of cap space to offer large deals due to guaranteed money on the books and also will be more cautious in doing so.
Usually players that take a salary cut are getting more money up front. Teams will convert the salary into a signing bonus which allows them to split the salary cap cost over the remaining seasons.