Feb 24 2006
DeShaun Foster gets transition tag
Rumors of DeShaun Foster’s departure from Charlotte — and Shaun Alexander’s arrival — may be highly exaggerated. The Carolina Panthers put the transition tag on Foster today. That gives the Panthers the right to match any offer the strong-running-but-often-injured Foster receives on the open market. It also gives the team until March 17 to sign Foster to a long-term deal, else they forfeit the right to negotiate with him until July.
By putting this tag on Foster, Carolina is risking $5.153M in salary cap space. I don’t think they’d risk this much if they thought that Foster wasn’t worth keeping, nor would they do this if they planned on blowing up their cap setup to sign Shaun Alexander. Given what happened with Stephen Davis, who will likely be released soon, Carolina may not want to give another big deal to a running back pushing 30, only to get one good season out of him before he breaks down.
Another possibility — the Panthers may want to take another long look at Eric Shelton, last year’s 2nd round pick out of Louisville. Shelton was having a subpar preseason before he separated a shoulder and ended up on injured reserve. Given an offseason to work on his skills, though, Shelton may start to look like the big bruising power back John Fox likes.
It’s a gamble, but it might give the Panthers enough cap room to re-sign a more important free agent — linebacker Will Witherspoon. We’ll see…
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