FanHouse JordanGross

Who moved to the head of the NFL class during the draft? Find out with FanHouse's team-by-team 2009 Draft Grades.

John Fox and Marty Hurney have always done a good job selecting first-round talent. Since Fox took over the coaching reins in 2002, they've picked Julius Peppers, Jordan Gross, Chris Gamble, Thomas Davis, DeAngelo Williams, Jon Beason, Jonathan Stewart and Jeff Otah. So, yeah, not too shabby. This year, the Panthers didn't have a first-round pick, but somehow managed to stumble into first-round talent anyway, landing Everette Brown with the 43rd-overall pick in the draft.

Last offseason, Bills left tackle Jason Peters held out for more dough, the team didn't budge, and he eventually reported to work the day before the season opener.

Not surprisingly, Peters had a tough go of it in 2008. And while the Panthers just rewarded Jordan Gross with a six-year, $60 million deal, Peters is still looking for his big payday. Buffalo is willing to negotiate, but as it stands, the two sides have different notions of fair-market value. And even though Peters has two years left on his existing contract, there's virtually no way he'll play another down in Buffalo without a new deal, at least from the perspective of March.

Thanks to the NFL's most recent television deal, very few teams have had trouble in recent years getting under the salary cap. But it should become even easier in 2009 now that the league has announced that the cap will be $127 million this year, $4 million higher than what was expected.

The teams had been told to expect the cap to rise to $123 million, up from $116.2 million in 2008. That was already a big enough bump that most teams were millions under the cap. Even before the recent wave of cuts and Brett Favre's retirement, only six teams had more than $120 million in cap commitments. Now, nearly every team in the league will have millions to spend even after setting aside money for their draft picks. In the case of the Chiefs, they have more than $40 million in cap room.

The Miami Dolphins opted not to use their franchise tag on offensive tackle Vernon Carey, and as it turns out, they didn't need to. The team has signed the 27-year-old offensive tackle to a multi-year contract extension, as reported by Edgar Thompson of the Palm Beach Post.

Terms of the deal have not been disclosed at this point, but with Carey locked up long-term, the Dolphins will have a more-than-formidable duo on their offensive line with he and Jake Long, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 NFL draft.

The Carolina Panthers have, according to many "league sources," as well as Peppers' agent Carl Carey, officially designated Julius Peppers with the team's franchise tag.

This, of course, is against Peppers' preference (he's not the only one who hates the franchise tag) and comes as a result of the Panthers inking LT Jordan Gross to a six-year deal. The tagging of Peppers is no surprise whatsoever -- it was well known that the team, regardless of whether he wants to play there or not, intended to get something back if the lifelong Panther actually ended up leaving.

Jordan Gross has officially signed a six-year deal to remain a Carolina Panther, one that will make him not only one of the highest-paid offensive lineman in the NFL but the highest-paid Panther of all time, according to a statement he made today to the Rock Hill Herald.

Gross seemed relieved that the deal -- which took a year of negotiations to complete -- was finalized, and acknowledged that he probably could have made more on the open market.

Jordan Gross is the biggest cog in the slow-moving wheel that is the Carolina Panthers offseason. If he's not signed by approximately 4:00 PM today, the franchise will, in all likelihood, be forced to use the franchise tag on the lineman.

That would leave Julius Peppers open to waltz his way into free agency. Good news (for the Panthers) has been circulating this morning though, as there are multiple reports surfacing that the Cats and Gross are close to finalizing a monster six-year deal.

The Carolina Panthers are in full pursuit of a contract that would lock up Jordan Gross and give them the ability to franchise Julius Peppers. Peppers knows this -- obviously -- and as a result, it would appear that he's providing his "counter-offer" to the team.

Well, somewhat. What he's really done is state that there are only four teams in the NFL for whom he's willing to play (as a result of a trade). What four teams are they? Excellent question. Seems even Peppers might not know.

The Carolina Panthers have one more major issue to resolve before they try and answer the question of what to do with Julius Peppers and his impending free agency. Namely, they need to figure out what to do with Jordan Gross, who is also on schedule to be free agent.

And it appears, based on reports from Adam Schefter, that the Cats are pushing hard in negotiations and hope to have a deal in place by Thursday so they can utilize their franchise tag on Peppers.