'The Timing Was Right' for the Panthers to Trade Brian Burns

Dan Morgan is confident they made the right decision in dealing Burns.

Now that we've all had time to let the Brian Burns trade breathe and really digest it, perhaps making the move was the best thing for the organization.

I'm still skeptical of the Panthers' commitment to investing big money into its star players and at this point, who wouldn't be? Sure, Christian McCaffrey and DJ Moore each got the bag in Carolina before being dealt, but in order to actually build something you have to keep the talent around.

Timing is always a key factor in negotiations and you could argue that the extensions of McCaffrey and Moore did not align with the team's timeline to win. Dan Morgan isn't about to make the same mistakes his predecessor, Scott Fitterer, made.

Signing a player of Burns' caliber to a long-term deal makes sense in that you keep a major piece of this core in place. However, giving him roughly $30 million per year when you're off the heels of a 2-15 season and have several holes to fill with limited draft capital isn't the most brilliant thing in the world to do. It sets you up for disaster more than anything else. You give him the bag, have less money to work with, and still have the same issues with the rest of the roster.

"Those are always difficult conversations and decisions from the seat that I'm in," Morgan told reporters earlier this week at the NFL owners meetings in Orlando. "We love Brian - the player he is, the person he is... but sometimes you've got to make tough decisions. Salary cap along with draft capital that we got, we felt like it was time to pull the trigger and make a move. We felt like the timing was right."

The signing of D.J. Wonnum certainly helps, but the Panthers will continue to pursue pass rush help in free agency and in the draft to help fill the void Burns leaves behind. The defense is still in a good place despite his departure and as long as Derrick Brown continues to improve year over year and lands a long-term deal, that side of the ball should be just fine.