Wharton to the Panthers
 

https://x.com/MikeGarafolo/status/1899226557022929069

Twitter is ****ing up so can't embed.

3 years 54 million

LMAO

way overpaid

Big money. Good for him.

Whoa, I knew he did good last year, but not THAT good.

Average fatties make big money. It’s just the modern NFL

26, undrafted from small school. Good on him.

Darn. Kinda hoped he would stay somehow.

holy shit. dude should give chris jones half his game checks

****! ****!!

Carolina really wanted Milton Williams and they overpaid for their back-up option.

We all knew he was gone but that's more than I expected.

Another king of poop mountain

Thanks for the memories, tho

WHOA!

Yeah, guys, the cap went up a BUNCH this year, and is supposed to go up a BUNCH next year, too. There are going to be some crazy deals, just get used to it.

Panthers man. They just can’t stop.

The 49ers are saying the same about Moore..

This is why great teams don’t lean heavily on Free Agency.

JFC that is insane.

Not gonna fault Turk for getting that big of a bag.

Is he our most successful undrafted guy we've developed in the Reid era? I think he might be.

Every year you quickly learn why signing guys early in FA isn't a great idea.

Yep, generational wealth secured. I’m happy for him.

He was a great UDFA, cost us basically nothing, outperformed the little resources we did use on him, never got in trouble, didn’t appear to be any sort of locker room cancer.

Since he went to the Panthers I can also continue rooting for him.

Twitter isn’t working but Nick Norte posted this:

Assuming that Justin Watson qualifies as a compensatory free agent--and I'd be stunned if he didn't--Tershawn Wharton signing for $18M APY with the Panthers will get the Chiefs on the 2026 compensatory picks board with a 4th rounder.

Depends on what we do here on but it would be awesome to get that back and have three 4th rd picks in the 2026 draft

Good for us.

Helps comp pick formula.

He got HOW ****ing much?!?!?!?!

That is absolutely insane.

Wow, I didn't even realize he was on the market. I hate to lose our Rolla guy and an ascending DT in the league.

Well, good for him. He's been on an amazing career arc. I was surprised that he stayed at DT in his career. Is he the lightest starting DT in the league?

UFA with several cheap quality years turns into a mid round pick.

It’s a beautiful thing.

No such thing as overpaid after today. The market has changed.

The Panthers will always be irrelevant.

Happy for him. Happy KC didn’t pay him that much as well.

That's a lot more than I thought he would get. Good for him though, he got a big bag

Don’t know why people seem to always comment that these guys are overpaid. That’s the market price for an ascending player that can provide some pass rush (he got 6.5 sacks last year) at DT and is one of the few players to play well in the SB. The salary cap is mostly fake anyway.

It's close to what we paid Omenihu a few years ago based on today's cap number and expectations.

Probably because it's more than most of us make.

man... I thought he'd get a really nice bump to like 7-8m AAV not 18 AAV. Holy shit. Good for him. Dude balled the **** out this year and deserves a nice deal.

These guys always seem to get overpaid.

I was guessing 2/$20 or 3/$36. I thought that was probably on the high side.

I wasn’t close.

Wow...I knew he was gonna get paid, but didn't realize he was gonna get PAID, paid.

Good for him though. You like to see guys come out of nowhere and set themselves up for life like he just did.

I thought he'd get 4-49, as an overpay for his position. I didn't think he'd go on day 1 at 18.

Makes the Bolton deal look like a damn steal.

I really wish Veach could trade some of these guys in the final year of their contract and get extra draft picks. Watching them walk with no return is not so fun.

Yep. You'd never see a great team that played in 5 of the last 6 SBs and won 3 of them making crazy moves like we just did with Moore. Guess this is why we always suck.

they weren't going to trade him last season, we wouldn't have had anyone else.

Well you can do that but then you look like Seattle right now where people wonder what you're doing.

boooo

My comment wasn't limited to Wharton. In general, I think we would be well-served to trade some of the guys we know we will lose to FA.

I am glad to see we will likely get a 4th round comp pick.

Also, this is a great draft for Defensive Tackles so I'm not sure what the Panthers are thinking but the timing (losing a good DT) works well for the Chiefs.

Holy my goodness.

Happy for Turk, but.....wow.

Good for him that he got paid. Bad for him that it's the Panthers who are paying him.

I absolutely love Turk. He’s smart and seems like a good person. Plays hard and overachieves. Wish we could have kept him. That being said, if we would have paid him that, I would have lost my ****. That is absolutely crazypants! Good for him, though.

Dang. DT at 31 it is.

Yeah, I thought 3/$36 was the high end and accounted for possible market insanity. Felt like 3/$24 was the realistic high side.

Suddenly even Danna's deal doesn't look that bad anymore.

Enjoy losing.

Felt like 2/$20 was a given as FA approached for Moore.

So we overpaid the 'baseline' by about 50%.

This feels like damn near twice what an accepted baseline would've been for Wharton, does it not?

FAs are always a bit overpaid even when they aren't. But if we're talking degrees, this is a massive one isn't it?

There was an espn article about the most "overrated" FAs and Wharton was one of five based on his gaudy sack production this last season but pedestrian pass-rush-win-rate.

It was crazy to see that he was somehow an "overrated" free agent.

Now it makes more sense.

I don’t think you can argue against it. I know it’s the nature of FA and exploding salary cap, but his APY is now higher than Vita Vea, Cam Hayward, and Ed Oliver lol

It’s hard to find a legit comp for him being so undersized but I guess the closest I can see is Odighizuwa. He just got an extension and he’s sitting at $20m. On the surface, Wharton had more sacks (6.5 vs 4.5), more TFLs (7 vs 5), and fewer QB hits (11 vs 23). He’s been solid against the run despite his size.

I don’t have access to more advanced pass rushing statistics, but if Wharton proves to be the same guy he was this past year for us consistently (and without a Chris Jones next to him), this should end up be in an OK signing.

Derrick Brown isn't completely useless either. Should be a decent tandem on the IDL.

Wow. That is great for him! That's rare life changing money for a UDFA type

Happy for him to get paid, but man, I wouldn't fork that much out for two reasons (among others):

1. How much of his play benefitted from having Jones?

and

2. His pass-rush win rate of 7% doesn't match the sack production.

I knew Wharton was solid but I had no idea he was this good.

THIS! ALL IF IT!

Panther fans will be disappointed!

We may end up going back to grandpa for 1 more year! ( Pennell )

Good on him. That’s incredible money. Do you have any idea how pissed I’d be if the Chiefs did this LOL?

Congrats to Wharton. He's already a hero in Carolina. He caught that kid falling out of the stands this year.

Ugh, that stinks. Good for him, but we'll REALLY miss the guy.

Wow that's more than double as to what I thought he'd get. Awesome for him and we'll get a solid comp pick out of it.

Same, and I was one of the people during last season saying how he was playing himself into a nice contract. Literally twice as much as I expected he'd get. Good for him, though.

This one of the worst overpays I’ve ever seen.

Several dudes have gotten paid because of Chris Jones. By the Chiefs, even.

The Carolina Panthers aren't real. It's crazy that neither '95 expansion team will ever win a Lombardi.

I hope that you're right. But so far, I'm thinking that our new left tackle is probably wiping out the pick for Wharton.

DT is the most underrated position of need for this team by a lot. We need three quality players and no less than two. If something happens to Jones we have two going holes in the middle of the DL.

What about Ryan Sims

Julius Peppers made him a top 10 pick

Ugh.

If we're lucky.

DT is far and away the best position of this upcoming draft both in terms of top end quality and sheer number. We'll probably get more than one in this draft.

Which is what makes the Wharton contract all the more confusing.

Why would Carolina give him so much money when they could very likely draft a guy who’s as good/better?

I am the biggest Turk Wharton fan you will ever find. That said, this is insane, I don’t really care how you slice it.

Good for him, though! Love to see it!

Feels like Nick Allegretti and Turk Wharton are guys that were universally celebrated by Chiefs fans for doing well here and getting paid.

They are both great stories

My guess? His pedigree as a two-time Super Bowl champion on Steve Spagnuolo’s defense.

I was happy for Wylie too.

Ended his Chiefs career on a high note. Didn’t shit the bed that last season when we really needed him. Started from nothing. It’s fun to see guys like that turn into players with legit NFL careers

Because they don't wanna use their high picks on that, they already have a top 5 DT. They also signed Bobby Brown at DT.

They're likely wanting to draft offense.

More $ than I would have guessed; but good on him. I liked Wharton...but next to Jones, his profile was elevated. It'll be interesting to see how he fares in Carolina.