The league office announced today that it will be piloting a new salary cap system on a test-case basis this league year, and the Carolina Panthers have been chosen to launch the program. The "Ballers and Cents" program is the result of a brain trust committee formed of top members of the NFL competition committee, the NFLPA, the NFL Veteran Combine group, and the league's top general managers.

"We're excited and honored to be chosen as the testing grounds for this new salary cap program. This has been a work in progress over the past couple of seasons, and I am proud to say that I was part of the committee that sparked the idea. I think this is a great way to get guys who have fallen out of the league for whatever reason a second chance to come back, bet on themselves, and pave their own path back into the limelight." -- Panthers GM, David Gettleman

Ballers and Cents, as the league office is calling it, is a new idea to keeping hard working players in top physical condition and give them a pathway back onto NFL teams. "It really is a great program," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello.

"The way it works is we give players the chance to sign themselves onto NFL teams where they think they can succeed to a non-binding $0 per year contract. This gets them into camp with a team of their choosing. Once they are there, if they play their way onto the 53-man roster, the league office will pay them a one year salary at the veteran minimum for their experience level. The benefit to the team, beyond getting a hungry player, is that none of this money will count toward their salary cap, effectively making this a win-win for the team for one season."

Asked about the need for such a program, Carolina Panthers head coach Ron Rivera interjected with the following...

"It is clearly a need for the league, and is a positive thing for guys that have the drive to succeed. What it does is get guys in front of us, and they join the evaluation process. We meet with them, discuss the things they do well, and see if their skills line up with what we are trying to do. It keeps players motivated to stay in shape, and gives them a shot they might not otherwise have."

Dave Gettleman added:

"Honestly, its something we've been doing for awhile here in Carolina. Every year we sign a bunch of guys that no one has heard of, and we turn them into next years hot free agents targets. I like to think of Ron and I as being those guys on American Pickers. We drive around the country looking for neglected players, buy them up on the cheap, get them cleaned up, put them in our offensive and defensive showrooms and then let someone else buy them up at top dollar. All we've done here is eliminate that initial investment by removing the salary cap hit, which gives us more freedom in who to try out." "Another neat thing is that if you sign a guy whose name can't be pronounced by at least half of your current active roster, you get an extra $100,000 credit toward your salary cap hit."

Gettleman paused, then said...