I can understand why the Panthers would want to re-sign Williams. Williams is a serious talent. I'm just not convinced that they'll be willing to pay Williams as much as he could get elsewhere. Maybe Williams gives them a home-town discount, or decides that they've got a good thing going and he wants to stick around for it, but there's a huge difference between "the Panthers want to extend Williams" and "the Panthers extended Williams"- just like there's a huge difference between "The Panthers want to extend Julius Peppers" and "the Panthers extended Julius Peppers".
Respectfully HATE this comparison, as Julius took every other play off, and has not been candid that he really doesn't like football and could retire any year. Is it likely? Probably not, but I think it's more possible than some think.
I agree it's not a great comparison, it was just the first one that came to mind.I recognize the possibility of Carolina locking up Stewart and Williams for years to come, but I will remain skeptical until it actually happens. I can't recall a single instance of a team with a top 10 player at a position spending significant resources to lock up a second top 10 player at the same position. Heck, even in Arizona (which, like Carolina, managed to draft two young studs at the same position within 3 years) eventually let Boldin walk, and Arizona was actually able to put both Boldin and Fitz on the field at the same time.
If I were Carolina, I would love to have Williams on the team for the rest of his career... but I don't know that the marginal gains of assigning cap dollars to Williams (as opposed to just rolling with Stewart) would be greater than the marginal gains I could experience by spending those dollars elsewhere. Also, I don't know if Williams would want to remain in a situation where he's perpetually a 1A when he knows he's good enough to be a clear-cut #1. NFL athletes are, in my experience, largely very prideful people.