Reports were circulating this week that Steve Smith and the Panthers were discussing a new contract; this turned out to not be true, but the two sides are interested in discussing a deal in the future. Smith's under contract through 2009, making anything that happens a long-term proposition, the kind of deal that would allow him to retire a Panther. Combined with the fact he just turned 27 a month ago, that makes such talk premature. He signed a six-year, $26-million extension in March 2004. For their money, the Panthers bought a year on IR followed by the league's best receiving season. The next deal will take him to a new financial level, one certainly surpassing the recent Chad Johnson deal (a six-year extension worth a reported $35.5 million).