Considering i don't know who the hell Russell Sheppard is, i don't think he's in a position to refuse paycuts.
He's a decent special teamer that looked good at times in Tampa in a very limited role, but his only impact here was scoring the first TD of the season last year. They hoped he could play the Ted Ginn role, but he did absolutely nothing, even after Benjamin got dealt, and eventually lost playing time to guys like Kaelin Clay and Brenton Bersin. If you fall behind Brenton Bersin on the depth chart, you should reexamine your career. But like I said, he probably wasn't going to make the team anyway. This was probably more about him getting a head start on an opportunity elsewhere while pocketing his money rather than petulance. The beat writers are all saying how good of a guy he was, etc.
Panthers depth chart is something like
Funchess
Moore
Smith
Wright
Samuel/Byrd
(Plus Olsen, McCaffrey, and even Anderson isn't a slouch)
That's already six guys, and I have a hard time seeing them cut any of them given their skillsets and what they've invested in them. His only hope was for an injury (which, given the history of the last two, may have actually happened).
I'm okay with this lineup going into the season.