The saga of Julius Peppers, the Carolina Panthers' disgruntled defensive end, faded quickly into the background (thanks, Messrs. Favre and Cutler!) as the football loving world moved away from the NFL Draft and closer to training camp. But Wednesday, seemingly out of nowhere, the Panthers announced that Peppers had -- finally -- agreed to sign his offer sheet and remain a Panther for at least the next season, barring any very surprising transactions. From the good folks at ITP:
Peppers' agent, Carl Carey, told the Observer that : "Julius is more than satisfied with the outcome and is prepared and ready to play football."Not mentioned in Carey's statement: "My client gets another chance to be one of the highest-paid players in professional football, while still being offered the opportunity to make an absolute killing in free agency the next year ... just by trying hard!" Funny how agents like to spin things sometimes, huh? (Note that Peppers will earn $16.683 million in salary, plus a potential $1.5 million for making the Pro Bowl and $250k for each Panther playoff win, including the Super Bowl. Not too shabby.)
Carey said a statement from Peppers was forthcoming in which Peppers said he'd had "positive and productive" conversations with the Panthers and that he was "optimistic" about the upcoming season.
The reality of the situation is that the Panthers didn't budge on Peppers' demands, Peppers cooled his heels, to a large degree, and both parties seem -- at least on the front -- to have moved past the tenuous stage where some move had to be made.
It would have, in my humble opinion, behooved the Cats to move Peppers before the draft and pick up a first rounder. Now? The thing that makes the most sense is to let one of the best defensive lineman in the game do his thing and get loose on quarterbacks next year. Given the Panthers' lack of depth at D-end, they certainly need Peppers on board in order to make a run at defending their NFC South title.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-24-2009 @ 5:17PM
soulcitysigma1914 said...
oh yiptee do dah dandy!! i am mad at Pep and Hurney for this crap. Sorry I keep saying the same thing over and over again but the Panthers let go of some quality offensive line depth to overpay this one defensive end who takes plays off and had a horrible season in 2007, even if he did have a career year in 2008.
With the exception of 1996 and last year, the Panthers are plagued with o-line injuries every year, and they are a run-first team that counts on it's zone scheme to make holes for DeAngelo Williams. Now if we lose some o-linemen, DeAngelo is going to get met at the line scrimmage fairly often and the whole offense is going to tank with him. I don't care how often Pep sacks a quarterback, if we can't get the ground game going, we're not going to have our first back to back playoff seasons.
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6-24-2009 @ 6:42PM
Hans said...
Whoa...Fanhouse actually covers the Panthers still? Seriously...it's been months since anything remotely resembling a story has been posted here, and i know there's been stuff to talk about because I've read them on other sites. C'mon guys...
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6-25-2009 @ 8:58AM
Thomas said...
LOL, I was actually just thinking the same thing...you'd finishing second in their conference last year, they'd garner some press coming into this season, but no...
6-26-2009 @ 8:31PM
Hans said...
It just seems strange how the way news is posted to this site has changed dramatically since Mariotti hopped on. It would be refreshing if, oh, i don't know...once a week there was something of interest written...
6-25-2009 @ 12:06AM
Stoney said...
Hey ,newmoonropa, I'm so "F"ing sick and tired of any and all racial jokes, pokes, or tokes. Now it seems that every freekin move that a team makes now is racial. Every contract signed was a "racially pressured" signing. Every time a player or coach is fired is because of the color of his/her skin. Why the heck can't a player or for that matter anybody be let go just because I don't like them. It dosn't mean that I am a racist. Even though I may have already selected the person that I want to fill that position months ago I still have to go through this fake jobs search. Why should I have to interview a bunch of people for a job that they and I know they won't get. And this is after I just payed 100 million for the team & company. Isn't the team mine? I will have over a 100 people working for me but I still have to go out and prove through this funky hiring process that I'm not a racist. This sucks. Can you imagine how embarasing it is for these kind people to come in and go through this shiet. There will be 26 white/26 black a 1 Somoian on the roster.
"The ink is black"
"The page is white"
"together the learned to blitz and fight,
"to blitz and fight".
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