| Brandon Helton. 2nd April, 2009 - 8:03 pm
 Julius Peppers is an incredibly gifted football player. If you saw him play college football at the University of North Carolina, or during his first seven years with the Carolina Panthers, you watched one of greatest athletes to ever come play the game.
Whether or not Peppers can be considered a great player is very debatable. There are games where no offensive lineman in the league can block him, and there have been games where a backup tackle made him totally ineffective.
The statistics he has put up, outside of the awful 2007 campaign, say he is a dominant force. His four Pro Bowls and two First Team All-Pro selections further validate the notion that he is a true game changer; a force that opposing coaches must recognize and scheme against on a weekly basis.
What cannot be questioned about Julius Peppers is the fact that his current contract situation, or lack thereof a signed contract, is handcuffing the entire Panthers organization.
When Peppers and agent Carl Carey told management a couple of months ago they had no intention of signing a long-term deal in Carolina everyone knew this situation wouldn't come to a solution quickly. As the team's franchise player, Peppers can't go out and sign with another team without that Panthers either having the chance to match the contract or receive suitable compensation for their player.
To make the situation worse, Peppers is taking up $16.7M in salary cap space to a team that did not have much to spare anyway. This has forced the Panthers to release or not re-sign key players from last year's team, and make virtually no moves to bring in additional help.
Even though this team won the NFC South Division and earned a first-round bye, they have many holes to fill.
Coincidentally many of the "holes" are on defense where Peppers is the superstar. The Panthers defense ranked in the back half of the NFL with his 14.5 sacks and five forced fumbles in 2008. Remove him from the team and, no matter who you replace him with, I am skeptical that the results will be any better.
As if the situation needed to be complicated further, Peppers will have to be signed to a long-term deal before the Panthers trade him for any combination of players/draft picks and salary cap relief.
Need more?
Out of the 31 other teams in the NFL, Carey (Pepper's agent) gave the Panthers a list of four teams that Peppers would agree to be traded to. Again, Peppers has done his best to tie management's hands behind their back.
The Panthers are not a team that makes bold personnel moves. Throwing big cash at free agents is not the way of owner Jerry Richardson. In fact, you could say the Panthers are the anti-Redskins or Cowboys. Management prefers to build through the draft with guys like 2006 & 2007 first round picks DeAngelo Williams and Jon Beason. Any move that involves Peppers is going to make front page headlines and be a topic that talking heads won't be able to get enough of.
How this frustrating situation ends is nothing but pure speculation at this point. As a fan, I hope that an agreement can be made that satisfies both parties. Right now, rumors have Peppers potentially playing for the Broncos or Patriots in 2009. While Peppers seems like a great fit either place, it seems unlikely either team could pull the deal off to the Panthers liking.
Will the Panthers simply keep Peppers on the roster and make him play this year for them? While that is a possibility as well, the man publicly told the team and fans he did not want to be here because he wasn't able to achieve his full potential as a Panther.
With the NFL Draft less than a month away all parties are hoping these questions are soon answered. The success of 2008 will soon be forgotten and nothing will matter except the product on the field Sunday's in 2009. Hopefully for the Panthers, next season will bring the same regular season success as seen last year.
This team is built to win, and win now. |
