Panthers defense end Julius Peppers didn’t exactly need a Christmas bonus, but he got one Tuesday.
His Pro Bowl selection was worth $1.5 million. Add that to his $16.683 million base salary as the team’s franchise player and his pay for the 2009 season is $18.183 million.
According to the Rock Hill Herald, the bonus means it would be even more expensive to retain Peppers as the team’s franchise player in 2010. A 20% increase on his 2009 pay would now be a whopping $21.8196 million.
With the Panthers looking unlikely to offer Peppers the long-term contract he wants, Sunday’s game against New Orleans could be Peppers’ last as a Panther.
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No Cap no problem, they will franchise him and still be able to decide if they want to keep him. Matt Moore at QB makes it very feasible.
save that money to pay for better coaches or other players than on him…
they wont franchise him. It would be too much of a headache again. He isnt worth anywhere close to the number hes getting this year as it is, let alone worth a raise. Even with an uncapped year this man will be seriously dissapointed when he realizes no team will be crazy enough to give him more than half of the amount he wants
Peppers will look great next season playing next to Wilfork and Warren in his Patriots uniform.
Talk about being overpaid.
33 tackles, 6 assists, 10.5 sacks, 4 passes defensed and 1 int. And yes, he’s one of those players who draws double teams and a lot of attention that keep his stats down and bump others up. Even so, over 18mil for that production ?
The Panthers make terrible personnel decisions. The huge extension to Delhomme, paying Peppers this kind of money. And what’s their record again ?
Get real. Since when do the Patriots shell out the big bucks for free-agents? Moss? Hardly. He came real cheap. Welker? The same. They build through the draft. They let better players than this guy go to get draft picks.
That’s over $1m per game, including the preseason. Completely, utterly ridiculous. NO player is worth that kind of coin. The game is already financially out of reach for many of the fans, and if the pace of salary escalation continues, nobody but sheiks and politicians will be able to afford to attend games, buy the $275 jerseys (made in Korea by Reebok to save $$, of course), or anything else. How many mansions and Escalades do these guys need to soothe their mighty egos?
ampats
Or standing up opposite Tamba Hali next to Jackson, Wilfork, and Dorsey with an Arrowhead on his helmet and Romeo Crennel calling the signals.
your scenario is far more likely to happen, just saying, he would look great with the red and gold.
I would like to see Peppers in Purple. He would put the Ravens pass rush way past Pitsburghs. Pay him his moneys.
I think he does deserve the money.. Those are good stats Harrison, but you left off how he leads the league in forced fumbles, and is the main reason the Panthers are in the top of the league in take aways for a #3 ranked pass defense..
He’s a headache to prepare for because in one game, he will line up on both sides, in the middle, and at linebacker in coverage
ampats scenerio is only the most likely if Peppers will take a paycut. Before doing that he would stay in Carolina. For $18mm. Why take relative chump change? For a SB? We’ll find out in the offseason if this guy7 exhibits that kind of tendency…to take a championship over $$? Not betting that he will but I am very skeptical. Haynesworth chose $$. Most chose $$.
Franchising Peppers was a bone-headed move. They could have spent that $18m on a baker’s dozen of other players.
I read somewhere that they “designed” their defense solely around him. That idea alone is proof that the NFL is full of dumb-dumbs who don’t deserve the money they get. What if he gets injured? Or are you just assuming he’ll be healthy the whole year?
That concept alone explains why the Panthers are only as consistent as Peppers is. No defensive player in the league is worth this much money, because not one of them can carry a team. Defense is even more of a team effort than offense.
What a stupid organization.
c’mon fellas, you know there are only a handful of owners nuts enough to shell out the beaucoup bucks, even in an uncapped year.
in no particular order:
al davis (well, maybe he’s #1)
dan snyder
jerry jones
no rational team can come out with any equation that determines that a non-QB merits $1 million per game. the nfl may be big business, but it’s big business based upon a GAME.
I can think of about 32 teams that would be willing to give Peppers 16 million a season.
I have a feeling he’ll be in Philly next year.
The way Andy Reid talks about him and his history reminds me of how he use to talk about Asante Samuels and Jevon Kearse.
The only thing I think would stop him is he really likes Victor Abiamiri and Trent Cole. Every year the Eagles like to get 1 big player in free agency and pretty much every starter will be back on offense so I see the Eagles going out and trying to pick up a d-lineman or possibly a LB.
I guess all of you missed Belichick searching out Peppers on the field after the game a couple of weeks ago, the two of them hugging for a minute, and the exchange of words and big smiles that took place don’t realize that veteran players are willing to take less to play for the New England Patriots. He’ll be wearing the uni next year…it’s a lock.
Route36West
You are probably right. Reid controls the purse strings and likes one big splash much like JJ in Dallas does. Samuels, Kearse, Peters, and Owens were Reid’s choices. But guess how two of those turned out? Not good. So its a crap-shoot to determine if he will earn those mega $$.
You can remove JJ from the list that will take a buy on him though. He is in love with Ware and Spencer — and Peppers won’t fit into the 3-4 scheme.
There are a lot of players hugging after a game and I am pretty sure that they ain’t proposing marriage. Why would you think that that means a thing? The Pats let people go…they don’t pay to bring them in. Hell, they took extreme disadvantage of the Raiders for Moss and the Fins for Welker. They let Seymour (a player still in his prime) go just to amass more picks. I would be absolutely shocked if he lands in NE. Unless they convince Richardson that a trade is a good option (and they only do this if they can relive previous trade success) then once he hits free agency he is out of the Pats window. I think Philly is a better bet…or Washington.
Rumor has it that Peppers is intrigued with the thought of playing for the 49ers, specifically playing for Mike Singletary. The perfect addition to an up-and-coming defense!!!
Panthers Defense fits peppers right now. I believe what people say that this site is full of dumb bloggers, bunch of ignoramus. Peppers would never fit in a 3-4 defense. Based on his size yea at a DE, but he would never be able to play LB because peps is 280+ pounds and his best fit is a 4-3 DE that ocassionally drops to coverage, and now carolina defense play 4 DE’s on 3rd downs and attimes 3 DE’s and drop everybody else drops to coverage, and peppers loves it. More about the dumb people on this site who don’t pay attention, how many of New England DE’s have over 9 sacks a season? even richard seymour never passed 8+ sacks a season. 3-4 defense only benefits the LBs. If peppers is more concerned about stats (which i doubt) he might want to play LB (but he’s too big to play LB, he would have to lose over 30 pounds even though peppers is atlethic enough to play LB he wouldn’t). Also New England switched to 4-3 defense already this season and that’s only why i believe he might be going to New England. 3-4 defense benefits LBs, CBs, Ss, and attimes NT/DTs. Not every one knows the starting DEs on the steelers roster or on the Ravens, but everybody know James Harrison of the Steelers, Polomalu of the steelers, or Terell Suggs of Baltimore, or Ed Reed of Baltimore all droping to sack the quarterback. Peppers is not going to the 49ers, trust me he isn’t. The only possible places could be, Vikings, New England, Eagles, Cowboys, Colts (but they wouldn’t pay him a bunch of money except he wants to get paid $10 million a season), and San Diego Chargers. Peppers wants stabililty, and i think he might stay because he sees Matt Moore as a capable quaterback. Did you see the difference in his play since Delhomme was put on IR? If he doesn’t stay, it’s because of the headcoach or maybe cos the headcoach still wants to stick with Delhomme. Also people that think he would go to Greenbay, forget it, peppers never like Mike Trygovac’s (or watever his name is) coaching. He’s the Defensive Line coach in Green Bay.