High Profile DE Wants Out

by Jake on Jan 17, 2009 8:31 AM CST

Jullius Peppers, the All Pro DE of the Carolina Panthers, apparently wants out of town. Pepper's has not only made the team aware of his desire, but the media as well. You can read about it on PFT:

http://www.profootballtalk.com/2009/01/17/peppers-wants-out-of-carolina/

I can't tell what his alterior motives are for anouncing his decision in such a pointed manner. As noted, Peppers not only has played his entire professional career in Carolina, but he also played his collegiate career as a Tarheel. Maybe he's trying to avoid getting franchised or using a strange negotiation tactic but you would have to assume that the Carolina fans are going to completely turn their back on him. But here's the multi-million dollar question...where is he trying to go?

I personally think that is not only unlikely to land Peppers here in Houston, but it would be a bad idea as well. Admitedly I don't know why Peppers wants out, but the way he did it definetly puts him into the "high maintanence" category for me. Usually dramatic athletes don't do well in the kind of situation he would be facing here, i.e. taking a back seat to our fanchise defensive player Mario Williams. But who knows, maybe he would relish the thought of not getting double teamed every play even if it means not coming from the QB's blind spot. The other issue though is that Pepprs is probably expecting a HUGE payday coming off a year in which he tallied 14.5 sacks. The kind of money he wants would cripple the rest of our offseason efforts and would therefore not be worth it in my mind no matter how good he is.

The real reason I wanted to post this was to keep the draft and free agent discussion going. What say you Texans faithful? Would you like to see Peppers in Steel Blue next year?

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Comments

Love His Talent, But Hate What He'd Cost

The thought of Peppers and Super Mario as our two DEs makes me giddy, but I’m not sure I’d be down with paying Peppers the $20,000,000.00+ in guaranteed money it’d cost to get him here. There are too many other guys—Owen Daniels, Dunta, DeMeco, Super Mario (renegotiate, like we did with Andre Johnson), Steve Slaton—we need to pay first.

Looking forward to a day when being a Texans fan doesn't mean that April is the highlight of my season...

by Tim on Jan 17, 2009 11:02 AM CST reply actions

interesting about 2010 being uncapped

if thats correct, lets take care of all those dudes next year, and get as much talent as we can squeeze out of the draft/FA this offseason as we can get (cept of course the first two, which are actually unsigned for ’09).

As far as Peppers, I’d have to do more searching about the melodrama side of the dude, but we could use some help in the pass rush department. The Titans are all-run, but they don’t have an offense to speak of anyway.

Its an interesting proposition, but I don’t think Smithiak will entertain it.

Please draft some defensive stars for the next DC.

by texanphil on Jan 17, 2009 3:33 PM CST reply actions

No

Too costly and we don’t need a self promoting prima donna in the clubhouse. What Tim said, we have several high $$ contracts to take care of, and we know what kind of character and ability these guys provide. This going public move screaming “I want out” reminds me so much of TO. Dude could be clubhouse poison.

by oiler-texan diehard on Jan 18, 2009 9:57 AM CST reply actions

Update

I asked some of the guys on the Carolina SBC blog why he wanted outso bad since he is from Carolina, played college ball there and all his professional playing time. They said that he wants to move to a team that features a 3-4 so he can be the DeMarcus Ware/James Harrison/Terel Suggs type of OLB. That makes me even more leary of him, not just because of the obvious point that we run a 4-3, but that he is seaking the personal glory that comes with that position i.e defensive player of the year, sack leader in the league, etc.

Let's get a better fight song.

by Jake on Jan 18, 2009 12:14 PM CST reply actions