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Was keeping Peppers the right move?

firstdayfan

By firstdayfan,
in Carolina Panthers

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firstdayfan Enthusiast

firstdayfan

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I've seen this idea bounced around a little on some other forums and I honestly had a post written up to this effect last night but immediately let my emotions from the panthers' performance cool down first. But now I ask you...was keeping peppers the right move?

For me I'm really don't see it anymore. I'm beginning to think that Marty should have let him walk or traded him for a 2nd or 3rd or whatever. Imagine the free agents we could have brought in to help this team. Well I did and here is a short list of guys that were free agents that could of helped us out.

1) Cornerback: after we released Lucas and promoted Marshall we could have brought someone in to at least push Marshall while having a veteren pressence at the nickel. Dre Bly, Leigh Bodden, or Dominic Foxworth would have been nice.

2) Defensive Tackle: the weakness of a defense that wasn't that great to begin with became a huge gaping hole when Kemo went down. It would have been nice to throw in a vet who could rotate in to keep everyone fresh. Colin Cole, Fred Evans (RFA), or Jovan Haye would have plugged that hole.

3) Offensive line: after suffering the injuries we had last season it would have been prudent to bring in some guys after Ominyale and Hangartner left. I think Bernadeau will be fine but he can't do it all. John St. Clair, George Foster, or Jeremy Newberry would have helped.

4) Defensive End: after Peppers basically told the world that he didn't want to be a Panther, instead of paying him, we should have looked for his replacement. Chris Canty, Igor Olshansky, and Everette Brown could of helped fill the void.

I understand the idea of this team is to build through the draft which is great and has worked well but free agency has brought us many players in the bast that have helped us out. We could have had all these players and probably still had some room to maneuver afterwards. I'm just not sure all these guys who could have helped are worth Peppers who basically gets single blocked by tightends and hasn't even sniffed the QB this preseason. What does everyone else think?

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Kevin Greene Newbie

Kevin Greene

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Jerry Richardson is an NFL guy first, last and middle. The idea an "elite" player can dictate to him he wants to leave with zero compensation in players or picks back to the Panthers even though he can be Franchise Tagged was not an option. Be interesting to see how the next labor agreement changes on this issue.

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firstdayfan Enthusiast

firstdayfan

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I Think Canty and Igor are 3-4 DE...but keeping peppers was the right move..who else would have taken his place.Brown is not ready.

and the bad thing we will go threw this all over again in the offseason

I guess, and I understand that Peppers is a quality player but we have so little depth at other position because they kept Pepp around. I don't know. I like Peppers but I would have liked to have some of those other players. Actually the ideal situation would have been for them to get a long term deal done but its obvious that Peppers doesn't want to be here after this year, hopefully he will audition for other teams.

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firstdayfan Enthusiast

firstdayfan

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Jerry Richardson is an NFL guy first, last and middle. The idea an "elite" player can dictate to him he wants to leave with zero compensation in players or picks back to the Panthers even though he can be Franchise Tagged was not an option. Be interesting to see how the next labor agreement changes on this issue.

Thats a good point, the uncapped year may change all that. A team like the redskins or cowboys may pay him ungodly amounts of money.

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unicar15 Experienced

unicar15

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Pep was hustling a lot last night. He was in on a lot of tackles downfield. He almost got to Pennington one time but Pennington made a good play to step up. The bottom line is that losing Kemo hurt more than just stopping the run. He occupies blockers and pushes guys back so that Pep can put a move on and beat his blocker. He will get his tackles, sacks, FF, and probably INTs too. He didn't even play the whole game last night so idk how you can determine that it wasn't the right move to keep him??

You don't let go of players as talented as Peppers...He had 15 sacks last year, multiple FF, and forces pressure on QBs so that they make bad plays. He is worth keeping and I hope we get him signed long term. Right now I'm not worried about any other position other than DT. Its causing our LBs to get banged up and we are hemorrhaging rushing yards. The worst part is that there aren't any impact players we can get without giving up a player that could hurt us at another position.

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firstdayfan Enthusiast

firstdayfan

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I kind of agree. If Peppers has a good season, though, it will be hard to argue against keeping him.

I agree, I love peppers and value his ability to take over a game. I'm sure we will forget about it by the end of the year. Who would have that that Kemo was so important?

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Fiz Newbie

Fiz

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Meeks style of defense may convince Peppers to sign long term

this

just look how relaxed everything is out there. how easy going. meh, don't rush too hard, just take it easy.

i mean, poo, why would peppers want to go somewhere where he actually had to play football? gotta pretty sweet gig here.

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