It all comes back to Peppers

[Kevin Greene]

It's all about a witch hunt, and people with blinders are the first to pick up the pitchforks and torches...

Fox turned me into a newt.

(I got better.)

[carolinanimal]

Fox turned me into a newt.

(I got better.)

Classic. "Burn her!!!!"

[House]

I don't agree with simply letting him walk. IF the money could have been used to upgrade starting positions, I would be more for it. That kind of quality did not exist in free agency this year. Since we were going to spend the money anyway, why not hang onto Peppers and see if a deal can be made next year? If we had tied up that cap room by signing backups, there would have been a whole other round whining. That's alot of money tied up on players that you hope to never use.

Cutler was never a viable option. Without a 1st round pick this year (Otah) we couldn't come close to matching the Chicago offer if we had wanted to.

The reason I wanted the team to let Pep walk is not because we could have signed more FA last off-season. No one other than Haynesworth was really going to help us and there was no way we could have afforded him. Mostly I wanted him to walk because of the future. We have a lot of players that are getting ready to come up for new contracts in the next few years. I just feel that if we tie 8-9 mil plus into Pep for another 5-6 yrs it is going to hinder us in other aspects of the team.

I do however believe that Pep is worth 10 mil a year plus, EASY. I know a lot of people on here don't think so but they are stupid. A lot of people point to Jared Allen and say "Why can't Pep play like that?", well how good do you think Pep would be if he was playing next to the Williams'? I almost guarantee you he would be setting sack records.

With almost no push up the middle what so ever it makes what Pep does even more impressive. I just don't think that the Panthers as a team can afford to pay Pep what he wants and pay everybody else. If it comes down to have Pep or having Davis, Deangelo, Beason, Kalil, Beason, and Marshall. I would go with the latter.

[scpanther22]

Not really.

Pep was not being paid $18M for the past 3-4 seasons and our special teams SUCKED. The reason is Crossman....plain and simple.

Danny Crossman took over one of the best ST units in the league. Int the matter of a few seasons, he has turned them into a laughing stock. The blame is his and his alone.

Its never just on one person..

[Sandy Claws]

The reason I wanted the team to let Pep walk is not because we could have signed more FA last off-season. No one other than Haynesworth was really going to help us and there was no way we could have afforded him. Mostly I wanted him to walk because of the future. We have a lot of players that are getting ready to come up for new contracts in the next few years. I just feel that if we tie 8-9 mil plus into Pep for another 5-6 yrs it is going to hinder us in other aspects of the team.

I do however believe that Pep is worth 10 mil a year plus, EASY. I know a lot of people on here don't think so but they are stupid. A lot of people point to Jared Allen and say "Why can't Pep play like that?", well how good do you think Pep would be if he was playing next to the Williams'? I almost guarantee you he would be setting sack records.

With almost no push up the middle what so ever it makes what Pep does even more impressive. I just don't think that the Panthers as a team can afford to pay Pep what he wants and pay everybody else. If it comes down to have Pep or having Davis, Deangelo, Beason, Kalil, Beason, and Marshall. I would go with the latter.

We never would have gave that much to Haynesworth with the baggage he carries. The Gurode thing and his trips to traffic court were probably too big an indicator of problems. If your concern is the future then the way Peppers has worked out is perfect. Sure, it's been expensive but with few upgrades to starters available in free agency, the options were to give it to an existing starter or spend it on backups. Starters contribute now, backups only contribute IF there are injuries. Bird in the hand, 2 in the bush.

Last year at this time, few saw any real possibility that we would be able to keep Peppers, Gross, and Gamble. Hurney made it happen. Some want to climb all over the fact that he kept a player that stated that he didn't want to play here (which I think was all negotiating tactic). The bottom line is that the staff made the decision to put the money on the field rather than on the bench. If you think about it, the D line really hasn't been all that great this year so far. How do you think they would have done without Peppers?

2010 is looking to be an uncapped year. Look for extensions with big money in first year salaries to keep cap hits low later in contract life IF the cap is reinstalled by a new CBA. That could keep the players that you listed even with spending over 20 mill on Peppers. We won't have to look at free agents because there won't be any. Less than 6 years service will be RFA and each team will be able to tag 3 others. We'd have to sign & give up draft picks for just about any FA.