Blame Peppers

[Kyle82]

Just call me Nostradamus... :smilielol5:

You da man!!

[SCpanther]

It's ridiculous to blame Peppers. I don't blame anyone, because injuries are a part of football. However, if you must blame someone, it should be Hurney and co. for franchising Peppers and then not being able to sign him, thus taking up so much cap space. No sane person would turn down 1 million+ per game.

[stankowalski]

Nobody FORCED our FO to give Pep that contract. Blaming him makes you look like a F*CKING RETARD

Bingo.

And I love how some people are looking at this. If you were Peppers would you not be trying to get paid? I would. The team certainly will have no qualms getting rid of him as soon as he starts to fade.

[Achilles]

Look, in this situation, I don't blame Peppers. I don't like that he seemingly did agree to follow a course that put his team in a bad spot;

and I think it's BS...all this about wanting out of Charlotte...

I think that was all just posturing put on to try to get the Panthers to trade him or give him an unprecedented contract.

I think the agent is the one to blame for the Peppers deal not happening. However, I blame Fox and Hurney for the situation at DT. It's not the agent's job to make sure the team has capable backups and Hurney/Fox let this happen. They mortgaged depth at critical areas, for one superstar. Obviously, we are going to need all the help we can get at this time.

Our D line just got that much weaker...and this will expose our linebackers.

on the other hand...Would you rather be without Kemo and Peppers?

[bleys]

America always has to find someone to blame. I believe it's written in the constitution somewhere...

[R0CKnR0LLA]

[Fireball77]

I don't blame him. That said, his contract IS a big part of the reason it will be difficult, but that doesn't mean the blame goes on him for that.

[tarheelfreak]

I have been a member for a while, but not really a poster, but these comments are ridiculous, 1 Day into camp and everyone is all gloom and doom, the season isnt over, The FO will find a way to replace a space eater DT. IMO

[CRA]

Why would anyone blame Peppers? Yeah, let's continue to bash our DL and he was the DL before Kemo got hurt. Could be a blessing in disguise. Kemo is very good against the run but doesn't generate any penetration against the pass....maybe we will end up w/ a more balanced DT that will help make us better>

[Butterflyj30]

Everyone should just leave Pep alone. Now that Kemo is out I am glad that Pep is back because if he wasn't back and Kemo is gone our D-Line would really be in big trouble!!

[MadHatter]

I blame Obama!!! Oh wait a minute...wrong thread.

[Mr. Scot]

Here's a statement that actually does come from Gantt, unlike the stuff in the OP:

I've already been asked whether the Julius Peppers franchise tag is prohibitive to replacing injury players, and well, it's a factor but not insurmountable. Every team budgets a certain amount of cap space (at least in their minds) knowing they're going to eat it for injured players. It's not as if they have no cap money, and Marty Hurney woke up with a headache and said: "What do we do now?"

They have some cushion now, and there are still a couple of contracts that can be restructured to save some room. But they generally save those until they need it.

Sifting thorough the ashes of day one

[DaCityKats]

yeah everyone who is hating on pep needs to stop.yall was mad bc he didnt sign his tag now he does, and all we hear is he is getting paid to much.im sorry for kemo, but injuries happen.we don't need to go sign anybody favorite stepped in yesterday and if im not mistaken somebody up on the line was wrecking havoc, and it was kemo.give our rooks a chance bc it might work....and lets get ready to support our boys

[carolinarolls]

this is what happens sometimes when you go to extremes over one player. It's part of the game. Every team needs a few stars and stars are expensive. Injuries happen. It sucks. It's not Pepper's fault though. He played the FO and made them pay him his way. The FO felt they could give him what it would take to keep him and took a risk. Their gamble is that everyone would stay healthy and he would be a huge asset. The season is not over and its not yet determined that paying Pep was a good or bad decision yet. Time will tell. I think if he really wants to play in Charlotte we will be fine with the decisions Marty made. We don't have a choice ither way anyway. When the tag was placed LOTS of other options were taken off the table.