Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Peppers Talk

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I wrote a lengthy piece on the Julius Peppers situation.  For some odd reason he seems to be of interest to Eagles fans.  Must be all that size and talent.  Or the cool name.

-LINK-


MISC ANSWERS

RE:  Antrel Rolle

I've talked a bit about him.  Here's a link to some thoughts on him as a player.  The question I have is whether the Eagles will open up the checkbook for a Safety.  We've never done that, aside from giving Dawk contract extensions.  I think Rolle would be a good player for us.  I'd be fine if the Eagles went after him.  I don't think he's worth huge money, but because of the lack of free agent Safeties Rolle may get really overpaid.  Don't count on them going after him aggressively.


RE:  McNabb's declining level of play?

I've written a lot about him this offseason.  I have to set aside this discussion for right now because of the Combine and FA.  Those situations are eating up a lot of my time right now.


RE:  Haden's slow 40

He will drop some, but I doubt he makes it to 24.  Let's see what he runs at his Pro Day.  That could really help his cause.
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12 comments:

Unknown said...

Does Kris Jenkins not qualify as special? I know he had some years where he was injured, but when healthy, was amongst the very best DTs in the game.

Great article BTW.

Unknown said...

...And overall, your point is well taken. Peppers has had to do a lot by himself. Had he had a Clyde Simmons on the other side, or even a Trent Cole, who knows? =)

Tommy Lawlor said...

One of the reasons they dealt Kris is that he was too inconsistent. Had he played at a high level regularly, the Panthers would have kept him around.

Jenkins could do special things when he wanted to.

Tommy Lawlor said...

Jenkins was traded to NY for just a 3rd and a 5th. The Panthers were tired of him constantly battling his weight problem as much as he did opponents. Kris lost weight upon getting to NY and has played pretty well.

Unknown said...

I drool at the thought of having good Peppers show up and Cole playing hard on the other side. That could be special.

Netherman said...

thanks for answering my questions...definitely wasn't say do/do not go after Peppers. You have me 90% sold on Kampman, but the ACL scares me. I was more interested in how teams could be talking to him. Isn't that considered tampering?

Also on Haden, let's say he dropped to mid teens...would he be worth trading up to get? I really want a good CB in the draft and I am worried that Wilson will go before us. Seems like Houston would be wise to take him if they are not bringing Dunta back. I don't know that I covet Wilson enough to get into the teens though.

Myron said...

Eh. It's been reported recently that the Redskins are interested in offering a lucrative contract to Julius. Chances of seeing Peppers lining up next to Cole shot down to about 0.01%.

"All your big name free agents are belong to us!" - Dan Snyder

Unknown said...

Hey Tommy,
Don't forget Reggie also played with Mike Golic ;)

Pitmanite said...

you wanna talk about special...let's talk about that didi benami on american idol! that girl can sing...oops, this isn't my american idol blog!

on a serious note, my old boss used to have a saying he loved to repeat, which was "you never hire out of desperation." he usually said this when we were short handed at work. we'd be interviewing, and some people were so anxious to make a hire just to have another person share the workload, even if it meant overlooking potential warts/red flags.

i know that doesn't translate perfectly here, but anytime i hear "bidding war" and "washington redskins" in the same sentence i want to turn and run. i think we're all a little desperate because we've been so inadequate/inconsistent at LDE for the last several years. as tommy mentioned, players w/ peppers' talent at the position he plays don't often hit the open market, which should say a lot about the panthers letting him walk. anyway you slice it, the guy has underperformed his talent level, and if i had to bet my life on it i'd say it's highly correlated to him not working as hard as he should and/or lacking passion for the game.

so the question is, do we want to pay a 30 yr old underachiever a boatload of money, just bc we are so desperate to see a real talent on the other side of trent cole, and then cross our fingers that a change of scenery cures all ills? or do we try a plan B? call me a sucker bc i'll be damned if i'm not opting for plan A!

Ben Hessel said...

Tommy-

The way I see it is that even if he is an underachiever, his "underachieving" is still superior to most players' production. I am completely aware of his disappearing acts for several games, but he's been doubled non-stop. Remember when Martin Rucker was playing well opposite of him? JP was really good then (what if we had 2 JP's at LE?). He may be mentally revitalized playing opposite Trent Cole and playing for a contender. That's why I value him high, and the fact that he still has several years left in him. Even a good rookie DE may not offer that impact for a few years.

Cliff said...

After the Jevon Kearse FAIL, I couldn't care less whether or not we sign Peppers. I just don't want to set myself up for disappointment.

Peppers is a low-character, low-effort guy who gets by on his athleticism. That athleticism can only fade away at this point, in my opinion. Frankly, he's old.

Unfortunately, if we end up signing Kampman, the media will view it negatively and we'll have to hear about it all summer.

Jamie said...

Tommy, who do you like better, Rhodes or Rolle?

according to profootballfocus Rhodes was a top 5 safety last year and Rolle was kinda bad.

take that with a grain of salt, but i'd rather have rhodes than rolle.