Peppers - Carolina (1 Viewer)

[pantherclub]

The facts: He has been franchised and set to make 17 million a year. He hasnt signed the tender making it impossible for the Panthers to trade him. He doesnt want to play for Carolina next year but will not sign the deal regardless. He has completely hamstrung the Panthers in the offseason making it impossible for them to sign free agents.

Can anyone give me an example of another player doing this and what the endgame is here? I am totally lost as to what Peppers is trying to do. If nothing gets done by the draft then it is 99.9% certain that he plays for Carolina in 09.

 

[PatsWillWin]

He must not be too anxious to be traded.

 

[UFO]

Just heard on local sports radio hear in Charlotte some Peppers for Boldin talk. Unconfirmed but heavy speculation there have been discussions. I'd personally love Boldin lining up across from Smitty.

 

[pantherclub]

Just heard on local sports radio hear in Charlotte some Peppers for Boldin talk. Unconfirmed but heavy speculation there have been discussions. I'd personally love Boldin lining up across from Smitty.

I kindof like that

 

[David Yudkin]

Peppers doesn't have to sign for 1 y ear and nearly $17 million. He could agree to a contract for another amount. Even though the Panthers can't talk to him about a trade, his agent can talk to other teams, and conceivably he could sign a one year deal with CAR, get traded, and then sign a new deal with another team. However, he'd be stupid to sign a deal for less money and then not be able to get traded.

For example, he could sign a $5M, one year deal with the Panthers, they would trade him for say a 1st this year and a 2nd next year to the Patriots, and he could immediately sign a 4-year extension for $55M, giving him a 5-year, $60M total deal. Peppers would get a signing bonus that would factor in the $17M he would have been guaranteed for this year. So maybe he would get $25M in guaranteed money from the Pats in signing the extension. (I have no idea what the real world numbers would be, this was just an example.)

If he does sign the franchise deal, then a team has to have $17M in cap space RIGHT NOW to trade for him. Given that NE currently has only $4M in cap room, that would make it extremely difficult for NE to acquire him at the franchise number.

 

[pantherclub]

Thanks thats a great explanation. But it still is a big game of chicken that he is playing.

 

[David Yudkin]

Thanks thats a great explanation. But it still is a big game of chicken that he is playing.

Not really. No matter what, he can just sign the franchise tender and play for 1-year and collect a guaranteed $17M (once he signs the tender, he HAS to get that money from whoever owns his contract).If the Panthers remove the franchise tage, he immediately becomes a free agent and he can go anywhere.So there is no downside to Peppers. Officially, the Panthers can''t engage in trade talks but I'm sure his agent has contacted 31 other teams about getting something done. The other benefit for Peppers is he can't be forced to attend anything team related without a contract, so he could skip practice, workouts, camp, etc. and not be fined. It gives him a mini vacation without any side effects or fines.

 

[simey]

If nothing gets done by the draft then it is 99.9% certain that he plays for Carolina in 09.

The Panthers don't want to trade Peppers, but they said they would be open to a trade if the compensation was right. Peppers doesn't hate Carolina, he would just like to play somewhere else, and he has said that there are only 4 other places he would like to play. Hurney said the other day that he expects Peppers to play for Carolina this coming season. Who knows what will happen, but Peppers is in the drivers seat.

 

[Ron_Mexico]

Do we have a list of the 4 teams he would be willing to play for ?

 

[-baller]

I can't swear this is 100% correct, but I vaguely recall reading somewhere it might have been pats, dallas, and 2 division teams.

he also supposedly wants to play in the 3-4, but again I can't verify this as accurate.

 

[simey]

Do we have a list of the 4 teams he would be willing to play for ?

The Cowboys and Patriots are the only teams that have ever been leaked from the list. The other two unidentified teams on his list are in the NFC, but that's all that is known.

 

[Ron_Mexico]

I can't swear this is 100% correct, but I vaguely recall reading somewhere it might have been pats, dallas, and 2 division teams.he also supposedly wants to play in the 3-4, but again I can't verify this as accurate.

I guess this narrows it down to the Pats and Dallas.I don't think Carolina will want him to play within the division.

 

[-baller]

I can't swear this is 100% correct, but I vaguely recall reading somewhere it might have been pats, dallas, and 2 division teams.he also supposedly wants to play in the 3-4, but again I can't verify this as accurate.

I guess this narrows it down to the Pats and Dallas.I don't think Carolina will want him to play within the division.

yeah, that's the gist of what I was reading, but we really don't know how accurate this is, how strongly pep feels about this list, or whether he's changed his mind since then.it could've been written up from some offhand comment peppers made one time.anyway, if he's going to the pats he'll need to be signing the tender pretty damn soon.

 

[simey]

I don't think Carolina will want him to play within the division.

A source close to Peppers has said that the two unidentified NFC teams are not in the NFC South.

 

[-baller]

well, if he really wants to play 3-4 you could narrow it down that way.

of course, when the list was made gb wasn't 3-4, but that'd probably be a longshot anyway.

 

[SuperJohn96]

Take this fwiw, but on Friday's show of Movin the Chains with Pat Kirwan and Ross Tucker IIRC (filling in for Tim Ryan)...a listener called in asking, why hasn't Peppers signed the Franchise offer yet, why he doesn't want to play for Carolina, and all of that prevent or hinder the team's ability to trade him?

One of Pat or Ross said they spoke a Panthers player who is close to Peppers, who said he's spoken to him and was told he loves it in Carolina.

Pat's comment was then this is all a ploy just to get more money.

The caller then said she met Peppers at some fan events, and he was painfully shy. He barely spoke to anyone, and he could barely take his eyes off the ground to look at the people he was meeting.

Tucker then commented that he had heard of that before, and that maybe he wants to go to the Pats or Dallas because he doesn't want to be the face of the team, and he could sort of hide behind stars like Brady/Romo, etc and just play football.

Then they laughed and said but hey, if you make $17 million dollars in one season, there's nowhere you can hide...

 

[pantherclub]

Thanks thats a great explanation. But it still is a big game of chicken that he is playing.

Not really. No matter what, he can just sign the franchise tender and play for 1-year and collect a guaranteed $17M (once he signs the tender, he HAS to get that money from whoever owns his contract).If the Panthers remove the franchise tage, he immediately becomes a free agent and he can go anywhere.So there is no downside to Peppers. Officially, the Panthers can''t engage in trade talks but I'm sure his agent has contacted 31 other teams about getting something done. The other benefit for Peppers is he can't be forced to attend anything team related without a contract, so he could skip practice, workouts, camp, etc. and not be fined. It gives him a mini vacation without any side effects or fines.

I know 17 mil is a ton of money but relatively speaking he will turn 30 this year and by not signing a long term deal somewhere he could be leaving a lot of money on the table. If he plays this year for the Cats and plays to his 07 level his value decreases immensely.

 

[-baller]

yeah, there's been a lot of debate on this, but one year is never really a good deal in the nfl.

you've got possible injury, and who knows what the new cba will look like, or whether there'll be a work stoppage.

it's not like he couldn't live the rest of his life off the 17m, but I believe he already turned down a lot more from the panthers.

 

[David Yudkin]

Thanks thats a great explanation. But it still is a big game of chicken that he is playing.

Not really. No matter what, he can just sign the franchise tender and play for 1-year and collect a guaranteed $17M (once he signs the tender, he HAS to get that money from whoever owns his contract).If the Panthers remove the franchise tage, he immediately becomes a free agent and he can go anywhere.So there is no downside to Peppers. Officially, the Panthers can''t engage in trade talks but I'm sure his agent has contacted 31 other teams about getting something done. The other benefit for Peppers is he can't be forced to attend anything team related without a contract, so he could skip practice, workouts, camp, etc. and not be fined. It gives him a mini vacation without any side effects or fines.

I know 17 mil is a ton of money but relatively speaking he will turn 30 this year and by not signing a long term deal somewhere he could be leaving a lot of money on the table. If he plays this year for the Cats and plays to his 07 level his value decreases immensely.

That's part of the problem. He CAN'T sign a long-term deal anywhere except for CAR unless he can somehow broker a trade. That's why most players distain the franchise tag.

 

[pantherclub]

yeah, there's been a lot of debate on this, but one year is never really a good deal in the nfl.you've got possible injury, and who knows what the new cba will look like, or whether there'll be a work stoppage.it's not like he couldn't live the rest of his life off the 17m, but I believe he already turned down a lot more from the panthers.

To a superstar professional athlete it would be a huge deal to just get 17 million when you had the highest contract ever for a Dlineman on the table earlier in the season. Not sure what the guaranteed money was on that contract but I would have to assume in the 50 mil range. Freeney got 30 mil signing bonus and 12 million a year. So if he only played one season he was at least due 42 million. If peppers gets hurt next year or has a down year (a la 2007) then there is no way any team will pay him that.

 

[Englishteacher]

Take this fwiw, but on Friday's show of Movin the Chains with Pat Kirwan and Ross Tucker IIRC (filling in for Tim Ryan)...a listener called in asking, why hasn't Peppers signed the Franchise offer yet, why he doesn't want to play for Carolina, and all of that prevent or hinder the team's ability to trade him?One of Pat or Ross said they spoke a Panthers player who is close to Peppers, who said he's spoken to him and was told he loves it in Carolina.Pat's comment was then this is all a ploy just to get more money.The caller then said she met Peppers at some fan events, and he was painfully shy. He barely spoke to anyone, and he could barely take his eyes off the ground to look at the people he was meeting.Tucker then commented that he had heard of that before, and that maybe he wants to go to the Pats or Dallas because he doesn't want to be the face of the team, and he could sort of hide behind stars like Brady/Romo, etc and just play football.Then they laughed and said but hey, if you make $17 million dollars in one season, there's nowhere you can hide...

I've met Peppers twice. Once was before his rookie season with the Panthers and he was in Chapel Hill at a gas station. I asked him for an autograph and how he liked being moved to LDE (he played RE at UNC). He graciously obliged, said he liked the move pretty good (no itchingbay) and then chuckled when my pen started to run out of ink (I'd pulled the pen off the floorboard of my truck). Seemed very gracious. Maybe he was a little shy. One things for certain, he wasn't overly cocky. The other time I met Panthers was at a Panthers training camp and I was standing in line for autographs after practice. Willing signer. Soft spoken. Both times didn't strike me as a brash athlete type.

 

[pantherclub]

Thanks thats a great explanation. But it still is a big game of chicken that he is playing.

Not really. No matter what, he can just sign the franchise tender and play for 1-year and collect a guaranteed $17M (once he signs the tender, he HAS to get that money from whoever owns his contract).If the Panthers remove the franchise tage, he immediately becomes a free agent and he can go anywhere.So there is no downside to Peppers. Officially, the Panthers can''t engage in trade talks but I'm sure his agent has contacted 31 other teams about getting something done. The other benefit for Peppers is he can't be forced to attend anything team related without a contract, so he could skip practice, workouts, camp, etc. and not be fined. It gives him a mini vacation without any side effects or fines.

I know 17 mil is a ton of money but relatively speaking he will turn 30 this year and by not signing a long term deal somewhere he could be leaving a lot of money on the table. If he plays this year for the Cats and plays to his 07 level his value decreases immensely.

That's part of the problem. He CAN'T sign a long-term deal anywhere except for CAR unless he can somehow broker a trade. That's why most players distain the franchise tag.

That is sortof my point of this thread. What are/were Peppers options, he had a huge contract on the table and turned it down knowing full well of the consequences. He must have gotten some terrible advice from his agent.

 

[-baller]

well, we'll see how horrible it is --- it's all just rolling the dice.

if he stays healthy, and plays at a high level this year, it could be great advice.

he could sock away one year of franchise dough, then sign a long term deal somewhere in an uncapped year.

if carolina wants to do this again next year, they have to pay him 19-20m.

I think it's all just about where he wants to go at this point.

maybe the guy really does want to play olb for whatever reason.

 

[David Yudkin]

That is sortof my point of this thread. What are/were Peppers options, he had a huge contract on the table and turned it down knowing full well of the consequences. He must have gotten some terrible advice from his agent.

He hasn't turned it down . . . he just hasn't signed it yet. You have yourself convinced that him not signing is a terrible thing, and it's pretty much trivial. This has happened many times in the past. He loses nothing by not signing at the moment.

 

[-baller]

I think that guy meant the big long term offer they floated him a while back, not the franchise tender.

not signing the tender is perfectly sensible, unless he really wants to get traded to the pats.