Peppers to Bears

Julius Peppers signed with the Chicago Bears.  I watched his press conference.  It’s the most I’ve ever seen the guy say.  I’m not saying he sounded smart, but I don’t think I have heard that many words come out of his mouth in the past eight years combined.  The Panthers offered him more money a [...]

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The “Window” is Slammed Shut

A Day of Cuts:  Jake Delhomme, Kemo, Damione Lewis, Na’il Diggs, Landon Johnson - all cut today.  The cuts happened to quickly that I very well may have forgotten about someone.  While the loss Delhomme won’t mean any more football-wise than any of those others players – arguably, his loss will mean less than the other [...]

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Panthers and Peppers Part Ways

Panthers fans can watch the health care summit tomorrow without any distractions.  The Carolina Panthers had until tomorrow to decide what to do with Julius Peppers, but they went ahead and announced on Tuesday that they would not franchise Pep for a second straight season.  I think I have made myself clear in previous posts that [...]

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A Must-Read on Julius Peppers

Pat Yasinskas has written a great article on his NFC South Blog about Julius Peppers’ tenure with the Carolina Panthers.  There is no Earth-shattering information in the article, but it is one of the very few biographical articles that have been written about Pep.  As the article says, no one really knows Peppers.  Yasinskas, however, had [...]

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OMG Julius Speaks!

Sorry for the post title, but this Julius Peppers thing really is turning into some celebrity gossip scandal.  I am losing interest fast.  Just hurry up and reach a resolution to this thing; I don’t care about all the posturing that goes on in between…but I will write about it at least this one time.  I take [...]

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Big Changes May be on the Horizon for Charlotte’s Pro Sports Teams

Julius Peppers Saga By now you’ve probably heard that Julius Peppers’ agent, Carl Carey, stated that Pep likely will not be a Carolina Panther next season.  The Pep camp is peeved that the Panthers have not reached out to them after the end of the season.  Let’s first break down the strategy of Carey’s decision to go public [...]

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Fox Sports Indicts Hurney and Fox

Via Cat Scratch Reader. This Fox Sports article says that the contracts of Jake Delhomme a nd Julius Peppers are the number “1 and 1a” worst contracts in the NFL.  It’s not so bad that the Panthers have the two worst contracts in the NFL.  The bad part is that Marty Hurney and John Fox explicitly created this situation.  These [...]

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Scott Fowler on a Roll

That’s right, I just said that.  We have gotten some actual journalism out of Scott Fowler the last couple of weeks.  He came out with a good piece a couple of weeks ago analyzing whether Julius Peppers was worth his salary.  After last week’s escape against Tampa, he noted how the Panthers are basically playing [...]

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Beason Lays the Smackdown on Peppers

Jon Beason caused quite a stir this week when he said he would talk to Julius Peppers about his lack of intensity and slow start this season.  Beason’s move was certainly out of the ordinary, as players don’t often air those kinds of internal matters publically.  It certainly was not out of the John Fox keep-everything-in-house [...]

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Panthers are 0-3; I am 3-0

The Panthers suck; I’m talking myself up to make myself feel better about this miserable season.  Have you read my three previews for this season?  They’ve been dead on.  It’s not that I’m some genius, but you can tell that I’ve clearly watched just about every game this franchise has ever played.  In fact, I’ve [...]

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What Can $18 Million Buy?

In football, $18 million can buy a lot of good players.  More relevant to the Panthers, it could have bought the team a lot of depth this season.  $18 million, of course, is the amount that Julius Peppers’s one-year franchise contract counts against the salary cap.  It wasn’t entirely the team’s fault, but they were [...]

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Peppers Voted Captain

The speculation is over.  Julius Peppers was voted as a defensive team captain by his teammates.  The Panthers will need leadership out of him this season more than ever before, and it will be tested immediately in game 1 against Philadelphia.

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Will the Panthers Vote Peppers as Captain?

The Panthers insist they have no hard feelings towards Julius Peppers, but I am anxious to see if he is voted team captain this season.  The vote won’t occur until after the final preseason game has been played and final cuts have been made.  It’s only a symbolic designation, but the vote may reveal a certain degree of displeasure [...]

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Football is in the Air

The Carolina Panthers reported to training camp today.  Practice begins tomorrow, and the first preseason game is only about two weeks away.  I am stoked.  Until (if) we get a MLB team, the start of training camp means even more for Charlotte.  Pro sports are back.  Time for those trips to Spartanburg to catch some football [...]

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A Day of Reversals

People were backing out right and left Wednesday in the world of Charlotte or, at the very least, having their fortunes turned upside down. Felton:  Yesterday, the Charlotte Observer reported that Raymond Felton’s agent, Kevin Bradbury, felt very good about contract negotiations with the Bobcats.  Today, it seemed to all fall apart.  Bradbury came out firing from [...]

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Bottom Feeder Peppers?

I had the idea to compare the amount of sacks Julius Peppers collected against losing teams with the amount he collected against winning teams a few months ago, but I never got around to it (story of my life).  The analysis of Peppers’ career stats by Cat Scratch Reader motivated me to publish my own set [...]

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NFL Network’s Preview of the Panthers

I had trouble posting the video on this blog, but you can check out the NFL Network’s preview at their site along with other videos about the Panthers.  They brought up all of Jake Delhomme’s horrid stats from last season and are generally skeptical of his ability to lead this team back to the playoffs.  Of [...]

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Called It

The Observer reports today that Peppers might sign a long-term deal after all with the Panthers.  Pep wasn’t joking when he said he had productive discussions with the team recently.  His agent confirmed that he would be open to staying in Charlotte beyond this season.  I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it happens.  It makes [...]

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Peppers Will Play

Julius Peppers signed his franchise tender with the Panthers today, meaning he will be at training camp and play for the team this year.  This isn’t a huge surprise.  As I wrote last month, there are 16.7 million reasons for him to show up to training camp and play this season despite what Scott Fowler [...]

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The Peppers No-Show is No Big Deal

The Observer and the national media made a big deal about Julius Peppers not showing up to the Panthers minicamp last weekend.  Personally, I really don’t care.  Peppers was not required to attend, and he wasn’t fined for his absence.  Minicamp isn’t very important for a veteran like Peppers.  Minicamp is primarily for rookies.  It [...]

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