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January 11, 2009
Peppers noncommital about '09 season
Panthers' Pro Bowl defensive end Julius Peppers was noncommittal about his future with the team Saturday night after a 33-13 playoff loss to the Arizona Cardinals.
Peppers’ contract expires after this season, making him eligible to be an unrestricted free agent. However, the Panthers could limit his availability on the open market by placing their franchise tag on him.
When asked if he wants to play for Carolina next season, Peppers said:
“My preference is to just make the best decision for myself and for the Panthers’ organization.”
Peppers, who had a career high 14 ½ sacks this season, said he wasn’t thinking about whether he had just played his last game for the Panthers.
“I’m not really trying to talk about that right now,” he said. “It’s a long offseason. It’s just starting and I’m sure you guys will find out what’s going on pretty soon, very shortly.”
Does that mean an announcement is imminent?
“That just means when it happens, I’m sure you guys will find out,” he told reporters.
The Panthers have been negotiating with Peppers’ agent, Carl Carey, but both sides have kept details private.
Carolina almost certainly will have to make Peppers the highest-paid defensive player in league history – with a contract averaging at least $13 million per season -- in order to get a long-term deal done.
If the Panthers franchise him, they’d have to make a one-year tender offer of around $17 million for next season.
Though the Panthers played poorly against the Cardinals, Peppers said he thought they had a great season and had the ingredients to excel again next y ear.
“I would love to have gone further and accomplished more goals,” he said. “Next year, (you’ve) just got to see if you can get some of those things corrected and (reach) the ultimate goal.
“This is the right team. It’s a great bunch of guys. There’s a lot of talent in here, young guys, old guys. It’s a great locker room.”
-- Charles Chandler
Posted by Observer Sports on January 11, 2009 at 01:09 AM | Permalink
Comments
A lot of talent and guys. But it was some that held this team back
Fox & his man Mike held us back too
Posted by: jake the snake | Jan 11, 2009 1:14:45 AM
I agree, changes will have to be made. 1st will have to get another decent QB in camp or start letting Matt Moore get some reps. 2nd Ken Lucus was off this year.. But most of all it falls on the Offense Coach and Def. Coach. When you cannot stop 1 guy in L. Fitzgerald and let the cardinals outplay you on boths sides? I think they guessed our game play the whole night.. the coaches should have adjusted. Why not Double Fitzgerald??
Why not blitz 1st and 2nd Quarter when Warner had all day and was lighting you up? At least with pressure you get turnovers..
Posted by: Barry | Jan 11, 2009 1:41:44 AM
Barry - Matt Moore is NOT a Starting QB,, get off the Bandwagon.. everyone always loves the 2nd and 3rd string QB, when the starter has a bad game..This has happened with all these backups over the yrs, and guess, what they all had issues --> Weinke, Beuerlein, Fasani, Lytle..yada, yada.. Jake had a bad game, that doesn't make him a bad QB. There is a lot of blame to go with this loss, defense, special teams, etc.. this was a Total Team Loss,,,Period...!!
Posted by: Catsnmbr1fan | Jan 11, 2009 2:07:44 AM
Well, well, well; what have we here? Trust me when I say this; y'all SUCK. Y'all TRULY SUCK. Case in point; my ROOKIE QB lost ON THE ROAD in Az, while throwing 2 INT's! Yet, ur grizzled veteran got his a@@ handed to him AT HOME and threw a MIND BOGGLING 6 Int's in the process. U could only muster 70 yards of offense by halftime!?!? Are u f@coin' KIDDING ME?!?!? The FUNNY PART IS , when my Fakcons lost, the MAJORITY of u A&@CLOWNS got a big kick out of saying that we were 'one and done' and other NEGATIVE STATEMENTS. Face it, U guys are the most PITIFUL TEAM in the division, with ur GARBAGE COACH AND EQUALLY GARBAGE QB. Disgraceful performance!
Posted by: Falcon Pun | Jan 11, 2009 2:28:51 AM
I want Jake gone. He screwed up three games after the seasonal bye week and screwed up after the post seasons bye week. The panthers have a really great team and in order to be great they have to get rid of a few people. The players that have to go are Thomas Davis, Ken Lucas, Jake Delhomme and Nick Goings. Great teams have to make hard decisions and the players named are keeping the team from being great. If they really cared about their teammates they will walk in the off season.
Posted by: Sell my House | Jan 11, 2009 2:29:45 AM
Jake... you live by him, you die by him. I love him to death but the inconsistency is killer. You can always tell what kind of game you are going to get from him within the first 4 minutes. If he's throwing high to his recievers he is going to have a rough game. When he hits his recievers in the numbers and keeps them from having to jump for the ball, he's a barn burner.
We'll just have to try again next year. At least you all live in Panthers country. I've got to go back to New York and hear about this loss for the next week.
Posted by: Pip | Jan 11, 2009 2:30:33 AM
Honestly, I know I'm gonna get slammed for writting this, but I do believe it to be true. We should let Peppers go instead of locking him up in a big time contract. I'm the first to stand up and say he's a great Defensive end, but DE's are not worth giving that much away in salary cap room. Only quarterbacks and maybe stud Left tackles are worth those monster contracts. I think the panthers would be better off with a good DE and the salary cap ability to bolster other key positions than to have a great DE and no cap room to keep quality players at other positions. Again, I'm not slamming Peppers! I think he's a great player and I certainly don't want him to leave, but the cost of keeping him may be very damaging in the long run.
Please don't form a posse and come looking for me?
Thanks,
Jason
Posted by: jason n wilmington | Jan 11, 2009 2:33:10 AM
Jake... you live by him, you die by him. I love him to death but the inconsistency is killer. You can always tell what kind of game you are going to get from him within the first 4 minutes. If he's throwing high to his recievers he is going to have a rough game. When he hits his recievers in the numbers and keeps them from having to jump for the ball, he's a barn burner.
We'll just have to try again next year. At least you all live in Panthers country. I've got to go back to New York and hear about this loss for the next week.
Posted by: Pip | Jan 11, 2009 2:35:55 AM
I stand corrected; Jake the Fake only threw 5 int's and not 6 as I previous stated. Let Julius Peppers know that we will have a Falcon uniform ready for him in a few weeks. He deserves to be on a young, aggressive staff like my Falcons. U would've thought that u had tightened up ur defense after we put up 45 on u in our last go around. Do me a favor, u blue PUSSYcats, and scoot over. Not only on the couch, but in the DIVISION. Later, losers.
Posted by: Falcon Pun | Jan 11, 2009 2:36:02 AM
Forget about that next year talk, those guys are getting older. There are a few young guys but Smith and Muhsin are getting older and we need them to get that ring before its too late. Enough with that optimistic attitude. Drop the dead weight and watch the panthers float to the big game next year. I have been complaining about Jake since 2005 and has proven me right every year since then. The money he is being paid can be better used on more talented players. I hoped that he would prove me wrong but he just couldn't do it. I would be really happy if on Monday they made an announcement and said Delhomme has been dropped from the panthers. He is too predictable always throwing to Mushin and and Smthi. There are other guys on the team and if you uses the other receivers then that would make the defense have to adjust and he pisses me off for not pump faking enough. He was out classed by Kurt who pump faked them to death.
Posted by: Sell my House | Jan 11, 2009 2:43:17 AM
Hey we gave you Boris Diaw and Bell enjoy the game next week! Go Cards!
Posted by: influence Peddler | Jan 11, 2009 2:43:42 AM
If we had other recievers, they didn't try to get open anymore than 5 yards down the field. Also the offensive coordinator didn't help out Jake either. When Jake threw his second interception he should have called plays where you pass out the back field and 3-5 yard crossing routes to take advantage of the agressiveness of the Arizona linebackers in their attempts to stop the run. Get the ball to Smith in a short pass and he'll turn it up field.
Everyone knows the "horns" Jake makes, means he's throwing a smoke route. That's a team mistake. Lets not forget either that Steve Smith had two key drops. One when he was double covered (He would normally make that catch), and the second was the failed smoke route that would have worked out if the ball didn't bounce out of Smith's hands.
Jake has been a gamble, then and now. Just have him ease off the Bojangles commercials and have him study some film a bit more and he'll be fine.
Posted by: Pip | Jan 11, 2009 2:49:24 AM
Get rid of Jake, he's a bumm and taking up good money that can be used else where. He sucks and should walk. the words Jake is good would be the perfect ring in my ears. I don't like his decisions nor do i like his non pocket awareness. Get brick shoes out of there.
Posted by: Sell my House | Jan 11, 2009 2:53:53 AM
Our top priorities this offseason are to resign Peppers and Gross and then focus on finding the replacement for Delhomme. There is NO EXCUSE for throwing 5 picks in a game. Jake has had some lows but this is by far his lowest. With all the hopes we had at making it back to the Superbowl Jake crushed all of them by his performance tonight. I'm upset that Fox didn't bench him, there's no way you can tell me Jake was our best bet to win the game when he was playing that poorly. You can try to defend him by throwing out his winning percentage but I'm sorry folks, I have lost all faith in him after tonight, he looked flat out terrible. He has no composure and no ability to read defenses, he literally threw the ball right to an Arizona defender on 4 of those picks and the other pick was just a bad throw. The Jake Delhomme Era should now come to an end i'm afraid.
Posted by: ND | Jan 11, 2009 3:14:23 AM
This just in! Jake Delhomme is the cause of cancer!
Get a grip guys. What quarterback have we had better than Jake? The only one to come close is my boy Steve Beurlein. The rest have all been pretty terrible. Would you have liked to have David Carr in the game tonight? What about Chris Weinke? Kerry Collins when he gave up on football with us? Rodney Peete who tried so hard but just didn't have enough? My boy in Madden 03 Randy Fasani?
I got it, why don't we bring back Vinny!
If Jake called all the plays on the offense like Peyton Manning does, then yes I would be lighting his tail up with the rest of you. The truth of it is, with the game on the line he cracked under the pressure and no one on the offense did anything to bail him out.
Posted by: Pip | Jan 11, 2009 3:21:52 AM
the #3 thing we need to focus on this off season after peppers and gross is a nickle back. one that is lined up where he is supposed to be. that does not worry about other people, but does their job. you know someone not named richard marshall. then they need to let charles johnson start opposite of peppers. after that they need to get a defensive coach that is not affraid to go after the q.b.. then we will be set
Posted by: c boss | Jan 11, 2009 4:05:10 AM
I don't understand why, with a dominant O line, the best RB in the league, and a home crowd we stray away from RUNNING THE BALL???!!! 9 carries in the first half?? And having delhomme roll out of the pocket and try to complete a pass to a double-covered smith on first and goal instead of hand it off to deangelo or stewart? WHY WHY WHY would you do that?
Terrible coaching and terrible QB play is why we lost this game. It was 14-7 and then delhomme screwed it up. I'm not saying the cardinals didn't play well and put our defense on its heels for most of the game, but when you screw up chances to move the ball and score over and over again, you place too much pressure on the D and wear them out. AZ played a good game given how much delhomme (and the coaching staff) screwed up, but I don't see them getting past the giants (who I think will beat philly) next week. It should have been a carolina-ny rematch.
Posted by: pissed | Jan 11, 2009 4:27:14 AM
Its obvious we need a new Def Cooridinator to come clean house on the defensive side of the ball.
Theres no excuse for Jake either,our offensive line was buying him plenty of time.There is no way you can excuse six turnovers.Thanks guys not only did I spend way to much in this crap economy on that crap game but now i have to dodge ESPN for a week
Posted by: stephen | Jan 11, 2009 5:09:05 AM
I JUST WANT TO TELL YOU GUYS HOW MUCH I ENJOYED WATCHING YOU GET BEAT DOWN SATURDAY NIGHT! YES THE FALCONS LOST TO THE SAME TEAM BUT ATLEAST WE WERE COMPETETIVE, YOU GUYS SUCK AND ARE AN EMBARASSMENT TO THE NFC SOUTH , YOU SHOULD BE KICKED OUT OF THE DIVISION. JAKE SUCKS AND YOU GUYS SHOULD HAVE REALISED THIS YEARS AGO, HE'S A LOSER 6 TURNOVERS? MATT RYAN IS A BETTER QB AS A ROOKIE. YOU GUYS SUCK AND I LOVED WATCHING YOU LOSE
Posted by: Ha Ha go falcons | Jan 11, 2009 6:26:27 AM
Nobody has mentioned the bye week. How many teams have you seen go though the bye week and come out rusty and not sharp when it's time to play. This is what may have happened to Jake. Practicing for a game and playing a game are not the same. This happens in all sports and you just can't predict how layoffs will affect your performance. It's just sad that a good season has come to an end so abruptly.
Posted by: doug | Jan 11, 2009 6:34:36 AM
Pip, no qb has been better than Delhomme because FOX GIVES NO ONE ELSE A CHANCE AT QB, MAKES NO EFFORT TO GET A QUALITY QB, THROUGH DRAFT OR F.A.!! As long as Delhomme is healthy he will start, he can throw 20 ints and Fox still wont sit him down. Its that stubborness that he shows to keep whats not working in the game thats really frustrated. And I agree too, let Peppers walk, take that money and get a solid qb or cb.
Posted by: marvel | Jan 11, 2009 7:15:18 AM
One thing about this game though, The Panthers had the stadium dressed up right, black end zones and all. Asking the Panthers fans to wear black was an omen too.
Black. A perfect color to wear to a funeral. I hope that's the last time we have those black jerseys....
Maybe next year will be better...right.
Good luck the rest of the way to the Cardinals.
Posted by: JoeJack | Jan 11, 2009 7:35:41 AM
lol
Posted by: ha ha gofalcons | Jan 11, 2009 7:43:02 AM
Easy to make excuses when you lose! Stay behind your team and stop pointing fingers.
Posted by: Charger Fan | Jan 11, 2009 7:46:42 AM
John Fox & his coaching staff had an ENTIRE WEEK to rest& prepare their troops for an Anquain Boldin less Arizona team.It is Their responsibility to make adjustments throughout the game to give the Panthers some ray of hope to score pts & a victory! Last night's performance was an embarassment on both sides of the ball. This organization needs to grow some balls & make some serious Cuts on the team as well as the coaching staff. Fox is starting to look like he's lost his desire & if thats the case get someone in here that can make this team a true contender. He can take his mediocre offensive& defensive coordinaors with him cause they lack that killer instinct as well! Double Trouble thanks for keepin things exciting & thanks Smitty for being a BEAST(89)you've bailed Jake & this team out so much this season.Jake "DA FAKE" can go jump in a lake! Go Panthers ! Good luck nxt season hopefully with a revamped roster& coaching staff! Peace!
Posted by: KT | Jan 11, 2009 7:56:31 AM
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