Peppers a Packer

[packer4life]

Woke up to this news like it was Xmas morning!

Dom's D is gonna be very interesting to watch moving forward. A motivated Peppers who situationally rushes the QB and harasses Cutler to no end is just what the doctor ordered in this D.

Anyone have a breakdown of Peppers play in 2013 from PFF? I'll be interested to see his production vs run and vs pass. He sure still looked like a beast against the packers that's for damn sure.

[SMBASS]

from walterfootball

http://walterfootball.com/freeagents2014recap.php

Packers sign DE Julius Peppers (3 years, $30M; $7.5M guaranteed): B- Grade
The Packers almost never sign free agents, so when they do, you know it's going to be a headliner. This signing is quite complicated, as there are multiple positives and negatives to it.

Let's begin by acknowledging that Peppers sucked last year. He tallied 7.5 sacks, but that's not indicative of how poorly he played. He struggled to place pressure on the quarterback and was also poor in run support. He just turned 34 in January, so he's probably never going to be the same player ever again. Also, the scheme fit is a strange one. Peppers has never been in a 3-4 before, so how will he adjust? He probably had the natural talent to be a 3-4 defender earlier in his career, but that may not be the case anymore.

There are some reasons why this could work, however. First, the price tag isn't that big of a deal. The Packers had plenty of cap space for 2014. This contract doesn't include much guaranteed money beyond this season, so $7.5 million guaranteed won't exactly kill Green Bay.

I also like that the Packers are stealing Peppers away from their biggest rival. That also plays into another reason why this acquisition could work, which is Peppers' motivation. Peppers has always been one to slack off at times, so that may have been the reason he stunk last year. Perhaps he'll be fired up to prove to Chicago that he didn't deserve to be released. There's definitely bounce-back potential here.

All in all, I feel like this signing deserves a B- or C+ (I must have changed it four times). It probably won't work out, but there's plenty of upside and very little risk involved for Green Bay.


**I love these nonsensical ramblings. The guy spends an entire paragraph telling us how much Peppers sucked last year, how he'll never be the same player, how he doesn't fit the scheme, blah, blah, blah. Then he tells us the reason it may work is because of the low cost, (What in the hell does that have to do with anything if the guy sucks and is no good?) and also because we got him from Chicago so even though he's a slacker he may be "motivated" to play now. What a complete crock of mindless drivel. If Peppers sucks and is washed up as he spends so much time trying to convince us then nothing is going to change that and make him better.

I guess this is why I never read or listen to anything by the armchair quarterbacks and self-anointed, "experts".

[Brandon494]

One bad season and people think hes done, I still remember him almost ending our season in week 17 if not for Kuhn. Maybe the shitty season had something to do with a whole new coaching staff and no talent around him.

[SMBASS]

Lol Brandon! Julius Peppers is a, "trader"... What type of, "trader" is he? A fur trader, stock trader, bond trader, precious metal trader?

[BZnDallas]

Time to go get Jolly signed on the cheap!!!! Then if/when Jolly and Peppers are on the DL together we'll have two guys that can 'batt' the ball down..

[The Shadow]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQPN3UKQM-U

Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper, too?

[denverYooper]

One bad season and people think hes done, I still remember him almost ending our season in week 17 if not for Kuhn. Maybe the shitty season had something to do with a whole new coaching staff and no talent around him.

Yeah, he had little help last year. He'll have Daniels and Matthews next year. Possibly Datone if he makes a year 2 jump like Daniels. Neal/Perry should help also.

There were a lot of situations last year where the Packers looked like they needed just one more point of pressure to really put the screws on an offense. They're looking at him as another guy who will have to be accounted for, another point of pressure. Like Rand said, you pair him with Mike Daniels and have Matthews coming off of an edge and Perry or Neal on the other side, that's going to cause some mismatches and help the Packers get more pressure, APRH.

[pbmax]

This guy's site (Very Under-rated in my opinion) indicated the same thing about the Elephant position ala Tim Harris and Charles Haley back in the 80's creating mismatches along the O-line. It's gonna be interesting that's for sure.

http://packerupdate.net/?p=30912

This is possible, as is a more conventional approach used by Kiffin and Pete Carroll with an elephant end who does not get to roam after the D declares the offensive strength. The Packers base 3-4 was aligned like a 4-3 under (5 tech, 1 tech, 3 tech, 7 tech aligned away from the TE). Peppers could replace the OLB aligned as a DE in this alignment) and that would mean Perry/Neal is on the sideline.

But I don't think this means that is the only front the Packers employ. McCarthy has stressed, according to reports, longer and more athletic this year. He has also said the must be able to mix and match personnel according to what they do best with various alignments on the field. At the Combine he said they never ran a lot of the fronts they planned due to injury.

I expect Peppers role to be similar to what Neal was asked to do last year. Peppers and Neal will be performing complementary roles and backing each other up possibly with Datone Jones. Rather than have to go to Boyd, Raji or Daniels, who have different strengths, those three long and lean guys will be perimeter D line players who can both defend the run and rush the passer so the offense doesn't get a free ride on its play call based on sub package.

I expect, with some variation, that you will see two types of lineman on the Packers 2014 roster. End types, who might be athletic enough to play an OLB role (Neal, Jones, Peppers) and interior players who can plug gaps (Boyd, Raji, Daniels). The question is what kind of niche can Worthy work out for himself with this kind of approach. I think either Jolly or Pickett could man a backup interior position. If this is anything at all close to what Thompson envisions, it might mean 7-8 D line on the roster depending on whether they view the 3 hybrid guys as enough.

I think the interest in Justin Tuck also supports this, as Tuck runs 6' 5" and 268 and would have been asked to perform as Neal will be. Arthur Jones would have been an interior guy to replace Jolly, Pick or Raji.

[Brandon494]

Daniels - Raji - Jones
Clay - Hawk - ? - Peppers
Shields - Burnett -?- Tramon

Starting to look decent, fill one or both of those question marks in the draft and we might have a defense next season.


Hopefully one of these 3 players fall to us at 21 or I would like to see us trade down.

HaHa Clinton-Dix
C.J. Mosley
Calvin Pryor

[pittstang5]

Daniels - Raji - Jones
Clay - Hawk - ? - Peppers
Shields - Burnett -?- Tramon

Starting to look decent, fill one or both of those question marks in the draft and we might have a defense next season.


Hopefully one of these 3 players fall to us at 21 or I would like to see us trade down.

HaHa Clinton-Dix
C.J. Mosley
Calvin Pryor

Never Thought I'd want a safety in the first round, but if one of those two are there, i'm screaming for TT to take one.

If one of those safeties and Mosley are there. I think I'm leaning toward the safety.

[denverYooper]

Michael Rodney ‏@PackerUpdate 1h

One more thing on Peppers - his cap number figures to be less than Hawk, B. Jones, Burnett, Raji & Neal. How can anyone complain about that?

[denverYooper]

I have a feeling that Peppers might be interested in trying to get to a SB or two before he retires also. Being on a legitimate contender might help motivate him .

[bobblehead]

So now we have peppers, raji, jones, daniels, boyd, worthy on the dl. Can boyd spell raji at nt? I feel like we need one more big body

Please be very specific with the DL tag....I think we need to spell out defensive line around here.

[bobblehead]

well, that was unexpected

wow

lets hope the old guy can still play

and you though Randy Starks was too old

[pbmax]

Michael Rodney ‏@PackerUpdate 1h

One more thing on Peppers - his cap number figures to be less than Hawk, B. Jones, Burnett, Raji & Neal. How can anyone complain about that?

#OVERPAID

[bobblehead]

Great signing! I can't see Peppers playing as a 3-4 DE, you'll see him at OLB I'm almost certain. Clay and Peppers rushing from both sides with Neal and Perry spelling them...we might actually have a pass rush worth a damn next season.

I think this signing is to help Dom confuse. You can pretty much move Perry/Neal/Peppers around quite a bit since all 3 are big bodies who could be stout against the run. Clay can move around as well since he can do anything on a football field.

[red]

http://www.csnchicago.com/bears/phot...bcs&ocid=yahoo





i have a theory that peppers came to green bay with an offer to play for cheap, just to stick it hard to the bears for cutting him. i do not see TT going out and trying to initiate this deal

i could see peppers agent calling up TT and saying "you know ted, peppers is pretty pissed at the bears right now. if you give him the chance to kick the shit out of the bears 2 times a year, and help him prove they were wrong, well he'll come play for peanuts"

[pbmax]

Maybe Reason #1?

Peppers, who went to Chicago on a six-year, $84 million deal that including $42 million in guaranteed money in 2009, spent the past four seasons with the Bears and had 37.5 sacks while starting all 64 of the team’s games over that span.

http://www.espnwisconsin.com/page.php?page_id=278

[red]

and you though Randy Starks was too old

no joke

[KYPack]

Last year they used Jones and Neal. Why not throw Peppers in there instead of D. Jones for a handful of plays/game, especially if D. Jones takes longer to develop?

In answer to KY's question, you will get the aggressive, fresh Peppers (Fresh Peppers, get it?), who will come in for a handful of plays and be a beast. We got the Episode VI Darth Vader. He's freaking scary, but he's not as invincible as in Episode V: If he gets electrocuted and has to fight too long he will be defeated - and turn away from the dark side.

Good.

Thanks, Rand I was worried about that.

After seeing a guy at his age improve radically during the year (I think I caught 3 Bears games last season), I couldn't help but wonder if he didn't have some physical miseries at the start of last season. A vet like him is pretty motivated in his contract year, I think he was hobbled by something early in the season.