Comments on: Rumor: Julius Peppers to Patriots?

By: jade984

jade984 — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 21:14:09 +0000

THE MONEY IS TIGHT. BUT YOU KNOW HOW BELICHICK CAN TALK PLAYERS IN FOR LESS MONEY. I HOPE PEPPERS CAN GO TO NEWENGLAND IT WILL JUST HELP US WIN ANOTHER SUPERBOWL

By: More on the Julius Peppers to Patriots Rumors « PatsBlog: A Patriots Blog

More on the Julius Peppers to Patriots Rumors « PatsBlog: A Patriots Blog — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:20:19 +0000

[...] in February, PatriotsBlog.net was the first to report rumor of Julius Peppers being acquired by the Patriots. One Mike Vrabel was traded, the trade [...]

By: davwardavich

davwardavich — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 08:24:13 +0000

1 year, $16.7 million for Peppers franchise tender… Do you really think he’ll take *THAT* big of a paycut to play for the Pats? You think he’ll take 3 million in guaranteed the first year? Really?? He’s not in his 30’s yet. Yeah we need a pass rusher but Peppers won’t end up in New England because he’ll get more money elsewhere (Jerry Jones likes to throw lots of money at big names and just got rid of TO). Why would BB use draft pick(s) AND cap space for him when BB’s as good at evaluating talent as anyone? We still need money to sign our draft picks and restructure some contracts (Wilfork et al), before we hit the possible uncapped period, and we would then have to (Wil)fork up a lot more dough than we would have to right now. Also, since Peppers is a franchised player wouldn’t Carolina have to prove that they tried to retain him in good faith/sign him long term or whatever before they could trade him? Obviously the Cassel situation was unique due to Brady’s questionable return, but the only franchised players to be traded that I can even think of off the top of my head are Cassel and Tebucky Jones…still don’t know how we got away with shipping him off. Sneaky Patriots.

Peppers is slated to make more money than our living legend Tom “EDynastyWARD” Brady and IMO BB would rather draft someone like a Larry English or a similar tweener with that first pick if he’s on the board. Maybe get a couple of cheap young hungry DE’s. People are quick to forget we won our Super Bowls with a bunch of underpaid “nobodies” with heart. I don’t see a ring on Randy’s finger yet. We have some nice picks this year. There’s gotta be something in play to replace Vrabes though. There HAS to be. He was our only semi-reliable pass rusher. Why didn’t we ship off Tedi instead of Vrabel? Our best pass rusher now is probably like Jarvis Green or something… *flashes back to Eli Manning avoiding our woeful pass rush in the Super Bowl and hurling up a duck towards like triple coverage…* Bad pass rush + bad pass coverage = Bad pass defense = our biggest weakness. Our run D used to be bad and pass D good but those two areas have switched places now it seems. You can’t give WRs all day to run around even with Deion and Champ in their primes defending them. I think we’ll draft the best players regardless of ‘need’ when it comes time to choose, but at least get one promising young corner/DE to help grow. No one’s sold on Wheatley or Wilhite just yet.

The only way I see this happening is if NE gives up its 23rd (imo they draft a DE or parlay the pick into more/or future picks though – but you never know), Pats sign him to a nasty, long term, incentive laden, backloaded contract, and Bob Kraft *accidently* *misinterpretes* where he placed the keys to his private jet, filled with rubies and emeralds, that just so happen to show up on Pepper’s front porch. In other words I don’t really see it happening unless Peppers WANTS to sign for the ‘low low’ for a year with options or something – get his ring, perform, and then hit free agency uncapped, and then ready to get paid – now that could be a possibility if Belichick could talk him into it. Think BB will go a different direction on this issue however… but then again it is hard to predict the actions of a wizard in his ivory tower. It is only he with the crystal ball.

By: CarolinaFan

CarolinaFan — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:09:33 +0000

a 23 and 34 pick for peppers…good deal?

By: Paul R.

Paul R. — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 21:44:37 +0000

Now the Patriots don’t have Cassel’s and Vrabel’s cap space hit. Does a deal sound more feasible now? I think so.

By: Patriots Trade Mike Vrabel!?! « FoolishBanter

Patriots Trade Mike Vrabel!?! « FoolishBanter — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 22:33:27 +0000

[...] Holy cow. It’s an understatement to say this came out of nowhere. Vrabel, possibly more than another other Patriot save Tom Brady, has personified the way the Patriots dynasty was built. The consummate Bill Belichick player. A spare part in Pittsburgh, he was a mid level free agent role player in 2001 that Belichick called the minute the free agency period began. When the two sat down, Vrabel said he was blown away that Belichick could recite chapter and verse the minutae of complex reads that Vrabel made in obscure plays he was involved in. Vrabel signed here and right from the jump established himself as an indispensible part of the Patriots championships. Including on offense where he literally is the only guy in football history of whom you can honestly say "He was a threat to score every time he touched the ball." This is astonishing, news really. And there’s still no word on what they might be getting in return. Maybe it means there’s something to all those Matt Cassel for Julius Peppers rumors . [...]

By: mike

mike — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:24:07 +0000

Banta-Cain resigned a few days ago. Pay attention

By: Lookspossiblenow

Lookspossiblenow — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:22:32 +0000

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/reiss_pieces/2009/02/mike_vrabel_ana.html

With the Vrabel trade, this suddenly looks a lot more realistic

By: urmom

urmom — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:14:56 +0000

The pats dont have tully banta-cain. he left a year ago.

By: kyle4beantown

kyle4beantown — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 14:28:55 +0000

The patriots are the unnamed AFC team that Peppers has interest in, as reported by Adam Shefter of the NFL network on D&C this morning