RobAllan

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He calls the situation a "head scratcher" and has no idea what's going on. About time he came out and said that, frankly.

-Rob-

slash83

Is he actually backtracking or just confused why peppers hasn't signed his tender if he actually wants to be traded.

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RobAllan

The way I read his comments made me think the answer is both. Perhaps it could be read a different way?

-Rob-

supafly

Yes, I agree. Finally he decides to come clean, it took him long enough.

I still think Peppers has 2 options:

1. To make his 17 guaranteed, then leave Carolina next yr, entering the uncapped free agent yr--where he'll get another multi yr deal, and make somewhere between 25-30 more in guaranteed money. Grand total in guaranteed loot is in the Stafford range (40-45 million) for only 2 yrs. This decreases his injury chances, and puts a ton of guaranteed money in his pocket over only 2 yrs.

2. He signs a big multi-yr deal this yr, but it'd have to be a lot of guaranteed money, as he's already looking at 17 million in guaranteed loot for only 1 season. Keep in mind if comparing him to the LB position, that J.Harrison is going to make approx. the same in guaranteed money over 6 seasons in what Peppers will make this yr in only 1.

If I had to choose, I'd say the odds are probably that he'll end up going choice #1, but even if he'd choose #2, it couldn't be with us. We'd still have to offer a lot of guaranteed money, even if he took a 'friendly' deal--which he'd have to be an idiot for doing, given the other 2 obvious choices.

I think he expected more interest in his services, and was somewhat surprised when teams didn't fall over rushing to get to him. At any rate, this is just my opinion, so I'm not saying it's any better than anyone else, or that I am right. I would still hope that maybe something could happen making him a Pat, but I just can't realistically see how.

BradyFTW!

Admitting that you have no idea what's going on is backtracking, in this case.

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efin98

That's the same conclusion I draw...almost like he's getting frustrated that his prediction didn't come true yet.

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JoeSixPat

I tend to agree (with BB among others) that if Peppers really wanted to be traded he'd have signed or would sign the tender (it would have made the most sense before the draft)

Seeing as I don't think there's team that could take his entire $17 million cap hit as is without some MAJOR restructuring of a great many others on the roster, Peppers would still control his destiny by agreeing or refusing to a long term, lower cap deal with another team.

Seems to me that Peppers is more than happy to take the $17 million this year and go into free agency next year. Sure there's a risk of injury. There's also insurance he can take out to cover his future earnings.

And he'll get more guaranteed in 2 years with the franchise amount and a long term contract next year than he would with just a long term contract this year.

When it was a given that we'd franchise Cassel I feared seeing this same thing happening here that we see with Carolina now - luckilly a few things broke differently here.

Bottom line, by Peppers actions I don't think he wants to be traded this year.

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Rob0729

Again, I would be more befuddled if he actually signed his tender. Whether he was ever a real possibilty for the Patriots or not, the dumbest thing he could do is sign the franchise tender. He loses a lot of control on where he gets traded and what his compensantion would be. That is why franchise players in the past never signed their franchise tender until a long term contract and trade compensation was already agreed to.

The only franchised player who signed his franchise tender that I know of who signed his tender before a deal was in place was Matt Cassel and other than a bogus report a deal was done, there looks to be little interest on the Chiefs' side to get a long term deal done like Cassel wants. In fact, I believe that Pioli probably feels it is safer to go into the season with no long term deal because even if he is not a one year wonder, Cassel's value should be less next year when he isn't throwing to Moss and Welker and he is on a very young team learning a new system.

Peppers and his agent would be stupid to sign the franchise tender no matter what Belichick said. That said, Peppers' agent might have been more proactive in trying to get a deal done and facilitating a trade. Not saying there isn't a strong possibility that Peppers' agent, who is a college professor, hasn't hindered the process. But he could be on a team he didn't want to be on right now with no new deal in place (as of April 22nd, there were 7 teams that had enough cap room to absorb Peppers' franchise tender and still have enough money to sign their rookies).

There is a reason why franchised players don't sign their franchise tag until both the contract and trade is in place. Even Belichick had no problem dealing with those terms when he traded away Tebucky Jones without him signing his tender.

PATSYLICIOUS

.... and the only prescription is... EVER

Rob0729

Not true on many levels. I explained why in my last post why signing the tender was a stupid idea no matter if the Pats were interested or not. Again, the agent for the player can negotiate a trade between teams or the player can give his team and the team trading for him permission to talk directly.

As for restructing, there were 8 teams as of April 22nd who had over $20 million in cap space.

Atlanta Falcons: $23.67 million.
Chicago Bears: $20.96 million.
Cleveland Browns: $20.27 million.
Green Bay Packers: $27.89 million.
Kansas City Chiefs: $32.3 million.
Philadelphia Eagles: $37.44 million.
San Francisco 49ers: $26.11 million.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: $35.54 million.

The following teams could have fit the tender number under the cap with only some minor adjustments or at least without MAJOR resturcturing:

Buffalo Bills: $11.82 million.
Cincinnati Bengals: $16.26 million.
Denver Broncos: $16.3 million.
Jacksonville Jaguars: $16.94 million.
Miami Dolphins: $13.19 million.
Minnesota Vikings: $17.32 million.
New York Jets: $12.62 million.
Tennessee Titans: $13.05 million.

I will give you that without knowing the terms of the contracts of a lot of these teams, I don't know if their flexibility was hindered, but none of these teams would have to free up more than $5 million to fit Peppers' tender offer under their cap. Granted they would have had to free up more room for rookies and bonuses acrued over the season as well as insurance money.

I do think Peppers absolutely wants to be traded this year. He wouldn't say publically otherwise if he didn't. Now I think he may be the victim of an inexperienced agent, a false sense of the market for him, and limiting his options right off the bat. I bet there has been far more action behind the scenes than we know, but Peppers has said that he wants to play OLB and only for one of five teams that he has chosen (granted he has backed off the five teams thing in recent weeks). That seriously limits his possibilities. I think that was more of the case than him not signing his tender or him not wanting to get traded.