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I think that is entirely correct. If the Pats somehow get Peppers, then they will have a plan on how to fit his salary in and keep their other key players. They are never shortsighted.
I've been intrigued by the possibility of Peppers for a while, but at this juncture I don't think it's going to happen. I haven't been a big fan of signing Jason Taylor, but right now I think it would be a better long-term if we could get Taylor at a reasonable rate for 2 years and draft an OLB (Connor Barwin, Clay Matthews, etc.) and let them learn for 2 years under Taylor and Thomas. Taylor would probably not be that far removed from Peppers over a 2 year period (he might even be better given his experience at 3-4 OLB), and in 2011 I think we would be better off with a 24 year Barwin or Matthews than a 31-32 year old Peppers, especially given the salary.
If Peppers is an option, I think it will happen on draft day. If BB misses out on the OLB prospects that he likes, I could see him trading #34 (maybe with #89 thrown in) for Peppers. But I think at this point it's an extreme long shot.
One interesting fact that people seem to miss is that the generally accepted practice of the Patriots getting value per dollar in contracts is that the only reason to save on one player is to be able to spend more on another. By nature, that means a Patriot type approach means you are more able to afford the marquee guy than other teams.
In reality though, the success of the team has made many players more expensive, so that savings gets spread thinner and thinner each year. In 2006, almost all of our team was 2 time champions. That costs.