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Their saying if Peppers signs a long term deal, Carolina is okay. Yes, they can can sign him to a one year deal but they can't sign anybody else in FA and would barely be able to sign their draft picks. Going into a possible uncapped year, it would be stupid to sign a player (that doesn't want to sign long term) to a one year deal and then see him walk in 2010. Carolina won't be able to match any offer he would receive in 2010.
I'm having a hard time following your train of thought. The FA ship has sailed and if Carolina didn't move him or rescind the tag to sign anyone it's too late to do anything about that now. So they are no longer pressured to do anything as there is nothing for them to do. There is no way they are a better team in 2009 without Peppers at this juncture.
You said they couldn't afford to sign him to a long term deal because they didn't have the cap to. But they are already carrying him under a $16.8M cap hit and they in fact have over $6M left with the ability to extend Delhomme to free up more if they want to - and with no first round pick they will have NO TROUBLE signing their draft picks... If they could sign Peppers to a long term deal they would likely gain another $9M in cap space although there might not be anyone left in FA they are interested in spending money on and cap space can't be rolled forward after this season since 2010 is an uncapped year. They have franchise tendered him and fyi they can do so again next year. It will be expensive, $19M, but in an uncapped year...who cares...
The media seems to want Peppers traded so they see that potential around every corner. We needed to move Cassel in the first few days of FA because our FO had a list of FA they wanted to sign. Not every team wants to. Indy seldom signs FA because Polian believes their potential to burn you is too great and his top heavy payroll doesn't really allow for them. He spends his money on retaining those of his own players he chooses to and he drafts for replacements for everyone else. Indy started 19 players last season who had never set foot on an NFL field before 2008 and they still made the playoffs. Which just proves that there is more than one way to succeed in the NFL.
Carolina won it's division and made the playoffs last season so they may not think they needed that many FA this season and may well believe they are just a few breaks and better plays/execution away from a superbowl WITH Peppers on their existing roster. Personally I think that's wishful thinking, but such is the mindset of most franchise FO's. They tagged Gross last year and guess what...this year they got him signed to a long term deal. Maybe despite what he says Carolina has reason to believe they can yet sign Peppers to one too.