Re: La Canfora: Pats have offer on table for Peppers [Update: Rap: Pats making hard p
This deal is done. There's a reason why Peppers bolted to Chicago today and his agent told the Bears they didn't need to look over their shoulder. Although free agency was supposed to begin last night, in Peppers' case it ended last night. It seems obvious that the bids were already in and the teams were told that Peppers does not want to sit around. Clearly last night was the offer deadline, and the Patriots were outbid. Why Chicago outbid themselves by $2M per year is anyone's guess.
My guess is the Patriots went into this situation basing their offer on the salary cap. Randy Moss, in their view was worth $9M per year. Of course, at that point Moss was a proven commodity that could thrive in their system. With Peppers, the athleticism and talent is similar to Moss on offense, but he's never played in a 3-4. The Patriots probably also weighed the risk-reward that the salary cap will no longer affect them. In that case, it doesn't mean they can just be irresponsible and shell out a ton of money. My guess is, based on their evaluations, Peppers was worth somewhere between $8-8.5M per year. Because of the uncapped possibilities, and because Peppers is a unique player who rarely comes around, they probably upped the offer to $10M. The problem is, at that point they are already paying too much for Peppers, which makes it hard to justify. To outbid Chicago at $12M just doesn't make any sense...
That's just my very unofficial take on the situation. I'm sure I'm not exactly correct on the numbers, but I'll bet I'm in the ballpark.
