With the deadline now passed for franchise players to have signed a extension with their prospective teams, Julius Peppers could not come to an agreement with the Carolina Panthers. The league deadline was today (Wednesday) at 4 p.m. the other big names were Terrell Suggs with the Baltimore Ravens and Matt Cassel with the Kansas City Chiefs looking to sign a long term deal. Suggs and Cassel did however come to terms with thier teams, Suggs for 62.5 million for 6 years and Cassel got 60 million for 6 years. Be that as it may, Peppers will play this year for the Panthers for 16.7 million and next years offseason will be a interesting one.

"Both sides tried," said Carl Carey, Peppers' agent. "Julius feels good about the one-year deal and is ready for the season to begin."

Peppers is going to have one of the highest salary’s in NFL history with his one year 16.7 million. I know that you are thinking that is a lot of money but he has the potent ional to make much more than that. If he gets voted to the Pro Bowl he will get 1.5 million more as well as 250k for each playoff win.

 

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Poll

Do you want to see Peppers in Carolina in 2010?

42%

Yes

53 votes

11%

No

14 votes

37%

It depends on the cost

47 votes

8%

Don't care either way

10 votes

124 votes | Poll has closed

There has been a lot of controversy about the resigning of Jake Delhomme, especially after his six turnover performance against the Cardinals in the playoffs. No matter what we think as fans Jake was coming back no matter what. Where I have a issue is the fact that they have not brought in any free agents or rookies as a insurance policy. It would be healthy to have some competition at the QB spot, if there is a issue the Panthers have Matt Moore to fall back on.

 

I am not sure that Delhomme is the long term answer for the team. After all of those turnovers in the playoffs, he gets rewarded with a big long term contract. Even though he is in his mid thirties and plays good, not great he is the only man in John Fox wants for the job. Fox knows that the Panthers are a run first team and will do so on the first two downs and leave it up to Delhomme on third downs. Which does put a lot of pressure on a QB, and makes his job a little more difficult. With that said does he deserve the contract that he got?

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4 months after the Panthers gave Julius Peppers his franchise tag he finally signed. Peppers made it clear that he did not want to play for the Panthers in 09 and sat out of every offseason practice. Today (Wednesday) he signed the 16.7 million one year deal, but could not come to terms on a long-term deal. Peppers made it clear that if he signed the tender that he wanted to be traded, after a lot of talking about him going to teams like the Patriots and Cowboys nothing ever came of it.

The Panthers could still trade him before the start of the season, actually now that he signed the Panthers could talk directly to teams with out going through Peppers agent. Although I don’t see the Panthers doing that, I think that they would rather keep one of the best pass rushers in the league on their roster.

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Jonathan Stewart, Carolina’s first round pick in 2008, is taking some heat from teammates about practice.

"You're going to take some teasing. They're out there busting their butt with me just sitting on the sideline for the second year in a row," Stewart said moments after the Panthers concluded voluntary workouts this week. "I'm really taking the heat for that."

Last year (rookie year) Stewart did not practice because he had toe surgery in the offseason. If he plays like he did last year this could be a good thing. He set a franchise rookie record of 836 yards and 10 touchdowns. Paired up with DeAngelo Williams you have the best running back tandem in the NFL.

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Poll

Do you think that Carolina will have the best RB tandem again?

94%

Yes

35 votes

5%

No

2 votes

37 votes | Poll has closed

 

After months of talking about Julius Peppers the speculation has now ended. Panthers starting defensive end has confirmed on Friday that he will be playing for Carolina in the 2009 season.   The Carolina star notified teammates via text message that he will be present when the Panthers' start there training camp on August 2nd in Spartanburg, South Carolina. He has not been completely out of football just because he has not been with the team. Earlier in the offseason he reported that he will be working out in Arizona and that is where he has been for months now.

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Mike Goodson taking the ball on a hand-off.

During the Panthers team practices practically the only thing that can be heard is whistles and horns echoing off the field, or in some cases the coaches getting on the players during drills.

Last Tuesday morning was the exception, it was a awesome play by rookie Mike Goodson. Goodson left most of the players in awe with his speed. It was not a technical move he just stepped to the right followed by a quick cut up the field. But his speed on the play was the Panthers were looking for when they drafted him in the fourth round.

"He's got some jets, I know that," said quarterback Jake Delhomme
Goodson's speed has been on display since the Panthers' summer-school sessions opened last week. But this cut and run was as impressive a moment as you'll find in a practice where pads are absent, tackling is forbidden, contact is non-existent and instruction, rather than performance, is the highest priority.

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Jon Beason had something to say about Julius Peppers being a no-show at practice on Wednesday. He thinks that Peppers will love the new Carolina defense. Getting the all pro defensive end see it with his own eyes will be the hard part.

We all knew that he was not going to show for practice as he has made it known that he was not going to go. This is the start of three weeks of optional offseason workouts. It was also Beason’s first practice under the new defensive coordinator Ron Meeks. Beason who is coming off a injury in his shoulder that he had surgery on in the offseason.

"I know one thing: Pep is going to have a lot more freedom to let his God-given ability and his talent that he's fine-tuned over the years, to really showcase it," Beason said. "Pep is a freak, a special type of guy."

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The NFL has decided to increase the salary cap for the players by 12 million dollars this season. This may be the final year that there is a salary cap at all. The collective bargaining agreement is over this year unless the league and players can come to a new agreement.

The cap was supposed to be increased by 7 million for a total of 123 million per team. They made adjustments to the current CBA which will increase the total to about 128 million that can be spent on players. The 12 million is the largest increase in the past three years.

Basically what this means is that teams will have almost another million to spend in there cap this year. On Friday Greg Aiello said that there was going to be a “cash adjustment” of 947,000 of additional cap room.

 

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<!-- TOKEN_1241212620281_TOKEN -->Today  the Carolina Panthers started a three day mini-camp. Surprise, surprise a no show for disgruntled defensive end Julius Peppers. Expect him to continue his absence, he still has not signed his one year 16.7 million dollar tender. Since he has not signed his contract he can’t be finned for missing the mandatory practice. I thought for sure that he would have been gone by the draft. It looks like if we were to trade him it would be for picks next year, which could be a good thing seeing how we don’t have a first round pick next year either.

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Poll

Do you think that Julius Peppers will play in Carolina this year?

52%

Yes

54 votes

37%

No

39 votes

9%

Not sure

10 votes

103 votes | Poll has closed

Carolina Panthers signed Delhomme for 5 more years which will put him under contract through the 2014 season.

Steve Wyche from NFL.com reports that the deal is worth 42.5 million, of which 20 million is guaranteed. With the extension now signed it will free up some much needed salary-cap room for Carolina. The Panthers still have 16.7 million in salary-cap locked up with Julius Peppers.

The Carolina Panthers still sign Delhomme three months after the worst game of his 11 year NFL career, throwing 5 interceptions and losing a fumble in the playoff loss to theArizona Cardinals. But coach John Fox and Marty Hurney said that Jake is still there quarterback and everyone has bad games. In 2009 Delhomme passer rating was 84.7 with 3,288 passing yards, 15 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions.

 

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Poll

Do you agree with the move?

27%

Yes

38 votes

72%

No

99 votes

137 votes | Poll has closed

Carolina Panthers G.M. Marty Hurney says that he is still confident that Julius Peppers will come back to Carolina this season, even though Peppers has made it public that he wants to play elsewhere.

Hurney, who was interviewed yesterday said that there has been no progress with Peppers. He still has not signed his one-year tender, and said that he will not sign a long term deal. Hurney also thinks that if a trade is not worked out, Peppers will not hold out of training camp. Hurney also said that he has not been approached with a trade offer for Peppers.

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Poll

Do you think that Peppers will remain a Panther

63%

Yes

21 votes

36%

No

12 votes

33 votes | Poll has closed

John Madden, the coach and my personal favorite broadcast personality is calling it quits after three decades.

Madden worked the Sunday night game on NBC for the past three seasons. His last game was the Super Bowl between Arizona and Pittsburgh. It is only fitting that his last game as an announcer was this year's Super Bowl -- the most-watched TV program of all-time.

"As namesake of the world's most popular sports videogame, ( my personal favorite game) John also introduced the game of football to generations of young fans. He is stepping down as a true Super Bowl champion."

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Poll

Was Madden the best broadcaster to date?

54%

Yes

6 votes

45%

No

5 votes

11 votes | Poll has closed

The Green Bay Packers traded long snapper J.J. Jansen to Carolina on Monday 4/13 for a conditional 2011 seventh-round draft pick, possibly signaling the end of veteran Jason Kyle's who has been at that position for the past eight years.

Jansen was undrafted out of Notre Dame last year and was supposed to replace Green Bay’s current long snapper. Jansen did have a torn ligament in his left knee in the Packers’ final preseason game and was placed on IR.

 

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With the schedule now released you can see why they are ranked to have the 2nd hardest schedule. It is going to be easy for Carolina to win there division crown again.

The season opener will be against a quality team, we will play the Eagles in Philly which will be to good to show what to expect out of the season for the Panthers. Our first home game will be against the Atlanta Falcons which is followed by the Dallas Cowboys.

I recently did a article about the Panthers schedule. They are to have it the second toughest schedule, only behind the Miami Dolphins. Can't wait till 7 p.m. till the whole schedule gets released. We already know who they are playing we just don't know which games will be at home, how many in primetime, how many in different timezones with alot of travel. I will have another post later tonight with the full schedule.

Poll

Do you think the Panthers will make the playoffs?

65%

Yes

43 votes

34%

No

23 votes

66 votes | Poll has closed