Julius Peppers is the most overrated defensive player in football—the same way Michael Vick used to be the most overrated offensive player in football, until Brett Favre took over for him.

Peppers plays when he feels like it, and disappears for entire games. Beast? Yeah, a tiger in one game and an ox in another. We don’t need that—we need highly motivated players who don’t take a single play off, let alone a game (let alone a season).

rotoworld.com:

ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reports Julius Peppers has formally asked the Panthers to allow him to seek employment elsewhere.
The Panthers have let it be known that they planned to franchise Peppers if they could not reach a long-term deal with him, but Peppers wants the opportunity to hit the open market. Carolina has nothing to gain by letting their franchise defensive end leave without compensation, so we can expect this one to get ugly.
Jan. 16 – 11:34 p.m. ET
Source: ESPN.com

Peppers had 14 sacks last season and 51 tackles. Smith had what 3 ? In fact, Peppers has more sacks last season that Grant and Smith COMBINED for TWO seasons. Peppers has averaged OVER 10 sacks per year for his whole 7 year career and almost 50 tackles per year for that time. And this year the closest person to him on his team had 6 sacks which means he was being double – teamed a lot. I don’t get it. How much time could he have taken off? Peppers missed only 1 football game in his whole college career (and he played basketball also) and missed only 2 in his whole 7 year pro career. Doesn’t sound like a slacker to me.

Carolina was 12-4 in the regular season, beat us twice, Peppers was their team captain and led a defense to be ranked third in the NFC. He is widely regarded as their best defensive player and and clearly Delhomme and the offense lost the playoff game, not the defense. Maybe Peppers is good enough to take time off and still out perform our lineman. Whatever he does, it seems to be working. He has been selected to go to the Pro Bowl four times!! He is a team Captain and regarded around the league as one of the top 4 or 6 defensive ends that still are playing. If we had a DE this season that got 14 sacks, we probably would ahve won the division.

I just don’t get it. No one puts up those stats and takes games or quarters off. No one makes the Pro Bowl and is a league superstar and plays sometimes and won’t play other times. Sorry. You guys may not like him, but he is what he is- an NFL superstar and he has the honors, the stats, the league’s respect and the salary to prove it. Our guys only have the salary. If you don’t like him for some reason, it’s understandable, but he could help us win. He is 6-7, ran a 4.6 40 when he came into the league- he’s an amazing athelete. Any team who plays against him has to game plan around his abilities. He has been to more ProBowls than our entire defensive line.

When I can’t watch the Saints—which is all too often—I get the Carolina games. All my friends and coworkers watch the Carolina games. And for years, I and they have been in agreement about Julius Peppers: he is overrated. With the physical ability he’s been given, he has no excuse not being one of the all-time greats. That he isn’t is entirely due to his attitude: he takes plays off; he takes series off; he takes games off. Last year he took off the entire season.

He’s not the second coming of Reggie White that everyone had hoped for. He is a notorious underachiever, and has perhaps set the tone for the entire Panthers team—maybe the most underachieving bunch in the NFL.

We. Do. Not. Need. Him.

Rotoworld.com:

The agent for Julius Peppers says his client wants to play as a stand-up 3-4 outside linebacker for his next team.
The Gaston Gazette expects Carolina to put the franchise tag on Peppers, then try to trade him. They won’t worry about what position he wants to play. At 6’7/283, Peppers would easily be the biggest linebacker in the league.
Source: Gaston Gazette

rotoworld.com:

Impending free agent Julius Peppers was noncommittal when asked about his future with the Panthers following Sunday’s loss.
Peppers will almost certainly be franchised if Carolina can’t get him under contract long term. The 29-year-old is the Panthers’ most valuable player, aside from maybe Steve Smith. The Charlotte Observer expects Peppers’ deal to be worth $13M annually. Franchising him would cost $17M in 2009.
Source: Charlotte Observer

yeah, I know, but read it:

When Peppers was playing miserably in 2007 (just 2.5 sacks), I asked a teammate about the widespread rumors that something might be wrong physically. The teammate laughed, said no and pointed to his head.

The teammate went on to say that Peppers had stopped buying into Fox and simply was going through the motions.

I don’t like John Fox either—another vastly overrated NFL celebrity—but I don’t want to take on a head case who only plays when he feels like it.

ok, i guess we have a situation where you claim that there are two DEs and one takes the season off (peppers) and get 2.5 sacks and another plays his best for the Saints (Smith) and gives everything he’s got and gets 3 sacks. Let’s stay with the loser and settle for 3.0 sacks. That makes sense. Forget about upgrading to a marquis DE- you would probably pass up Justin Tuck also. Smith and Grant suck. They are an afterthought to opposing offenses. Do you think if McNabb or Roethlisberger were going against Grant and smith they would even remember their names? I guarantee they would know where Peppers was and what his name and number is. Darren Howard is going to the NFC championship and we have to settle for milionaires who underperform and are a laughing stock around the league. This is just one of the reasons the Saints never seriously threaten to go deep in the playoffs. They settle for less on defense.

I was under the impression that Julius Peppers was a BEAST (no question). Both sides make good points because i know how it is to watch EVERY SINGLE GAME and see something that no one else sees (i.e. in PT we trust!!!!!!!), but yet I watch EVERY SINGLE SAINTS GAME and when someone like Jeff Charleston (???!?!?!?!) looks a whole lot better in about 3 games than Will Smith and Charles Grant looked all season it’s sad, especially when we have so much invested in them. I’d take Peppers with open arms and with this said, I propose this: Get Peppers by whatever means and save cap room by trading out of the first round if possible. I don’t think this draft is very strong in accordance to our needs so we’d do better getting someone in the second round rather than drafting a hyped up first rounder. So my dream off season is to get vilma back, get peppers, both tp22 and long hair don’t care (Mike M) return to form, get a few second tier players to push our starters, let devery go, and draft a few young defensive players to get some fresh legs.

maybe, with the Saints financial strings tightening and our woeful pass defense, it might be time to implement a hybrid of the 4-3 and 3-4 like some teams use. That might keep Vilma happy and productive, maybe give us an advantage because we have now a different look and scheme and may have the element of surprise once in a while instead of opposing teams being bored with how basic our defensive sets are. Smith and Grant (even though I want to get rid of them) are probably more suited to clogging things up and letting linebackers make tackles and get sacks anyway as opposed to frustrating themselves without getting to the QB over and over. And, I think Peppers could be talked into playing in a 4-3 if there was the prospect of some flexibility and he having the ability to move around and do a variety of things as opposed to just fighting off double teams at basic Right DE. Especially if he wants to come to New Orleans which I do not know if he does. Talk about enormous price tags- look at the tab for our non-productive bookends. If they were productive this year, it would have made an enormous difference. And we will miss each one of them for 4 games each which combined is like missing someone for 1/2 a season. We have do do something drastic. We can’t have a non -productive pass rush again for 4-8 games and then try to change in mid season. When you go after and a proven product in free agency, you get what you pay for. The Eagles paid big for Assante Samuel and look how he (along with Dawkins) have propelled them to the NFC championship. Benson saved money and bought Jason David, Randall Gay, and Aaron Glenn. He probably paid out a little less and then had money left to buy a nice flat screen tv with surround sound so he can watch the NFC championship at home.

Peter King SI column:

Wouldn’t be surprised to see Miami offer its first-round pick for him. It’d be a fair offer. Peppers and Phillip Merling would be a nice combo in the Dolphins’ 3-4 scheme.

that’ll shape him up

I guess the Dolphins and Peter King think highly of Peppers- the Dolphins would give up a first round pick and pay the big bucks and King says that would be a fair offer.

rotoworld.com:

Eagles CB Lito Sheppard reiterated Monday that he wants out of Philadelphia this offseason.
Sheppard requested a trade last year. He mailed it in when he didn’t get one, losing his nickel back job to special teamer Joselio Hanson. Lito’s stock is at a low now and he may not bring back more than a fourth-round pick.
Source: Associated Press

He can go anywhere but N.O., Peppers mentioned he wants to go somewhere that runs a 3-4 Def? that would make him a LB? he wants out ,but doesn’t know whats best for himself, his only recent highlights have been blocking FG’s maybe the Raiders will come calling….