Peppers Still Poses a Problem for Panthers

It’s coming down to the wire, and nothing yet has happened with the Julius Peppers situation except for some previous speculation about the DE moving to New England to join Bill Belichick’s Patriots. The deal is mum for now, and if it turns out the Patriots aren’t willing to cough up the big bucks for Peppers, both he and the Carolina Panthers could be headed for a sticky situation very soon.

Peppers has riled up all sorts of media attention with his lofty demands of being sent to one of four teams in the league, and unless there’s some type of under-the-table action going on right now, he may have to consider returning to the Panthers for one more year while under a $16 million franchise. This idea, of course, is causing tons more speculation, and recently NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock made a point that unless the Panthers are getting something huge in return for Peppers, it could be best to just keep him in Charlotte for another year. In a national teleconference, Mayock analyzed the situation, saying, “If I didn’t get a lot of value, I wouldn’t do anything with him. Those guys (athletic pass-rushing defensive ends) are hard to find. If I’m Carolina and (if) I’m (coach) John Fox, I’m not doing anything with that guy unless I get tremendous value.” Time is running out for Julius Peppers to get traded, so we’ll likely find out soon what the verdict is with the ongoing Peppers saga.

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Panthers Prepare for Primetime

The 2009 NFL schedule was just announced, and it seems as if last year the Carolina Panthers proved themselves worthy of playing in more than one nationally televised game this season (we’re forgetting that last romp against the Arizona Cardinals in the playoffs.) The Panthers will open their preseason this year with games at New York vs. the Giants and at Miami vs. the Dolphins on August 17 and 22, respectively, then finishing up exhibition play with games at home vs. Baltimore and Pittsburgh on August 29 and September 3, respectively.

The Carolina Panthers will next open the regular season with a game against the Philadelphia Eagles on September 13, and much of the excitement regarding league play has worked out into three nationally televised games for this Carolina powerhouse. The Panthers are slated for a Monday Night Football game in Week 3 at Dallas vs. the Cowboys set to be broadcast via ESPN, also jumping to the NFL Network for a Thursday night game at Bank of America Stadium against the Miami Dolphins in Week 11. As of now, the Panthers are also scheduled for the nationally televised Sunday Night Football game in Week 15 against the Minnesota Vikings at home, but that game could give way to the NFL’s flexible-scheduling policy.

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Panthers Get Long Snapper from Packers

The Panthers might have a plan to get rid of long snapper Jason Kyle, and while nothing with the longtime Panther is settled yet, a big signal just came – in the form of J.J. Jansen, the team’s newest long snapper. Jansen was just traded to the Panthers from the Green Bay Packers for a conditional future seventh-round draft choice in 2011, granting that Jansen gets field time with the Panthers.

J.J. Jansen came to Green Bay as an unsigned rookie out of Notre Dame last season, hoping to fill the shoes of the retired Rob Davis. While Jansen was scheduled to be the Packers’ long snapper last year, he tore a lateral collateral ligament in his left knee in the team’s final preseason game, landing him a spot on the injured reserve instead of on the field. Brett Goode then replaced Jansen and (to Jansen’s dismay) had a phenomenal first year with the Packers, securing him Jansen’s spot for the job and leading Jansen into the open arms of John Fox and the Carolina Panthers. Jason Kyle, the Panthers’ long snapper since 2001, has yet to get re-signed with the team, and with the addition of Jansen he will likely lose his spot on Carolina’s roster, partly due to the team’s salary cap issues.

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Baker Leads Football Camp Despite Lack of Sponsorship

For the last three years, Carolina Panthers punter extraordinaire Jason Baker has led a youth football camp in the spring in his hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and no economic downturn is about to ruin the now-annual spring event. Baker was told earlier this year that the NFL had pulled its sponsorship from the youth camp due to the current economic struggles, but even that wasn’t enough for Baker to put a hold on the camp.

Continuing onward with his youth football camp through private donations, Baker will once again bring his expertise to the field at Wayne High School in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, and this year’s event will occur on May 16 and 17, 2009. The camp is open to youth in grades six through eight, and will cover football skills starting with the basic fundamentals of the sport. A coaching clinic will also be available on May 16.

Jason Baker attended high school at Wayne before joining the Iowa Hawkeyes for a phenomenal college football career. He joined the NFL via the San Francisco 49ers in 2001 and also played for the Philadelphia Eagles, Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos before joining the Carolina Panthers in 2005.

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Carter Back with the Panthers

Wide receiver Jason Carter was gearing up for a stellar season with the Carolina Panthers last year when he injured his knee on a punt return in a preseason game against the Washington Redskins last year and was out for the rest of the season, but coach John Fox is going to let Carter have another chance at the big leagues. The Panthers just re-signed Carter to the team’s lineup, proving Fox’s faith in the receiver.

Last year after his devastating injury, John Fox issued a statement regarding Carter, saying, “I’m disappointed for our football team, but I’m also disappointed for him. He’s a guy that was on our practice squad last year, worked his tail off all off-season and was really having a good camp and had a strong possibility of making our football team. He’s a guy that my heart goes out to because I know that’s tough. But if he works like (he did this year) he’ll be back next year.”

Indeed, Carter is back with the Panthers, though he still has quite the battle before him in landing a spot with the team, as Steve Smith, Muhsin Muhammad, Dwayne Jarrett and Ryne Robinson are all still ahead of him on the team’s roster for receivers and possible returners.

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Clock Is Ticking for Peppers

If Julius Peppers is the hot commodity that he (and apparently Carolina) believes he is, why is this all-star defensive end still not signed with another NFL team? It’s been months since Peppers announced his dissatisfaction with playing for the Panthers, yet he still hasn’t taken big steps in leaving the team since then. He’s waited this far and has been extremely picky in the process, so speculation now is that there will be no big rush for Peppers to sign with another team in the league until close to April 25, when the NFL Draft will commence, but in the meantime Peppers still has plenty of work to do.

The first step in getting Peppers a deal is for him to sign the one-year, $16.7 million deal from the Panthers. Until he does this, he can’t take the necessary steps in jumping onboard another team. It’s somewhat troublesome that Peppers isn’t out of Carolina yet, as this could possibly mean that no other team wants the DE badly enough to make a huge deal with the Panthers for him. This is also crippling the Panthers, as the team’s salary cap problems have tied the team’s hands behind its back during the free agency. Julius Peppers has burnt too many bridges at this point to suck it up and play one more year with the Panthers, so he had better come to an agreement over the next couple weeks or things could get ugly.

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Carolina’s Unrestricted Free Agents

In just a little over two weeks, the biggest day of the NFL’s offseason will commence, bringing herds of college talent into the ranks of the football league. While the 2009 NFL Draft is causing all sorts of speculation around the football realm, there is still some unfinished business before the rest can be worked out. Several teams still have unrestricted free agents floating around the league, and the Carolina Panthers are no different from the rest. The team still has a few unsigned free agents to deal with before going full speed into the draft, leaving these next couple weeks to hopefully finish things up.

Among the list of unrestricted free agents in the NFL is of course Carolina’s Julius Peppers, who is franchised and looking for the big bucks before he can leave the Panthers. Other free agents still on Carolina’s roster include linebacker Donte’ Curry, long snapper Jason Kyle and defensive tackle Darwin Walker, who all have yet to sign with other teams. While the Panthers have every reason for keeping at least Kyle on the team’s roster, they have no money to do so until something gets worked out with Julius Peppers. At least one of these Carolina free agents will not be returning for the 2009 NFL season, but what about the other three? Stay tuned to find out!

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Where Do the Panthers Stand In the ‘09 Draft?

When it comes to the upcoming NFL Draft, we’re not just looking at this year to determine how everything will play out. Several decisions over the past year have already affected the turnout of this year’s draft, and now we can take a look at the Carolina Panthers and try to predict how the 2009 NFL Draft will fare for the Panthers compared to how things went last year.

On draft day in 2008, the Panthers made a crucial move in swooping in on Jeff Otah, costing the team its first-round pick in this year’s draft. This may end up hurting Carolina this year, but Otah’s value to the Panthers has already been crucial to the team’s success. Last year, the Panthers also acquired RB Jonathan Stewart in the first round of the draft, next picking up DB Charles Godfrey and LB Dan Connor in round three, TE Gary Barnidge in the fifth round, DT Nick Hayden in round six and Hilee Taylor, OT Geoff Schwartz and OL Mackenzy Bernadeau all in round seven of the draft. This was a solid crew of picks for the Panthers last year, and the team could be good to go in the 2009 Draft with a Julius Peppers trade, as Carolina could pick up a high draft pick for the defensive end.

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Panthers Re-Sign DT Hayden

The Carolina Panthers have finally made some movement since entering the free agency, this time using up a valuable $310,000 to re-sign exclusive rights free agent and defensive tackle Nick Hayden to the team’s roster. Over the weekend, Hayden signed a one-year deal with the Panthers, and he didn’t really have options to do otherwise, as his exclusive rights free agency status didn’t allow him the power to sign with another team.

Nick Hayden was selected in the sixth round of the 2008 NFL Draft, coming to Charlotte as a defensive tackle out of Wisconsin. While he was first released before the ’08 season started, the defensive tackle was signed to the practice squad two days after his release, later last year added back onto the roster. He played in Carolina’s season finale against New Orleans in last December and made his first NFL career tackle, and now Hayden could be tacking up even more, as he has the possibility to make the team’s roster behind Maake Kemoeatu and Damione Lewis, depending on who the Panthers acquire from the upcoming draft and also considering his performances during training camp.

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No Cutler in Carolina

Not that we thought the deal would go through, but the chunk of the blogging universe that said Jay Cutler had a shot of being traded to the Panthers for a deal with Julius Peppers was way off. The dramatic Denver quarterback was traded to the Chicago Bears in a deal sending QB Kyle Orton to the Broncos, and Panthers fans across the country should be letting out a sigh of relief.

Coach John Fox has already put his faith in QB Jake Delhomme, and even if his position seems a little less than secure with all this quarterback trading going on right now in the league, getting Cutler in Carolina would have been nothing but a bad deal. A trade involving Julius Peppers would have been out of the question, anyway, as Denver is not one of the four teams the DE has expressed interest in playing for. On top of this, Jay Cutler has not demonstrated the leadership skills that Delhomme has over his last few years in the NFL, and even if Jake Delhomme had a couple bad games last season, Panthers fans should gladly take this hardworking QB over the drama queen that will now be wearing a Chicago Bears jersey in the 2009 season. It’s sweet home Chicago for Jay Cutler, and Delhomme will likely stay happy in Carolina hinging on a predicted extended contract.

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