Brown Takes Peppers’ Position at Practice

The current (and everlasting, it seems) Julius Peppers predicament is no new information to most football fans, and the Carolina Panthers are dealing with his no-show status at the team’s current summer school practices. While he’s not required to attend team functions until Carolina’s training camp on August 2 in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the Panthers are doing everything in their power to be prepared for Peppers’ sudden departure from the team, should it come down to that. In Peppers’ place this week and last, third-year player Charles Johnson has been playing at right defensive end, but this week another player has made the switch from left side to right: rookie Everette Brown.

The Panthers have had confidence in Brown since trading their 2010 first-round pick to San Francisco for the 49ers sound-round pick in this year’s draft, and now the 6-foot-2, 256-pound DE out of Florida State is working his way up on the Panthers’ roster, now being groomed for Julius Peppers’ position at right defensive end. After practice yesterday, when Brown made the switch from the right side to the left in the middle of the day’s workout, right tackle Jeff Otah (who’s been matched against Brown when the rookie is at left DE) expressed his confidence in Brown, saying, “He’s a real good player. He’s got real good quickness, and he has that strength that it doesn’t look like he has.”  Will Brown be playing Julius Peppers’ position sooner rather than later? Stay tuned to find out!

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