With the report of Julius Peppers attending the Denver Nuggets game its sparked new speculation that the Panthers may be willing to part with their star DE. Consequently Jerry over at Buc’Em couldn’t resist the opportunity to stoke the trade fires. So I asked Jerry to make me an offer for Peppers (hypothetical of course) to get an idea of Peppers current value on the market. Remember Peppers was the #2 pick overall in the 2002 draft.

Here’s his offer:

The Bucs 2008 1st round pick (#20) and the Buc’s 2009 3rd round pick.

Weigh in on my opinion poll below.

More food for thought on this topic:

Of course the Panthers and Peppers agent are denying there is anything brewing but I still wonder why the Panthers have not reworked his contract. Are they ok with paying him $15M this season? If so does that mean they franchise him next season if his asking price is too high? That would only happen if he had a great season which is the risk the Panthers are taking. If he has another sub-par season then that lowers his price and makes this gamble a good one. In that scenario they may let him walk.

I think by not resigning him this off-season the Panthers FO is indicating they have doubts about Peppers ability to return to form and don’t want to lock up a lot of money in a mediocre player. This gives them the freedom to let him walk next year and frees up a lot of cap space next to go after free agents.