Gantt: Peppers and Delhomme

[Kevin Greene]

I dont see how anyone can think that anyone that is available, or on the Panthers bench can be better than Jake. He knows the system, and is the undisputed leader of the offense. I was calling for his head on Saturday, but I have calmed down a little bit and tried to look at it objectively. If you think Matt Moore or whatever McCown brother we have is better than Jake you are retarded. Jake may not be anything more than an average at best QB, but sh*tbags like Wrecks Grossman would be 10x worse......just my humble opinion.

Jake = leader:

But even when Delhomme isn't performing heroics with his arm, he is still the Panthers' primary leader. He knew his team needed some sort of emotional boost, and he provided it late in the third quarter after a six-yard run on third-and-12 to help set up a 45-yard John Kasay field goal that cut the Bears' lead to 17-6.

It wasn't so much the run as it was Delhomme's reaction to what appeared to be a late and hard hit by linebacker Lance Briggs at the end of the quarterback's slide to the Chicago 28. With his helmet off, Delhomme, despite being a little woozy, pounded his chest and exhorted his teammates to finish the drive with points and to keep fighting. They got the message.

"Yeah, we got a spark from that," rookie offensive tackle Jeff Otah said. "I don't like when people hit my quarterback. That makes me angry."

And when the 6-foot-6, 330-pound Otah gets angry, look out. For that matter, Briggs' hit only served to evoke a greater level of drive and passion from the Panthers' entire offensive line.

Jonathan Stewart, Carolina's rookie running back, couldn't have been happier. He began finding more and more holes to run through on the way to rushing for 77 yards (averaging 5.5 yards per carry) and two second-half touchdowns, the second of which gave the Panthers a 20-17 lead 3:52 left on the clock.

"In the second half, we were a different team," Stewart said. "The offensive line controlled the line of scrimmage, and that's what you've got to do to win games. The offensive line came out in the second half and really blew some things up."

http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d80acdc7e&template=with-video&confirm=true

How soon they forget.

[Baschski]

You know what, lets change our offensive philosophy permanently to "Give The Oppenent Mulitiple Chances To Win the Game And Hope Our Defense Can Come Through". Jake excels in that. Its pretty pathetic that a team can't rely on the passing game at all. In order to have a successful offense you have to be good in both areas and not one dimensional. As long as Jake is here, we will always be a one dimensional offense.

That offensive philosophy is a direct result of the coaching, not of Jake. He doesn't call the plays that make us sit on the lead and allow other teams back in the game. And I'm pretty sure we relied on the passing game to get us back into some games, and win us some games this year (San Diego, New Orleans?) so you obviously have no idea what you're talking about. If you want to look at just one game and look at our last game, then yeah he screwed up big time, he gave the game away, our offense is incapable of passing, etc... But if you actually look at the entire season then its pretty clear that we have a decent passing game. Besides, anytime you have a playmaker like Steve Smith out wide you'll have a decent passing game. Any offense that has an elite running game and a solid passing game is going to be top notch, period. Our offense will be fine, our defense is what needs some change.

[Snake]

The article is only in favor of getting rid of Pep if Pep wants to be gotten rid of.

Resigning Jake would open up 5+ million on the cap minmum, and he is going to be here either way.

I dont see Jake going anywhere. His arm is not gone and he played well this year. With pep people might have taken what he said out of context or not. I mean he might have been saying he didnt want to get Tagged. He has never been that great with the media anyway and this might be why. Just think about it.

Ideally, I want to be in the best possible situation for myself and for this organization,” said Peppers. “I'm thankful for everything they've done for me.

“I don't want to leave them crippled or in a bad situation and I don't want to do that to myself either. Whatever works out best for both sides is what I'm comfortable with.”

[tarheelpride]

I didn't know that a stat line like 16 TDs 17 INTs was good, maybe I'm out of the loop?

Paying Peppers, is probably a bad idea. Sure, he has a game or two once in a while, but when has he shown up in the playoffs? Where was he when he was getting blocked 1 on 1 saturday?

The highest payed defensive player should NOT get blocked one on one, ever. Therefore I would not make him the highest payed.

my problem with everything is EXPECTATIONS. we expect great things out of our players and that is perfectly fine. sometimes, we get blinded by the talent and numbers. in turn, we complain when one player doesn't produce or when the numbers take a dip and they're not doing as well. we can expect them to show up every day, but to expect them to never have a down day and to not be outplayed occasionally is ludacris in my opinion. truth of the matter is we may need BOTH players. delhomme taking a paycut is reasonable, and if pep wants to say, he would have signed the contract. imagining the team without either player would be hard to do, and i blame the ridiculously high expectations we place upon the players. some of our expectations become unreasonable and when the players don't meet them, we're quick to criticize. hence the performance of pep and delhomme. they tried out there, despite how things look, and they still command the respect in the locker room.

to say peppers isn't the best defensive player b/c he got blocked one-on-one is not a testament to peppers, but it speaks volumes about the other team being willing to neutralize our best lineman with one person. peppers can't beat them everytime. as for delhomme, we can't cut him yet. we still need him, he's our leader. NOBODY else will be able to command the kind of respect delhomme can get. he needs to take a paycut, granted, but i think we need to be more realistic with our players.

how competitive will the panthers be without these two players, even peppers? pep stay and delhomme has a job next year

[mush]

A lot of you guys don't understand the salary cap and how it plays into keeping or letting go of players. To keep pep will cost us a franchise tag of $17 mil against the cap next season or the alternative is to make him the highest paid defensive player in the league giving him like 80, 90, or 100 million $$$ contract for 6 or 7 years when we've gotten the best physical years out of him as he's looking at 30.

what some of you newbs don't understand is that even if we cut Jake today, that he would still count a big salary cap hit because of his bonuses that have been sandbagged to the last year of his contract. So you keep him on the team and it costs you 11 mil cap hit, he makes 6 mil salary, or you cut him and he still counts a lot against the cap because the team is still liable for the bonus money they've given him and converted to make things cap friendly over the last 5 years of his contract.

[panthers55]

A lot of you guys don't understand the salary cap and how it plays into keeping or letting go of players. To keep pep will cost us a franchise tag of $17 mil against the cap next season or the alternative is to make him the highest paid defensive player in the league giving him like 80, 90, or 100 million $$$ contract for 6 or 7 years when we've gotten the best physical years out of him as he's looking at 30.

what some of you newbs don't understand is that even if we cut Jake today, that he would still count a big salary cap hit because of his bonuses that have been sandbagged to the last year of his contract. So you keep him on the team and it costs you 11 mil cap hit, he makes 6 mil salary, or you cut him and he still counts a lot against the cap because the team is still liable for the bonus money they've given him and converted to make things cap friendly over the last 5 years of his contract.

If we can handle the 17 million hit next year on the cap (handled 14 million this year) it isn't the worst thing to franchise him. If you sign him to a long term contract of say 80 million for 6 years at least 30 will be guaranteed and paid up front then you have bonuses, incentives etc. So you are on the hook for 5 million every year against the cap plus another 8 million and change for every year he plays. So you are still paying around 12/13 million a year and you are stuck for 30 of it which gets accelerated if we cut him although we save the salary portion. Now we pay him a flat 17 and owe his nothing moving forward. Won't do it more than one time so he will be gone after next year.

If he plays another 5 years then signing him long-term would have been much better. If he only plays a year or 2 more then franchsing him would be the way to go. Didn't seem to have any problems this year.

[Mr. Scot]

I still think if some coaching changes are made - Peppers contract would be signed tomorrow.

A lot of people buy into that theory.

[KillerKat]

Yeah! Lets keep Jake and keep this team in mediocrity. Why should we keep a guy that does things to keep the other team in the game? You know what, lets change our offensive philosophy permanently to "Give The Oppenent Mulitiple Chances To Win the Game And Hope Our Defense Can Come Through". Jake excels in that. Its pretty pathetic that a team can't rely on the passing game at all. In order to have a successful offense you have to be good in both areas and not one dimensional. As long as Jake is here, we will always be a one dimensional offense. I dont give a sh*t about Jakes heart or his buddy buddy relationship with Smitty. He costs this team! He is a cancer in our offense. I swear, all the Jake lovers always have something to say when he f*cks up. Poor pass protection or poor play calling. Or after a bad game, "well no one can match his heart" or "him and Smitty have chemistry together" or "he's God in the playoffs"..oh wait...can't use that excuse anymore. Just face it, he is no good anymore. Change needs to happen under center in order for defensive coordinators to fear our offense again.

*cough, cough*

[Sam Mills Fan]

KillerKat I love you. Too bad I'm getting the "spread some rep around" message when I've been trying to rep you today.

Any thread that exposes morons as such is a good thread.

[Jbro]

KillerKat I love you. Too bad I'm getting the "spread some rep around" message when I've been trying to rep you today.

Any thread that exposes morons as such is a good thread.

All your threads must be HOF then.

[Sam Mills Fan]

Jbro, #1 Sam Mills Fan groupie in the house! How's it going buddy?

[Jangler]

Any thread that exposes morons as such is a good thread.

That's not true.....I didn't post in it the first time around.

[Brandon]

*cough, cough*

Are you this petty that you have to go around spouting "I was right" the one time you are right? I was right about Cutler but you don't see me running around quoting everyone who wanted him here about how overrated he was...

[Snake]

I'm sorry but Gantt is off his rocker on Delhomme. He has been two year in decline and the only thing that made since of what he said was that he contract needed to be reworked. If anyone wrote this on the huddle they would be bashed quickly.