Gauging Interest in Julius Peppers

Quite frankly, Peppers doesn’t fit into a 3-4. He just doesn’t occupy blockers well enough. The whole purpose of the 3 linemen is to occupy blockers so the LBs can make the plays. Pass rushing or speed rushing ends need not apply.

That said, he is extremely athletic. If you could get him for less than a third rounder I would do it just to have an athletic body to step up in case of an injury.

4-3 DE but I doubt he would make nearly as many plays in the 3-4 set up. A second round pick would be the very most I would give as GM. If we could get away with a third rounder and possibly a fourth added on to that I would consider it but it wouldn’t be worth more than that. Plus I’m not what you mean by “The two entitled first round draft picks” because last I checked we only had one.

Depends if dick lebeau is gone or not. i suppose we dont have personnel to make a switch over night, but its not impossible to think that tomlin could start making transition over to 4-3 if lebeau were to retire

First,

NFL rules stipulate that you cannot franchise a player with the intent to trade him. It goes against the spirit of the rule. Fines including $ and draft picks could be levyed against a team for such a move.

http://www.profootballtalk.com/2008/11/17/pats-wont-sweat-nflpa-on-cassel/

Second, he really sounds like a bad fit with our defense, partially because he is a 4-3 DE and also because he is a high price tag player. How many players on our Defense have big money contracts? I can only think of one player on our Defense that would be in the top 5 for his position and that would be Troy Polomalu. Casey Hampton’s contact isn’t cheap either if I remember correctly but we really don’t need a player of his talent or price on this defense.

Now if Blitz’s prediction of Mr. Leabeau leaving comes true I guess it could be a whole different ballgame although it doesn’t strike me as Tomlin’s style/ or our Front Office’s style to pay a big name player in FA.

But the idea that we need a pass rusher is pretty much laughable. In fact, if we devote serious picks to anything that isn’t offensive line talent then I think the FO will have gone off the rails.

Can Peppers play left tackle? If not, then we do not need him.

As many people mentioned, Peppers does not really fit 3-4 scheme – unless he’s thinking about playing linebacker (:

The truth is that the Steelers have built so many of their teams on their ability to use low draft picks to find talent that fits into a 3-4 scheme. Look at the guys who are the Studs of 3-4 system. With the exception of Casey Hampton who was a mid first round pick, we have Brett Kiesel (7th round) and Aaron Smith (4th round) James Harrison (UFA) Woodley(2nd) Foote (4th) Farrior (1st)
That’s a pretty cheap front 7. Its also a pretty amazing front 7.
Panthers on the other hand have
Brayton late 1st
Peppers 1st (2nd pick overall)
Komeuta (UFA)
Damione Lewis 1st (15th pick overall)
Beason Late 1st
T. Davis 1st (15th pick overall)
That’s a lot of high draft picks – over time that’s also fairly expensive to maintain.

The other thing that you may have noticed about the Steelers is that its very, very rare for them to pick up high price free agents. The steelers usually grow their own talent and let other teams spend good money chasing guys that had success in the Steeler system. Farrior is one of the very few “high profile” free agents we have had and apart from being an amazing player – he is as about as low key as you can get.

I would not be averse to the Steelers snagging a high profile O-linemen if they can find one in the market. I don’t remember who is coming out this year, but we sure could use the help.

I’m sure he’ll succeed wherever he goes, but I’ll echo thoughts above that he doesn’t fit well into our scheme. For one, I can’t see him anchoring against the run as well as a guy like Aaron Smith. He has the size, but he’s more of a pass rusher than is typical at 3-4 end. Peppers is a playmaker, but we already have a lot of playmakers. We need guys who can do the dirty work on the DL and let Harrison and Woodley do their things. I also agree that we’re not going to give him a big contract, as we have plenty of young players we’d rather sign. Lastly, he’s by no means old, but we’re looking for some youth along our DL, and he’s already 29. We’ll be looking for some run stuffing DT’s in the draft.

We could use a good young Left Tackle. We spent 8 million a year for one this time and he isn’t exactly a beast. I would be happy to trade a first and third round pick for Gross.