Let’s be honest. Julius Peppers isn’t Reggie White. Nobody is. That being said, there are a lot of similarities between the two players, starting with their position and the fact that they both signed with the Green Bay Packers in their 30s.
White’s first season in Green Bay was 1993. He was 32. Peppers will be 34 during his inaugural season as a Packer.
Peppers has 12 NFL seasons under his belt, eight Pro Bowls, three first-team All Pro selections and 119 sacks.
After his first 12 NFL seasons, White had 11 Pro Bowls, seven first-team All Pro selections and 165.5 sacks.
So yeah, Reggie White > Julius Peppers. No one will debate that. What we’re interested in is what White did beyond his 12th season. While he may not be in the same league as the Hall of Famer, Peppers is the closest thing to White that Green Bay has seen since.
Athletically, Peppers is a freak of nature. And in all likelihood, he’s a Hall of Famer himself.
So are we going to get some White-like production from Peppers in his remaining years? Probably a decent portion of it, at least.
Here are White’s numbers after his 12th season.
Seasons: 3
Sacks: 32.5
Pro Bowls: 2
All Pro: 1
Here are White’s numbers after he turned 33, which is what Peppers is now.
Seasons: 5
Sacks: 53
Pro Bowls: 4
All Pro: 2
As you can see, that’s around 10 sacks a season.
White was playing with guys like Sean Jones and Santana Dotson and then Vonnie Holiday when he put up those numbers. Good players, but not exactly elite.
Peppers, on the other hand, will be playing with Clay Matthews. You know, at least until his hamstring explodes. The point is, Peppers will face fewer double teams than White did, increasing his opportunities.
That makes it logical to us to assume Peppers could have an impact at the end of his career much like Reggie White did. Or at least it makes it fun to think about.
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I love this comparison…but also agree that there is really no comparison! That being said, I am looking forward to what he will do especially this year!
I’m just gonna give my 2 cents here, all great players were good for one reason, they never got injured enough to effect their play for more then one season. This is key…
Agree injuries are important to the players career. In addition injuries are important to the success of the team. In the NFL to me one of the most important things is having at least two players on each side of the ball that the other team has to scheme against or assign additional players to control. Cannot wait to see Rodgers ,Lacy and Cobb for a full year together.
We know if they stay healthy we have two of those type players on defense right now. It would be great if one or two more project to great players on defense ( maybe Hayward, Hyde, Shields or others?). I cannot wait for the season to start as Peppers and Matthews will definitely cause matchup problems.
As Chris Carter says: “The most important ability is ‘availability'”.
Not sure I believe anything that a Viking or ex-Viking has to say. It is true you need to be available. I will defer to Ron Wolf who believed that you need so many ” blue and red chip” players on your team at any one time in order to be in position for playoff and Super Bowl runs. It is only after you have those players in place that injuries can become an issue.
White’s best years were with the Eagles, not the Packers. The Eagles had young guys Clyde Simmons, Jerome Brown and Mike Golic on the same line. Sean Jones was in decline.
I was pretty indifferent to the Peppers signing…but the more I think about it, the more excited I get.
I think he’s found new life in the NFL
Man until Peppers does something here, dont be comparing him to my man crush Reggie. Reggie was fucking amazing. He did shit noone else has ever done. Before Reggie I wasnt 100% sure there was a God, though I hoped, but after Reggie I know God exists for sure. Thank you Reg!!
Peppers better show up….
I think Peppers wants a Ring to cap off his career and will go balls to the wall this year to try and get one.