Julius Peppers Wants to, Expects to Return

Old man Julius Peppers is playing football in 2015 and he hopes he’s playing it with the Green Bay Packers.

Peppers, who turns 35 this month, said as much last week.

“That’s the plan. I hope so,” Peppers said. “So far, so good. I feel like the team as a whole has played well, obviously we wanted to make the playoffs and win the division and all those things, and we’re on track to do everything we set out to do.”

Peppers posted solid numbers in his first season in Green Bay, with 44 tackles, 7 sacks, 2 INTs and 4 forced fumbles. Although he didn’t get home as often as Clay Matthews, who had 11 sacks, Peppers was arguably the Packers’ best pass rusher. His 31 hurries led the team.

What’s more, Peppers’ leadership has certainly been a boon to the defense, which hasn’t had a real leader since Ted kicked Charles Woodson out of town. Peppers was elected one of the team’s playoff captains this year, which is almost unheard of for a guy in his first season with a team.

So bring the old coot back then, right?

Not that simple, of course.

Peppers signed a three-year, $26 million deal last offseason. His first-year salary cap hit was a very palatable $3.5 million. That number will jump to $12 million in 2015.

Not nearly as palatable.

That could mean the Packers will consider cutting Peppers or, probably more likely, restructuring his deal. That’s something he realizes is a possibility.

“Maybe. That hasn’t even been on my radar, to be honest with you. It’s not really important right now, so I haven’t really thought about it.”

Indeed.

We’ve got some playoff football to worry about before we get on to speculating about the Packers roster. We do, however, believe that Peppers was a valuable addition to this year’s team.

It will be awful hard to justify paying him $12 million next season, though.