Message Boards

Now that PEPPERS is under contract ~ Will the PATS and PANTHERS get a deal hammered out ?
The wildcard here just may be VINCE WILFOLK .
Wolfolk is a true Patriot with a selfless work ethic ...but theres NO WAY the Pats will pay him anywhere near Market Value to extend his contract. The Patriots are a monolithic creation , run by the greatest all around football mind the NFL has seen since Halas. His teams epitomize STABILITY ... Belichick is in this for the long run and has shown many times in the past that he will not mortgage the future for quick returns today and it just doesn't make sense to break the bank for a 2 down NT. As much as I personally appreciate everything that Wolfolk has done for the Pats , it's pretty EZ to see the writing on the wall.
( You don't draft 3 wide bodies who can play Nose tackle - R Brace / M Pryor / D Richards - If you're planning on paying top 5 positional money to Wolfork ~ the minimum his agent is going to seek ).
I believe there are very NFL players that BB thinks are worthy of FU money... but I get the feeling that JULIUS PEPPERS is probably one of them.
That said , if a deal was struck for Peppers ( Wilfork & one of the Patriots three 2010 2nd rounders ? ) I'm not sure how the Pats would work out the cap space issue , my guess is it would depend on just how bad Peppers wants to improve his odds of getting a RING ( in other words ... massive paycut )
BOTTOMLINE : I gotta believe that the Pats D is better off with PEPPERS onboard with Brace / J Green /M Wright ( and possibly one of the other drafted rookies ? ) taking up the slack for the departed Wolfork .
My gut feeling is : If a PEPPERS TO PATS deal is gonna go down - it's probably gonna happen within the next 48 hours .