The ESPN Article says:
Quote:
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Peppers was looking for at least $12 million a year in the early part of the contract. The agreement could be worth $40 million over the first three years.
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It doesn't say $40 million guarenteed, I'll be curious to see the exact details once they are known. One of the earlier stories mentioned that the Eagles and Patriots were offering $10 million/year, so $12/year for the first 3 years does not really seem that outrageous to me. The only two people with more sacks during the same timeframe as Peppers career are Jason Taylor and Dwight Freeney, each with something like 4 more sacks than Peppers.
The fact that Peppers was a UNC basketball player who went on to star for my favorite NFL team obviously means there's homerism at work here... but it was the $16 million franchise tag last year and the fact that franchising him again would be $20 million this year that was outrageous. If Carolina could have kept him for 3/36 with some fluff behind that I would have been thrilled.
Carolina has had chronic injury problems at DT in recent years, last year losing both starters for the season, increasing the number of double teams Peppers would get, yet still ends up with 10 sacks/5 forced fumbles and a crazy athletic INT here and there.