Why Julius Peppers Will Make the Entire Carolina Panthers Defense Better

NFL fans—in particular Carolina Panthers fans—know that Julius Peppers disappeared last season. 

Peppers had 2.5 sacks and 38 tackles last season in 14 starts.  2007 was the worst year of Peppers' career by far.  His next worst year was 2003, his second year in the NFL.  During that season, he had seven sacks and 44 tackles.

No one knows what caused Peppers to have such a terrible season in '07.  It could be because he was playing the left defensive end position, the position he's played since the Panthers drafted him in the 2002 NFL Draft.  But his original position, presumably his preference, is right defensive end—the position he played in college at UNC as well as in high school. 

But the Panthers moved Peppers to right end this offseason because of the retirement of Mike Rucker, and he worked extremely hard this offseason to get back to form.  So there is reason for optimism heading into 2008.

The overwhelming consensus in Panthers training camp is that Peppers has returned to his old form and may even be better than he was. 

If this is true, opposing offensive coordinators will get headaches from game-planning for this defense. 

Julius Peppers will single-handedly cause tons of problems for the offense and force the opposing coordinator to make some difficult choices.

The first choice is to double- or triple-team Peppers.  But then the rest of the defensive line will only have three linemen to beat at most—that's man-to-man blocking at best.  Think about what would happen if the rest of the defensive line only had two guys to beat to get to the quarterback. 

Granted, the rest Panthers D-Line is weak, but if they don't have anyone to beat, they could be good—anyone would be good if they didn't have to beat anyone to get a sack.  

The other option is to put, at most, two guys on Peppers and risk him exploding on you.   The fewer the offensive linemen protecting the quarterback from Peppers, the more dangerous he gets.

Also because of the fact that he helps out the defensive line so much, it makes the rest of the defense better. If the linebackers can trust that the defensive line isn't going to let opposing backs get by, they can play to the outside and prevent the back from breaking to the outside for a long run. 

If they know that the defensive line is going to put a lot of pressure on the quarterback, they can play in coverage in a shallow zone, providing a layer of pass protection in between the defensive line and the secondary—if the other team is in shotgun, or the Panthers just think that they're going to pass. 

Then, since the defensive backs know that the defensive line is pressuring the quarterback and the linebackers have the first ten yards or so from the line of scrimmage covered, they can focus more closely on opposing receiving threats.  

As of now, it looks like Julius Peppers is proving me right.