Chicago Bears Insider: Let the Naysayers Rest; Julius Peppers Proves His Value

I don’t know where you were when you first heard that the Bears had signed former Carolina Panthers defensive end Julius Peppers.  I had figured that the Bears would make a run at him at the start of free agency, but I thought that he had too high of a price tag so the Bears might lose out on him.  After all, the Bears had a pretty tight hand on their checkbook right?

Well much to my happiness, the Bears went out on a limb, spent the money and signed Peppers on the first day of free agency.  It seemed like a dream come true because after having followed Peppers career ever since he was in college, they knew the kind of player he was and had wished he would join the Bears.  It was truly a dream come true.

As soon as he was signed, people started coming out of the woodwork saying many good things about the signing and some bad things.  The point a lot of people got stuck on was Peppers appeared to take plays off during his time in Carolina and only had a good season in 2009 because he was playing for a new contract.  There were plenty of detractors to the move, and they criticized Chicago for spending money on someone that didn’t work hard.

Peppers ended up putting all of that criticism to rest as he went out and had what has become a Pro Bowl season.  Peppers may not lead the NFL in sacks, but he has changed games with just his presence and has made teams alter their game plans so they could try to overcome the force that is known as Peppers.

A great example of what kind of effect Peppers has had on opponents came in their game against the Green Bay Packers earlier in the year.  As many Bears fans will recall, the Packers had 18 penalties during that game and Peppers can be directly linked to three of those penalties—a holding call and two false starts. 

The holding call is an obvious penalty, as the Packers offensive linemen found that holding Peppers was the only thing they could do to keep him from getting by and taking Rodgers down. The false start penalties came as a result of the effect of playing across from Peppers as the offensive linemen attempted to get any advantage that he could against Peppers.

Peppers has come up with some big plays as well.  One of his biggest came in Chicago’s game against his former team—the Carolina Panthers.  Peppers tipped a pass by quarterback Jimmy Clausen, and then intercepted it, showing his athleticism on the play.  It’s still a highlight video favorite to this day.

One other thing that Peppers does very well (and something that a lot of experts didn’t take into account) is he can play the run very well.  If you’ve watched a lot of Bears games this season, you will have seen that Peppers is well adept at making plays against the run and will often chase runners down from behind in order to make a play.  He can also catch wide receivers from behind after they make catches and chase down almost any offensive player on the field thanks to his speed and athleticism.

So the Bears got much more than perhaps anyone thought they would when they signed Peppers.  In the end, he earned Pro Bowl honors as a starter and could see a lot more credit come his way (including being named the NFL’s Most Valuable Player on Defensive Player) as well as being named to the NFL’s All-Pro team.

It’s good to get a lot of accolades, recognition and awards, but what matters most is the play on the field, and Peppers' play on the field really matters.  Without him, the Bears defense would not have played nearly as well as it did this year, and the Bears wouldn’t be in the playoffs right now had they not had a difference maker like Peppers in the lineup.

His value cannot be underestimated, and he has been a huge and valuable asset for the Bears this season.  Was he worth the money?  He certainly earned his paycheck for the first year he has spent in Chicago, and there should be many more successful seasons in his future with the Bears