How do we feel about Jared Allen vs. Julius Peppers now?

[Wounded Bear]

I know Jared Allen has been sick, but even before he came down with the bonkus of the konkus, I was not exactly impressed. Willie Young looks like he generates more pressure than either Jared Allen or Lamarr Houston by a long shot and I keep wondering what it would be like if Julius was on the other side.

After watching the GB game, Peppers looked fit and powerful. Jared Allen, to me, looks like an old man.



It's still early, but how are you guys feeling about Jared Allen so far....

 

[NCChiFan]

J/A was hurt coming into the season, played iffy the first game, had a great second game then I would attribute his decline to his pneumonia, you don't get it in a day, it usually comes on over time. Sad, but can't judge because Peppers has been healthy, but he hasn't really set the GB defense on fire.


Wash at this point. JA still has a shot IF he can regain his weight and strength, sadly, that may take a while, which is really going to suck. The only bright spot, he should keep Houston on the bench or inside.

 

[Dirk]

Realistically, he's not much different than the production we got out of peppers in the first 5 games. IIRC, he's cheaper(at this point) against the cap, so I'm still fine with it.

The other one otoh, is starting to make people lean towards grabbing the pitchforks. You don't get 5 games into the season and bitch about Where my real fans at? or whatever the crap he said exactly. Your a mercenary acquisition. The fans have little to no emotional investment in your play for the bears and you've been playing like donkey ass. This ain't Oakland. We expect big results from big payday players.

 

[JoeyTourettes]

It was a combination of Peppers not playing very well last year and MORE about what his salary was going to be. Still think it was a needed move. The fact that he went to the Packers makes it seem worse.
If he was playing in St. Louis or Jacksonville nobody would care so much.

Let's see what the rest of the season brings. Peppers always disappeared for weeks at a time.

Allen also faced 3 option teams, and missed a game due to illness.
Go Bears.

 

[anotheridiot]

never liked allen. went back to the cheap shot he gave Louis that ended his career on the interception return against the bears. He did that because Louis was handling his inside move. Has been on the decline for years. It was a snap decision to sign him to make it look like they were making an effort to fix the line.

Peppers had monster games, but took many plays off. I dont think the lesson was learned on the money front either, since they made Cutler, Gould, Jennings and Slausen contracts easily adjusted to pile up more dead money.

There was not an option to keep peppers, moving more than 8 million to dead money, would have cost 18 million, but Allen is already playing for a base salary of 3 million and 15.5 is already in the dead money column. As far as option teams, Peppers didnt have problems with them and he played at 295 here. Allen was playing at 260. Should be quicker to the option.

Maybe allen put on another 10 pounds that might help this week, but he better do something quick.

 

[richig07]

Huh?

Peppers looks extremely underwhelming.

A lot of people are fooled by an interception return that fell right into his lap.

Peppers for 18 mil per year or Allen for 8… is there even a conversation about this?

 

[richig07]

never liked allen. went back to the cheap shot he gave Louis that ended his career on the interception return against the bears. He did that because Louis was handling his inside move. Has been on the decline for years. It was a snap decision to sign him to make it look like they were making an effort to fix the line.

Peppers had monster games, but took many plays off. I dont think the lesson was learned on the money front either, since they made Cutler, Gould, Jennings and Slausen contracts easily adjusted to pile up more dead money.

There was not an option to keep peppers, moving more than 8 million to dead money, would have cost 18 million, but Allen is already playing for a base salary of 3 million and 15.5 is already in the dead money column. As far as option teams, Peppers didnt have problems with them and he played at 295 here. Allen was playing at 260. Should be quicker to the option.

Maybe allen put on another 10 pounds that might help this week, but he better do something quick.

Guy still looks skinny as hell.

 

[noonthirtyjoe]

I did not want Allen, or Peppers.

 

[beardown07]

We are a better defense when he is on the field, vs. when he isn't.

 

[noonthirtyjoe]

Julius Peppers is named NFC Defensive player of the week

The only person in NFL History to have 10 interceptions and at least 100 sacks was now named NFC Defensive player of the week.

 

[beardown07]

Julius Peppers is named NFC Defensive player of the week

The only person in NFL History to have 10 interceptions and at least 100 sacks was now named NFC Defensive player of the week.

Seems like a down week for defensive players, if ya ask me. Don't get me wrong, a pick six and a sack is a pretty good game, but only three total tackles on that game?

Pep is a beast, and I thoroughly enjoyed his stint here in Chicago.

With that said, I think Jared Allen is getting a pretty bad wrap so far. He played pretty good yesterday IMO. I didn't want to lose Peppers, but I don't think we really had any choice, and I have to commend them for even getting Allen, a very serviceable replacement.

 

[toooverbearing]

Seems like a down week for defensive players, if ya ask me. Don't get me wrong, a pick six and a sack is a pretty good game, but only three total tackles on that game?

Pep is a beast, and I thoroughly enjoyed his stint here in Chicago.

With that said, I think Jared Allen is getting a pretty bad wrap so far. He played pretty good yesterday IMO. I didn't want to lose Peppers, but I don't think we really had any choice, and I have to commend them for even getting Allen, a very serviceable replacement.

Before yesterday, Jared Allen's play merited the concern. But the season is still young, yesterday he played very well against an emerging star lineman and I suspect he'll play closer to his norm than he did the first few weeks of the season.

 

[averagejoe]

I'm not sad over Peppers. And I'm mildly optimistic about Allen. Bears need to get younger on D instead of bringing in retreaded veterans. I realize that's an insanely difficult quandary. But Fuller's a real nice start. And so are some of the "off-the-street" guys that played yesterday.

In fact, it's finally nice to see the Bears bring someone in off the practice squad and have them exceed expectations on game day. How often have we seen this happen against the Bears?

 

[noonthirtyjoe]

If Allen and Peppers were both 8 mil, I would take Peppers. Allen is a nice replacement and costs half as much. No brainer.

 

[thunderspirit]

If Allen and Peppers were both 8 mil, I would take Peppers. Allen is a nice replacement and costs half as much. No brainer.

This.

 

[anotheridiot]

This.

This years cap hit with allen is only 3 million. Seems 5 per year is dead money the first three years.

They need to develop some draft picks to be able to play when there is another huge cap hit for a guy that is not even playing here.

I dont know what the problem with Bass is. Sure seemed like he had some good games last year. I wonder if they asked him to bulk up and he slowed down.

 

[thunderspirit]

I dont know what the problem with Bass is. Sure seemed like he had some good games last year. I wonder if they asked him to bulk up and he slowed down.

I was a Bass fan going into his draft year (but them I'm a sucker for the small-school story, so...).

He strikes me as a guy who's going to be a fringe player for his NFL career. Nothing wrong with that — it's a heckuva lot better than I could do — but he's probably not ever going to be much more than "just a guy."

 

[Wounded Bear]

never liked allen. went back to the cheap shot he gave Louis that ended his career on the interception return against the bears. He did that because Louis was handling his inside move. Has been on the decline for years. It was a snap decision to sign him to make it look like they were making an effort to fix the line.

Peppers had monster games, but took many plays off. I dont think the lesson was learned on the money front either, since they made Cutler, Gould, Jennings and Slausen contracts easily adjusted to pile up more dead money.

There was not an option to keep peppers, moving more than 8 million to dead money, would have cost 18 million, but Allen is already playing for a base salary of 3 million and 15.5 is already in the dead money column. As far as option teams, Peppers didnt have problems with them and he played at 295 here. Allen was playing at 260. Should be quicker to the option.

Maybe allen put on another 10 pounds that might help this week, but he better do something quick.

Great post, AI, this sums it up. I was pissed after the Louis shot as well.

Regarding Peppers and the backloaded 18 million, it seems that we could have negotiated with him. I don't know if there were any talks in that regard, I know in the past other players have been amenable to negotiating those type of ridiculous numbers...

In hindsight, however, I believe that the Defense played so poorly last year that Julius Peppers became the very convenient scapegoat and so re-negotiating probably was never given any real consideration.

 

[toooverbearing]

If Allen and Peppers were both 8 mil, I would take Peppers. Allen is a nice replacement and costs half as much. No brainer.

Great point. Let's change this up a second. Instead of Peppers versus Allen at the same salary this year... what about Peppers versus Willie Young at the same salary this year?

 

[toooverbearing]

Great post, AI, this sums it up. I was pissed after the Louis shot as well.

Regarding Peppers and the backloaded 18 million, it seems that we could have negotiated with him. I don't know if there were any talks in that regard, I know in the past other players have been amenable to negotiating those type of ridiculous numbers...

In hindsight, however, I believe that the Defense played so poorly last year that Julius Peppers became the very convenient scapegoat and so re-negotiating probably was never given any real consideration.

I was under the impression (could be wrong) that the contract renegotiation couldn't take money away from a player, just change the timing. And the renegotiations we had with Peppers were the REASON why his contract eventually became such a giant balloon payment. We kept shifting salary into bonus or bonus into salary which would create room for certain years while creating a mess down the road.