Julius Peppers to Work with Packers Linebackers

Packers head coach Mike McCarthy confirmed on Tuesday that new free-agent signee Julius Peppers will work with the linebackers this season in an interview from the NFL Owners Meetings in Orlando, according to Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

What this means, for one, is that Peppers will largely be working with linebacker coach Winston Moss. Conversely, it also means he won't be working closely with defensive line coach Mike Trgovac, despite the connection between the two from their former days with the Carolina Panthers.

Peppers, as could have been expected, will be utilized mainly as an edge rusher and at 34 years old, won't be playing the 800-plus snaps he did last season with the Chicago Bears, per ESPNWisconsin.com reporter Jason Wilde.

One of the more interesting developments will be to watch is how much Peppers plays in a two-point stance as opposed to having his hand in the dirt as he has for much of his career.

It stands to reason that Peppers won't be asked to drop into coverage very often and may be rushing from a three-points stance more often than Packers outside linebackers have ever done in the past under defensive coordinator Dom Capers.

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Comments (33)

Fan-Friendly This filter will hide comments which have ratio of 5 to 1 down-vote to up-vote.
DrealynWilliams's picture

March 25, 2014 at 03:26 pm

Uh oh...

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Ruppert's picture

March 25, 2014 at 05:15 pm

I just want him to rush the QB. I don't really care where he lines up before doing so. And I'll get slightly nauseous if I see him attempting to cover a TE.

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jeremyjjbrown's picture

March 25, 2014 at 06:25 pm

Who's Shirley?

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jeremyjjbrown's picture

March 25, 2014 at 10:01 pm

Ahhhh, forgot about Airplane.

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4thand1's picture

March 25, 2014 at 06:54 pm

WTF, no draft yet, OTA's, mini camps, or training camp. You dumb fucks are flying off the handle making retarded assumptions. I don't care if he dresses up as a cheerleader, as long as he helps the Packers win. I think MM is playing with some really simple minds, sitting back and LHFAO.

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Allan Murphy's picture

March 25, 2014 at 07:05 pm

heres a good one for you who is wearing #90 peppers or bj ????????? do anybody got the answer ???

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4thand1's picture

March 25, 2014 at 07:21 pm

Its easy, Raji. He's the established vet. Peppers would have to buy it from him if he wanted it. Maybe Raji will ask 4 mil for the 4 mil he lost by turning down the mid season offer.

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HankScorpio's picture

March 25, 2014 at 07:24 pm

I would guess Peppers doesn't log many snaps in base 3-4. That would be sort of a built in mechanism to keep his snaps down to a range where he can be effective, IMO

It strikes me as a good thing to add a little bulk to the outside rushers in the 2-4-5 nickel. Imagine Neal and Daniels with Perry-Matthews-Hawk/Jones-Peppers. That's a lot of pass rush firepower there. Matthews can spy on mobile QBs or come as a 5th rusher. Maybe a little zone blitz principle thrown in there with offenses not knowing which 3 of Perry, Matthews, Neal and Daniels are coming.

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Guisado's picture

March 25, 2014 at 07:37 pm

Woops! You *accidentally* left out Matthews......

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4thand1's picture

March 25, 2014 at 07:55 pm

Its what assholes do, Taco

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4thand1's picture

March 25, 2014 at 09:41 pm

Keep it up, another dumb asinine comment. Point out another of your inexcusable mistakes and you try to turn it around. Nobody likes you.

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NickPerry's picture

March 26, 2014 at 05:51 am

You need to go look at the actual number of games missed before last season, a total of 6 in 4 years prior to 2013, He broke a bone making a sack and re-broke it making a sack and finished playing 11 games. Obviously you fear Matthews or you'd stop making yourself look stupid.

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4thand1's picture

March 25, 2014 at 09:42 pm

You should be "fired" from this site.

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NickPerry's picture

March 26, 2014 at 05:29 am

Obviously not a Packers fan. Maybe a Bears fan, tired of watching the Bears get beat down by Packers teams with 15 guys on IR. Or perhaps a Lions fan, one of only 3 teams never to play in a SB. Or a Queens fan, the team that can't develop their own players so they offer obscene amounts of money to former Packers go to finish their careers. Clearly your a bitter rival that becomes more and more bitter with each passing season. Just tired of losing, eh son?

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L's picture

March 26, 2014 at 05:19 pm

@COW - I don't understand; I'm pretty sure I remember you making a comment last year towards the end of training camp where you mentioned that this could potentially be the best group of raw talent the Packers have ever assembled in regards to pass rushing - noting M.Neal, N.Perry, C.Matthews, and D.Jones as incredibly talented players towards that ability.

So, why are you so negative about the group now? Especially, given that M.Daniels kind of came out of left field to prove as a pretty good interior pass rusher, M.Neal seemed to be adjusting to playing a new role but still showed he could get to the QB at a decent rate, N.Perry was really starting to shine during the season (when he was healthy), C.Matthews did his thing (again when healthy), and while D.Jones didn't demonstrate anything special during the season he's gained a full year of NFL experience and his ankle should be fully 100% recovered so hopefully he should take that big step-up in performance given his natural talent level that landed him being picked in the 1st round.

Not-to-mention, now the Pack have added a proven commodity in regards to pass rushing with the addition of J.Peppers; though, granted his age isn't ideal but when used in select subpackages he should still be able to be a major factor for opposing teams to deal with. And by maintaining "fresher" legs than what he could maintain in the last couple years during the season we might actually see a much more effective J.Peppers. Hopefully, the adjustment to playing a slightly different role won't set him back much in regards to comfort level and playing with instinct verses having to think to much and be reactive.

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murphy's picture

March 26, 2014 at 12:10 pm

When is the "ignore user" feature being implemented?

When will comments with negative points stop appearing for me?

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PittPackers's picture

March 26, 2014 at 08:33 pm

Every post that counters "A S" has 13 "dislikes" (+/- 1, as of now), every post by "A S" has 13 "likes" (+/-1). I'm sure it's strictly a coincidence. I'm going to presuppose that I will receive roughly 13 dislikes for this post.

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murphy's picture

March 27, 2014 at 01:31 pm

Yep, I'm sure that it's a coincidence. That's why I'd much rather have an ignore function than a like/dislike function that doesn't actually do anything.

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Guisado's picture

March 25, 2014 at 07:31 pm

I wouldn't be surprised to see Peppers slim down a bit, maybe 10 lbs. He won't need so much bulk, and at his age that's a good thing. Add in the probability that he'll share playing time, and he just might play out this contract. He's a special athlete with some fresh challenges. It's a smart move for both the Packers and Peppers that just might work out.

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Clay Zombo's picture

March 26, 2014 at 12:28 am

Makes sense to start him off at OLB if they plan to use him there at all because that's where he needs the most work. Plus with his size I think him in a standing position is more intimidating then all hunched over in a 3 point stance.

The guy is real tall so you want to play him that way, he can see over the lines into the backfield better in standing position and will make Read option teams think twice about running the QB keeper portion of that play package.

I do think they will play him everywhere at some point but OLB is a good place to start.

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Clay Zombo's picture

March 25, 2014 at 07:46 pm

Who was signed re-signed first? That's my answer.

I for one am happy to hear that Peppers will be an OLB. I would have been pissed if they wanted to waste his talent playing 5 technique DE. Unless they plan on playing him like 4-3 DE, the guy is an edge rusher, get him on the edge of the defense and let him do what he does best.

Anybody know how many career INTs Peppers has? If they do use him in coverage im sure he will be dropping his 6'7" frame in a zone, not in man coverage. Imagine having to throw over him or around him in that zone.

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MarkinMadison's picture

March 25, 2014 at 08:19 pm

Sorry, I don't mean to be a downer, but I think rule #1 with free agents is to get a guy who fits in your system. I could understand Stroh's proposed role for Peppers, but apparently the Packers don't agree. If this is what the Dom really wants to run, this hybrid system Brian has been talking about for a year now, then great. If Capers doesn't really want to run this system, then we may be in for a bumpy ride, and in hindsight the Peppers signing will look like one of those things that was just destined not to work.

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jeremyjjbrown's picture

March 25, 2014 at 10:05 pm

Capers actually ran a 4-3 while he was the HC of the Jaguars so he has a history outside of the 3-4. For several years now we've been hearing about this massive playbook he has, hopefully these changes mean we'll actually get to see more of it.

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4thand1's picture

March 26, 2014 at 09:27 pm

Hi A S, nice to see you again. Looking forward to your intellectual and provocative posts every day. It makes my day just to know you're alive and doing well.

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Amanofthenorth's picture

March 27, 2014 at 01:28 am

LOL Stroh. You have been the first to out any user's grammatical mistakes. But we see now that you can dish it out but can't take it...in spades. LOL Oh, and by the way since Stroh blood is in the water, it's "It's" not its. That's elementary.

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4thand1's picture

March 26, 2014 at 10:27 pm

School yard polotics?

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Iain's picture

March 27, 2014 at 03:30 am

Give it a rest guys

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Allan Murphy's picture

March 26, 2014 at 09:33 am

allen signs with bears should this give peppers more fire the bears think hes done ?

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jimtalkbox's picture

March 26, 2014 at 09:42 am

Looking forward to a little more diversity in the defensive scheme. I LOVE the idea of moving rushers around, it's just that guys like Perry and Walden didn't give them much flexibility. I think Peppers can EXCEL in a limited role.

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Jamie's picture

March 26, 2014 at 06:50 pm

I'm guessing it's not a coincidence that all cowtard comments have 9 likes, and all opposing comments have 9 dislikes...the POS is so obsessed he's got 9 logins he's cycling through and liking/disliking comments.

Not that the site administrators have implemented a simple point minimum to remove the crap off of their site. Geesh...police your damn site already.

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4thand1's picture

March 26, 2014 at 09:27 pm

I just threw up.

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LASVEGAS-TOM's picture

March 26, 2014 at 09:53 pm

You guy's kill me. This is better than the Honeymooners!!

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Imma Fubared's picture

March 27, 2014 at 09:08 am

One thing you learn quickly in track and field if your a sprinter: you can run long distances. You leave that to the long distance guys who have the bodies and legs for it.

The Pack screwed with Mathews and instead of making him the best middle linebacker they made him an above average at best pass rusher.

Now they seem to know better then anyone else, after all look at the great success this defense has had in the past three years, and were going to take an old man and make him a hybred linebacker. good luck with that.

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