Peppers says he wants to explore free agency

[Ruhskins]

Originally Posted by TheSmurfs22

He is a great player but not worth the price tag. The Skins need to stick to the draft and build that way.

Once again, a rookie player may or may not have an impact on the defense. Signing or not signing peppers has nothing to do with "building through the draft" (unless we were trading for Peppers, and that's not the case).

The Redskins have some decisions to make on the defensive side of the ball. One would be to sign one of these big time free agents in hopes that they would make immediate impact, which a lot of us agree would not be a good decision.

An alternative to this would be to sign less expensive players (i.e. Bernard from Seattle and/or Karlos Dansby...although with AZ going to the SB he may not be that inexpensive) as well as drafting a young d-lineman. Hope that those inexpensive players contribute while any defensive rookie(s) develop.

Otherwise you are stuck with the same players and you can sign rookies. But once again, rookies may or may not contribute. Yes, I would hope that we can sign a DE or DT that can contribute right away (a la Horton) but it may not happen.

So please don't say: "let's not sign Peppers and build through the draft." Unless you want for our defense to be the same next year or however many years it takes for those rookies you pick up to contribute. Last draft the Redskins were building through the draft by picking up Kelly, Thomas, and Davis. But building through the draft doesn't mean that they contributed right away, many times it means that you pick up rookies to develop over a season or two so they can contribute later on.