Jersey Numbers

He's not as fast, explosive, or strong as Urlacher, but he should still be a cornerstone of the defense for a decade.

 

Russ Lande

 

Seriously, why ?
You would consider retiring the number of a guy who played well (but never being dominant), blatantly phoned in an entire year, and demanded his way out of town ? Fuck Peppers.

 

Probably less about respecting Peppers and more about placing unreasonable expectations on a rookie.

 

No, it's about respecting Peppers. He's the only Hall of Famer this franchise is likely to have for a while. Wouldn't mind seeing #4 and #89 taken out of the rotation as well if you didn't need so many of them per season. I am thankful they haven't given out #51.

 

Interesting take. I'm not a Peppers hater by any means, but don't think he did enough to warrant mothballing the jersey.

 

Time to move on from Pep, he sure did.

Wouldnt retire his jersey, he wanted outta here bad.

Mind you, i wonder how he feels about these days now that we have Cam and Rivera?

 

I guess I look at it from a baseball fan's perspective since in MLB it's rare for an elite player to stay with one team his whole career. Pep is without question the best defensive player the Panthers have ever had, and I do expect him to eventually make the Hall of Fame.

 

And if he does, he probably snubs us and goes in as a Bear since they have history and all that.

 

Alexander is not the first Panther since Peppers to wear the number 90. George Selvie wore it last season.

In other jersey numerology*:

UDFA Numbers:

4 - Rico Wallace, WR
5 - Brenton Bersin, WR
9 - Jared Green, WR
17 - Wes Kemp, WR
33 - Tauren Poole, RB
38 - Lyndon Rowells, RB
39 - Princeton McCarty, RB
49 - Tarren Ward, TE
66 - Nate Chandler, DT
70 - Matt Reynolds, T
72 - Will Blackwell, G
72 - Ryan Van Bergen, DE

66 and 72 are doubled up:
72 is worn by UDFAs Blackwell and Van Bergen,
66 by UDFA Chandler and G Roger Allen.

Numbers Not Currently In Use - Last Worn By, Season (+ Others of Note):

6 - Brian St. Pierre, 2010 (J. Nedney, T. Barnhardt)
13 - Ken Walter, 2000
16 - Tony Pike, 2010 (V. Testaverde, C. Weinke)
40 - Jarrod Cooper, 2004 (W. Floyd, P. Terrell)
42 - Tony Fiametta, 2010 (S. Hicks, T. Tillman)
45 - Jerome Felton, 2011 (B. Hoover)
48 - Steven Jackson, 2006 (S. Davis)
51 - Sam Mills, 1997
80 - Jeremy Shockey, 2011 (D. Jarrett)
83 - Charly Martin, 2010 (K. Colbert, M. Carrier)
87 - David Clowney, 2010 (M. Muhammad)

0 and 00 are not allowed by the league.

51 is essentially retired—Sam Mills is the only Panther to wear it.
13 also only used once—Ken Walter (no real surprise, given superstitions).
Odd that no one has worn 40 since Jarrod Cooper in '04.
48 used only once (by a camp body FB in '06) since the Stephen Davis era.
I imagine they're reserving 80 in case they bring Shockey back(?)

*Assuming the accuracy of the Historic Roster pages at Panthers.com (and that I haven't overlooked anything).