From his rookie year, when he lit up Andrew Luck and got fined a waiter’s salary because his totally legal hit looked too bad#ss to not be a penalty, I have thought Nick Perry had the potential to be a very good starter.
That year, and all the other years on his rookie deal, where marred by injury. The Packers were right to not pick up his fifth year option, hindsight or not, and last offseason, a one-year prove-it deal made a lot of sense.
Well, he proved it.
Perry was a force on the edge this year against the run and led the team in sacks with 11 (to find a Packer that beat that, you have to go back to 2012, when Clay Matthews was still CM3). Perry still couldn’t stay totally healthy, but played with a cast like a man and was still effective.
Now what?
Lock him up whatever the cost because we “gotta gets sackz”? Let the market set the price? Say thanks for the memories and kick his can down Lombardi Ave? I love what he did last season, especially his grossly under-publicized dominance on setting the contain edge in the run game, and have always been a fan…
But you can’t throw silly money at this dude and he sure as sh!t ain’t signing for $4.875M like last year.
He’s in his prime. Let the market set price and sign him if it’s only moderately overpriced. It probably won’t be – 11 sack ‘backers go for between ‘too f#cking much’ and ‘Oprah money’, and fans will cry and write “fire Ted” and other nonsense in the message boards.
Too effin’ bad. Kyler Fackrell or Jayrone Elliott or some other clown better step up!